What do you think?
Rate this book
Winter Moon / Icebound
Box set of 2 of Koontz's pseudonymously published books updated from their original format.
Winter Moon was published as Invasion in 1975 as by Aaron Wolfe.
Icebound was published as Prison of Ice in 1976 as by David Axton.
Winter Moon was published as Invasion in 1975 as by Aaron Wolfe.
Icebound was published as Prison of Ice in 1976 as by David Axton.
405 pages, box set
First published September 1, 1995
28 people are currently reading
1320 people want to read
About the author
Dean Koontz
907 books39.7k followersAcknowledged 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.
Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com
Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
September 16, 2015
What a ride Dean Koontz takes you on in this book. So very different from anything he has previously written. In the back of the book he even admits that. I really enjoyed this story and while he writes in a different way than usual, he pulls it off beautifully.
I expected a monster or some type of horrid creature, but that is so far from what the story turned out to be. Instead of a monster, it is a man who has every intention on killing every one involved. Though I did not figure out the killer till almost the very end. I trusted all of the characters and liked each one. So it was a surprise when it hit.
I recommend this to lovers of the Thriller/Horror/Mystery genre. There is no gore, no psychological twists, just plain awesome thrill! Thanks Dean Koontz for another great book!
I expected a monster or some type of horrid creature, but that is so far from what the story turned out to be. Instead of a monster, it is a man who has every intention on killing every one involved. Though I did not figure out the killer till almost the very end. I trusted all of the characters and liked each one. So it was a surprise when it hit.
I recommend this to lovers of the Thriller/Horror/Mystery genre. There is no gore, no psychological twists, just plain awesome thrill! Thanks Dean Koontz for another great book!
December 18, 2015
Icebound: Scientists plant 60 bombs on the Arctic icecap to sever a chunk of ice, but before they are done planting all the bombs a tidal wave breaks off the chunk they are on away from the base camp. With the bombs on a timer they have few options to get off the ice, and now they realize a murderer is on the ice with them. Their only hope is for a Russian sub to come to their rescue. It's a scarily horrendous tale that never lets up.
September 1, 2016
Great story! Full of suspense and adventure. Definitely kept me engaged and had a satisfying ending.
November 15, 2024
(No spoilers):
What I will give Dean Koontz: his writing engages phenomenally, it keeps you constantly engaged with appropriate build up and peaks of suspense. His writing is incredibly descriptive and incites fantastic imagery for the reader. That’s where the Pros end unfortunately.
I really enjoyed this book to start off, but the major flaws piled up to the point where I was nauseated and stopped reading it with 50 pages left (of 400), something I’ve never done with a book before.
A 3/5 thoroughly mediocre thriller, but with the added bonus of the moral lenses and sexual inclinations of an upper class, 50 year old, white man in the 1990s, who does everything he can to wave his big dick beliefs around throughout the book.
(Spoilers)
My issues:
1) The way he talks about women is just gross. Every time a female character enters the plot, he takes explicit care to describe just how big their bosoms are, their hourglass figure, their big kissable lips. Even Rita, a main character, and a world renowned scientist, some of his biggest highlights of her character are her seductive actions towards Harry. And none of it seems realistic, nor mutual and sensual, just stuff of the fantasies of a perverted middle aged man.
2) Unrealism. I am not a scientist and will not speak to the realism of the scientific components of this book. But the actions of the Russian sub make absolutely zero sense. Would a captain print out a forgery and defy the direct orders of his supervisors in 1990s Russia? Highly improbably, but not impossible, and makes for an exciting twist. But, would a captain of a sub, a Navy man of decades, who directly burdens the responsibility of the lives of 70 men, play outright foolishly with their lives? The moment they popped a pressure leak at a risky depth, he’d have gotten out of there as fast as possible and STAYED out. You mean to tell me, this captain responsible of 70 lives, had his sub sprout a leak (no matter mild) with potential structural damage, and chose to re-submerge to -700 feet for an hour? Give me a fucking break.
3) What the fuck was the lunatic killer plot? Just as a general premise, it was so forced as a means of adding another scary/suspenseful plot line but it was just forced, unrealistic, and pretty flat out stupid. Just trying to get off an isolated iceberg in the middle of an arctic storm that’s about to EXPLODE is sufficient suspense, why are we adding a lunatic killer?
4) The background of the “lunatic killer,” and Koontz’s analysis of the USSR/Russia and Communism is straight propaganda out of a 1960s US HS History Book. To be fair, that’s probably about what his knowledge on the topic is derived from. But holy shit. If you’re gonna make a lunatic killer, at least have them be actually deranged, not literally just anti-establishment. Oooo I’m so scared he thinks American Democracy is declining and capitalism is flawed.
Two of my favorite quotes on this topic:
A) when discussing the “deeply disturbed” thinking of the lunatic killer: “Greedy businessmen were said to be polluting the planet, so money-crazed that they didn’t give a damn if they killed every baby seal in existence, made patio furniture out of the last of the might redwoods, poisoned children, and destroyed the earth in pursuit of the almighty dollar” (342). Boy oh boy did this age well.
B) “This was senseless, pointless lunacy, but on the other hand, he knew that nothing the communists had ever done made sense… Their ideology was nothing but a mad hunger for unrestrained power, politics as a cult religion divorced from morality and reason, and their bloody rampages, and bottomless cruelty that could never be analyzed or understood by anyone not of their mad persuasion” (364). I have no love for communism, and many of the regimes he identifies were cruel & corrupt totalitarianism regimes, but is this really your serious, genuine analysis of communism?? Do you actually believe these words you write? This is straight propaganda. There’s just no reason for any of this to even be in this book it has nothing to do with anything.
What I will give Dean Koontz: his writing engages phenomenally, it keeps you constantly engaged with appropriate build up and peaks of suspense. His writing is incredibly descriptive and incites fantastic imagery for the reader. That’s where the Pros end unfortunately.
I really enjoyed this book to start off, but the major flaws piled up to the point where I was nauseated and stopped reading it with 50 pages left (of 400), something I’ve never done with a book before.
A 3/5 thoroughly mediocre thriller, but with the added bonus of the moral lenses and sexual inclinations of an upper class, 50 year old, white man in the 1990s, who does everything he can to wave his big dick beliefs around throughout the book.
(Spoilers)
My issues:
1) The way he talks about women is just gross. Every time a female character enters the plot, he takes explicit care to describe just how big their bosoms are, their hourglass figure, their big kissable lips. Even Rita, a main character, and a world renowned scientist, some of his biggest highlights of her character are her seductive actions towards Harry. And none of it seems realistic, nor mutual and sensual, just stuff of the fantasies of a perverted middle aged man.
2) Unrealism. I am not a scientist and will not speak to the realism of the scientific components of this book. But the actions of the Russian sub make absolutely zero sense. Would a captain print out a forgery and defy the direct orders of his supervisors in 1990s Russia? Highly improbably, but not impossible, and makes for an exciting twist. But, would a captain of a sub, a Navy man of decades, who directly burdens the responsibility of the lives of 70 men, play outright foolishly with their lives? The moment they popped a pressure leak at a risky depth, he’d have gotten out of there as fast as possible and STAYED out. You mean to tell me, this captain responsible of 70 lives, had his sub sprout a leak (no matter mild) with potential structural damage, and chose to re-submerge to -700 feet for an hour? Give me a fucking break.
3) What the fuck was the lunatic killer plot? Just as a general premise, it was so forced as a means of adding another scary/suspenseful plot line but it was just forced, unrealistic, and pretty flat out stupid. Just trying to get off an isolated iceberg in the middle of an arctic storm that’s about to EXPLODE is sufficient suspense, why are we adding a lunatic killer?
4) The background of the “lunatic killer,” and Koontz’s analysis of the USSR/Russia and Communism is straight propaganda out of a 1960s US HS History Book. To be fair, that’s probably about what his knowledge on the topic is derived from. But holy shit. If you’re gonna make a lunatic killer, at least have them be actually deranged, not literally just anti-establishment. Oooo I’m so scared he thinks American Democracy is declining and capitalism is flawed.
Two of my favorite quotes on this topic:
A) when discussing the “deeply disturbed” thinking of the lunatic killer: “Greedy businessmen were said to be polluting the planet, so money-crazed that they didn’t give a damn if they killed every baby seal in existence, made patio furniture out of the last of the might redwoods, poisoned children, and destroyed the earth in pursuit of the almighty dollar” (342). Boy oh boy did this age well.
B) “This was senseless, pointless lunacy, but on the other hand, he knew that nothing the communists had ever done made sense… Their ideology was nothing but a mad hunger for unrestrained power, politics as a cult religion divorced from morality and reason, and their bloody rampages, and bottomless cruelty that could never be analyzed or understood by anyone not of their mad persuasion” (364). I have no love for communism, and many of the regimes he identifies were cruel & corrupt totalitarianism regimes, but is this really your serious, genuine analysis of communism?? Do you actually believe these words you write? This is straight propaganda. There’s just no reason for any of this to even be in this book it has nothing to do with anything.
August 6, 2021
This almost ended up on my DNF pile! Twas very lucky to get two stars!
Because the first two hundred pages are such hard work, because it's so boring, it took me a number of times after putting it down to actually get past them where it does start to become a little exciting (only a little though) but enough, just, to get you through to the end.
Far from a Koontz classic (if those do exist?) but not as bad as some of his work though not one that I'd ever recommend unless you fancy topping up your own DNF pile!
This book should be renamed "BoredomBound"
Because the first two hundred pages are such hard work, because it's so boring, it took me a number of times after putting it down to actually get past them where it does start to become a little exciting (only a little though) but enough, just, to get you through to the end.
Far from a Koontz classic (if those do exist?) but not as bad as some of his work though not one that I'd ever recommend unless you fancy topping up your own DNF pile!
This book should be renamed "BoredomBound"
October 1, 2021
Icebound: A group of scientist need rescuing off a giant iceberg after a sudden earthquake and tsunami. A Russian spy submarine in their area is their only hope of survival.
Only Koontz can pull off a suspensful drama where the Russians are shown to be heroes and not villians as they are too often portreyed. Proof in this storyline that you dont need excessive dead bodies to capture a wonderful story. Only flaw this being a reprint book I struggled with the small font.
Only Koontz can pull off a suspensful drama where the Russians are shown to be heroes and not villians as they are too often portreyed. Proof in this storyline that you dont need excessive dead bodies to capture a wonderful story. Only flaw this being a reprint book I struggled with the small font.
June 17, 2019
I picked up Icebound in a book swap whilst travelling and had never read a Koontz book before. This was gripping and although set in the huge landscape that is the Arctic it was incredibly claustrophobic. The tension built as the clock ticked... good read and I will look out for more of his books.
October 8, 2017
Suspenseful, courageous
July 4, 2018
an awesome read after a very long time...
July 15, 2019
I read Icebound by Dean Koontz - without the pseudonym. Fabulous book - brilliant read
October 4, 2021
excellent - couldnt put the book down. I had it in my own personal library but I sure dont remember reading it before...it was dated 1976.
October 10, 2021
Icebound was particularly good. More action adventure than his usual horror story.
September 20, 2022
Read 1995
December 6, 2022
Hilarious, ridiculous, classic Dean Koontz. Plot is absolutely outrageous but I will say, it does make sense (in the loosest definition of the word). Great plane read, very enjoyable.
December 21, 2022
Read twice. All Koontz books are good. I liked this one but zoned out some of the boring details. 😀😀
June 7, 2023
I was good enough, but felt there was no rhyme or reason about the murders. Somewhat unsatisfactory ending for me.
October 1, 2016
Loved this. I like koontz anyway, but this is a different genre than he's written before. He should write more like this. I enjoy suspense and on the edge of your seat stories. This was great. And didn't have any gory or disgusting descriptive parts. Just a really great story that kept me turning pages and wanting to see what happened next.
July 13, 2016
A very good book and it was the re-produced copy, which Dean Koontz had re-written a little.
Dean I well know for his horror books and this is any thing but. There was a lot of information about living on the Ice as a Scantiest - gtreat read.
Dean I well know for his horror books and this is any thing but. There was a lot of information about living on the Ice as a Scantiest - gtreat read.
January 24, 2009
Loved icebound, different for him but very good
Want to read
December 25, 2010Excellent book, was a good read, kept me on the edge the whole time
January 9, 2011
Another Koontz suspenseful thriller set in a world we could so easily understand, realize, and fear.
September 6, 2017
It's so good to re-read the earlier works of Mr. Koontz... it reminds me of why I fell in love with his work. I first read Icebound in 1989 at the tender of age of 15. :)
February 23, 2014
very different story. for Koontz. great book. liked it .
Read
May 29, 2014thrillers! I love how he keeps the readers in suspense!
July 16, 2014
Read the individual books
August 6, 2014
Dean Koontz nevedr let's me down!
December 3, 2014
icebound was the only koontz novel i could not finish. boring and uneventful.
January 7, 2015
It was okay,I would not recommend it
March 27, 2015
During my Army days I snapped up Koontz, King and Herbert as soon as titles became available. I still treasure the signed book from Koontz (hard to get when living in Europe).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews