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Rare Antique CROOKED STAIRCASE Dean Koontz SIGNED 1st Edition First Printing MYSTERY Thriller [Hardcover] Dean Koontz
This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection
233 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
868 people are currently reading
7550 people want to read
About the author
Dean R. Koontz
288 books566 followersLibrarian's Note: This author writes under the name Dean R. Koontz and Dean Koontz. As both names appear on his works, both should be kept.
Acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.
Known Pseudonyms:
Leigh Nichols,
Brian Coffey,
David Axton,
Owen West,
Deanna Dwyer
Aaron Wolfe.
K.R. Dwyer
John Hill
Richard Paige
Anthony North
Acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.
Known Pseudonyms:
Leigh Nichols,
Brian Coffey,
David Axton,
Owen West,
Deanna Dwyer
Aaron Wolfe.
K.R. Dwyer
John Hill
Richard Paige
Anthony North
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,526 reviews
September 17, 2022
“Always, the eye sees more than the mind can comprehend, and we go through life self-blinded to much that lies before us. We want a simple world, but we live in a magnificently complex one, and rather than open ourselves to it, we perceive the world through filters that make it less daunting.”
When Cubby Greenwich receives a scathing review for his latest bestseller by the feared and therefore revered critic Shearman Waxx, he is determined to take no notice of it. But fate carries him right into Waxx’s path. What began as an innocent and unexpected encounter is about to trigger an inferno of violence. For Shearman Waxx is not merely a ferocious literary enemy, but a ruthless sociopath, and now he is intent on destroying Cubby and everything he holds dear: his home, his wife, his young son, and every hope he had in the world.
This was my second foray into the world of Dean Koontz, the first one I read Intensity didn’t work out so well for me. This one however, was a very different experience. For most of this book I was completely engrossed. I enjoyed the characters, loved the nonstop action and thought the evil guy was very creepy. The writing was witty and punchy. The little ‘child prodigy’ genius level son was different and interesting. So why the three stars? The ending. It was way too far fetched for me. Don't get me wrong, I like a supernatural twist thrown in there and I love the weird and wonderful. This one just didn't work for me at all. Unfortunately I can't go into more detail without giving it away.
This novel was riveting and extremely fun and well-written, but the ending ruined it, just plain bizarre.
I still plan on reading more Koontz.
When Cubby Greenwich receives a scathing review for his latest bestseller by the feared and therefore revered critic Shearman Waxx, he is determined to take no notice of it. But fate carries him right into Waxx’s path. What began as an innocent and unexpected encounter is about to trigger an inferno of violence. For Shearman Waxx is not merely a ferocious literary enemy, but a ruthless sociopath, and now he is intent on destroying Cubby and everything he holds dear: his home, his wife, his young son, and every hope he had in the world.
This was my second foray into the world of Dean Koontz, the first one I read Intensity didn’t work out so well for me. This one however, was a very different experience. For most of this book I was completely engrossed. I enjoyed the characters, loved the nonstop action and thought the evil guy was very creepy. The writing was witty and punchy. The little ‘child prodigy’ genius level son was different and interesting. So why the three stars? The ending. It was way too far fetched for me. Don't get me wrong, I like a supernatural twist thrown in there and I love the weird and wonderful. This one just didn't work for me at all. Unfortunately I can't go into more detail without giving it away.
This novel was riveting and extremely fun and well-written, but the ending ruined it, just plain bizarre.
I still plan on reading more Koontz.
April 14, 2010
RELENTLESSLY IDIOTIC. 0 STARS.
UTTER RUBBISH - AN INSULT TO THE READER.
I find it hard to believe it got published. It sells only because of the name recognition. The publishing company advertises it with the praise Koontz received ages ago for his earlier, better novels and voila ! We have a new $20 harcdover, the cash flows in and everyone is happy. Except for the readers.
Cubby Greenwich is a writer of bestselling books, and his latest title (One O’ Clock Jump) got the attention of a famous and feared book critic, Shearman Waxx (yes, that's a real name). Waxx calls Cubby on the phone and utters one word: DOOM. Then Cubby is one the run because the critic wants to kill him for writing the book...as he has killed other writers whose books he didn't like.
AND THAT'S IT. There's nothing more. That's the whole plot. With a setting so idiotic and preposterous the reader might wonder how bad the book will turn out to be, and believe me, it is HORRIBLE.
It's page after page of Koontz bitching about things.
He wastes no time. At the first page the reader is introduced to the Greenwich family, which is, of course, exceptional.
-Cubby Greenwich, a bestselling writer who states that " Even with a gun to my head, I am capable of being convulsed with laughter". Of course Cubby has a mysterious past.
-Penny Boom, whose parents own a demolishing company and a stronghold. Yes, a stronghold. She's "too smart and too witty and too graceful", she's Venus herself but curiously Dean does not tell us that. She's of course a highly succesful children novelist.
-Milo, who is of course a child prodigy. Milo excells at basically everything (he reads fing Dostoevsky at the age of six) and constructs a mysterious thing through the whole book. When his father asks him what he's building he refuses to tell, and there are whole pages of stuff like this:
-Come on, tell me !
-No.
This is the suspense factor in the book, because there's no other thing that can be classified as suspense in this collection of pages. Of course it's obvious that he's building a miraculous device that will rescue the heroes from certain death, and as if (surprisingly of course) turns out - THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE'S DOING. Surprise surprise ! Are you crying yet ? The best is before us.
Writing about a book writer, Koontz couldn't help himself and slip some subtle parrarels to himself. This of course means that the whole novel is a big FINGER to all critics that dared to neglect or underestimate his work, but I doubt any critics today even glance at it - instead of enjoying it, they would wonder how a good writer can turn into a hack in just a few years ?
First of the parrarels, the title of the fictional book that angered the critic is One O’Clock Jump - which was his preferred title for his work that got published as The Bad Place
Second, there are slips of dialogue that just give the guy away. Remember how he was criticized for constanly lame dialogue and goofy jokes in his most recent work ? You'll never guess what Cubby says after reading the critics' review.
"Olivia, this Waxx guy doesn’t understand my book is in part a comic novel" - DOH!
The riposte by the RKFC (Random Koontz Female Character) is as follows:
"No, dear, he doesn’t. And you should be grateful for that, because if he realized it was funny, he would have said that it failed as a comic novel - DOH!(2)
Here's my favorite. Koontz has become so prolix and constantly showers his recent work with purple prose and lame metaphors that is reads like a first novel by an 8-grader who has just bought himself a shining new set of thesauruses.
“"He thinks a solid metaphor is ‘ponderous prose."’” - Dean baby, please...
He can't help himself - he's so into defending himself that his RKFC states:
"He’'s a product of the modern university, Cubby. Figures of speech are considered oppressive."” - employing asinine comparisons that are meant to sound as abstruse metaphors whose purpose is to add fake "depth" and "meaning" is not opressive - it's shitty. He blames the universities but wants to write like an academic, like a poet, like a...writer.
But the funniest thing is still ahead. What's the explanation for all this crap ?
"-Oppressive? Who do they oppress?”"
"“-Those who don’t understand them.”" - yeah baby ! blame us humans for hating this crap. I'm not a bestselling writer, I'm not even a writer but I can crank open a thesaurus and crack out a metaphor that would blow your pants away, that would look like the first flower of Spring because it sprouts as expected and promises beauty and opportunities to play and relax, that would sound like a drum roll with a steady beat which bobbles along as we anticipate great happenings, and that would taste like a favorite scoop of ice cream which you cuddle and savor as it melts and dissolves away.
But I like the human race, and with so many problems going on who wants to read endless pages of stuff like that ? Moderation ! Moderation ! Gluttony is a sin!
If you're writing for the world you have to write in such a way that the world could understand you. If a novel is criticized because of its stupidity and incoherent language it's not the fault of the reader - but of the writer.
It's gets worse. Koontz always tries to force his agenda on his readers, by employing his "characters" to say what he really thinks. This attempt at brainwashing is especially evident in Relentless.
At one point the main character sees the laptop of his son, states that he has never seen such screensaver and goes on a rant:
"The Internet is more a force for evil than for good. It offers the worst of humankind absolute license and anonymity— and numerous addictive pursuits over which to become obsessive. Kids are having innocence and willpower— if not free will itself —stolen from them.
Koontz doesn't use the internet. He doesn't know about the charity sites that help millions of people daily. He doesn't know how the internet helps people who are separated by millions of miles. He doesn't know how many succesful relationships were formed and maintained thanks to the internet. He doesn't know how the internet is the only true free medium in the world, without control and censorship which helps millions of people in forming and voicing their protests, sorrows or cheers.
Instead he goes on a rant titled "WEB IS BAD MKAY?" and bitches like a bored, uneducated housewife how the internet hurts little kids. THANK YOU CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! And guess what - the guns that you love so much are used to KILL PEOPLE!
DAILY!
His inexperience with the internet is obvious later, when all the characters are worried because one of them went to Waxx's website and somehow the website can track her down by...her E-MAIL adress. E-Mail ? Has anyone ever heard of an I.P. ? No one ? Editor ? Is there an Editor at Harper ? No ?
He goes on and on, throws constantly some neo-hippy ideas about the current state of society. Here's some:
"Are the victims so committed to a reasoned disbelief in the existence of Evil that, when face-to-face with its agent, they are incapable of acknowledging their error?
Or are they capable of recognizing Evil but unable to believe there is a power opposed to it that stands ready to give them the strength— and a reason —to survive?
Perhaps it is the nurtured narcissism of our age that leaves some unable to imagine their deaths even as the bullet is in the barrel."
Nurtured narcissism ? I know alliteration's cool but come on !
"In her research, she also discovered that some writers and artists of a new philosophical movement were relocating to Smokeville or were considering doing so. They hoped to establish a creative community.
Like Henry Casas and Tom Landulf, these people rejected both the nihilism and utopianism of our time and of the previous 150 years. They sought a future based not on the theories of one man or on one narrow ideology, but on the centuries of tradition and wisdom from which their civilization had grown."
Dean's an old timer, but here he sounds like an old fart. I wonder when he will go full Amish and add start writings about cows and their endless fluid influence on all newborns.
Remember how he wrote about the internet ? Here are his views on killing, his favorite subject when it comes to expressing views, uttered by no one other but a Sheriff.
The true commandment is ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ It doesn’t say ‘kill’ in the original language, because killing’s a whole different thing from murder. Furthermore, Moses didn’t provide us categories of murder, some worse than others. If you’re going to go door-to-door for Jesus, Mr. Greenwich, you better learn-up a bit.”
Yeah, only bad people use the bad internet but when you kill someone it's completely different. I don't know why but it is ! Look, I made the sherriff say it. You have to believe him. Please. Please !
"Thou shalt not murder, but killing is a whole different thing from murder. Self-defense isn’t a transgression, defense of the innocent is required, they give medals for defense of the innocent."
Yeah. Blast away pops ! Heaven awaits, all angels are going to give you a medal.
I won't mention the mother trying not to swear in front of her soon on the escape, but has no problem with sentences like If the time comes to kill you, I won’t make it as easy as a needle. Thumbs up mom !
Koontz wouldn't be himself if he wouldn't give the finger to Hollywood and performers of any music that isn't Elvis or Sinatra. He even managed to slip in his conservativity.
"Beyond the service-island overhang, in the windless night, the rain came down in such straight skeins that the rigorous lines should have proved the law of gravity to any disbeliever, of which I’m sure there are multitudes, considering we live in an age of enthusiastic ignorance, when anything well-known for centuries is not only suspect but also considered worthy of being rejected in favor of a new theory more appealing to movie stars and deep-thinking rock musicians."
It's pathetic.Pathetic.
The level of stupidity in this book reaches the top with the kid. Koontz can't write kids so he makes them child prodigies, which allows them to talk like twenty year old people and he can always say "hey, they're prodigies! they're supposed to talk like that!". However, here he loses track of what the kid really is - a kid or a prodigy - and interweaves both personalities of a six year old boy to an effect that cannot even ewoke laughter because it's bad, pathetically bad, VERY bad. The example:
"Milo envied our black raincoats and profoundly disliked his bright yellow gear. "“I look like a baby chicken.”"
and:
Milo said, “Sometimes, you forget I’m a kid but I’m also not. It isn'’t my primary field, but I’m interested in aberrant psychology.
Baby chicken ? primary field ? abberant psychology ?
Schizophrenia anyone ?
The revelation is atrocious. Apparently the critic was sent by his own mother who is a big Rosseau fan and wants to destroy all literature and culture to follow his vision. The critic is killed by his brother who has a lizard-face, and the mother shots our hero Cubby. However, wise son Milo foresaw this and constructed a TIME MACHINE (which can also do some TELEPORTATION), reversed the time a bit which allowed for our hero to conveniently dispose of the adversary. It's a Deus Ex Machina of such proportions that I don't even know how to name it.
Oh, and the boy experimented with the dog to see if it could teleport and apparently after the experiments the dog learned to teleport on its own (which means another superdog, awesome) and it's an explanation of it's mysterious appearances in closed drawers and such.
This world changing quote deserves a special page, but Goodreads doesn't allow it so it gets here. It's by the evil mother character.
"I have pioneered the new science of designing culture. I haveshaped American and hence world culture(...)" Yeah, all world blindly follows the American way. I'm afraid that's not the truth Dean. We know you're a proud American but you went waaaaay over the top here.
I almost forgot the closing passages...
"We follow the news as much as we can tolerate it. We see the signs, the gathering clouds, the horror that could come upon the whole world."
I'm afraid he doesn't mean the starving children in distant countries.
In spite of all that we have seen and now know, we have not lost hope, neither has our hope been diminished. We have a dog that teleports. We know what matters in life and what does not. We have a son who will one day provide the means for the sane to reclaim civilization from those who value theories more than truth and utopian dreams more than people.
I can't believe I'm reading this but it's in the book. Let's all go back on the trees, it would be much nicer, and you could even do a little up-skirt peeking !
Shearman Waxx was not relentless. Evil itself may be relentless, I will grant you that, but love is relentless, too. Friendship is a relentless force. Family is a relentless force. Faith is a relentless force. The human spirit is relentless, and the human heart outlasts—and can defeat—even the most relentless force of all, which is time.
- employ enough pathos, emphasize the importance of family and friendship, bind it, stick on a price and Wallmart shelves are yours. Because that's exactly what it is. A poor, uninspired drivel.
The title "Relentless" and the advert on the back cover "Dean Koontz - Can you keep up ?" brought to my mind an image.
An aging writer, who stays in his house all year, and works 18 hours shifts.
An aging writer who desperately tries to compete with younger and better in their field, a field in which he desperately tries to find a place for himself.
An aging writer who was once great, but now tries to appeal to a whole new audience by writing in a new genre.
An aging writer, who relentlessly revises the page and scribbles new annotations, who feels that the fate of the whole world lies on his shoulders, that he has to educate and entertain, and that he has to work, work, work because there's a deadline coming, and then another, and then a new book has to be written. The print got much larger, but the time to write got much shorter...
An aging writer who shut himself from the world wide web which interestingly is a great source of knowledge about real people, who concentrates only on his work and doesn't acknowledge any influences except his own writings which he rehashes more and more.
And as I am writing this, he's writing another book. Or two. Or three. At the same time.
God help us.
UTTER RUBBISH - AN INSULT TO THE READER.
I find it hard to believe it got published. It sells only because of the name recognition. The publishing company advertises it with the praise Koontz received ages ago for his earlier, better novels and voila ! We have a new $20 harcdover, the cash flows in and everyone is happy. Except for the readers.
Cubby Greenwich is a writer of bestselling books, and his latest title (One O’ Clock Jump) got the attention of a famous and feared book critic, Shearman Waxx (yes, that's a real name). Waxx calls Cubby on the phone and utters one word: DOOM. Then Cubby is one the run because the critic wants to kill him for writing the book...as he has killed other writers whose books he didn't like.
AND THAT'S IT. There's nothing more. That's the whole plot. With a setting so idiotic and preposterous the reader might wonder how bad the book will turn out to be, and believe me, it is HORRIBLE.
It's page after page of Koontz bitching about things.
He wastes no time. At the first page the reader is introduced to the Greenwich family, which is, of course, exceptional.
-Cubby Greenwich, a bestselling writer who states that " Even with a gun to my head, I am capable of being convulsed with laughter". Of course Cubby has a mysterious past.
-Penny Boom, whose parents own a demolishing company and a stronghold. Yes, a stronghold. She's "too smart and too witty and too graceful", she's Venus herself but curiously Dean does not tell us that. She's of course a highly succesful children novelist.
-Milo, who is of course a child prodigy. Milo excells at basically everything (he reads fing Dostoevsky at the age of six) and constructs a mysterious thing through the whole book. When his father asks him what he's building he refuses to tell, and there are whole pages of stuff like this:
-Come on, tell me !
-No.
This is the suspense factor in the book, because there's no other thing that can be classified as suspense in this collection of pages. Of course it's obvious that he's building a miraculous device that will rescue the heroes from certain death, and as if (surprisingly of course) turns out - THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE'S DOING. Surprise surprise ! Are you crying yet ? The best is before us.
Writing about a book writer, Koontz couldn't help himself and slip some subtle parrarels to himself. This of course means that the whole novel is a big FINGER to all critics that dared to neglect or underestimate his work, but I doubt any critics today even glance at it - instead of enjoying it, they would wonder how a good writer can turn into a hack in just a few years ?
First of the parrarels, the title of the fictional book that angered the critic is One O’Clock Jump - which was his preferred title for his work that got published as The Bad Place
Second, there are slips of dialogue that just give the guy away. Remember how he was criticized for constanly lame dialogue and goofy jokes in his most recent work ? You'll never guess what Cubby says after reading the critics' review.
"Olivia, this Waxx guy doesn’t understand my book is in part a comic novel" - DOH!
The riposte by the RKFC (Random Koontz Female Character) is as follows:
"No, dear, he doesn’t. And you should be grateful for that, because if he realized it was funny, he would have said that it failed as a comic novel - DOH!(2)
Here's my favorite. Koontz has become so prolix and constantly showers his recent work with purple prose and lame metaphors that is reads like a first novel by an 8-grader who has just bought himself a shining new set of thesauruses.
“"He thinks a solid metaphor is ‘ponderous prose."’” - Dean baby, please...
He can't help himself - he's so into defending himself that his RKFC states:
"He’'s a product of the modern university, Cubby. Figures of speech are considered oppressive."” - employing asinine comparisons that are meant to sound as abstruse metaphors whose purpose is to add fake "depth" and "meaning" is not opressive - it's shitty. He blames the universities but wants to write like an academic, like a poet, like a...writer.
But the funniest thing is still ahead. What's the explanation for all this crap ?
"-Oppressive? Who do they oppress?”"
"“-Those who don’t understand them.”" - yeah baby ! blame us humans for hating this crap. I'm not a bestselling writer, I'm not even a writer but I can crank open a thesaurus and crack out a metaphor that would blow your pants away, that would look like the first flower of Spring because it sprouts as expected and promises beauty and opportunities to play and relax, that would sound like a drum roll with a steady beat which bobbles along as we anticipate great happenings, and that would taste like a favorite scoop of ice cream which you cuddle and savor as it melts and dissolves away.
But I like the human race, and with so many problems going on who wants to read endless pages of stuff like that ? Moderation ! Moderation ! Gluttony is a sin!
If you're writing for the world you have to write in such a way that the world could understand you. If a novel is criticized because of its stupidity and incoherent language it's not the fault of the reader - but of the writer.
It's gets worse. Koontz always tries to force his agenda on his readers, by employing his "characters" to say what he really thinks. This attempt at brainwashing is especially evident in Relentless.
At one point the main character sees the laptop of his son, states that he has never seen such screensaver and goes on a rant:
"The Internet is more a force for evil than for good. It offers the worst of humankind absolute license and anonymity— and numerous addictive pursuits over which to become obsessive. Kids are having innocence and willpower— if not free will itself —stolen from them.
Koontz doesn't use the internet. He doesn't know about the charity sites that help millions of people daily. He doesn't know how the internet helps people who are separated by millions of miles. He doesn't know how many succesful relationships were formed and maintained thanks to the internet. He doesn't know how the internet is the only true free medium in the world, without control and censorship which helps millions of people in forming and voicing their protests, sorrows or cheers.
Instead he goes on a rant titled "WEB IS BAD MKAY?" and bitches like a bored, uneducated housewife how the internet hurts little kids. THANK YOU CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! And guess what - the guns that you love so much are used to KILL PEOPLE!
DAILY!
His inexperience with the internet is obvious later, when all the characters are worried because one of them went to Waxx's website and somehow the website can track her down by...her E-MAIL adress. E-Mail ? Has anyone ever heard of an I.P. ? No one ? Editor ? Is there an Editor at Harper ? No ?
He goes on and on, throws constantly some neo-hippy ideas about the current state of society. Here's some:
"Are the victims so committed to a reasoned disbelief in the existence of Evil that, when face-to-face with its agent, they are incapable of acknowledging their error?
Or are they capable of recognizing Evil but unable to believe there is a power opposed to it that stands ready to give them the strength— and a reason —to survive?
Perhaps it is the nurtured narcissism of our age that leaves some unable to imagine their deaths even as the bullet is in the barrel."
Nurtured narcissism ? I know alliteration's cool but come on !
"In her research, she also discovered that some writers and artists of a new philosophical movement were relocating to Smokeville or were considering doing so. They hoped to establish a creative community.
Like Henry Casas and Tom Landulf, these people rejected both the nihilism and utopianism of our time and of the previous 150 years. They sought a future based not on the theories of one man or on one narrow ideology, but on the centuries of tradition and wisdom from which their civilization had grown."
Dean's an old timer, but here he sounds like an old fart. I wonder when he will go full Amish and add start writings about cows and their endless fluid influence on all newborns.
Remember how he wrote about the internet ? Here are his views on killing, his favorite subject when it comes to expressing views, uttered by no one other but a Sheriff.
The true commandment is ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ It doesn’t say ‘kill’ in the original language, because killing’s a whole different thing from murder. Furthermore, Moses didn’t provide us categories of murder, some worse than others. If you’re going to go door-to-door for Jesus, Mr. Greenwich, you better learn-up a bit.”
Yeah, only bad people use the bad internet but when you kill someone it's completely different. I don't know why but it is ! Look, I made the sherriff say it. You have to believe him. Please. Please !
"Thou shalt not murder, but killing is a whole different thing from murder. Self-defense isn’t a transgression, defense of the innocent is required, they give medals for defense of the innocent."
Yeah. Blast away pops ! Heaven awaits, all angels are going to give you a medal.
I won't mention the mother trying not to swear in front of her soon on the escape, but has no problem with sentences like If the time comes to kill you, I won’t make it as easy as a needle. Thumbs up mom !
Koontz wouldn't be himself if he wouldn't give the finger to Hollywood and performers of any music that isn't Elvis or Sinatra. He even managed to slip in his conservativity.
"Beyond the service-island overhang, in the windless night, the rain came down in such straight skeins that the rigorous lines should have proved the law of gravity to any disbeliever, of which I’m sure there are multitudes, considering we live in an age of enthusiastic ignorance, when anything well-known for centuries is not only suspect but also considered worthy of being rejected in favor of a new theory more appealing to movie stars and deep-thinking rock musicians."
It's pathetic.Pathetic.
The level of stupidity in this book reaches the top with the kid. Koontz can't write kids so he makes them child prodigies, which allows them to talk like twenty year old people and he can always say "hey, they're prodigies! they're supposed to talk like that!". However, here he loses track of what the kid really is - a kid or a prodigy - and interweaves both personalities of a six year old boy to an effect that cannot even ewoke laughter because it's bad, pathetically bad, VERY bad. The example:
"Milo envied our black raincoats and profoundly disliked his bright yellow gear. "“I look like a baby chicken.”"
and:
Milo said, “Sometimes, you forget I’m a kid but I’m also not. It isn'’t my primary field, but I’m interested in aberrant psychology.
Baby chicken ? primary field ? abberant psychology ?
Schizophrenia anyone ?
The revelation is atrocious. Apparently the critic was sent by his own mother who is a big Rosseau fan and wants to destroy all literature and culture to follow his vision. The critic is killed by his brother who has a lizard-face, and the mother shots our hero Cubby. However, wise son Milo foresaw this and constructed a TIME MACHINE (which can also do some TELEPORTATION), reversed the time a bit which allowed for our hero to conveniently dispose of the adversary. It's a Deus Ex Machina of such proportions that I don't even know how to name it.
Oh, and the boy experimented with the dog to see if it could teleport and apparently after the experiments the dog learned to teleport on its own (which means another superdog, awesome) and it's an explanation of it's mysterious appearances in closed drawers and such.
This world changing quote deserves a special page, but Goodreads doesn't allow it so it gets here. It's by the evil mother character.
"I have pioneered the new science of designing culture. I haveshaped American and hence world culture(...)" Yeah, all world blindly follows the American way. I'm afraid that's not the truth Dean. We know you're a proud American but you went waaaaay over the top here.
I almost forgot the closing passages...
"We follow the news as much as we can tolerate it. We see the signs, the gathering clouds, the horror that could come upon the whole world."
I'm afraid he doesn't mean the starving children in distant countries.
In spite of all that we have seen and now know, we have not lost hope, neither has our hope been diminished. We have a dog that teleports. We know what matters in life and what does not. We have a son who will one day provide the means for the sane to reclaim civilization from those who value theories more than truth and utopian dreams more than people.
I can't believe I'm reading this but it's in the book. Let's all go back on the trees, it would be much nicer, and you could even do a little up-skirt peeking !
Shearman Waxx was not relentless. Evil itself may be relentless, I will grant you that, but love is relentless, too. Friendship is a relentless force. Family is a relentless force. Faith is a relentless force. The human spirit is relentless, and the human heart outlasts—and can defeat—even the most relentless force of all, which is time.
- employ enough pathos, emphasize the importance of family and friendship, bind it, stick on a price and Wallmart shelves are yours. Because that's exactly what it is. A poor, uninspired drivel.
The title "Relentless" and the advert on the back cover "Dean Koontz - Can you keep up ?" brought to my mind an image.
An aging writer, who stays in his house all year, and works 18 hours shifts.
An aging writer who desperately tries to compete with younger and better in their field, a field in which he desperately tries to find a place for himself.
An aging writer who was once great, but now tries to appeal to a whole new audience by writing in a new genre.
An aging writer, who relentlessly revises the page and scribbles new annotations, who feels that the fate of the whole world lies on his shoulders, that he has to educate and entertain, and that he has to work, work, work because there's a deadline coming, and then another, and then a new book has to be written. The print got much larger, but the time to write got much shorter...
An aging writer who shut himself from the world wide web which interestingly is a great source of knowledge about real people, who concentrates only on his work and doesn't acknowledge any influences except his own writings which he rehashes more and more.
And as I am writing this, he's writing another book. Or two. Or three. At the same time.
God help us.
August 29, 2015
I kind of liked the idea of this inventive meta-novel, even though I didn't think it completely worked. The premise is that the supposed author, "Dean Koontz" (I am not sure if this is meant to refer to anyone in particular) has received one too many negative reviews from snooty intellectual liberal types, which has pushed him over the edge. Fuming with rage, he sits down and composes a novel where he gets even with the hated critics: Relentless is the result.
The thing I didn't like is that the construction is too unsubtle. The main joke is that "Koontz" is an incompetent writer and an idiot, but he doesn't have to be quite as incompetent and idiotic as he's portrayed here. As it is, the book lives up to its title; it is indeed relentless. "Koontz" invents a ridiculous first-person narrative where the Garry Stu hero, a bestselling author married to a divinely beautiful woman, discovers that he is being pursued by a psychotic book reviewer. At first, he thinks the reviewer only intends to humiliate him in print. It rapidly becomes clear, however, that he intends to kill the author, after first torturing and killing his entire family; as the story progresses, it transpires that he has done this to many authors who have offended him by being insufficiently liberal and postmodern in their views. The author is powerless to stop him using legal means - it turns out that the entire US government is in on the conspiracy - but in the end manages to escape with the help of some handily produced dei ex machina including a teleporting dog and a time machine.
As already noted, the idea is nice, but it wasn't necessary to go this far, either in the plot or in the other aspects. It's enough that "Koontz"'s writing style is laughably horrible; there was no need to add fake copy-editing mistakes (the running gag with the incorrectly placed hyphens gets tired very quickly). And "Koontz" never becomes more than a parody of a church-going, gun-loving, government-hating member of the religious right: I have met plenty of right-wing Americans, and none of them have been remotely as extreme as this. In particular, the whole sequence with the survivalist in-laws felt more or less superfluous. I suppose the justification is to set up the quasi-religious epiphany when the hero discovers that he loves guns too, which is in fact pretty funny, but I can't help thinking it could have been done more economically.
Comparing with similar meta-novels - Pale Fire, Min kamp, The Iron Dream - what struck me is that we never find out anything directly about "Koontz". We're meant to infer it all from his book; there is no Vivian Darkbloom to give us a helpful introduction or afterword, and the story isn't presented as an autobiography. Even if you have to applaud the author's courage in doing things this way, you wonder, once again, if they haven't overstretched themselves. But it's undeniably brave.
Oh well... although it's easy to point to things that perhaps could have been done better, it would be very wrong if I gave the impression that Relentless was not entertaining. I could hardly put it down and finished it in a day. But I do wonder who the author is - I have looked around on the web without even finding a plausible theory. Does anyone have information here? I can't help feeling curious.
The thing I didn't like is that the construction is too unsubtle. The main joke is that "Koontz" is an incompetent writer and an idiot, but he doesn't have to be quite as incompetent and idiotic as he's portrayed here. As it is, the book lives up to its title; it is indeed relentless. "Koontz" invents a ridiculous first-person narrative where the Garry Stu hero, a bestselling author married to a divinely beautiful woman, discovers that he is being pursued by a psychotic book reviewer. At first, he thinks the reviewer only intends to humiliate him in print. It rapidly becomes clear, however, that he intends to kill the author, after first torturing and killing his entire family; as the story progresses, it transpires that he has done this to many authors who have offended him by being insufficiently liberal and postmodern in their views. The author is powerless to stop him using legal means - it turns out that the entire US government is in on the conspiracy - but in the end manages to escape with the help of some handily produced dei ex machina including a teleporting dog and a time machine.
As already noted, the idea is nice, but it wasn't necessary to go this far, either in the plot or in the other aspects. It's enough that "Koontz"'s writing style is laughably horrible; there was no need to add fake copy-editing mistakes (the running gag with the incorrectly placed hyphens gets tired very quickly). And "Koontz" never becomes more than a parody of a church-going, gun-loving, government-hating member of the religious right: I have met plenty of right-wing Americans, and none of them have been remotely as extreme as this. In particular, the whole sequence with the survivalist in-laws felt more or less superfluous. I suppose the justification is to set up the quasi-religious epiphany when the hero discovers that he loves guns too, which is in fact pretty funny, but I can't help thinking it could have been done more economically.
Comparing with similar meta-novels - Pale Fire, Min kamp, The Iron Dream - what struck me is that we never find out anything directly about "Koontz". We're meant to infer it all from his book; there is no Vivian Darkbloom to give us a helpful introduction or afterword, and the story isn't presented as an autobiography. Even if you have to applaud the author's courage in doing things this way, you wonder, once again, if they haven't overstretched themselves. But it's undeniably brave.
Oh well... although it's easy to point to things that perhaps could have been done better, it would be very wrong if I gave the impression that Relentless was not entertaining. I could hardly put it down and finished it in a day. But I do wonder who the author is - I have looked around on the web without even finding a plausible theory. Does anyone have information here? I can't help feeling curious.
March 12, 2020
The issue is clear. It is between light and darkness, and everyone must choose his side.
-G.K. CHESTERTON
Goodreads tells me I've read Relentless seven times - good thing - I've lost count. Since first being published in 2009, Relentless has retained a place in my top 5 Dean Koontz books. In fact, Relentless was the reason I joined Goodreads back in 2009. The story was so amazing I had to find like-minded Koontz fans so I could discuss this novel.
After reading the book five times, I started questioning whether such a seemingly silly novel is really deserving of such high personal regard when compared to Dean's expansive work. However, the way everything comes together in this novel, the fantastic ending, keeps Relentless in a place of honor in my personal favorites. The little "Einstein" character of Milo is beyond adorable :-)
Relentless is filled with humor, suspense and intensity making it a fast paced thriller and a speedy read. For me, reading Relentless was By the Light of the Moon meets Life Expectancy - these are two of my most favorite by Dean Koontz and so naturally, I really like this book! I must say, my expectations were pretty low after reading Your Heart Belongs to Me (2008), but with this one Koontz has redeemed himself.
In a way, Relentless is similar to Velocity but I prefer Relentless. When I was reading Velocity, I was annoyed because it really wasn't clear whether it was all in the main character's head and I was also annoyed that he did not go to the police. In Relentless, it was explained why the family could not go to the police and with the three characters sharing their experience, it was clear the acts of Shearmann Waxx were not just imagined. I did find myself yelling at the characters in Relentless a few times, saying things like "tell your son, let him help you", "don't open that door, sheriff!" or "Just shoot him while you've got the chance!".
As the story opened it seemed to me that Dean had used himself and his wife Gerda in the main roles of Cubby and Penny. In the novel, Dean writes through the voice of Cubby:
I began to suspect that I had missed something, that the implicit meaning of the moment was different form what I imagined it to be.
This happens often when writing fiction. Outlines are a waste of time. If you give your characters free will, they will grow in ways you never anticipated, and they will take the story places you could not have predicted, raising themes you might or might not have intended to explore. Characters shape events; events illuminate the characters. The people in a story begin as seeds, become buds, and blossom in ways that surprise the author, precisely as real people frequently surprise him with their intentions and capacities.
I loved all the characters that were created for this story - the Booms were dynamite and Mr. Waxx, well he was simply an enema.
I don't read fast but on my initial reading, it only took me 4 days to get through the 356 pages of Relentless. While I would definitely rank Relentless as one of Koontz best.
Looking back, Relentless, serves as a fitting introduction/ unofficial prequel to Dean's popular Jane Hawk Series.
The whole riding in the trunk incident brought back a lot of memories of my childhood and family reunions :-)
Favorite passages and quotes from Relentless:
"I'm small, I'm young - and I'm so different. You've always respected that difference, and you've always trusted it. Trust me now. There's a reason I am the way I am, and there's a reason I was born to you. There's always a reason. We belong together." - Milo
"If the three of us don't know what we're looking for and we look for it together, we'll find it or we won't find it quicker than you would or wouldn't find it on your own." - Penny
"I'm going in, and I'm going to pretend you came with me, while you can sit here and pretend I stayed with you, so then we'll have gone in an not gone in together." - Milo
"In spite of where we were, how we had gotten here, and why we had come, I felt that at this moment of our lives, this was exactly where we belonged. We were not drifting but rising, rising toward something right and of significance." - Cubby
________
"Lies hurt people," Penny explained. "Imagination makes life more fun."
"Like right now," I said, "I'm imagining Shearman Waxx being attacked and killed by a flying furnal with rabies."
________
In the library, through a window that faced the street, I saw him crossing the front lawn toward a black Cadillac Escalade parked at the curb.
Library to foyer to front door, I said, "No, no, no. No you don't, you syntax-challenged sonofabitch."
________
The stumpy, bow-tied, elbow-patched, Hush-Puppied, horn-rimmed-glasses-wearing, white-wine sipping, pretentious, think-necked, wide-assed intellectual fraud
________
Vampires, werewolves, zombies, ravenous extraterrestrials, murderous poltergeists, abominations of nature, hideous creatures born of experiments gone wrong: None are real, all are projections, metaphors, an externalization of what lies within us . . . .
The only monsters in this world are those who pass for human, who cast shadows and are reflected in mirrors, who smile and speak of compassion and shed convincing tears.
________
There are times when even extreme eccentricity is not abnormal but merely irregular, and there are even times when it is wisdom.
________
The house is as silent as a soundless dream. Never before in the waking world have I encountered such stillness.
________
"Then don't go in, and we'll all not go in together."
A back door opened, and we turned to look at Milo.
He said, "I'm going in, and I'm going to pretend you came with me, while you can sit here and pretend I stayed with you, so then we'll have gone in and not gone in together."
________
"You'll be riding in the trunk," I said. "Won't that be fun?"
________
I wished that somebody else would have been available to drive, so I could be in the trunk with my family.
________
The road rose and fell through geography that might have struck me as grand and harmonious at another time but that seemed portentous now, and as full of pending violence as missiles in their launchers. Every unusual shadow was an augury to be interpreted, the west-ward facing fog an omen of fast-approaching chaos, the suffocated morning light a presentiment of mortality. Cedars and hemlocks and pines stood on both sides of the pavement, like ranked armies waiting only for a trumpet blast to signal the start of an epic engagement.
________
"That was interesting, riding in the trunk," Milo said, "but I wouldn't want to do it again."
________
"Fire, ice, asteroids and pole shifts are bogeymen with which we distract ourselves from the real threat of our time. In an age when everyone invents his own truth, there is no community, only factions. Without community, there can be no consensus to resist the greedy, the envious, the power-mad narcissists who seize control and turn the institutions of civilization into a series of doom machines."
________
As flamboyant melodrama goes, it didn't get any better than this. But remember, truth is always paradoxical, and always much stranger than fiction.
________
We see the signs, the gathering clouds, the horror that could come upon the whole world.
In spite of all that we have seen and now know, we have not lost hope, neither has our hope been diminished. We know what matters in life and what does not. We have a son who will one day provide the means for the sane to someday reclaim civilization from those who value theories more than truth and utopian dreams more than people.
Shearman Waxx was not relentless. Evil itself may be relentless, I will grand you that, but love is relentless, too. Friendship is a relentless force. Family is a relentless force. Faith is a relentless force. The human spirit is relentless, and the human heart outlasts - and can defeat - even the most relentless force of all, which is time.
-G.K. CHESTERTON
Goodreads tells me I've read Relentless seven times - good thing - I've lost count. Since first being published in 2009, Relentless has retained a place in my top 5 Dean Koontz books. In fact, Relentless was the reason I joined Goodreads back in 2009. The story was so amazing I had to find like-minded Koontz fans so I could discuss this novel.
After reading the book five times, I started questioning whether such a seemingly silly novel is really deserving of such high personal regard when compared to Dean's expansive work. However, the way everything comes together in this novel, the fantastic ending, keeps Relentless in a place of honor in my personal favorites. The little "Einstein" character of Milo is beyond adorable :-)
Relentless is filled with humor, suspense and intensity making it a fast paced thriller and a speedy read. For me, reading Relentless was By the Light of the Moon meets Life Expectancy - these are two of my most favorite by Dean Koontz and so naturally, I really like this book! I must say, my expectations were pretty low after reading Your Heart Belongs to Me (2008), but with this one Koontz has redeemed himself.
In a way, Relentless is similar to Velocity but I prefer Relentless. When I was reading Velocity, I was annoyed because it really wasn't clear whether it was all in the main character's head and I was also annoyed that he did not go to the police. In Relentless, it was explained why the family could not go to the police and with the three characters sharing their experience, it was clear the acts of Shearmann Waxx were not just imagined. I did find myself yelling at the characters in Relentless a few times, saying things like "tell your son, let him help you", "don't open that door, sheriff!" or "Just shoot him while you've got the chance!".
As the story opened it seemed to me that Dean had used himself and his wife Gerda in the main roles of Cubby and Penny. In the novel, Dean writes through the voice of Cubby:
I began to suspect that I had missed something, that the implicit meaning of the moment was different form what I imagined it to be.
This happens often when writing fiction. Outlines are a waste of time. If you give your characters free will, they will grow in ways you never anticipated, and they will take the story places you could not have predicted, raising themes you might or might not have intended to explore. Characters shape events; events illuminate the characters. The people in a story begin as seeds, become buds, and blossom in ways that surprise the author, precisely as real people frequently surprise him with their intentions and capacities.
I loved all the characters that were created for this story - the Booms were dynamite and Mr. Waxx, well he was simply an enema.
I don't read fast but on my initial reading, it only took me 4 days to get through the 356 pages of Relentless. While I would definitely rank Relentless as one of Koontz best.
Looking back, Relentless, serves as a fitting introduction/ unofficial prequel to Dean's popular Jane Hawk Series.
The whole riding in the trunk incident brought back a lot of memories of my childhood and family reunions :-)
Favorite passages and quotes from Relentless:
"I'm small, I'm young - and I'm so different. You've always respected that difference, and you've always trusted it. Trust me now. There's a reason I am the way I am, and there's a reason I was born to you. There's always a reason. We belong together." - Milo
"If the three of us don't know what we're looking for and we look for it together, we'll find it or we won't find it quicker than you would or wouldn't find it on your own." - Penny
"I'm going in, and I'm going to pretend you came with me, while you can sit here and pretend I stayed with you, so then we'll have gone in an not gone in together." - Milo
"In spite of where we were, how we had gotten here, and why we had come, I felt that at this moment of our lives, this was exactly where we belonged. We were not drifting but rising, rising toward something right and of significance." - Cubby
________
"Lies hurt people," Penny explained. "Imagination makes life more fun."
"Like right now," I said, "I'm imagining Shearman Waxx being attacked and killed by a flying furnal with rabies."
________
In the library, through a window that faced the street, I saw him crossing the front lawn toward a black Cadillac Escalade parked at the curb.
Library to foyer to front door, I said, "No, no, no. No you don't, you syntax-challenged sonofabitch."
________
The stumpy, bow-tied, elbow-patched, Hush-Puppied, horn-rimmed-glasses-wearing, white-wine sipping, pretentious, think-necked, wide-assed intellectual fraud
________
Vampires, werewolves, zombies, ravenous extraterrestrials, murderous poltergeists, abominations of nature, hideous creatures born of experiments gone wrong: None are real, all are projections, metaphors, an externalization of what lies within us . . . .
The only monsters in this world are those who pass for human, who cast shadows and are reflected in mirrors, who smile and speak of compassion and shed convincing tears.
________
There are times when even extreme eccentricity is not abnormal but merely irregular, and there are even times when it is wisdom.
________
The house is as silent as a soundless dream. Never before in the waking world have I encountered such stillness.
________
"Then don't go in, and we'll all not go in together."
A back door opened, and we turned to look at Milo.
He said, "I'm going in, and I'm going to pretend you came with me, while you can sit here and pretend I stayed with you, so then we'll have gone in and not gone in together."
________
"You'll be riding in the trunk," I said. "Won't that be fun?"
________
I wished that somebody else would have been available to drive, so I could be in the trunk with my family.
________
The road rose and fell through geography that might have struck me as grand and harmonious at another time but that seemed portentous now, and as full of pending violence as missiles in their launchers. Every unusual shadow was an augury to be interpreted, the west-ward facing fog an omen of fast-approaching chaos, the suffocated morning light a presentiment of mortality. Cedars and hemlocks and pines stood on both sides of the pavement, like ranked armies waiting only for a trumpet blast to signal the start of an epic engagement.
________
"That was interesting, riding in the trunk," Milo said, "but I wouldn't want to do it again."
________
"Fire, ice, asteroids and pole shifts are bogeymen with which we distract ourselves from the real threat of our time. In an age when everyone invents his own truth, there is no community, only factions. Without community, there can be no consensus to resist the greedy, the envious, the power-mad narcissists who seize control and turn the institutions of civilization into a series of doom machines."
________
As flamboyant melodrama goes, it didn't get any better than this. But remember, truth is always paradoxical, and always much stranger than fiction.
________
We see the signs, the gathering clouds, the horror that could come upon the whole world.
In spite of all that we have seen and now know, we have not lost hope, neither has our hope been diminished. We know what matters in life and what does not. We have a son who will one day provide the means for the sane to someday reclaim civilization from those who value theories more than truth and utopian dreams more than people.
Shearman Waxx was not relentless. Evil itself may be relentless, I will grand you that, but love is relentless, too. Friendship is a relentless force. Family is a relentless force. Faith is a relentless force. The human spirit is relentless, and the human heart outlasts - and can defeat - even the most relentless force of all, which is time.
February 25, 2020
February 2020 - Koontzland group read
Initial read - November 2014
http://www.hawes.com/2009/2009-06-28.pdf
NYT #1 - 6/28/2009
This book second read was nice, filling the “holes” and allowing “better” flow of the first read.
“Cubby" Greenwich, Child Author (first person), Penny Greenwich (wife), Milo(6 - “Spooky” - creates scientific designs), Lassie (family dog) stalked. All feared by Shearman Waxx (villain).
In this read, as the Greenwich’s flee Waxx, I find Sherman Waxx is more frightening & more brutal to them then my first read.
“Spooky” has more scientific power....
Initial read - November 2014
A NYT #1, June 28, 2009. The story shows Sherman Waxx, a relentless/sociopath who is a critic/monster attacking author families to increase their publicity.
The family story follows the escape & fear of best “selling” child book author Cullen "Cubby" Greenwich, his wife Penny (gun sportsman), Milo “Spooky” (6-genius son) & their Lassie (dog) are hunted by forbidden & grave image - of a “revered” national book critic, Shearman Waxx.
Vivian Norby, is Milo’s baby-sitter,
You need to watch a new character at the end Zazu Waxx (mom)....
Was Zazu Waxx (mom) even worst than Shearman (son)? Quickly, her son’s personal teacher is torturing, teaching murder & unexpected at the end of the story?
http://www.hawes.com/2009/2009-06-28.pdf
NYT #1 - 6/28/2009
August 18, 2011
This has been my first encounter with a Dean Koontz novel. Coincidently it has also been the first time i have been compelled to actually voice my disgust in such a bad book. This book literally made me want to rip the pages out it was so bad. Koontz has a very limited vocabulary using the same words repeatedly (syntax), someone give this man a thesaurus. Sadly having a wild imagination does not counteract the problem of bad story telling. The storyline was hideously unbelievable and idiotic, i didn't know if i was reading a thriller or a fantasy children's book. The dialogue between the characters too is absolutely lacklustre conveying no sense of any emotion even in the face of what appears to be certain death. I had no feeling or compassion to any character in the book and find koontz's descriptions flimsy at best. I have no idea how this man sells so many books, he either buys them himself or there are a lot of stupid people in the world. This is the sort of book people buy in airports, get on the plane and then want to jump out the plane because its so bad.
Rant over. Needless to say i will never be reading a Koontz book again.
Rant over. Needless to say i will never be reading a Koontz book again.
January 12, 2024
In acest roman Dean Koontz abordeaza un subiect foarte interesant si inedit: relatia dintre scriitor si critic literar. Autorul ridica mai multe intrebari, printre care cum ar trebui sa se comporte un scriitor care primeste o recenzie negativa de la un celebru critic, daca trebuie sa-i dea replica sau sa-l ignore si daca respectiva recenzie are o putere constructiva sau distructiva asupra sa. Foarte important, ne face sa ne gandim care ar trebui sa fie conduita scriitorului, daca descopera ca criticul nici macar n-a citit cartea si recenzia este plina de greseli de sintaxa. Sa-l infrunte incercand sa-si gaseasca dreptatea sau sa lase lucrurile asa si sa-si vada de scris?
Cu foarte mult umor negru, talent si imaginatie din belsug, Koontz ii confera criticului literar Sherman Waxx o alura de psihopat facandu-l foarte eficient dar si neindurator. Iata asadar ca criticii literari nu au ca arma doar cuvintele ci pot deveni la propriu letali.
In ceea ce priveste actiunea, scriitorul Cullen Greenwich este pe culmile succesului publicandu-si cel de-al cincilea roman, care se dovedeste a fi un bestseller. Pe langa recenziile favorabile primeste si una negativa din partea lui Sherman Waxx, un critic literar in voga. Acesta afirma despre stilul lui Cullen ca are proza greoaie si ca figurile de stil sunt sufocante.
Scriitorul este sfatuit din toate partile sa-l ignore, mai ales ca acesta pare ca nici n-a citit cartea sa, insa un mic accident dintre fiul sau de 6 ani si Waxx va declansa un adevarat razboi intre cei doi.
Waxx se dovedeste a fi mai mult decat un influent critic literar si dupa ce-l 'condamna' la moarte pe Cullen, ii patrunde in locuinta electrocutandu-l noaptea pentru ca mai apoi sa-i arunce casa in aer. Cullen si familia lui devin fugari si isi dau curand seama ca teroarea abia incepe si ca Waxx are in arsenalul sau o gramada de lucruri interesante si dureroase.
Mi-a placut foarte mult de agentul literar al lui Cullen, care este foarte amuzant si destul de atipic. El reuseste mereu sa obtina cele mai bune contracte financiare pentru Cullen insa nu citeste niciodata cartile si habar nu are despre literatura in general. Am ras copios la faza in care incearca sa-l convinga pe autor sa scrie o continuare la "Marele Gatsby". Cand acesta ii spune ca nu exista loc de continuare, revoltat, agentul ii propune sa il faca vampir, caci oricum este la moda sa-l tot aduci inapoi pe Dracula. Acest lucru se repeta si mai tarziu si la "Ben Hur" in care gladiatorul trebuie sa se intoarca precum un luptator de wrestling profesionist. Cireasa de pe tort o reprezinta continuarea la "Chemarea strabunilor" de Jack London, care sa fie cu un OZN si extraterestrii sa preia controlul asupra lupilor. Este lesne de inteles ca toate propunerile au fost refuzate desi poate ca ar fi avut succes in vremurile noastre, mai ales la Hollywood.
Alt lucru care m-a amuzat este ca scriitorul insista sa indeparteze din camera sotiei sale imensul poster cu Bon Jovi dezbracat pana la talie, pentru a nu-i reaminiti acesteia ca a trebuit sa se multumeasca cu mult mai putin decat a vrut in adolescenta.
Ce nu am apreciat a fost lipsa de credibilitate a unor personaje precum copilul de 6 ani super inteligent, cainele care ajunge sa se teleporteze la un moment dat si sotia care este mult prea stapana pe situatie.
In concluzie, avem de-a face cu un roman destul de reusit, cu parti amuzante, avand un personaj negativ bine conturat si cu elemente de suspans care alcatuiesc un thriller dinamic ce tine in priza cititorul.
Cu foarte mult umor negru, talent si imaginatie din belsug, Koontz ii confera criticului literar Sherman Waxx o alura de psihopat facandu-l foarte eficient dar si neindurator. Iata asadar ca criticii literari nu au ca arma doar cuvintele ci pot deveni la propriu letali.
In ceea ce priveste actiunea, scriitorul Cullen Greenwich este pe culmile succesului publicandu-si cel de-al cincilea roman, care se dovedeste a fi un bestseller. Pe langa recenziile favorabile primeste si una negativa din partea lui Sherman Waxx, un critic literar in voga. Acesta afirma despre stilul lui Cullen ca are proza greoaie si ca figurile de stil sunt sufocante.
Scriitorul este sfatuit din toate partile sa-l ignore, mai ales ca acesta pare ca nici n-a citit cartea sa, insa un mic accident dintre fiul sau de 6 ani si Waxx va declansa un adevarat razboi intre cei doi.
Waxx se dovedeste a fi mai mult decat un influent critic literar si dupa ce-l 'condamna' la moarte pe Cullen, ii patrunde in locuinta electrocutandu-l noaptea pentru ca mai apoi sa-i arunce casa in aer. Cullen si familia lui devin fugari si isi dau curand seama ca teroarea abia incepe si ca Waxx are in arsenalul sau o gramada de lucruri interesante si dureroase.
Mi-a placut foarte mult de agentul literar al lui Cullen, care este foarte amuzant si destul de atipic. El reuseste mereu sa obtina cele mai bune contracte financiare pentru Cullen insa nu citeste niciodata cartile si habar nu are despre literatura in general. Am ras copios la faza in care incearca sa-l convinga pe autor sa scrie o continuare la "Marele Gatsby". Cand acesta ii spune ca nu exista loc de continuare, revoltat, agentul ii propune sa il faca vampir, caci oricum este la moda sa-l tot aduci inapoi pe Dracula. Acest lucru se repeta si mai tarziu si la "Ben Hur" in care gladiatorul trebuie sa se intoarca precum un luptator de wrestling profesionist. Cireasa de pe tort o reprezinta continuarea la "Chemarea strabunilor" de Jack London, care sa fie cu un OZN si extraterestrii sa preia controlul asupra lupilor. Este lesne de inteles ca toate propunerile au fost refuzate desi poate ca ar fi avut succes in vremurile noastre, mai ales la Hollywood.
Alt lucru care m-a amuzat este ca scriitorul insista sa indeparteze din camera sotiei sale imensul poster cu Bon Jovi dezbracat pana la talie, pentru a nu-i reaminiti acesteia ca a trebuit sa se multumeasca cu mult mai putin decat a vrut in adolescenta.
Ce nu am apreciat a fost lipsa de credibilitate a unor personaje precum copilul de 6 ani super inteligent, cainele care ajunge sa se teleporteze la un moment dat si sotia care este mult prea stapana pe situatie.
In concluzie, avem de-a face cu un roman destul de reusit, cu parti amuzante, avand un personaj negativ bine conturat si cu elemente de suspans care alcatuiesc un thriller dinamic ce tine in priza cititorul.
February 14, 2018
Preposterous plot - perhaps culminating in Lassie gaining the ability to teleport after some of Milo's experiments.
In the hands of a comical science fiction writer (Pratchett, Fforde) this may have been a ridiculous but entertaining lightweight book for adolescents-at-heart. However as it was written by a horror thriller writer with a series of horrific ritualistic killings and with the clear link that the author is modelling Cubby on himself as a way to get back at his own critics, the book veers into being appalling.
In the hands of a comical science fiction writer (Pratchett, Fforde) this may have been a ridiculous but entertaining lightweight book for adolescents-at-heart. However as it was written by a horror thriller writer with a series of horrific ritualistic killings and with the clear link that the author is modelling Cubby on himself as a way to get back at his own critics, the book veers into being appalling.
June 29, 2009
When it comes to reading novels by Dean Koontz, I always have the same issue. I'll pick one up and within 20 pages I find myself with a remarkable sense of deja vu. Koontz's novels are all so remarkably similar in style and writing voice that it's hard to really remember details about them, even moments after you've put them down. I refer to Koontz as the bubble-gum writer--his books are memorable while you chew them but the flavor fades quickly and you'll forget them within a few minutes of spitting them out.
So, when I saw the premise for "Relentless," and read the first few pages, I was happy to see that while there were several standard Koontz cliches at work in the book (a smarter than average dog, the everyman narrator, the guy who out-kicked his coverage in marriage), I became more and more annoyed that he'd wasted all that creative effort on this novel.
To say that "Relentless" requires a big time suspension of disbelief is an understatement. Our narrator is Cullen "Cubby" Greenwich is a best-selling author and regular guy. He's got the requisite great wife, a precious son and they've got a hyper-intelligent dog. Greenwich's latest novel is reviewed by reclusive and acerbic book critic Shearman Waxx. The review is less than favorable and Cubby begins to obsess about it. To the point that he discovers the critic eats at a local restaurant and he heads there to get a look at the guy. An incident in the restroom where his son accidentally pees near the critic leads to Waxx telling the family the word "Doom," and then leaving.
The set-up along requires such a huge suspension of disbelief alone due to a series of coincidences. Waxx's column appears in a national paper, published in another city but he happens to live near our hero. Not only that, but he goes to a restaurant our hero knows and can visit and the waiter has tipped our hero off on when to see him.
Then things take a turn for the stranger. Cubby begins to see Waxx around his house. Apparently Waxx has some kind of superpowers because he can sneak in a house with an alarm system and not wake said dog that is repeatedly talked about as this great protector. He tazers our hero and his wife and then blows up their house. At this point, I was rolling my eyes and wondering how much more insane the book could get. It also made me wonder if Koontz has had one too many negative reviews and if "Relentless" is meant as some kind of purge of the negative feelings he has toward those critics. Maybe so, but next time he should leave the book with his therapist and not inflict it upon the rest of the reading world.
From there, the novel continues to have one baffling turn after the next as Koontz piles onto this already outrageously unbelievable story. You may keep reading, hoping that it will all somehow make sense in the end, but you're going to be disappointed.
"Relentless" is a terrible book that will sell well based on name recognition. I suppose every writer is entitled to publish one bad novel. But this one really sets a new standard for bad books.
So, when I saw the premise for "Relentless," and read the first few pages, I was happy to see that while there were several standard Koontz cliches at work in the book (a smarter than average dog, the everyman narrator, the guy who out-kicked his coverage in marriage), I became more and more annoyed that he'd wasted all that creative effort on this novel.
To say that "Relentless" requires a big time suspension of disbelief is an understatement. Our narrator is Cullen "Cubby" Greenwich is a best-selling author and regular guy. He's got the requisite great wife, a precious son and they've got a hyper-intelligent dog. Greenwich's latest novel is reviewed by reclusive and acerbic book critic Shearman Waxx. The review is less than favorable and Cubby begins to obsess about it. To the point that he discovers the critic eats at a local restaurant and he heads there to get a look at the guy. An incident in the restroom where his son accidentally pees near the critic leads to Waxx telling the family the word "Doom," and then leaving.
The set-up along requires such a huge suspension of disbelief alone due to a series of coincidences. Waxx's column appears in a national paper, published in another city but he happens to live near our hero. Not only that, but he goes to a restaurant our hero knows and can visit and the waiter has tipped our hero off on when to see him.
Then things take a turn for the stranger. Cubby begins to see Waxx around his house. Apparently Waxx has some kind of superpowers because he can sneak in a house with an alarm system and not wake said dog that is repeatedly talked about as this great protector. He tazers our hero and his wife and then blows up their house. At this point, I was rolling my eyes and wondering how much more insane the book could get. It also made me wonder if Koontz has had one too many negative reviews and if "Relentless" is meant as some kind of purge of the negative feelings he has toward those critics. Maybe so, but next time he should leave the book with his therapist and not inflict it upon the rest of the reading world.
From there, the novel continues to have one baffling turn after the next as Koontz piles onto this already outrageously unbelievable story. You may keep reading, hoping that it will all somehow make sense in the end, but you're going to be disappointed.
"Relentless" is a terrible book that will sell well based on name recognition. I suppose every writer is entitled to publish one bad novel. But this one really sets a new standard for bad books.
August 1, 2010
Look I was without my enormous Christie omnibus database for a day, so I had nothing to read, and I'm housesitting, and this was literally the only book in the house that wasn't by Susan Powter/about raising golden retrievers/the bible/the encyclopedia of Popular Mechanics. I've never read Dean Koontz before but he's so popular and there's nothing on television ever so I thought, ok, I'll read it.
My GOD what a waste. It's just terrible. It can't even follow its own logic. It's a not-at-all-veiled attack on critics of Koontz' oeuvre, and it's embarrassing (he names a number of prominent newspapers but not the NYT--is his evildoer supposed to be Michiko Kakutani, but a dude because ladies aren't capable of action-style evil?). I had considered delving into the extreme awfulness of it, but many Goodreads reviewers aready have, so there's no need to waste my time. At least now I know my lifelong assumption that Dean Koontz novels are terrible was correct, and that's quite gratifying. And oh how I longed for good old racist classist predictable Agatha. She may be repetitious and dull, but her universes are logical. And I've never stared at a photograph of her and imagined slapping her face, repeatedly, unlike old Koontzy. What a smug useless bastard.
My GOD what a waste. It's just terrible. It can't even follow its own logic. It's a not-at-all-veiled attack on critics of Koontz' oeuvre, and it's embarrassing (he names a number of prominent newspapers but not the NYT--is his evildoer supposed to be Michiko Kakutani, but a dude because ladies aren't capable of action-style evil?). I had considered delving into the extreme awfulness of it, but many Goodreads reviewers aready have, so there's no need to waste my time. At least now I know my lifelong assumption that Dean Koontz novels are terrible was correct, and that's quite gratifying. And oh how I longed for good old racist classist predictable Agatha. She may be repetitious and dull, but her universes are logical. And I've never stared at a photograph of her and imagined slapping her face, repeatedly, unlike old Koontzy. What a smug useless bastard.
August 1, 2013
Absolute garbage. One of the worst books I've ever read.
Main character is a smug, self satisfied writer, who lives with his smug self satisfied writer wife and their highly intelligent, smug self satisfied prodigy child. A famous reviewer gives his latest novel a scathing review which knocks a little self satisfaction out of him and he confronts the reviewer, who begins to stalk his family using increasingly high tech methods.
He finds out that this has happened to every other author and artist whose work this reviewer has hated, and worse, finds that they are all dead, along with their families. He gets a little concerned over this and digs deeper, only to discover a massive conspiracy by an obscure branch of the government to silence artists whose work they see as deviant or likely to upset the status quo.
It ends in a thrilling climax where they go back to being smug and self satisfied.
The end.
What a pile of complete and utter crap.
The book, for 90% of it, is grounded in the real world. There are no mentions of anything in terms of scientific advancement that differentiates it from ours. So when their 8 year old brat manages to about 3/4 of the way through and then abruptly produces a I felt absolutely cheated. It was like someone had told me a bad lie. Worse, I had actually paid money to be told this big fat barefaced lie.
Now, by definition, all fiction is a lie. It’s a lie that we, the reader, accept. We suspend our disbelief and go along with the story. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed books with much more outlandish plot devices than were present in this book, and have enjoyed books with more irritating central characters. What broke this particular one was that, by introducing nonsensical science fiction elements into the story for no other reason than to support the lame ending, my sense of disbelief was shattered. The lie that we all accept but try not to think about was laid bare and it killed the book for me.
Main character is a smug, self satisfied writer, who lives with his smug self satisfied writer wife and their highly intelligent, smug self satisfied prodigy child. A famous reviewer gives his latest novel a scathing review which knocks a little self satisfaction out of him and he confronts the reviewer, who begins to stalk his family using increasingly high tech methods.
He finds out that this has happened to every other author and artist whose work this reviewer has hated, and worse, finds that they are all dead, along with their families. He gets a little concerned over this and digs deeper, only to discover a massive conspiracy by an obscure branch of the government to silence artists whose work they see as deviant or likely to upset the status quo.
It ends in a thrilling climax where they go back to being smug and self satisfied.
The end.
What a pile of complete and utter crap.
The book, for 90% of it, is grounded in the real world. There are no mentions of anything in terms of scientific advancement that differentiates it from ours. So when their 8 year old brat manages to about 3/4 of the way through and then abruptly produces a I felt absolutely cheated. It was like someone had told me a bad lie. Worse, I had actually paid money to be told this big fat barefaced lie.
Now, by definition, all fiction is a lie. It’s a lie that we, the reader, accept. We suspend our disbelief and go along with the story. I have read and thoroughly enjoyed books with much more outlandish plot devices than were present in this book, and have enjoyed books with more irritating central characters. What broke this particular one was that, by introducing nonsensical science fiction elements into the story for no other reason than to support the lame ending, my sense of disbelief was shattered. The lie that we all accept but try not to think about was laid bare and it killed the book for me.
March 20, 2024
I’ve always managed to read good books by Dean Koontz and now I seem to be picking up all the bad ones.
Initially I thought this book was going to be a winner as in the first 200 pages I so I was invested into the plot line, a killer out for blood, a family on the run and a child with immense abilities.
However this book just didn’t go anywhere and ended up being a complete flop in the end. A little like one of those endings where the main character wakes and everything was a dream (pointless)!
I would’ve given this less stars but I did enjoy how fast-paced this book was and it is ridiculously easy to read with all its dialogue and snappy chapters.
I am finding a lot of Dean Koontz’s writing feeling unfinished or not developed enough and it is starting to bug me - I will be reading more by him however as I picked quite a few of his books up over the years.
If you want a good Dean Koontz’s book look to Life Expectancy - do not pick up this or Breathless!
Initially I thought this book was going to be a winner as in the first 200 pages I so I was invested into the plot line, a killer out for blood, a family on the run and a child with immense abilities.
However this book just didn’t go anywhere and ended up being a complete flop in the end. A little like one of those endings where the main character wakes and everything was a dream (pointless)!
I would’ve given this less stars but I did enjoy how fast-paced this book was and it is ridiculously easy to read with all its dialogue and snappy chapters.
I am finding a lot of Dean Koontz’s writing feeling unfinished or not developed enough and it is starting to bug me - I will be reading more by him however as I picked quite a few of his books up over the years.
If you want a good Dean Koontz’s book look to Life Expectancy - do not pick up this or Breathless!
August 29, 2015
A list of writers name-checked by Dean Koontz’s ‘Relentless’:
Dostoyevsky; Ballard; Chesterton; Flaubert; Dr Seuss; Flannery O’Connor; Dickens; Capote; Hemmingway; Fitzgerald; Robert Heinlein; Zane Grey; Chandler; Edgar Rice Burroughs; Virginia Woolf; Somerset Maugham; Spillane; Longfellow; Aristophanes; Aristotle; Plato; Euripides; Plutarch; Herodotus; Hippocrates; Euclid; Archimedes; Dante; Chaucer; Thomas Aquinas; Shakespeare; Boswell; Johnson; Conrad; Bellow; Churchill; Orwell; Pasternak; Evelyn Waugh; Bertrand Russell; Rousseau; Shelley; Marx; Freud; Nietzsche; Tolstoy; Sartre; Jack London.
The plot of this bizarre thriller sees an author receive a scathing review from an influential critic, and then almost immediately afterwards the same critic attempts to kill him and his family. This is an odd and preposterous read (which at times doesn’t just rely on coincidence, but actual science fiction), where the main interest is held by trying to work out just what point Dean Koontz is striving to make.
Is he saying that a scathing review can be likened to a murderous assault? Does he believe that people who give bad reviews have rage and hatred in their hearts? As an author who rarely even gets the kind of grudging respect given to Stephen King, does he feel hard done by? Look at that list of authors again. In the main they’re critically respected in their fields and have eased their way – to some degree – into the Canon (okay, not Rice Burroughs). Is Dean Koontz pressing his nose forlornly against the glass and wishing he was there too?
Towards the end of the book, a number of those writers – Shelley, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Russell, Sartre – are described thus: “Geniuses, yes, and some of them fine artists. But madmen. And their contributions to the world were irrationality, chaos, excuses for mass murder, despair.” (It’s a while since I’ve read Shelley’s poetry, but really? It offers excuses for mass murder and despair?) I think the reader is supposed to see that because the narrator is a decent man and good to his family, he is better than them and his work more positive even if it isn’t as long lasting (although its innate quality may be recognised after his death). But it’s difficult to really appreciate this point as we never really get a sense of what kind of books this author writes (except they’re not thrillers). Nor do we even get to read the review which starts this book in motion.
In fact, if the point of this novel is hitting back at any critic who has ever dared criticise the Koontz, then it really isn’t the best weapon. Prosaically written and poorly plotted, it assumes foreshadowing means just announcing something is going to happen a few chapters down the road, and has an ending which relies on pulling something incredible out of a hat to round things off neatly. There are one or two strong chapters, but not nearly enough to wade through the whole book for.
And if I’m honest it left something of a bitter taste in my mouth. A globally successfully writer jumping up and proclaiming: “WRITE WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT ME, I DON’T CARE – I’M A GOOD PERSON ANYWAY AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS!” before flouncing dramatically from the room. I think we can all agree that the sight of multi-millionaires lecturing the rest of us because of the lack of respect they get is never an edifying one.
Two stars.
(And Dean, if you do happen to read this, don’t worry – I’m not going to try and kill you. I might not have liked your book very much, but I’m still one of the good guys.)
Dostoyevsky; Ballard; Chesterton; Flaubert; Dr Seuss; Flannery O’Connor; Dickens; Capote; Hemmingway; Fitzgerald; Robert Heinlein; Zane Grey; Chandler; Edgar Rice Burroughs; Virginia Woolf; Somerset Maugham; Spillane; Longfellow; Aristophanes; Aristotle; Plato; Euripides; Plutarch; Herodotus; Hippocrates; Euclid; Archimedes; Dante; Chaucer; Thomas Aquinas; Shakespeare; Boswell; Johnson; Conrad; Bellow; Churchill; Orwell; Pasternak; Evelyn Waugh; Bertrand Russell; Rousseau; Shelley; Marx; Freud; Nietzsche; Tolstoy; Sartre; Jack London.
The plot of this bizarre thriller sees an author receive a scathing review from an influential critic, and then almost immediately afterwards the same critic attempts to kill him and his family. This is an odd and preposterous read (which at times doesn’t just rely on coincidence, but actual science fiction), where the main interest is held by trying to work out just what point Dean Koontz is striving to make.
Is he saying that a scathing review can be likened to a murderous assault? Does he believe that people who give bad reviews have rage and hatred in their hearts? As an author who rarely even gets the kind of grudging respect given to Stephen King, does he feel hard done by? Look at that list of authors again. In the main they’re critically respected in their fields and have eased their way – to some degree – into the Canon (okay, not Rice Burroughs). Is Dean Koontz pressing his nose forlornly against the glass and wishing he was there too?
Towards the end of the book, a number of those writers – Shelley, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Russell, Sartre – are described thus: “Geniuses, yes, and some of them fine artists. But madmen. And their contributions to the world were irrationality, chaos, excuses for mass murder, despair.” (It’s a while since I’ve read Shelley’s poetry, but really? It offers excuses for mass murder and despair?) I think the reader is supposed to see that because the narrator is a decent man and good to his family, he is better than them and his work more positive even if it isn’t as long lasting (although its innate quality may be recognised after his death). But it’s difficult to really appreciate this point as we never really get a sense of what kind of books this author writes (except they’re not thrillers). Nor do we even get to read the review which starts this book in motion.
In fact, if the point of this novel is hitting back at any critic who has ever dared criticise the Koontz, then it really isn’t the best weapon. Prosaically written and poorly plotted, it assumes foreshadowing means just announcing something is going to happen a few chapters down the road, and has an ending which relies on pulling something incredible out of a hat to round things off neatly. There are one or two strong chapters, but not nearly enough to wade through the whole book for.
And if I’m honest it left something of a bitter taste in my mouth. A globally successfully writer jumping up and proclaiming: “WRITE WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT ME, I DON’T CARE – I’M A GOOD PERSON ANYWAY AND THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS!” before flouncing dramatically from the room. I think we can all agree that the sight of multi-millionaires lecturing the rest of us because of the lack of respect they get is never an edifying one.
Two stars.
(And Dean, if you do happen to read this, don’t worry – I’m not going to try and kill you. I might not have liked your book very much, but I’m still one of the good guys.)
June 23, 2010
This book started out with a great and frightening premise. The hero, a bestselling author, publishes his latest and the nation's premiere literary critic rips it to shreds. Obsessed with the critic's hatred of his latest work he contrives to see this critic and manages an odd encounter in a restaurant where the critic says one word to him, "doom" and then sets out to dismantle and destroy his life.
The author discovers that this critic is a madman, who has left a path of murder and mayhem across the path of the other authors he has panned in previous columns. Soon, he is on the run and this insane nutjob of a critic just keeps coming.
This makes for compelling reading through the first 90% of the novel. The reader wants to know why this madman is so intent on this destruction and how he is accomplishing it. HOWEVER--
This is a Dean Koontz novel-- and he has to introduce some supernatural or unbelieveable element. Enter the author's son, a little Einstein and a special collie named Lassie who keeps getting into odd places. Koontz total wrecks the tension of the novel by creating an unbelieveable climax that makes the reader beg for his money back.
This conclusion was so awful and ridiculous I threw my copy in the trash. I will not trade it in to another bookstore, I will not give it away, I will not donate it to a thrift store, I will not make it available for another living soul to read.
I've read and enjoyed some Dean Koontz novels.. and this one was enjoyable, though he kept hinting that the kid was going to do something amazing at the end.. Then, the novel went off the rails in what had to have been the WORST and SILLIEST plot twist in history. This was even more absurd than an episode of the A-Team (the television show, not the movie) with all of its bullets flying around and nobody ever getting wounded.... Sorry, Mr. Koontz, I doubt you will sucker me in again.
******* SPOILER ALERT!!!!********************
The kid invents a way to turn back time. The baddie is working with a secret organization that is trying to control the direction of art and culture. The dog doesn't just get into odd places.. she teleports-- because of something the kid invented, etc.
The author discovers that this critic is a madman, who has left a path of murder and mayhem across the path of the other authors he has panned in previous columns. Soon, he is on the run and this insane nutjob of a critic just keeps coming.
This makes for compelling reading through the first 90% of the novel. The reader wants to know why this madman is so intent on this destruction and how he is accomplishing it. HOWEVER--
This is a Dean Koontz novel-- and he has to introduce some supernatural or unbelieveable element. Enter the author's son, a little Einstein and a special collie named Lassie who keeps getting into odd places. Koontz total wrecks the tension of the novel by creating an unbelieveable climax that makes the reader beg for his money back.
This conclusion was so awful and ridiculous I threw my copy in the trash. I will not trade it in to another bookstore, I will not give it away, I will not donate it to a thrift store, I will not make it available for another living soul to read.
I've read and enjoyed some Dean Koontz novels.. and this one was enjoyable, though he kept hinting that the kid was going to do something amazing at the end.. Then, the novel went off the rails in what had to have been the WORST and SILLIEST plot twist in history. This was even more absurd than an episode of the A-Team (the television show, not the movie) with all of its bullets flying around and nobody ever getting wounded.... Sorry, Mr. Koontz, I doubt you will sucker me in again.
******* SPOILER ALERT!!!!********************
The kid invents a way to turn back time. The baddie is working with a secret organization that is trying to control the direction of art and culture. The dog doesn't just get into odd places.. she teleports-- because of something the kid invented, etc.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2022
Another great book in this author's stellar career. I love how the plot slowly unfolds and how the characters deal with it. A nice tie-in to the Nameless series as well, which was also outstanding.
The little boy's name is Milo. He's a genius. Is this a sly shoutout to the band Descendents, or a happy coincidence?
The little boy's name is Milo. He's a genius. Is this a sly shoutout to the band Descendents, or a happy coincidence?
July 10, 2018
I am still shocked Koontz wrote this terrible book where he takes potshots at his literary critics in book form. And we get a special dog, kid, and a super wife. I feel like there should be a Koontz bingo card and you can start marking off all of the things that he always does in his books and at the end you get a beer. Or maybe three beers.
"Relentless" was one of the worst Koontz books I have ever read. I hoped my re-read would have some saving grace to it, but nope. Still among the worst. I didn't care at all about the characters, but the whole thing with the mysterious and evil critic (whose name was Shearman Waxx) made zero sense and had me ready to fight. The plot made no sense and then we go sliding into a whatever the hell that was ending.
"Relentess" is about successful author Cubby Greenwich. Cubby apparently writes books that can stop wars and shit like that. Oh wait, that was the plot to "Lady in the Water". Either way, Cubby's book has attracted the attention of a critic that everyone fears named Shearman Waxx. Well Waxx ends up uttering a word and then Cubby and his whole damn family is on the run. Maybe I could have made allowances for this stupid book if the rest of the characters had been fleshed out, but nothing doing. Besides Cubby, we have Cubby's wife Penny who is also a successful children's author. And they have a precocious son named Milo who would make Einstein apparently look stupid. It was just too much in this book to even deal with at once.
Koontz does that thing where the main characters past is hidden from readers for reasons until revealed. We have Penny being a super woman with a family with a damn stronghold and of course her ability to shoot any type of freaking weapon. Milo and his dog...I can't even right now. Koontz pulls a deus ex machina out of his ass in this one with the kid and the dog and I freaking booed after having more wine and trying not to scream about still having no kitchen or basement.
Waxx is hilariously terrible as a character. I cannot even get into the why behind this character and why he is after Cubby.
The dialogue is typical new Koontz a la no one speaks like actual human beings but fortune cookies that are somehow sentient.
The flow was awful and as other reviewers have noted there are some Easter eggs in this one if you have read Koontz's backlist before. The story that Cubby writes that angers Waxx so much is an alternate title to a prior Koontz book. He (Cubby) talks shit about critics and I think that was much of Koontz shouting down his critics to his newest works.
The ending when it comes will not be a relief. It was just terrible and beyond stupid. I am still mad about it.
"Relentless" was one of the worst Koontz books I have ever read. I hoped my re-read would have some saving grace to it, but nope. Still among the worst. I didn't care at all about the characters, but the whole thing with the mysterious and evil critic (whose name was Shearman Waxx) made zero sense and had me ready to fight. The plot made no sense and then we go sliding into a whatever the hell that was ending.
"Relentess" is about successful author Cubby Greenwich. Cubby apparently writes books that can stop wars and shit like that. Oh wait, that was the plot to "Lady in the Water". Either way, Cubby's book has attracted the attention of a critic that everyone fears named Shearman Waxx. Well Waxx ends up uttering a word and then Cubby and his whole damn family is on the run. Maybe I could have made allowances for this stupid book if the rest of the characters had been fleshed out, but nothing doing. Besides Cubby, we have Cubby's wife Penny who is also a successful children's author. And they have a precocious son named Milo who would make Einstein apparently look stupid. It was just too much in this book to even deal with at once.
Koontz does that thing where the main characters past is hidden from readers for reasons until revealed. We have Penny being a super woman with a family with a damn stronghold and of course her ability to shoot any type of freaking weapon. Milo and his dog...I can't even right now. Koontz pulls a deus ex machina out of his ass in this one with the kid and the dog and I freaking booed after having more wine and trying not to scream about still having no kitchen or basement.
Waxx is hilariously terrible as a character. I cannot even get into the why behind this character and why he is after Cubby.
The dialogue is typical new Koontz a la no one speaks like actual human beings but fortune cookies that are somehow sentient.
The flow was awful and as other reviewers have noted there are some Easter eggs in this one if you have read Koontz's backlist before. The story that Cubby writes that angers Waxx so much is an alternate title to a prior Koontz book. He (Cubby) talks shit about critics and I think that was much of Koontz shouting down his critics to his newest works.
The ending when it comes will not be a relief. It was just terrible and beyond stupid. I am still mad about it.
January 20, 2022
This is not one of Koontz better works because the main family that includes a genius kid and his dog spend too much time being victims before the dad grows a pair and decides to fight back. The mom is more man than dad and a good initial plot outline is wasted. 6 of 10 stars
I reread this and found it more acceptable and better the second time through.
I reread this and found it more acceptable and better the second time through.
May 15, 2011
This novel is strange, different, not at all what you are expecting but it's wonderful in ways that even I dont understand yet. I think so very often in this digital age we get overly saturated with every person's oppinion before experiencing the item in question, I try not to let them sway me and still have my own saying, wether it's good or bad, I want to have my own feeling on the item, especially when it's a book. After reading "Relentless" new impressions and conclusions are still popping into my head, like a good meal it's enjoyed even after the last crumb has been consumed. It's a furiously fast read in the beginning and it gets gooey and the eccentric ias it probes deeper, and the enigmatic character of Shearman Waxx adds a lot of excitiement to the whole ordeal. He's like a beast in horror movies, glimpess of terror here and there, the less is known and shown then scarier he is, in the end the truth comes out but even more quetions open up. I enjoyed this novel, it was a fun read, that's what books are about, the journey itself, we get to read the complex thoughts and scenratios that someone else's whole body created, their mind, soul and outlook on life are the pages itself with a plot which carries thier word out into the open world.
I dore books and reading, so this was a special treat, a book all about a writer and his aggrevating nemesis, the mean old reviewer who spews out and effluvia of insults and stabs, black words about his latest creation. I'm sure an angry reviewer can be any author's nightmare, the boogey man that shouldn't really matter but who stil manages to haunt and occpy some of their mind's time. This novel isnt' about constuctive criticism but about something deepr, a hungry need to eradicate something that Waxx doesnt like, and that something is the main protagonist, Cullen 'Cubby' Greenwich. His latest work gets a review so bad that the author of it not only rattles Cubby but turns his wholesome life upside down. An attack in the dark, in the middle of the night shakes the whole family and changes their lives forever. They realize that Waxx is not as harmless as he seems, his words aren't his only weapons, there are authors out there who lost their loved ones and the gossip says that Waxx was the one who did it...the man is unstoppable, mean, evil, and worst of all relentless..the battle begins, as insane as it seem it's as real as their wish to keep on living. Cubby, his wife Penny and son Milo are on a journey that will literally flip their world upside down. Elements of sci-fi, creepy horror and grotesque mutilations peak in and out, making this a riveting read.
Koontz has been a staple on my bookshelves ever since I was twelve, and every time he churns out a new book I get excited, one more to add, one more for my collection of delectable reads that keep me up at night and chase my thoughts during the day, reading is fantastic and he certainly adds to it. Some will love his new stuff and some won't, regardless his books are fun and exciting, with cool themes, and I especially love the supernatural element he often weaves through, you never know if the book has it or not, but it adds a bit of spice that I enjoy.
I dore books and reading, so this was a special treat, a book all about a writer and his aggrevating nemesis, the mean old reviewer who spews out and effluvia of insults and stabs, black words about his latest creation. I'm sure an angry reviewer can be any author's nightmare, the boogey man that shouldn't really matter but who stil manages to haunt and occpy some of their mind's time. This novel isnt' about constuctive criticism but about something deepr, a hungry need to eradicate something that Waxx doesnt like, and that something is the main protagonist, Cullen 'Cubby' Greenwich. His latest work gets a review so bad that the author of it not only rattles Cubby but turns his wholesome life upside down. An attack in the dark, in the middle of the night shakes the whole family and changes their lives forever. They realize that Waxx is not as harmless as he seems, his words aren't his only weapons, there are authors out there who lost their loved ones and the gossip says that Waxx was the one who did it...the man is unstoppable, mean, evil, and worst of all relentless..the battle begins, as insane as it seem it's as real as their wish to keep on living. Cubby, his wife Penny and son Milo are on a journey that will literally flip their world upside down. Elements of sci-fi, creepy horror and grotesque mutilations peak in and out, making this a riveting read.
Koontz has been a staple on my bookshelves ever since I was twelve, and every time he churns out a new book I get excited, one more to add, one more for my collection of delectable reads that keep me up at night and chase my thoughts during the day, reading is fantastic and he certainly adds to it. Some will love his new stuff and some won't, regardless his books are fun and exciting, with cool themes, and I especially love the supernatural element he often weaves through, you never know if the book has it or not, but it adds a bit of spice that I enjoy.
June 14, 2009
Koontz stunned me with this novel. It's only the third of his that I have read, but I was shocked that he chose to break a cardinal rule of creative writing. The first 95% of this book leads the reader to believe that the world of the story is that of the present day. Though the 6 year old child in the book is described by his father as advanced for his years, we buy his mathematical and technological prowess as that of a young prodigy. We buy into the insane world of a mass murderer on the hunt for this family and enjoy the ride as they run from him collecting clues and trying to survive. We even buy into the wife's family and their underground bunker and gun and ammunition collection, the dog that seems to get itself in and out of strange locations, and the heroic yet disturbing past of our protagonist himself. But then in the last 5% of the book, the context of the entire creative universe is altered, which in turn generates a rather unsatisfying ending, much like that of a main character waking up and the entire story being a dream. What surprises me most is that not changing the "rules" of the world created within a manuscript is Creative Writing 101, certainly not something I expected to see in a Koontz, Random House book. I found it highly upsetting, since I was so invested, having spent 8 hours of my time with these characters only to feel cheated at the very end by what comes off as laziness on the part of the writer and publisher.
October 14, 2012
As a Dean Koontz fan for the last 20+ years, this will be the last of his I actually purchase, from now on I will get them from the library.
His novels have been getting less and less satisfying over the years. His endings are starting to really suck. Dean tells an awesome, fast paced story that keeps you on your toes with great characters. Then when it comes down to the final end scenes where the bad guy should really get his just desserts .... let me put it this way .... it's like having really hot, amazing sex with someone and right when you are going to orgasm, they pull out and walk away. FRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSTRATING!!!!!!!! NOT COOL DEAN. BTW your toupee is creepy. Just had to throw that out there.
His novels have been getting less and less satisfying over the years. His endings are starting to really suck. Dean tells an awesome, fast paced story that keeps you on your toes with great characters. Then when it comes down to the final end scenes where the bad guy should really get his just desserts .... let me put it this way .... it's like having really hot, amazing sex with someone and right when you are going to orgasm, they pull out and walk away. FRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSTRATING!!!!!!!! NOT COOL DEAN. BTW your toupee is creepy. Just had to throw that out there.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 28, 2011
Books like this are the reason why I stopped reading Koontz on a regular basis. For every quality read (Watchers, The Mask), there is one as bad as this. He is way too inconsistent. Read at your own peril. Truly awful in every way.
May 19, 2020
Highly competent 'pursuit by very dangerous man' horror novel by Koontz as a bad review becomes something much much more, when the bad reviewer is unable to take criticism of any sort. Good read :). 7 out of 12.
March 14, 2023
Likely there are better and worse Dean Koontz novels. This, the first I've read and probably also the last, appeared in our corner Little Free Library. The book is a diverting read and a true waste of time.
June 14, 2009
I've been a fan of Dean Koontz for about 17 years now, and he is, by far, one of my favorite authors. I enjoyed reading 'Relentless', but I feel that something is missing that made me love his books. With the exception of the Odd Thomas novels, his last several books have been just quick fun reads, about a man or woman going up against an extremely evil person or group of people. I miss his longer novels like 'From the Corner of His Eye', 'By the Light of the Moon', 'Watchers' and my all time favorite 'Lightning'. I have always loved the way that Koontz always leaves the reader with a sense of hope at the end of his books. Yet, still, I feel something is missing from his newer books that was there in his earlier novels and I can't quite put my finger on it yet. It's almost as if he has streamlined his own formula for writing a novel, or perhaps putting Koontz in a godlike status in my own pantheon of the writers i like, maybe i am expecting too much. Either way, I never want him to stop writing, as you can tell from this review i'm not the best writer so who am I to judge. All I can pass on is a feeling of something missing.
December 14, 2010
Hello everyone!!
Well, I´ve just finished reading Relentless, by Dean Koontz.
I want to tell you that I´ve no idea what the author was thinking while writing the book... Maybe he was on drugs or something (that was useful for Poe, but not for him, that´s for sure!).
Imagine the story: there´s an author, who is critiziced by a well-known reviewer. The author meet this man in a restaurant and then the reviewer begins a hunting, he wants to kill the author and his family!!! The general idea is that this killer belongs to sort of a secret society which decides if the culture goes wrong or right... if it goes wrong they decide to eliminate writers, or painters, or musicians...
I don´t know, it sounds very weird to me. But the hole thing doesn´t conclude there, the author has a little son, kind of genious, who gives him and his wife a little device. What is this for? It makes the time goes backwards!!! So, when the author meet the reviewer´s mother (the boss of the secret society...) and she shoots him, he can go back to several minutes before the shooting!!! And he survives!!!
I don´t recommend this book to anybody!!!
It is absolutely ridiculous.
Bye.
Gustavo.
Well, I´ve just finished reading Relentless, by Dean Koontz.
I want to tell you that I´ve no idea what the author was thinking while writing the book... Maybe he was on drugs or something (that was useful for Poe, but not for him, that´s for sure!).
Imagine the story: there´s an author, who is critiziced by a well-known reviewer. The author meet this man in a restaurant and then the reviewer begins a hunting, he wants to kill the author and his family!!! The general idea is that this killer belongs to sort of a secret society which decides if the culture goes wrong or right... if it goes wrong they decide to eliminate writers, or painters, or musicians...
I don´t know, it sounds very weird to me. But the hole thing doesn´t conclude there, the author has a little son, kind of genious, who gives him and his wife a little device. What is this for? It makes the time goes backwards!!! So, when the author meet the reviewer´s mother (the boss of the secret society...) and she shoots him, he can go back to several minutes before the shooting!!! And he survives!!!
I don´t recommend this book to anybody!!!
It is absolutely ridiculous.
Bye.
Gustavo.
May 2, 2010
Relentless was a huge page turner. Let me get that out of the way. Every page just kept you begging for more. This was the first Dean Koontz novel I ever read and I was surprised at how much I was impressed with it. The writing was fantastic and excitement pumped my raced my heart beat. The summary makes it sound really stupid. A critic that stalks and tries to kill a guy becuase he didn't like his book? Come on! But when you actually pick the book up and read it, it's a really great book. 5 stars!
10/10/09
10/10/09
October 4, 2017
Definitely not a Return to form book for Koontz. I will still always prefer his darker work, such as Midnight, Phantoms, and Lightning, but this was a good solid read that kept me turning the pages. Quite a bit of humor lightens the mood on this one but he has the mix right enough so that that humor doesn't throw you out of the story, and it isn't slapstick. It comes off as real between these characters. As with many thrillers, the ending seemed to come a bit easy. But these are small quibbles when overall I liked it quite a lot.
March 23, 2020
Sigh.
I read this sometime after publishing - my best guess is early 2010. The thing is, I didn’t remember it, and was remembering it as I read, and remembering I wasn’t much a fan of it.
It’s simply unbelievable and seems to be trying to hard to be witty. I think there will be a lot of readers that love this- It just doesn’t work well for me.
I read this sometime after publishing - my best guess is early 2010. The thing is, I didn’t remember it, and was remembering it as I read, and remembering I wasn’t much a fan of it.
It’s simply unbelievable and seems to be trying to hard to be witty. I think there will be a lot of readers that love this- It just doesn’t work well for me.
October 26, 2012
Dean Koontz writes of a marvelous world, world so simple, so incredibly black and white with absolutely nothing in between, world where you can tell an evil person from a mile away (hint, they actually look it), but it doesn't even matter cause good will always triumph over evil anyway, where characters start out one way or another (good or evil) and remain so for the rest of the book with no arc or character development whatsoever. Here are some sample cardboard characters...genius kid, uber supportive amazing gun toting wife, a lovable but barely capable protagonist, a canine companion so good that her farts don't smell (seriously, that's in the book), an evil looking demented psycho stalker with homicidal tendencies. The latter had to have been inspired by a negative review or several, so to err on the side of caution I'm being very generous with 3 stars here.
Overall though, the book works, it works in the way of a tepid tap water or a slice of wonderbread for a meal, it's serviceable, it's paced decently, I enjoyed the audio version's reader, he did fun character voices...it's ok, it's just not great by any means. It kept me company on several fitness walks. Koontz is a capable writer, but it doesn't really feel like he's trying to excel, just pass. He has his formula, his books sell, so he adheres to it. In a world of so many great or even pretty good books, I'm not sure why this would be someone's first choice, given options, but if you're just looking to mindlessly walk to it or something, it'll do.
Overall though, the book works, it works in the way of a tepid tap water or a slice of wonderbread for a meal, it's serviceable, it's paced decently, I enjoyed the audio version's reader, he did fun character voices...it's ok, it's just not great by any means. It kept me company on several fitness walks. Koontz is a capable writer, but it doesn't really feel like he's trying to excel, just pass. He has his formula, his books sell, so he adheres to it. In a world of so many great or even pretty good books, I'm not sure why this would be someone's first choice, given options, but if you're just looking to mindlessly walk to it or something, it'll do.
December 18, 2024
1.5
I’m pretty sure this book is the equivalent to a middle finger to all critics and maybe his old publisher?
The book starts off good, but it has weird pacing that jumps around like my dads old beat up Ford truck. Smooth ride once it gets going but if you need to switch gears, hang on. Things get a little bumpy.
I don’t dislike Dean at all. I still reminisce on some amazing books that he has written. But this one in particular stopped being suspenseful around page 70…
Glad to have this book out of the way.
I’m pretty sure this book is the equivalent to a middle finger to all critics and maybe his old publisher?
The book starts off good, but it has weird pacing that jumps around like my dads old beat up Ford truck. Smooth ride once it gets going but if you need to switch gears, hang on. Things get a little bumpy.
I don’t dislike Dean at all. I still reminisce on some amazing books that he has written. But this one in particular stopped being suspenseful around page 70…
Glad to have this book out of the way.
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