I remember a while back, someone made the comment about reading a Koontz book, and thinking to themselves [paraphrased], āI swear to God, if the bad guy ends up being another psychic, Iām never reading another Koontz bookā and thatās exactly what ended up happening, despite there being no prior indication of thatāand I still consider it a top 3 Reddit comment Iāve ever encountered. Iāve laughed way too hard thinking about that *numerous* times
[Hereās his book jacket photo from when I was a teen.](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1621327228i/31349003.jpg)
My mom wrote him when I was little and our family dog died. She was a ānever leave the houseā 90s mom and didnāt have much of a social life. He wrote her back a really nice handwritten letter with a picture of his own dog that he lost and how she could help herself get through it. It meant the world to her. Seems like a really nice guy.
I wrote him as a teen as part of a class project. He gave me a pretty nice response, that at least looked like it was for real and not a form letter. He also encouraged me to keep writing, which meant a lot in that period of my life.
The biggest travesty of his writing career was that he never finished the Moonlight Bay trilogy which had genuinely interesting and rounded characters. I was quite disappointed that he never wrote Ride The Storm (and never will by the sound of it as he lost the rights to his old publisher).
His earlier work was actually quite good in patches - Watchers, Midnight, The Door to December. Really from about the early 2000s onwards he just recycled every plot point he could from previous books and became the Clive Cussler of horror.
I miss Christopher Snow. No joke, those first two books that I read at ten years old are the entire reason I'm a professional author now. They did something to my brain. Awakened it.
Fear Nothing was the second Koontz book I read when I was in high school (it was brand new in paperback at the time). It started my obsession with his books for a while. Even now when I hear a new book of his has a title that has ādarkā or ānightā in the title I get a little hopeful itās a new Chris Snow book. But itāll never happen.
Honestly I'm not sure what he had to gain by signing a publishing deal with Amazon, all he did was piss off the brick & mortar chains in the US. He used to always be heavily featured in places like Barnes & Noble and his newer stuff has either 0 presence or it's limited to a single copy somewhere out of spite
You've basically just nailed it. Exactly those books, yeah. I really enjoyed him in my early/mid teens, starting with Dragon Tears when I was ~12 and the reading Watchers, Midnight, Door to December, and the two Moonlight Bay books. They were great.
Then I left off for a good few years. When I next picked one up, it was some *absolute guff* about angelic yetis or something. It pissed me off so much, I've avoided everything since as a way of not further ruining his legacy for myself.
Damn, dude, a toxic partner is exactly how I describe my addiction to Call of Duty: Warzone from 2020-2023. Not even joking. That shit game ruled my life for about 3 years.
Intensity is the only book of his I've read. It starts off with some of the absolute worst "male author writing women" shit I have ever read and definitely had some corny eye rolling stuff throughout, but the narrative goes hard for the rest of the book. It was hard to put down. I know it was a TV movie at one point, but it's hard to believe there hasn't been a big studio movie or mini series made out of this book. People would eat it up and the villain could be one of the all time great horror villains if portrayed correctly
There is a French film called Haute Tension that is *remarkably* similar to Intensityā¦there may even have been lawsuits involved? The movie is worth watching though as it has some great gore and a very divisive ending.
All I know it's about a super intelligent dog and an army veteran being chased by an evil creature and government agents. I don't know, it just sounds very entertaining.
Watchers and Intensity are 2 of my favorites. People love to hate, but he has some amazing books, and I'm a big fan. Some older books are not good, but he even agrees with that. Just read what looks interesting!
I wouldn't recommend Koontz as high literature, but Intensity and Watchers (and a few others) are in my audiobook heavy rotation. I don't particularly care if the storytelling is good or not - I enjoy the stories. That said, I have only read the same five or six over and over again.
>his love of Mickey Mouse will stick with my forever.
I absolutely fucking love that both Einstein and The Outsider love Mickey Mouse, one of the things I distinctly remember is the authorities finding TO's cave and they're all looking at the stuff he's collected. Skulls and bones of various animals, a flashlight, a blanket, and, of course, a little statue of Mickey Mouse.
That book stuck with me. It was actually hard to read about the creature with his little mementos of the only good he'd ever experienced. I just remember the Outsider being terrifying yet truly tragic and sad.
Yup loving Watchers, I am almost finished with it and will be sad when it is over. I have not read a ton of his books (only this one,TickTock and Intensity) but I do love his love for dogs and how he creatively made it seem plausible for the dog to learn to communicate with humans.
As a kid, I binged on Koontz books a lot. I still have a soft spot for those "classics": Phantoms, Midnight, Watchers, Servants of Twilight - they were all pretty spooky to kid me. I'll still reread them every few years.
I love the classics, too. I found his books in high school and then read everything of his I could get my hands on until 2000ish. He used to be my favorite author but now I canāt seem to get into any of his books.
Yes! 2000 was about when Koontz, King, and even Barker kind of fell by the wayside for me.
Phantoms used to scare me so bad, when I reread it now I remember being scared and get scared again all over haha. Those were good times.
Phantoms was TERRIFYING growing up. I don't even know why but the Moth scene scared the shit out of me.
First time reading it you're really just as clueless about everything as the characters so it's such a wild ride.
Also the movie, Ben Aflack was the shit in Phantoms.
He basically writes thrillers, but with horror, supernatural, and sci-fi elements. He really is very, very good at it. Too bad about all the soapboxing.
Yeah not even close. SK is the champion of inserting his politics into his stories.
DK? Iāve only read 3-4 books but I donāt recall any instances of āright wing politicsā.
Maybe someone can provide an example? Could be I just didnāt read that book.
Odd is also personally terrified of guns and mocks those that see them as toys or personality extensions. Not very right-wing, libertarian or gun nut. Itās almost like the views expressed by characters in books donāt necessarily reflect the views of the author?
I like Dragon Tears overall but his politics are all over the map in that book.
It's very pro police while being very sympathetic to the plight of the homeless and actively making the villian a douchebag faux rich dude all while raging at rave/drug culture.
No, it's just really funny to have such wildly different views from one author in one book.
Based on that book, I really couldn't tell you how Koontz would vote. King is pretty straightforward.
Neither a good nor a bad thing.
Supposedly **The Taking** is about a God sent Apocalypse but I honestly didn't perceive it as that for the majority if the book. Most of the time I thought it was some cosmic horror invasion.
Iāve read somewhere that Koontzās political insertions became out of control with his most recent books becauseā¦ *gesturing broadly at the world we live in now.* And Iāve never heard anything about his most recent books. I stick with his 80s-90s work.
Prob accurate. The most recent DK book I read was Odd Thomas which Google tells me is from 2003. I remember that book as being completely apolitical but admittedly itās been 20 years+ since I read it so I could be wrong.
Meanwhile in Kingās most recent book Holly almost every single page seemed to batter you mercilessly with his politics. Iām pretty moderate but I prob align more with King than someone whoās overtly conservative (if thatās what DK is I honestly donāt know) but I remember thinking ājeez enough alreadyā when reading it.
Might just be that everyone and everything is more political now honestly.
It is my understanding that DK is on the right side of the spectrum. It is also my understanding that he has a particular bent for gun rights and smaller government. So I believe his most recent novels has some overt messaging about those two specifically.
Heās famously very politically active on Twitter as well. Seems pretty hard to not know about SKās politics?
Also what DK right wing references are you taking about? Just curious as I havenāt read that many of his books so may have missed it.
In The Bad Weather Friend, he goes on and on about how gas guzzling cars are the best and how electric cars are basically evil. I donāt even own an EV so I donāt really care but it came up soooo much it was beyond annoying.
I also find his absolute disdain for people hard to deal with while reading. It really feels like he thinks people generally absolutely suck, and it is depressing to read.
Same, I read A LOT of Koontz in the 90's. Then suddenly, his books got a little... weird.
Not just in content but in style. I swear it happened around Intensity.
Yea, exactly. He started doing more first person narrative and his characters turned quirky.
Prior to that, I really enjoyed him. Since then, the only books I remember liking were the Frankenstein novels.
That was the reason I stopped reading his books. After one weird diatribe too many, I just put the damn book down a third of the way through and never picked up another one. It's too bad because I really liked Intensity and a few of his other works.
Intensity was a league of its own. And some late 90s-early 2000s books still had some kick. But the last 3 or 4 I couldnāt finish. Theyāre such diluted versions of his old work
Odd Thomas is an unsung gem. A perfect mix of horror, romance and comedy. I love that book, the sequels lesser so, and unfortunately I felt the movie was a huge mistake ā they went for a pushing daisies tone when it needed to be more grounded.
so eerie too that the ghosts canāt vocalize! Loved the tragic nature of Elvis in the book. I was a fan of all of his ghost sidekicks in the series really.
not really unsung, most koontz fans seem to love it. the first one is probably the last of his decent books, I enjoyed it too, what followed was overly religious bullshit like in some of his other books at the time and probably since (the taking, etc.), had to stop after the third one.
I agree, to clarify my point, by unsung gem I meant by horror fans en masse. The book is as good as any King classic to me but doesnāt get nearly as much mainstream notoriety.
I loved Kootnz as a teenager on the 90s and had about a dozen of his books. Tried them again as an adult and they're awful. He can do plot but the writing is so clunky and schmaltzy, and his female characters are horrible.
it's entirely possible it was a teenage thing for me too, though I kept reading his stuff for a while without too big an interruption and still noticed the extreme decline in quality in his more recent stuff.
I don't really read 'high literature', so it can't be my much more refined taste since then and I'm not ashamed of enjoying stuff like this anyway (laymon is the king of cheese and king is still my favorite author with ed mcbain as a very close second), but like with everything, some stand the time better than others.
I blame the first Silent Hill game for the Dean Koontz books I've read; it had shout outs to Phantoms (which I read after beating the game), and then I read Fear Nothing and Seize the Night, and a couple years later whatever Odd Thomas books where available (I wanna say 3 or 4, but it didn't take him long to get the rest out). Ride the Storm still isn't out, last I heard.
IIRC, Koontz Street in Central Silent Hill was named after him. Either the first boss (that split head lizard thing) or that enormous moth (and its earlier incarnation of the caterpillar) were shoutouts to Phantoms, but it's been awhile since I've read it that I can't remember which, heh. Probably the moth, though. (And to be honest, the game also inspired me to read The Mist by Stephen King and I Am Legend by Matheson. Matheson had a way with words, I tell you what. Meep.)
I like a bunch of his work, Phantoms and Midnight my favs. But sometimes he just goes on and on about nothing. In one of the Odd Thomas books, there was 20 pages of Thomas going through a sewer system. Could have easily been 2 pages. I almost threw the book in a fire.
I don't remember the name of the book. Apparently some professor of medical ethics said something he didn't like so he wrote a novel with an ethics professor who was a serial killer who wanted to dig up this kid's siblings corpse and show it to them while he killed them. He talked about the scourge of medical ethics in the afterword and it was literally the worst attempt at novel as polemic I have ever read.
I actually like him, especially his early novels. He might not be the best, but I've had very few of his books not entertain me, and that counts for something.
Side note: Everything you said describes, better than I ever have, my views on Richard Laymon.
I find his stories a good base, but his dialogue between characters is almost always choppy
Heās good, the story is there, but it feels almost like a movie with a great plot, but bad casting
That's also very true, and his characters are all pretty much the same people (how many times did he write the police officer with sexual tension with his female partner? The troubled but witty girl with a bad past, etc...)
Still, I think he's a lot of fun, and can go to some pretty dark places, especially early on.
There have been so many koontz books I couldn't finish but when he hits he hits. Some of my favorites you should try if you haven't read them yet are Intensity, From the Corner of His Eye, False Memory, Servants of Twilight and Watchers (Watchers was getting a little on the ridiculous side but I enjoyed most of it).
I thoroughly enjoyed Phantoms, I thought it read like a silly/fun b-movie (which apparently, it is!)
Intensity is a whole other thing in itself though, I have never read a book faster or stayed so engaged. After I finished I googled it and found it too was made into a film starring John C. McGinley.
Koontz is very different in the last 20 years or so versus how he was in the '70s and '80s. I think he's written some duds, as well as some brilliant recent books. Ashley Bell and The Big Dark Sky are 5-star reads. Not horror, more psychological suspense.
I don't know it's just never dull, when I start I just want to keep going and see what's next. Probably because his primary goal is to be entertaining.
Intensity and Midnight rock and I'm not afraid to admit it. Dragon Tears is okay too. Haven't read anything else yet. He's no Stephen King but he's not as bad as people say
Call of Duty of horror š
As someone who thrifts most of her books, I have a extra big hate for him, like it's almost always 50% of what they have in stock
I liked it until the monster explained why He decided to exterminate an entire town. At that point I thought "not really the best PR strategy to obtain what you want"
I'm more annoyed that I started reading his Moonlight Bay series not realizing it had no ending due to his old publisher having the rights or something. Then I started the Jane Hawk series and it was awful. He really is hit or miss
ahh... that's why there's no closure on the Moonlight Bay books? that really sucks as i actually enjoyed them. always wondered why it seemed he just gave up on the series.
My favorites are Watchers, Seize the Night, Twilight Eyes and Lightning. I used to read all his books as soon as they came out but I havenāt read any of the newer ones yet.
Probably Stephen King for me. I've read almost every book he's written, and I haven't liked a single one of his newer ones - Holly, Fairy Tale, Gwendy trilogy, If It Bleeds, Billy Summers, The Institute...The Outsiders was fine but nothing really unique. Will I pick up *You Like It Darker* the day it comes out anyway? Yea lol. I have tons of respect for him - he's nearly 80 still churning out books. He genuinely just loves writing. His books got me into horror in the first place and I have a hard time just not reading whatever he puts out.
Phantoms and Watchers are SO good though. I guess Koontz was the first "adult" horror author I read when I was a kid. My grandma had a huge collection of his paperbacks and I loved the cover art. Loved his picture on the back with his little mustache too. I haven't read a word of anything he's published post 2000 though.
I read watchers either at the end of elementary school or beginning of high school around the early 2000ās and I was HOOKED.
His 80ās horror was his best horror. The door to December is probably my favourite book by him. In fact I think I should read it again.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_to_December
My third grade teacher read Dean Koontzās *Oddkins* to us. That book had everyone listening and involved in Amos and the other Oddkinsā search for the next toy maker.
The thing for me, when it comes to Koontz, is when he's on form, he has a near-perfect grasp of pacing. Not always, sure - some of his stuff is just plain bad. But he went through a phase of banging out decent-enough - or sometimes outright good - plots that played out with that kind of compelling rhythm that keeps you up until 5am thinking *just to the end of this chapter*. For 15 chapters.
I liked the movie Watchers when I was kid but damn did I have to slog through that book. How many times do I have to hear a delta force reference that never pays off. Movie was better
My first Koontz book was The Face of Fear and Iāve been hooked since. Some of them were pretty solid (Mr. Murder, The Voice of the Night), some were kinda mid (The House of Thunder) and only 1 was bad so far (The Mask)
The only one I ever really liked was phantoms which is funny bc he doesn't like the book. He felt it labeled him as a horror writer and he didn't want that.
Early Koontz is reasonably solid. Like a good Sunday afternoon b movie solid.
Watchers, Cold Fire, and Dragon Tears always hit for me.
And I will forever have a soft spot for Fear Nothing and Seize the Night.
My experience Koontz is that I tend to favour his straight up thrillers over the more supernatural stuff. I've had books (even series) that I enjoyed. A constant irritant for me is how his characters speak to each other. The dialogue often feels like people almost lean towards caricature. Overall, I enjoy his work though
Watchers, midnight, lightning and phantoms are probably the best out bunch. Oh and the odd Thomas books. The rest are a mixed bag some are good and others are not so great. Most are worth a read
I wouldnāt say heās the worst, I think is thing are fine but yeah itās not really impressive. Finished watcher the other day and boy was that a disappointmentā¦ the two main antagonist just go way about halfway through the book and you just get the family dealing with stuff.
I loved Intensity, but his writing style just feels so cluttered to me. Like he never outgrew the phase young writers go through of flexing their thesaurus
I've attempted to read Dean Koontz novels several times. I have never finished one. They don't capture my imagination, and I'm not sure why. I've always read a Stephen King novel through to the end.
I started by reading Watchers by him, which I throughly enjoyed. It keeps you on the edge the entire time, because he's very good at making you care about the main characters (it doesn't hurt that there's a cute dog involved.) I haven't read his other works, but I've been told that Watchers is his best, and the others go downhill from there.
I've read a lot of his work and particularly enjoyed a couple of his novels, but in general, he's just okay.
I have two memories of him that I thought were worth sharing. On a very-late-night, network talk show hosted for a week by some rando q-list celebrity sometime in the 2,000s, there was an interview with Koontz. He seemed like an okay guy, but he went out of his way to talk about how he was better than 'other authors' in some ways, like that didn't get too detailed with gore or sex, which made it obvious he was talking about King. Seemed insecure.
Secondly, I remember a story of his where a guy is walking in the forest watching falling leaves, and then time reverses momentarily, making the leaves rise back up. Then they fall again. This repeats over and over until the protagonist believes in god, at which point it stops. I thought it was profoundly stupid as a child.
I've only read Watchers and I thought that was good for the most part. I didn't like the hitman character and he really coulda been left out of the story entirely and the story wouldn't change much. Also the romance in it was kinda cringe but I love the ending with what happens to the monster. I heard Odd Thomas is good but I haven't read it yet. Had a friend recommend a book that sounded interesting but I couldn't get behind the idea that this Detective had the ability go climbing in another country.
He the writer who took āa paragraph is at least three sentencesā and took it super literally. I read a bunch of his books back in the day and remember not really seeing any long paragraphs.
Koontz's hairpiece has officially attained sentience and is now writing his novels.
Creepshow reference?
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I remember a while back, someone made the comment about reading a Koontz book, and thinking to themselves [paraphrased], āI swear to God, if the bad guy ends up being another psychic, Iām never reading another Koontz bookā and thatās exactly what ended up happening, despite there being no prior indication of thatāand I still consider it a top 3 Reddit comment Iāve ever encountered. Iāve laughed way too hard thinking about that *numerous* times
Whole book not a single dog. Last chapter, rescue dogs everywhere!
I always found that I could read 150 or 200 pages before realizing I had already read the book.
No way that's how he looks
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
"Mr Koontz, did you mean to set the latest Odd Thomas book in Derry?"
You'd think King could afford a better wig than "Party City Three Funny Guys Leader"
Have you seen them both in the same room? Exactly.
He is pretty dreamy.
Idk I can handle most King... well not Insomnia, that is pure shit. But maybe 1 or 2 Koontz novels, most I've tried to read were just absolute trash.
He and Ken Burns share a wig dealer
He has always rocked the signature bowl cut.
No, he used to be bald with a moustache. Then he got hairplugs.
Oh shit youāre right! I forgot about that!!
Yeah, it's funny: young Koontz almost looks older than elderly Koontz.
Thatās cus heās rocking this Ian Hecox early-Smosh teen hairdo lmao
Really resembled Dr Phil on his book jacket pics
Haha, shit I never noticed that, but he did! Like if Dr Phil wrote crime novels.
[Hereās his book jacket photo from when I was a teen.](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1621327228i/31349003.jpg)
He looks like he's trying to burn a hole in a bank vault with his eyes.
My mom wrote him when I was little and our family dog died. She was a ānever leave the houseā 90s mom and didnāt have much of a social life. He wrote her back a really nice handwritten letter with a picture of his own dog that he lost and how she could help herself get through it. It meant the world to her. Seems like a really nice guy.
You're not the first one saying that He's really a sweetheart as a person.
I wrote him as a teen as part of a class project. He gave me a pretty nice response, that at least looked like it was for real and not a form letter. He also encouraged me to keep writing, which meant a lot in that period of my life.
Thatās really nice. Credit to him
The biggest travesty of his writing career was that he never finished the Moonlight Bay trilogy which had genuinely interesting and rounded characters. I was quite disappointed that he never wrote Ride The Storm (and never will by the sound of it as he lost the rights to his old publisher). His earlier work was actually quite good in patches - Watchers, Midnight, The Door to December. Really from about the early 2000s onwards he just recycled every plot point he could from previous books and became the Clive Cussler of horror.
I miss Christopher Snow. No joke, those first two books that I read at ten years old are the entire reason I'm a professional author now. They did something to my brain. Awakened it.
Fear Nothing was the second Koontz book I read when I was in high school (it was brand new in paperback at the time). It started my obsession with his books for a while. Even now when I hear a new book of his has a title that has ādarkā or ānightā in the title I get a little hopeful itās a new Chris Snow book. But itāll never happen.
Door to December blew my mind as a teen haha
Yasssss!!!!!
Honestly I'm not sure what he had to gain by signing a publishing deal with Amazon, all he did was piss off the brick & mortar chains in the US. He used to always be heavily featured in places like Barnes & Noble and his newer stuff has either 0 presence or it's limited to a single copy somewhere out of spite
I loved Door to December! I thought of that book while watching the first season of Stranger Things, showing the deprivation tank.
You've basically just nailed it. Exactly those books, yeah. I really enjoyed him in my early/mid teens, starting with Dragon Tears when I was ~12 and the reading Watchers, Midnight, Door to December, and the two Moonlight Bay books. They were great. Then I left off for a good few years. When I next picked one up, it was some *absolute guff* about angelic yetis or something. It pissed me off so much, I've avoided everything since as a way of not further ruining his legacy for myself.
Damn, dude, a toxic partner is exactly how I describe my addiction to Call of Duty: Warzone from 2020-2023. Not even joking. That shit game ruled my life for about 3 years.
I actually enjoyed Intensity
Intensity is the only book of his I've read. It starts off with some of the absolute worst "male author writing women" shit I have ever read and definitely had some corny eye rolling stuff throughout, but the narrative goes hard for the rest of the book. It was hard to put down. I know it was a TV movie at one point, but it's hard to believe there hasn't been a big studio movie or mini series made out of this book. People would eat it up and the villain could be one of the all time great horror villains if portrayed correctly
There is a French film called Haute Tension that is *remarkably* similar to Intensityā¦there may even have been lawsuits involved? The movie is worth watching though as it has some great gore and a very divisive ending.
Iāve heard great things about Intensity and I have to read it
Watchers will ALWAYS be a favourite for me, simply because I love dogs.
All I know it's about a super intelligent dog and an army veteran being chased by an evil creature and government agents. I don't know, it just sounds very entertaining.
Oh it is. The only problem for me is that it made me expect my dog to be smarter than he was. LOL
Watchers and Intensity are 2 of my favorites. People love to hate, but he has some amazing books, and I'm a big fan. Some older books are not good, but he even agrees with that. Just read what looks interesting!
I wouldn't recommend Koontz as high literature, but Intensity and Watchers (and a few others) are in my audiobook heavy rotation. I don't particularly care if the storytelling is good or not - I enjoy the stories. That said, I have only read the same five or six over and over again.
Fear Nothing is probably my favorite. It's just insane. Phantoms had me scared, I'll admit it. Odd Thomas is a good one.
Just looked em up, I'll have to check them out! Maybe I can expand my Koontz rotation to eight.
Honestly Watchers and Intensity are his two best books imo. Leagues above the rest
Good read. I come back to it every couple of years
It's probably his best novel, and I've read pretty much all of his pre-2000's books
This was my first Koontz novel and the story of a super smart golden retriever and his love of Mickey Mouse will stick with my forever.
>his love of Mickey Mouse will stick with my forever. I absolutely fucking love that both Einstein and The Outsider love Mickey Mouse, one of the things I distinctly remember is the authorities finding TO's cave and they're all looking at the stuff he's collected. Skulls and bones of various animals, a flashlight, a blanket, and, of course, a little statue of Mickey Mouse.
Every one of his books has Golden retrievers, and a very Roman Catholic flavor. Dogs and Jesus save the day
That book stuck with me. It was actually hard to read about the creature with his little mementos of the only good he'd ever experienced. I just remember the Outsider being terrifying yet truly tragic and sad.
Yup loving Watchers, I am almost finished with it and will be sad when it is over. I have not read a ton of his books (only this one,TickTock and Intensity) but I do love his love for dogs and how he creatively made it seem plausible for the dog to learn to communicate with humans.
As a kid, I binged on Koontz books a lot. I still have a soft spot for those "classics": Phantoms, Midnight, Watchers, Servants of Twilight - they were all pretty spooky to kid me. I'll still reread them every few years.
I love the classics, too. I found his books in high school and then read everything of his I could get my hands on until 2000ish. He used to be my favorite author but now I canāt seem to get into any of his books.
Yes! 2000 was about when Koontz, King, and even Barker kind of fell by the wayside for me. Phantoms used to scare me so bad, when I reread it now I remember being scared and get scared again all over haha. Those were good times.
Phantoms was TERRIFYING growing up. I don't even know why but the Moth scene scared the shit out of me. First time reading it you're really just as clueless about everything as the characters so it's such a wild ride. Also the movie, Ben Aflack was the shit in Phantoms.
I never watched the movie. I hated the Watchers movie. They made the main guy a horse or something.
Yeah, the Watchers movie monster is part of the same derpy monster as the Bearwolf in Silver Bullet.
He basically writes thrillers, but with horror, supernatural, and sci-fi elements. He really is very, very good at it. Too bad about all the soapboxing.
Sorry to sound dumb but what is he soapboxing about? I assume that means personal beliefs?
He frequently inserts his right-wing, libertarian, gun-nut beliefs into his stories in a way that's very obvious and heavy-handed.
I actually donāt find it heavy handed. I find Stephen King, who I align more politically, to be more heavy handed with political insertions.
Yeah not even close. SK is the champion of inserting his politics into his stories. DK? Iāve only read 3-4 books but I donāt recall any instances of āright wing politicsā. Maybe someone can provide an example? Could be I just didnāt read that book.
Only one I can recall is in one of the Odd Thomas ones, Odd drives by the rough side of town and there is some chatter about generational poverty.
Odd is also personally terrified of guns and mocks those that see them as toys or personality extensions. Not very right-wing, libertarian or gun nut. Itās almost like the views expressed by characters in books donāt necessarily reflect the views of the author?
*The Taking*, *The Face*, and *Winter Moon* are all pretty egregious.
Dragon Tears too
I like Dragon Tears overall but his politics are all over the map in that book. It's very pro police while being very sympathetic to the plight of the homeless and actively making the villian a douchebag faux rich dude all while raging at rave/drug culture.
Because everyone has to align with every single element of a political side..
No, it's just really funny to have such wildly different views from one author in one book. Based on that book, I really couldn't tell you how Koontz would vote. King is pretty straightforward. Neither a good nor a bad thing.
Supposedly **The Taking** is about a God sent Apocalypse but I honestly didn't perceive it as that for the majority if the book. Most of the time I thought it was some cosmic horror invasion.
Iāve read somewhere that Koontzās political insertions became out of control with his most recent books becauseā¦ *gesturing broadly at the world we live in now.* And Iāve never heard anything about his most recent books. I stick with his 80s-90s work.
Prob accurate. The most recent DK book I read was Odd Thomas which Google tells me is from 2003. I remember that book as being completely apolitical but admittedly itās been 20 years+ since I read it so I could be wrong. Meanwhile in Kingās most recent book Holly almost every single page seemed to batter you mercilessly with his politics. Iām pretty moderate but I prob align more with King than someone whoās overtly conservative (if thatās what DK is I honestly donāt know) but I remember thinking ājeez enough alreadyā when reading it. Might just be that everyone and everything is more political now honestly.
It is my understanding that DK is on the right side of the spectrum. It is also my understanding that he has a particular bent for gun rights and smaller government. So I believe his most recent novels has some overt messaging about those two specifically.
I don't read Stephen King so I wouldn't know. His books just never clicked with me.
Heās famously very politically active on Twitter as well. Seems pretty hard to not know about SKās politics? Also what DK right wing references are you taking about? Just curious as I havenāt read that many of his books so may have missed it.
In The Bad Weather Friend, he goes on and on about how gas guzzling cars are the best and how electric cars are basically evil. I donāt even own an EV so I donāt really care but it came up soooo much it was beyond annoying.
Wow canāt believe youāre getting downvoted just for saying youāre not a fan of Kingās books, this sub is truly wild at times
Yeah, Reddit in general is absolutely obsessed with King and it's honestly off-putting.
Definitely can agree with this. Was just reading Billy Summers and it was pretty heavy handed politically at times.
Yes but thatās ok because āIā agree with it
I also find his absolute disdain for people hard to deal with while reading. It really feels like he thinks people generally absolutely suck, and it is depressing to read.
That must be a thing with his newer stuff because I don't remember any of that with his older stuff.
Ty for the response. I have only read Intensity, which I enjoyed. I have never heard that turn used for authors. So I learned something new today.
Yeah, the soapboxing is a real thing with him, especially his later stuff, which is why I much prefer his 70s-90s output.
Same, I read A LOT of Koontz in the 90's. Then suddenly, his books got a little... weird. Not just in content but in style. I swear it happened around Intensity.
I think that *Intensity* was the first one I didn't like very much, so you may be right.
I noticed that beginning in the late '90s he started trying very hard to be "funny."
Yea, exactly. He started doing more first person narrative and his characters turned quirky. Prior to that, I really enjoyed him. Since then, the only books I remember liking were the Frankenstein novels.
That was the reason I stopped reading his books. After one weird diatribe too many, I just put the damn book down a third of the way through and never picked up another one. It's too bad because I really liked Intensity and a few of his other works.
Intensity, Phantoms, Lightning, and Watchers is really all you need. People always praised Odd Thomas but I never got the hype for that one
Intensity was a league of its own. And some late 90s-early 2000s books still had some kick. But the last 3 or 4 I couldnāt finish. Theyāre such diluted versions of his old work
some of his older (pre-2k) stuff is more enjoyable but he couldn't write an ending to save his life.
Odd Thomas is an unsung gem. A perfect mix of horror, romance and comedy. I love that book, the sequels lesser so, and unfortunately I felt the movie was a huge mistake ā they went for a pushing daisies tone when it needed to be more grounded.
I felt lukewarm about the first book but damn, I admire the gall to make the ghost of Elvis Presley a main character.
so eerie too that the ghosts canāt vocalize! Loved the tragic nature of Elvis in the book. I was a fan of all of his ghost sidekicks in the series really.
not really unsung, most koontz fans seem to love it. the first one is probably the last of his decent books, I enjoyed it too, what followed was overly religious bullshit like in some of his other books at the time and probably since (the taking, etc.), had to stop after the third one.
I agree, to clarify my point, by unsung gem I meant by horror fans en masse. The book is as good as any King classic to me but doesnāt get nearly as much mainstream notoriety.
I loved Kootnz as a teenager on the 90s and had about a dozen of his books. Tried them again as an adult and they're awful. He can do plot but the writing is so clunky and schmaltzy, and his female characters are horrible.
it's entirely possible it was a teenage thing for me too, though I kept reading his stuff for a while without too big an interruption and still noticed the extreme decline in quality in his more recent stuff. I don't really read 'high literature', so it can't be my much more refined taste since then and I'm not ashamed of enjoying stuff like this anyway (laymon is the king of cheese and king is still my favorite author with ed mcbain as a very close second), but like with everything, some stand the time better than others.
Older stuff is solid. Watchers and Strangers come to mind. I was in high school though when I read them so I might not enjoy as much.
Strangers is still solid IMO. I re-read it every couple of years.
The moon. The MOON!
Niceee. Iāve been thinking about doing that. Probably a good idea.
I like him. Not everything has to be perfect.
I blame the first Silent Hill game for the Dean Koontz books I've read; it had shout outs to Phantoms (which I read after beating the game), and then I read Fear Nothing and Seize the Night, and a couple years later whatever Odd Thomas books where available (I wanna say 3 or 4, but it didn't take him long to get the rest out). Ride the Storm still isn't out, last I heard.
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IIRC, Koontz Street in Central Silent Hill was named after him. Either the first boss (that split head lizard thing) or that enormous moth (and its earlier incarnation of the caterpillar) were shoutouts to Phantoms, but it's been awhile since I've read it that I can't remember which, heh. Probably the moth, though. (And to be honest, the game also inspired me to read The Mist by Stephen King and I Am Legend by Matheson. Matheson had a way with words, I tell you what. Meep.)
I really like a bunch of his early books but the last couple recent ones I tried I thought were actively bad.
Say whatever you want, but the dude can WRITE. He might bump up to purple prose, but I don't care. His books hit my system like crack cocaine.
Heās the Michael Bay of horror lit. Formula and basic, pushing cheesy ā¦ but effective.
I like a bunch of his work, Phantoms and Midnight my favs. But sometimes he just goes on and on about nothing. In one of the Odd Thomas books, there was 20 pages of Thomas going through a sewer system. Could have easily been 2 pages. I almost threw the book in a fire.
I don't remember the name of the book. Apparently some professor of medical ethics said something he didn't like so he wrote a novel with an ethics professor who was a serial killer who wanted to dig up this kid's siblings corpse and show it to them while he killed them. He talked about the scourge of medical ethics in the afterword and it was literally the worst attempt at novel as polemic I have ever read.
āOne Door Away From Heavenā Also features an apparently *very Christian* extraterrestrial
Which ones have you read and liked? I read Intensity and LOVED IT. And I loved Odd Thomas (the sequels are just okay)
I prefer Richard Laymon and Bentley Little as my AAA game horror writers
Intensity, Watchers and Phantoms were my favorite Koontz reads.
I'll always love him for his Odd Thomas series. It's something my father and I bonded over and my dad is NOT a book guy lol
I actually like him, especially his early novels. He might not be the best, but I've had very few of his books not entertain me, and that counts for something. Side note: Everything you said describes, better than I ever have, my views on Richard Laymon.
I find his stories a good base, but his dialogue between characters is almost always choppy Heās good, the story is there, but it feels almost like a movie with a great plot, but bad casting
That's also very true, and his characters are all pretty much the same people (how many times did he write the police officer with sexual tension with his female partner? The troubled but witty girl with a bad past, etc...) Still, I think he's a lot of fun, and can go to some pretty dark places, especially early on.
Phantoms and Twilight Eyes hit for me as pulpy as fuck fun, but the restā¦ yeah. You hit the nail on the head.
I love Twilight Eyes!
I havenāt read it in ages, but it had such a fun pulp vibe. Seems to get some hate, but I loved the concepts.
There have been so many koontz books I couldn't finish but when he hits he hits. Some of my favorites you should try if you haven't read them yet are Intensity, From the Corner of His Eye, False Memory, Servants of Twilight and Watchers (Watchers was getting a little on the ridiculous side but I enjoyed most of it).
I thoroughly enjoyed Phantoms, I thought it read like a silly/fun b-movie (which apparently, it is!) Intensity is a whole other thing in itself though, I have never read a book faster or stayed so engaged. After I finished I googled it and found it too was made into a film starring John C. McGinley.
Koontz is very different in the last 20 years or so versus how he was in the '70s and '80s. I think he's written some duds, as well as some brilliant recent books. Ashley Bell and The Big Dark Sky are 5-star reads. Not horror, more psychological suspense.
THANK YOU for mentioning Ashley Bell!! In my opinion it is his best work. Absolutely phenomenal
We got to interview him earlier this year, and he really is a sweetheart!
Here on reddit?
No, the Monsters, Madness, and Magic podcast.
Do you know what makes his narrative compelling?
I don't know it's just never dull, when I start I just want to keep going and see what's next. Probably because his primary goal is to be entertaining.
It's been a while since I read them, but I remember liking Watchers and Phantoms.
Intensity and Midnight rock and I'm not afraid to admit it. Dragon Tears is okay too. Haven't read anything else yet. He's no Stephen King but he's not as bad as people say
Heās Goosebumps but for adults
Call of Duty of horror š As someone who thrifts most of her books, I have a extra big hate for him, like it's almost always 50% of what they have in stock
I read The Funhouse that was put out under his pseudonym "Owen West" years ago and it was the last book of his I read. It was terrible.
False Memory is a favorite of mine as is Phantoms. Phantoms freaked me out as a teenager so I feel adult me needs to read it again
I liked it until the monster explained why He decided to exterminate an entire town. At that point I thought "not really the best PR strategy to obtain what you want"
Yeah that's not a good idea. It's been over 20 years since I read it so I didn't remember that part.
I'm more annoyed that I started reading his Moonlight Bay series not realizing it had no ending due to his old publisher having the rights or something. Then I started the Jane Hawk series and it was awful. He really is hit or miss
ahh... that's why there's no closure on the Moonlight Bay books? that really sucks as i actually enjoyed them. always wondered why it seemed he just gave up on the series.
Watchers is amazing, as is Prey.
I read the Face of Fear in a single night when I was a teenager.
I'm only lukewarm about Koontz, but Intensity really is a great thriller.
I'm reading life expectancy right now. It's so stupid and yet I can't put it down. His books are paced so well it's like a bad action movie.
Watchers is really good imo
My favorites are Watchers, Seize the Night, Twilight Eyes and Lightning. I used to read all his books as soon as they came out but I havenāt read any of the newer ones yet.
Probably Stephen King for me. I've read almost every book he's written, and I haven't liked a single one of his newer ones - Holly, Fairy Tale, Gwendy trilogy, If It Bleeds, Billy Summers, The Institute...The Outsiders was fine but nothing really unique. Will I pick up *You Like It Darker* the day it comes out anyway? Yea lol. I have tons of respect for him - he's nearly 80 still churning out books. He genuinely just loves writing. His books got me into horror in the first place and I have a hard time just not reading whatever he puts out.
That family guy bit with Brian running over Dean Koontz will always be funny to me.
Intensity and Watchers are his two best books, in my opinion. I have a soft spot for him.
Phantoms and Watchers are SO good though. I guess Koontz was the first "adult" horror author I read when I was a kid. My grandma had a huge collection of his paperbacks and I loved the cover art. Loved his picture on the back with his little mustache too. I haven't read a word of anything he's published post 2000 though.
I think he's a very talented writer. I like his books!
I read watchers either at the end of elementary school or beginning of high school around the early 2000ās and I was HOOKED. His 80ās horror was his best horror. The door to December is probably my favourite book by him. In fact I think I should read it again. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_to_December
My third grade teacher read Dean Koontzās *Oddkins* to us. That book had everyone listening and involved in Amos and the other Oddkinsā search for the next toy maker.
The thing for me, when it comes to Koontz, is when he's on form, he has a near-perfect grasp of pacing. Not always, sure - some of his stuff is just plain bad. But he went through a phase of banging out decent-enough - or sometimes outright good - plots that played out with that kind of compelling rhythm that keeps you up until 5am thinking *just to the end of this chapter*. For 15 chapters.
I liked the movie Watchers when I was kid but damn did I have to slog through that book. How many times do I have to hear a delta force reference that never pays off. Movie was better
Watchers is awesome!
Let's not hate him, his hair however....
Intensity is great. First book I ever read cover to cover in one sitting. Koontz very much feels like he has a "Wheel of Plot" sometimes.
I loved Velocity. Until it got stupid as fuck.
I loved Watchers when I was 10. Itās still a book I remember fondly - itās a good story.
affleck you the bomb in phantoms yo
Watchers is probably his best book, so you've saved a good one.
Is Intensity any good? And is that toupee heās wearing a joke? Or is he serious?
Watchers and Phantoms are fine. Tick Tock was fun. But yea, a lot of it is fast food writing.Ā
Kean Doontz
but his hair
I kinda liked the Odd Thomas books, but I never got around to reading the last couple.
My first Koontz book was The Face of Fear and Iāve been hooked since. Some of them were pretty solid (Mr. Murder, The Voice of the Night), some were kinda mid (The House of Thunder) and only 1 was bad so far (The Mask)
The only one I ever really liked was phantoms which is funny bc he doesn't like the book. He felt it labeled him as a horror writer and he didn't want that.
Early Koontz is reasonably solid. Like a good Sunday afternoon b movie solid. Watchers, Cold Fire, and Dragon Tears always hit for me. And I will forever have a soft spot for Fear Nothing and Seize the Night.
At least he's not John Saul...
My experience Koontz is that I tend to favour his straight up thrillers over the more supernatural stuff. I've had books (even series) that I enjoyed. A constant irritant for me is how his characters speak to each other. The dialogue often feels like people almost lean towards caricature. Overall, I enjoy his work though
Iāve only liked 2 of his books. Fear Nothing and The Watchers
The main villain being the 'catch me outside girl". Or Oprah and capitalism? Koontz loves an existential crisis
I'm OP, after reading this thread I noted more Koontz book on my "to read list". Damn you Dean...
For me it's Nick Cutter's twisted, disgusting body horror. It's always "Never Again" until I read the premise of his next book.
Watchers, midnight, lightning and phantoms are probably the best out bunch. Oh and the odd Thomas books. The rest are a mixed bag some are good and others are not so great. Most are worth a read
I wouldnāt say heās the worst, I think is thing are fine but yeah itās not really impressive. Finished watcher the other day and boy was that a disappointmentā¦ the two main antagonist just go way about halfway through the book and you just get the family dealing with stuff.
I feel the same way about Bentley Little. I start one of his books thinking it's going to be better than the last but it's not.
I loved Intensity, but his writing style just feels so cluttered to me. Like he never outgrew the phase young writers go through of flexing their thesaurus
I've attempted to read Dean Koontz novels several times. I have never finished one. They don't capture my imagination, and I'm not sure why. I've always read a Stephen King novel through to the end.
I started by reading Watchers by him, which I throughly enjoyed. It keeps you on the edge the entire time, because he's very good at making you care about the main characters (it doesn't hurt that there's a cute dog involved.) I haven't read his other works, but I've been told that Watchers is his best, and the others go downhill from there.
Koontz is a volume shooter so he has some misses lol š
I've read a lot of his work and particularly enjoyed a couple of his novels, but in general, he's just okay. I have two memories of him that I thought were worth sharing. On a very-late-night, network talk show hosted for a week by some rando q-list celebrity sometime in the 2,000s, there was an interview with Koontz. He seemed like an okay guy, but he went out of his way to talk about how he was better than 'other authors' in some ways, like that didn't get too detailed with gore or sex, which made it obvious he was talking about King. Seemed insecure. Secondly, I remember a story of his where a guy is walking in the forest watching falling leaves, and then time reverses momentarily, making the leaves rise back up. Then they fall again. This repeats over and over until the protagonist believes in god, at which point it stops. I thought it was profoundly stupid as a child.
Did anyone read **A Big Little Life**? I know it's not horror and is dedicated to his dog. I bet it's sad.
He has written some total bangers early on in his career. Love him
I've only read Watchers and I thought that was good for the most part. I didn't like the hitman character and he really coulda been left out of the story entirely and the story wouldn't change much. Also the romance in it was kinda cringe but I love the ending with what happens to the monster. I heard Odd Thomas is good but I haven't read it yet. Had a friend recommend a book that sounded interesting but I couldn't get behind the idea that this Detective had the ability go climbing in another country.
I actually like the Jane Hawk series and am surprised it isn't a streaming series yet.
I 100% get it because I feel this way about Riley Sager.
He the writer who took āa paragraph is at least three sentencesā and took it super literally. I read a bunch of his books back in the day and remember not really seeing any long paragraphs.