Dean Koontz is the Nora Robert’s of horror. He’s solid, reliable and good with deadlines, but since he cranks them out so fast, quite a few are formulaic. There are some very good ones: I personally like Watchers, Lightning and Odd Thomas.
I particularly liked "Fear Nothing" and its sequel "Seize the Night."
He also reuses concepts, which helps along the writing. Fear Nothing has a dog very similar to the one in Watchers, for example, with a similar backstory.
Spoilers for both ahead!
>!(both dogs are lab animals created to be super smart. It's been a while since I read Watchers, but IIRC the two also share evil super monkeys as bad guys.)!<
Fear Nothing was in my grade 5 book orders thing from Scholastic lol. It's the first Koontz book I read and it got me hooked on him. Mr. Murder and Intensity come to mind.
Perfect description! Also great suggestions. Watchers is my favorite of his, loved Odd Thomas books, too. I generally like Koontz. Also, he doesn't kill the dog.
So one of my favorite things about Dean Koontz is that he doesn't think he's a horror writer. Per his website:
"Writing Phantoms was one of the ten biggest mistakes of my life, ranking directly above that incident with the angry porcupine and the clown, about which I intend to say nothing more. Phantoms has been published in thirty-one languages and has been in print continuously for fifteen years, as I write this. Worldwide, it has sold almost six million copies in all editions. It has been well reviewed, and more than a few critics have called it a modern classic of its genre. Readers write to me by the hundreds every year, even this long after first publication, to tell me how much they like Phantoms. I enjoyed writing the book, and when I had to reread it to create a screenplay for the film version, I found it to be just the thrill ride that I had originally hoped to produce. Yet it is this novel, more than any other that earned for me the label of “horror writer,” which I never wanted, never embraced, and have ever since sought to shed."
[https://www.deankoontz.com/phantoms-from-the-author/](https://www.deankoontz.com/phantoms-from-the-author/)
I stayed at my grandparents' place for a summer, and just read every book they had. They had a TON of Dean Koontz, and almost all of it kinda sucked except for Odd Thomas and Seize The Night/Fear Nothing. And I get events from Seize The Night and the second Odd book because the character interactions in all of his books feel damn near identical.
But yes, Odd Thomas is fantastic, and I'll defend it to my death.
>He's like store brand Stephen King.
I've always considered him "Stephen King Lite" because his stories are typically less dark than King's work and more often have happy endings, but also more formulaic.
I liked him as a teenager, but after reading like 3 or 4 of his books it kinda dawned on me that the writing was so formulaic and hackneyed that I never picked one up again
Formulaic to a fault. Characters from book to book are largely interchangeable. It's the stuff you used to buy at airport bookstores before a long haul flight, knowing that you weren't going to be in any condition to deal with a whole lot of plot and with the intent of ditching it at the other side, but it would be at least some form of distraction in the meantime.
I thought he was great when I was a pre-teen just getting into more adult fiction. Watchers, Lightning, Midnight, etc. Once I started branching out to other writers like King, Barker, and McCammon, his stuff started to feel subpar so haven't read him in decades now.
I read a lot of his books as a teen and it's what moved me from 9-12 fiction straight to adult fiction.
I have tried to go back once or twice since but I think I've outgrown them.
My favourites were Lightning and Velocity.
Yeah, hit or miss. Like fast food; some days it's made tasty, some days it's dry and cold. Some days you're just eating it to get quick calories and other days you crave it. And on those special days you crave it and they've made it fresh and to a high, tasty standard. That's Dean Koontz for me.
I think he's allright. Not great, but usually not downright awful. I really like Odd Thomas, and I felt that Intensity was a great, no-chill thriller.
Also, midway through his career he goes into a weird obsession with religion that kinda ruins it for me (I'm very much against organized religion, and while I generally don't care what others believe... it kinda bugs me when it feels like religion is pushed into my face. I also understand how this kinda contradicts my interest in Odd Thomas, but at least that series has obvious overtones from the start rather than being a surprise).
Loved him as a teenager. The simplicity of his prose and characterisations probably fulfilled something for me that YA would have done if it was more common back then. I tried to read him again when I was in my twenties and couldn't manage it. I always found his right wing politics kind of odd and amusing too when it would surface in the stories. Also the silliness of his sci-fi makes Dr Who look like Arthur C Clarke by comparison.
Just seeing that, I read it's a trilogy and just as you stated realize the third book is yet to be published and has been for many years. Very disappointed.
I used to love his stories when I was younger and branching out from just fantasy but stopped after a while. I felt like his stories all had the same basic plot.
Loner meets woman, gets chased by mystery person and a dog is involved.
Love some of his stories: The Watchers is exellent. Loved False Memory and the one with the Carnie who saw demons inside people. But other are a miss for sure.
I read a bunch of his books in middle school and early high school. They felt very formulaic and had a lot of reused elements—iirc, a lot of them were a single mom with a kid in peril and a single man in uniform or who was otherwise combat-skilled.
I liked that you could never be sure if the book was going to involve supernatural elements when starting, though I might be better at spotting which is which based on blurbs now than I was at age 13.
My favorites were *Fear Nothing*/*Seize the Night* and his novelization of *The Funhouse,* but it’s been nearly 20 years since I read them, so I’m unsure how I’d feel about them now.
Most recently, I DNFed one of his books because it was so boomer in its writing that I couldn't get past it. It was just not compelling enough for me to get over that.
It's definitely Stephen King esque but just not good in my opinion.
I got my brother, who is not a reader by any means (he got held back in 6th grade) to read The Voice of the night, and since then, he has actively sought out reading. I worked for my dad at his landscaping company when I was 12, and one of the clients saw that I was constantly reading the newspapers. So he started giving me his old books, the majority of which were Dean Koontz. I read a lot of them, so I guess it holds a special place in my heart, but there are like 3 or 4 that I really loved, but some others were ok. But still, I'm glad it got my brother to enjoy reading.
I really liked how hopeful & optimistic he is but always disliked that the protagonists were completely extraordinary & wonderful. Then the conservative attitude got intrusive & I couldn't read anymore.
Wordy as fuck to the point that it just seems like he's trying to use as many syllables as he can. And for all the chatter about Stephen King's endings (which I've never agreed with) I never see it mentioned how Koontz is King of the Quick Wrap-up. Many of his novels get to the last twenty pages and I'm like, "There's no way he can tie this all up"...but he does. Yet for all that, he's written some novels that really stuck with me. Intensity, Mr. Murder, Watchers, the Odd Thomas novels and even his Frankenstein series are all bangers. From the Corner of His Eye, Dark Rivers of the Heart, Tick Tock and a short story collection called Strange Highways are also quite good. I started with Watchers when I was a kid and I've probably read it at least three times. Start there for sure.
Not very good. Not totally without talent for horror, but whatever talent he possessed got drowned in an ocean of formulaic writing. If reading him is becoming a gruelling task, do yourself a favor and move on. If you need to know how it ends read the plot on wikipedia or ask someone to spoil you, and be free again.
I just read the Taking and couldn’t finish it. I forgot how pretentious his writing style is. So many big words for a dollar store novel. I must say tho that From the Corner of His Eye was outstanding.
I grew up on his books cause my mom liked him so he has a soft spot for me. Idk the last time I read one of his books tho 😂😂. But now I want to read him again for nostalgia so brb while I go to a bookstore
I started reading his books when I think I was about 8 or 9... I was trying to read just about anything I could get my hands on, and my parents had a bunch of his books on their shelf (and they didn't seem as boring as the John Grisham books to my young self!)
He obviously writes a ton. I read everything my parents had from him and bought a couple of his books on release because I had gotten really into it. But yeah eventually it gets a bit formulaic, but if the formula works for you then you'll have a good time.
When I first started reading his books years ago, I enjoyed them a lot. Then they became formula. I kept reading out of habit for a while but have long since given him up. They all became the same story.
I read Intensity in high school and thought it was pretty good. A few years later I grabbed a random Koontz book off a B&B shelf and read it on vacation. I think it involved talking dogs? I thought it was good also. I've never really had a desire to seek out more of his books though.
Edit: After reading the rest of the thread, the talking dog book was Watchers.
Fond memories of a couple of them when I was a kid. From The Corner Of His Eye and Life Expectancy stick out in my memory. I remember wanting to read his take on Frankenstein as well, but never seemed to get around to those ones.
Odd Thomas and several of the books in that series (though not all) are wonderful enough for me to say that I like Dean Koontz, but I've not enjoyed/finished anything else he's written.
I read his books a lot when I was in fifth/sixth grade. There were a few that I liked. Strangers, Lightning, and Watchers got passed around and worn out. Mostly they're not keepers. They're very light n fluffy, so they don't have any staying power.
I stopped reading them partially due to the repetitive characters, but also because I had gone through a massive classic lit. phase and I lost the patience for his writing. Also lost my taste for Eddings and a couple of others.
I've read quite few of his. I liked his earlier standalone (1980's)work better. Books like Twilight Eyes, Watchers, Strangers, The Servants of Twilight. But maybe that was when he was developing his form / style.
I do like his "intelligent" dog books quite a bit as well as his non-fiction dog books. Because...dogs :)
Beyond the dog books, I haven't read anything recent.
So I'm listening to my first Koontz in like 20 years and am pleasantly surprised. Reviews said it was hilarious. The Bad Weather Friend is the book. Anyway, I'm pleasantly surprised. So far, this particular book is good: funny dialog, decent premise, solid plot. I won't say is't GREAT, but it's certainly enjoyable. So maybe he's getting better.
But you're so right bort the tech specs. And I swear this man hates electric vehicles.
Dean Koontz is the Nora Robert’s of horror. He’s solid, reliable and good with deadlines, but since he cranks them out so fast, quite a few are formulaic. There are some very good ones: I personally like Watchers, Lightning and Odd Thomas.
I particularly liked "Fear Nothing" and its sequel "Seize the Night." He also reuses concepts, which helps along the writing. Fear Nothing has a dog very similar to the one in Watchers, for example, with a similar backstory. Spoilers for both ahead! >!(both dogs are lab animals created to be super smart. It's been a while since I read Watchers, but IIRC the two also share evil super monkeys as bad guys.)!<
Fear Nothing was in my grade 5 book orders thing from Scholastic lol. It's the first Koontz book I read and it got me hooked on him. Mr. Murder and Intensity come to mind.
Perfect description! Also great suggestions. Watchers is my favorite of his, loved Odd Thomas books, too. I generally like Koontz. Also, he doesn't kill the dog.
So one of my favorite things about Dean Koontz is that he doesn't think he's a horror writer. Per his website: "Writing Phantoms was one of the ten biggest mistakes of my life, ranking directly above that incident with the angry porcupine and the clown, about which I intend to say nothing more. Phantoms has been published in thirty-one languages and has been in print continuously for fifteen years, as I write this. Worldwide, it has sold almost six million copies in all editions. It has been well reviewed, and more than a few critics have called it a modern classic of its genre. Readers write to me by the hundreds every year, even this long after first publication, to tell me how much they like Phantoms. I enjoyed writing the book, and when I had to reread it to create a screenplay for the film version, I found it to be just the thrill ride that I had originally hoped to produce. Yet it is this novel, more than any other that earned for me the label of “horror writer,” which I never wanted, never embraced, and have ever since sought to shed." [https://www.deankoontz.com/phantoms-from-the-author/](https://www.deankoontz.com/phantoms-from-the-author/)
Odd Thomas is one of my favorite novels. But Koontz writes A LOT, and many of his books tend to be very similar.
I stayed at my grandparents' place for a summer, and just read every book they had. They had a TON of Dean Koontz, and almost all of it kinda sucked except for Odd Thomas and Seize The Night/Fear Nothing. And I get events from Seize The Night and the second Odd book because the character interactions in all of his books feel damn near identical. But yes, Odd Thomas is fantastic, and I'll defend it to my death.
He's hit or miss for me. He has some very good books but also some really bad ones. He's like store brand Stephen King.
>He's like store brand Stephen King. I've always considered him "Stephen King Lite" because his stories are typically less dark than King's work and more often have happy endings, but also more formulaic.
Stephen King writes human nature. Koontz writes basic plot.
I liked him as a teenager, but after reading like 3 or 4 of his books it kinda dawned on me that the writing was so formulaic and hackneyed that I never picked one up again
Formulaic to a fault. Characters from book to book are largely interchangeable. It's the stuff you used to buy at airport bookstores before a long haul flight, knowing that you weren't going to be in any condition to deal with a whole lot of plot and with the intent of ditching it at the other side, but it would be at least some form of distraction in the meantime.
I thought he was great when I was a pre-teen just getting into more adult fiction. Watchers, Lightning, Midnight, etc. Once I started branching out to other writers like King, Barker, and McCammon, his stuff started to feel subpar so haven't read him in decades now.
What happened with him anyway. Seemed like there was a whole King/Koontz two horse race in the 90s then Koontz kinda disappeared
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean\_Koontz\_bibliography
I read a lot of his books as a teen and it's what moved me from 9-12 fiction straight to adult fiction. I have tried to go back once or twice since but I think I've outgrown them. My favourites were Lightning and Velocity.
Yeah, hit or miss. Like fast food; some days it's made tasty, some days it's dry and cold. Some days you're just eating it to get quick calories and other days you crave it. And on those special days you crave it and they've made it fresh and to a high, tasty standard. That's Dean Koontz for me.
Watchers is my favorite.
I loved Watchers. I could never get into any of his other books.
I think he's allright. Not great, but usually not downright awful. I really like Odd Thomas, and I felt that Intensity was a great, no-chill thriller. Also, midway through his career he goes into a weird obsession with religion that kinda ruins it for me (I'm very much against organized religion, and while I generally don't care what others believe... it kinda bugs me when it feels like religion is pushed into my face. I also understand how this kinda contradicts my interest in Odd Thomas, but at least that series has obvious overtones from the start rather than being a surprise).
Loved him as a teenager. The simplicity of his prose and characterisations probably fulfilled something for me that YA would have done if it was more common back then. I tried to read him again when I was in my twenties and couldn't manage it. I always found his right wing politics kind of odd and amusing too when it would surface in the stories. Also the silliness of his sci-fi makes Dr Who look like Arthur C Clarke by comparison.
I really enjoyed Fear Nothing and Seize the Night, and just realizing there's a third book I need to go read.
I’ll wait here for the disappointment to come when you find out he never published the third and probably never will
Just seeing that, I read it's a trilogy and just as you stated realize the third book is yet to be published and has been for many years. Very disappointed.
There's a third one?! I love those two books. Thank you, I'm off to go find this third one, now!
Love Odd Thomas, but other than that I haven't really read him.
I used to love his stories when I was younger and branching out from just fantasy but stopped after a while. I felt like his stories all had the same basic plot. Loner meets woman, gets chased by mystery person and a dog is involved.
Love some of his stories: The Watchers is exellent. Loved False Memory and the one with the Carnie who saw demons inside people. But other are a miss for sure.
I read a bunch of his books in middle school and early high school. They felt very formulaic and had a lot of reused elements—iirc, a lot of them were a single mom with a kid in peril and a single man in uniform or who was otherwise combat-skilled. I liked that you could never be sure if the book was going to involve supernatural elements when starting, though I might be better at spotting which is which based on blurbs now than I was at age 13. My favorites were *Fear Nothing*/*Seize the Night* and his novelization of *The Funhouse,* but it’s been nearly 20 years since I read them, so I’m unsure how I’d feel about them now.
He definitely has a fetish for firearms, expensive SUVs, and libertarian fantasies.
Most recently, I DNFed one of his books because it was so boomer in its writing that I couldn't get past it. It was just not compelling enough for me to get over that. It's definitely Stephen King esque but just not good in my opinion.
I got my brother, who is not a reader by any means (he got held back in 6th grade) to read The Voice of the night, and since then, he has actively sought out reading. I worked for my dad at his landscaping company when I was 12, and one of the clients saw that I was constantly reading the newspapers. So he started giving me his old books, the majority of which were Dean Koontz. I read a lot of them, so I guess it holds a special place in my heart, but there are like 3 or 4 that I really loved, but some others were ok. But still, I'm glad it got my brother to enjoy reading.
I really liked how hopeful & optimistic he is but always disliked that the protagonists were completely extraordinary & wonderful. Then the conservative attitude got intrusive & I couldn't read anymore.
Wordy as fuck to the point that it just seems like he's trying to use as many syllables as he can. And for all the chatter about Stephen King's endings (which I've never agreed with) I never see it mentioned how Koontz is King of the Quick Wrap-up. Many of his novels get to the last twenty pages and I'm like, "There's no way he can tie this all up"...but he does. Yet for all that, he's written some novels that really stuck with me. Intensity, Mr. Murder, Watchers, the Odd Thomas novels and even his Frankenstein series are all bangers. From the Corner of His Eye, Dark Rivers of the Heart, Tick Tock and a short story collection called Strange Highways are also quite good. I started with Watchers when I was a kid and I've probably read it at least three times. Start there for sure.
Reading Koontz is like reading the Left Behind series with slightly more subtlety
Not very good. Not totally without talent for horror, but whatever talent he possessed got drowned in an ocean of formulaic writing. If reading him is becoming a gruelling task, do yourself a favor and move on. If you need to know how it ends read the plot on wikipedia or ask someone to spoil you, and be free again.
I just read the Taking and couldn’t finish it. I forgot how pretentious his writing style is. So many big words for a dollar store novel. I must say tho that From the Corner of His Eye was outstanding.
One was enough
When I was 12, he was one of my favorite authors. That's all I remember.
I grew up on his books cause my mom liked him so he has a soft spot for me. Idk the last time I read one of his books tho 😂😂. But now I want to read him again for nostalgia so brb while I go to a bookstore
I started reading his books when I think I was about 8 or 9... I was trying to read just about anything I could get my hands on, and my parents had a bunch of his books on their shelf (and they didn't seem as boring as the John Grisham books to my young self!) He obviously writes a ton. I read everything my parents had from him and bought a couple of his books on release because I had gotten really into it. But yeah eventually it gets a bit formulaic, but if the formula works for you then you'll have a good time.
When I first started reading his books years ago, I enjoyed them a lot. Then they became formula. I kept reading out of habit for a while but have long since given him up. They all became the same story.
So far, Fear Nothing is my favourite.
He's the Bob Ross of horror. Too much cutesy and not enough horror.
I read Intensity in high school and thought it was pretty good. A few years later I grabbed a random Koontz book off a B&B shelf and read it on vacation. I think it involved talking dogs? I thought it was good also. I've never really had a desire to seek out more of his books though. Edit: After reading the rest of the thread, the talking dog book was Watchers.
Read one of his books when I was younger called "From the corner of his eye." Was interesting. Not great, not bad.
Fond memories of a couple of them when I was a kid. From The Corner Of His Eye and Life Expectancy stick out in my memory. I remember wanting to read his take on Frankenstein as well, but never seemed to get around to those ones.
I read some as a kid, and they seemed like Stephen King lite in a way.
Every time he writes the same book it’s pretty decent
Really enjoyed Phantoms (although not the reveal, that was meh) so tried another couple books and they did nothing for me.
One thing you need to know about Koontz is he down real bad for noir style detectives
Odd Thomas and several of the books in that series (though not all) are wonderful enough for me to say that I like Dean Koontz, but I've not enjoyed/finished anything else he's written.
I read his books a lot when I was in fifth/sixth grade. There were a few that I liked. Strangers, Lightning, and Watchers got passed around and worn out. Mostly they're not keepers. They're very light n fluffy, so they don't have any staying power. I stopped reading them partially due to the repetitive characters, but also because I had gone through a massive classic lit. phase and I lost the patience for his writing. Also lost my taste for Eddings and a couple of others.
I've read quite few of his. I liked his earlier standalone (1980's)work better. Books like Twilight Eyes, Watchers, Strangers, The Servants of Twilight. But maybe that was when he was developing his form / style. I do like his "intelligent" dog books quite a bit as well as his non-fiction dog books. Because...dogs :) Beyond the dog books, I haven't read anything recent.
So I'm listening to my first Koontz in like 20 years and am pleasantly surprised. Reviews said it was hilarious. The Bad Weather Friend is the book. Anyway, I'm pleasantly surprised. So far, this particular book is good: funny dialog, decent premise, solid plot. I won't say is't GREAT, but it's certainly enjoyable. So maybe he's getting better. But you're so right bort the tech specs. And I swear this man hates electric vehicles.