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Dean Koontz - Good and Bad?


Michelle

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I used to read a lot of Dean Koontz but I gave up in the end because I found them all a bit samey.

Basically, whatever was going on it was usually aliens and / or a government conspiracy. And there was always a clever dog!

I also found that they were sometimes a bit too moralistic.

 

Having said that, a few I did enjoy are:

 

Phantoms

Demon Seed

The Servants of Twilight

 

I can't remember how much I enjoyed The Door to December but I remember it being a bit disturbing

something about psychological experiments being carried out on a young girl

 

 

Oh my memory really is terrible. I'm looking on Amazon at some Dean Koontz books that I know I have read (they're on my list!) but I have no recollection of them at all. I guess they didn't make that big an impression!

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one of my all time favourites is Shattered a cat and mouse game of dad and geeky companion travelling across America followed by a mysterious van....shades of duel...but great all the same...early koontz...when he had some of his real hair left:mrgreen:

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I do enjoy the Thomas Odd books they are good, but I feel he is keeping the series going on a little too long. I enjoyed the Frankenstein books but its been ages since I read them. Really enjoyed Intensity which I subsequently saw as a film where Edgler Vess was played by John McGinley 'Dr Cox' from Scrubbs, I could never look at him in the same light after that.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I love love love Dean and every book i've read, i adore his characters especially Odd Thomas and Christopher Snow, love the use of dogs too Orson from moonlight bay stories, Virgil in The Taking and particularly Einstein in Watchers... Also get the feeling i'm going to love the dead dog in Odd Hours but only got to read the first few chapters before my little sister forced Mark on me and told me to "read it or else" hahaha. But back to Dean:

 

Watchers - Loved it, loved Einstein, don't know how it do the spoiler thing so don't want to say too much but found the Vince utterly chilling.

Lightning - loved it, time travel but not in a sci-fi way, its just part of a story that is about so much more.

Intensity - Love it, scared the pants off me, chilling loved the character Chyna and that she was female. could not put it down!

Fear Nothing - already mentioned CHristoper Snow and Orson and how much i loved them... def loved these books, definitely kept me guessing though i'm the first to admit i'm not the brightest spark so it could just be me.

Seize the Night - See above.

False Memory - On my "need to read" shelf in my spare room haha

Odd Thomas - I love Odd Thomas, i love his wit. These books are just brilliance on paper for me i can't even explain. Love the supernatural and simply could not put them down i have struggled to keep up with my reading since having my daughter and simply can't wait to read Odd Hours but i have been ordered to read Marked by my little sister and so Odd has taken a back seat. haha

The Taking - excellent... again, loved Virgil the dog, love the mystery, twists and turns. I really couldn't put this one down. excellent.

Life Expectancy - On my need to read shelf.

Forever Odd - See Odd Thomas.

Brother Odd - See Odd Thomas

The Darkest Evening of the Year - Great dogs again... got to love the dogs... I must admit i don't remember the story well, so i would on that not sy that it was my least favourite. I can't remember thinking it was bad, i only really remember Nicki the dog.

Odd Hours - Only read the first few chapters but i'm totally hooked on Odd, i believe it would have to be truly diabolical for me to dislike this book.

Your Heart Belongs to Me - On my need to read shelf.

 

I have a few on my need to read... like i say i haven't read much since birth of my daughter but i get books every Christmas and birthday (usually) so the pile increased to an entire shelf over the last 18 months haha! I realise there are many DK books i have not read but i did only "discover" him about 5 years ago now and fully intend on reading ever one of his books i can get my hand on.

 

Oh sorry i'm new by the way... i'm Steph and look forward to chatting with you all on the beauty of books!

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  • 1 year later...

He's very popular, but I wasn't overly thrilled by his books personally. I've read the first couple of Odd Thomas books and another 2, I think, stand alone novels. Some of his books veer into the thriller category I believe.

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Hey, a friend has recommended Dean Koontz as a good horror writer. Has anyone read any of his novels, and if so, would they recommend his books?

 

I've merged your post with an existing thread. Also, if you do a quick search you will find some threads on separate Koontz books.

 

 

 

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So far I've only read Whispers and part of The Taking. And I've loved everything about them (so far). I'm glad I stumbled across this topic as I was wondering if I'd love all of his books - seeing that he has so many out I start wondering if he doesn't get carried away with just getting books out and the quality falls. I'll have to try a few of the ones that have made previous top lists.

 

Whispers creeped me out without really noticing until my dog would bark or something and I'd juuuump.

 

The Taking has me afraid to be alone!

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The first book I read by him was 'Phantoms', which I thought was okay, I did enjoyed the Odd Thomas books, very well done :)

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This is noe of my favorite writers and Brother Odd is my favorite Koontz novel. Only thing is he seems to have an extreme and unnnatural love for dogs.

 

I noticed that too (but more in the film adaptations), maybe he was bitten by a dog when he was a kid. :)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

The first Dean Koontz book I read was The Bad Place,I thought it was fantastic and quite different to other horror books I had read previously.Then I read Relentless,although I found it readable and good in parts it didn't live upto my expectation.There are still lots more of his books that I want to read.The next one will be Phantoms.I think that he probably has quite afew great books that I am yet to read.

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My favorite Dean koontz books are Tick Tock, Brother Odd and Lightning, but I love them all. He is so much better than Stephen King in my opinion, who I think is not very good writer at all. I read book The Cell and more crazy stupid than any book I ever read before.

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I have tried so hard to get into his books, but for some reason I just can't. My sister totally loves him. I honestly don't quite know why I find him so hard to escape into . . . sorry

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've tried getting into Koontz on about four occasions now, I read a couple chapters and semi manage to get into it (keep in mind that I am notoriously tracking about 6 or 7 books on the go, it's a lost cause I can't restrain it) but he starts to waffle or come up with some corny backstory that he just assumes every reader will accept, there's just some spark lacking in many of his books to keep me hooked, but he has interesting premises and is a very productive worker. I do LIKE what I have read mostly but it needs more (or more attention from me) to keep held inside the pages.

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I love most of the Koontz I have read, although he has become very formulaic in his later stuff. I have Relentless to read next.

 

Ian

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  • 2 weeks later...

Unfortunately my only experience of his writing has been his Frankenstein novels, and they were terrifically poor - so poor I didn't bother buying the latest installment. It's put me off reading anything else by him - despite the fact that my husband has read quite a few of his earlier novels and rates him quite highly. It all depends where you start!

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Unfortunately my only experience of his writing has been his Frankenstein novels, and they were terrifically poor - so poor I didn't bother buying the latest installment. It's put me off reading anything else by him - despite the fact that my husband has read quite a few of his earlier novels and rates him quite highly. It all depends where you start!

 

It also depends on the novel, seriously, some of his novels may be wonderful but a large part of his novels can be quite predictable and he had a propensity for doing the government conspiracy thing with his novels.

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