Sole Survivor

by Dean Koontz

Joe Carpenter's wife and two children perished with more than three hundred others in the crash of United Airlines Flight 353. But one year later, haunted by the loss of his family and desperate to find purpose in life, he discovers that the official story of Flight 353 is a treacherous lie.

They say it was an accident. It was not. They say there were no survivors: that the crash was too devastating for anyone to live through it. But incredibly, Joe discovers one woman walked away unhurt from the disaster, with a secret that will change the world . . .

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Mystery Thriller, Fantasy

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

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.

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

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Dean Koontz. A good story, some gruesome bits, lots of action and a touch of the paranormal. An undemanding and thoroughly enjoyable read.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book to me was a mixed bag. On one hand, it was a pretty cool story, and the action near the end was very suspenseful and engaging. However, I also think the book could have been shorter and been much better. I find many books have an issue of just being too long which causes the story to drag. Perhaps it's just me, I'm not sure.

This story was very emotional and was a character study as well as a suspense story. I will admit I had guessed at least part of the big reveal, although not exactly and not every part of it. Overall I found it to be like most Koontz books, in that they are good but never quite reach great. I'm still a fan, he just never quite reaches that top level for me. Then again, I haven't read that many Koontz books, so as I read more I may find some I like more than what I've read so far.

Now, one thing that did bother me with this book was the writing style. There was no traditional dialogue. It was all written with no quotations like someone was telling you what everyone said rather than the person actually speaking. It's not as confusing as it sounds, but it did take me out of the story slightly.

Overall this was a good book that could have been great with some edits. I did enjoy it, and would recommend it to suspense fans.

[Hyejung · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst of his books that I have read so far. As with most of his books, there is an interesting concept - cloning. However, the story, itself, was drab. I thought the main character was annoying and dumb. Of course, I understand his desire to find the daughter he thinks is alive, but the way he acted really frustrated me and I never really felt any sympathy for him except in the beginning when I didn't know his character well enough. I could actually say that I almost skimmed this whole book, just to see what the end result was - that's how bad I thought it was. I was pretty disappointed with this one.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't believe that Sole Survivor is among Koontz's best works, though it's an okay character study with some intriguing suspense elements. A man's family is killed in a plane crash, and when he encounters a woman who claims to have survived, his rage drives him to pursue her and search for answers. The story is told in an odd narrative fashion, and though the experiment may have done what he wanted, I thought it distanced the characters from the story and ultimately from the reader. It lacks the humor that he usually injects into his fiction. (I probably would have been more tolerant if there had been another name on the cover, actually; part of the problem was that I didn't get what I expected.) This edition has what has to be one of the most boring covers ever: a yellow blob in a red circle on a purple background.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of Firestarter by Stephen King. A bit of Runner by Patrick Lee. A tragic plane accident turns into something so much more. Koontz takes you on a bizarre spiritual adventure questioning our mortality, destiny, and how far some might go to keep that knowledge/power for themselves and use it for evil.

While this story is packed with action and conspiracy, it will most likely leave you asking a lot of "What if?" questions about life as well.

[Michael Jensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made it through 30% before I finally gave it up. I've only read a few Koontz books and wasn't impressed by what I did read. Sole Survivor only confirms that I'm not a Koontz fan.

You'd think it would be pretty difficult to make a man who lost his wife and two daughters in a plane crash unsympathetic, but Koontz makes it look easy. The first 20% of the book is the main character going on and on and on about he's suffering, miserable, angry, unable to ever move on, yadda yadda yadda. We get it. The main character is in a bad place. Can we start the story now?

Unfortunately, the annoying main character isn't the only problem. I'm not sure if Koontz was trying to stretch his literary wings, but Sole Survivor is filled with over the top prose and endless descriptions that seemed to have been written to establish Koontz's literary cred. Bleagh. If I want boring literary descriptions, I'll check out the Booker Prize nominees.

I ultimately read spoilers about the rest of the plot. Frankly, it sounded nonsensical so I'm glad I checked out.

[Cheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I certainly wasn't expecting this to turn into a preachy bs book.

Oh well.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars for Solo Survivor (audiobook) by Dean Koontz read by David Birney.

A man’s wife and child are lost in a plane crash and the more he looks into the details of the accident the more it looks like someone survived this horrible tragedy. And as he starts to ask questions the more it’s seems like he is being watched. It would take supernatural powers to survive and the author delivers as the lab that is developing those powers is unveiled.

[Steve Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps it is just me, but this book ultimately seemed to be little more than the preaching and proselytising of a religious fundamentalist. At one stage in the book, a prominent biologist even goes to lengths to condemn evolution in the manner that only a creationist lunatic would. It was almost like reading the AIG website or a Jehovah Witness Watchtower pamphlet.

I am currently reading another of his novels (The Taking) and find that this, too, is interjected with out-of-place statements and claims that one would only find spew from the mouth of a fundamentalist Christian or Muslim.

And while this shouldn't matter (after all, where would such things be better suited than in a work of fiction?) it is so out of place with the actual story, and has little to no relevance to it, that it detracts from the story itself. While Sole Survivor is ultimately a religious message, there was no need nor relevance in attempting to dismiss evolution or erroneously claiming that most scientists have come to realise it isn't true and that science is continually 'proving' the fact of intelligent design, to get that message across.

It would not in the least surprise me if the next book of his I read contains the claim that scientists have demonstrated that humans and dinosaurs lived together, the world is only 6,000 years old or that the Noah's Ark fiction actually happened. All of these stupidities would in themselves be entirely acceptable IF they were relevant part of the fictional novel itself. But when pointlessly and irrelevantly included, it becomes rather off-putting. The only thing I shall remember this novel for is its creationist-style ignorance of science.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

My reading experience with Dean Koontz are very mixed. When I love his books I do it with a passion but other time it's just not a winner for me. I did think the story was good but not as good and intensely suspenseful as some other by him

[Dean Ryan Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Done reading The Sole Survivor. Supposed to be, I would read the second book of The Trials of Apollo but for a little change, I went back to one of my favorite authors for adults. I remember my dad gave me this book way back in college. Read it, stop, read, stop until I forgot. Anyway, it's about Joe Carpenter. He's a troubled crime writer who reopens the story of how and why his wife and daughters died in a plane crash. Narrated in third-person perspective sprinkled with vivid in-depth narrative in 18 chapters, Joe finds out the truth is hidden inside the walls of unexplained mysteries of science.

[Patrick Kiernan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a group read with Koontzland for the month of May 2017. This was an emotional rollercoaster, it was an insight into a grieving father's healing process and it also has a little bit of The firestarter by Stephen King.

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

After not reading any of Dean Koontz particular brand of bizarre for quite a while, I probably appreciated this story more than I otherwise might have. A mystery woman walks away from a devastating plane crash, and then begins to contact the loved ones of the victims. After her visits, these people commit suicide in horrific ways. Meanwhile, very powerful people are trying to find this woman and stop her.

I don’t think it’s one of his better ones, but you kind of can’t stop reading until you find out what’s going on.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reviewed first at Brunner's Bookshelf

I have to say that I am not a huge Dean Koontz fan. My wife was with his earlier work but there came a point when his books just got really weird and our interest faded. I have some of his books that I really liked, Tick Tock and Life Expectancy to name a few. This was another book that kept popping up in my hunt for horro books for the R.I.P. challenge. I figured I would give it a try. Let's just say I was expecting a horror novel and this isn't.

The book is all about a man who is suffering after the loss of his wife and two daughters in a plane crash. Wanting to die he goes to visit the graves one last time. When he arrives he finds a strange woman taking pictures of the headstones and FBI types following him. This opens the book up to what could have been a really interesting suspense thriller. Sadly about half way through the book my interest tanked. I couldn't keep focused and my mind kept wandering. I was mechanically reading just to get through this. It also seemed about this point that the story was just all over the place. My lack of focus might have had something to do with this but I'm not sure. I will own up when my dislike of a book is my own doing but I really tried to like this.

By the end of this book I was so happy to be finished with this. I felt the ending was terrible. It felt like the book started out to be one thing and Koontz forgot how he started the story so it ended as if it was a different story. I was really disappointed. This started out with so much potential and then just lost me. It's over and I can move on. I give this 2 out of 5 stars and really it was more like 1.5 stars. I also had every intention in including this in my R.I.P. challenge but I'm going to skip it. I have already had enough books to complete the challenge more than two times and this is not what I was expecting being at the top of several horror fiction lists. So I decided to save this review till after the challenge and just focus on my Halloween week posts.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like this book. It brings to mind elements from Watchers, False Memory, The Eyes of Darkness, Fear Nothing, From the Corner of His Eye, The Silent Corner and Stephen King's Firestarter. A story of loss and hope, with glimpses of alternate realities.

While Sole Survivor doesn't make it into my personal top ten favorite Dean Koontz books, I find it a fine achievement and a beautiful work.

Favorite Passages:

Out of the thin blood-filtered light, into the hallway where a funerary stillness of shadows stood sentinel, toward the enormous chandelier that hung in a perpetual crystal rain above the foyer staircase, he ran.
______

Their eyes were, without exception, calm pools in which he saw humbling depths of acceptance and a kindness like moonlight on water . . .
______

Everywhere he turned his eyes now, this world was different from the one that he had inhabited all his life. The change had begun the previous day, when he'd gone to the cemetery. Ever since, a shift seemed to be progressing with gathering power and speed, as though the world of Einsteinian laws had intersected with a universe where the rules of energy and matter were so different as to baffle the wisest mathematicians and the proudest physicists.

This new reality was both more piercingly beautiful and more fearsome than the one that it replaced. He knew the change was subjective and would never reverse itself. Nothing this side of death would ever again seem simple to him; the smoothest surface hid unknowable depths and complexities.
______

. . . the white trunks of the paper birches glowed like painted doorjambs, the deeply moody shadows between like open doors to futures best left unvisited.
______

[Ken Campbell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started well enough as a mystery novel. The main character was reasonably developed as a grieving father who was trying to uncover a conspiracy. The story moved effectively into a science fiction style, with the cloning of children who had special powers. Unfortunately, these two themes were abandoned near the end, and the book concluded with magic and existential concepts. None of the initial issues (the mystery and the children with special powers) were completed. It was a disappointing book overall

[Ira Therebel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a roller coaster. At first I was bored, then I got into the story and really wanted to know how it ends but then at the end I absolutely hated the direction it went on and considered it to be disappointing mess. So I am not happy with the book. I will try the author again because while I hated the ending the idea was still original and he is so incredibly popular. So maybe I was just unlucky that this was my first book of Dean Koontz.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe Carpenter has checked out of life quitting house job as a reporter in LA after his wife and two young daughters all die in a plane crash a year prior, but he finds out there was a survivor and this premise is what Koontz starts with for the book.
An average “Joe” who gets entangled in a dangerous mystery and becomes a survivor himself without spoiling anything this was typical Koontz minus the side dog. The story takes a different route than I guessed and still left me unsatisfied and with many questions at stories end, but it still delivered some thrills.
My favorite quote “He was one of the lost, and the lost cannot lead” p.23

[Carrie Luciano · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really enjoying this book. Koontz as usual can develop wonderful characters that you really care about. It moved at a break neck speed for much of the book but I thought it petered out and was somewhat anti climactic in like the last 20 pages.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!!! What a fantastic read. I used to read Koontz years and years ago, how did I miss this book? Fast-paced kept me awake every night reading. Masterfully styled, and seriously entertaining.

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Carpenter is a man paralyzed by grief and anger. On the one year anniversary of the plane crash that killed his beloved wife and daughters he visits their cemetery and spots a woman taking pictures of their grave marker. He approaches her and sets off a series of events that make him question if the death of his family and 300 others was the intentional work of officials attempting to cover up something that could possibly change mankind for all time. As he digs for the truth he witnesses and discovers strange, terrifying, incomprehensible events, and finds evidence that is impossible for him to ignore. He finds a purpose for living once he realizes he may be the only person left alive to expose the truth.

Dean Koontz usually writes so much more than an eerie, suspense filled page-turner and SOLE SURVIVOR is no exception. He creates characters who are human, people you care about and anguish with, everyday people stuck in extraordinary situations. He's outdone himself with the character of Joe. Poor, tortured Joe. His grief is expressed so vividly I felt his sorrow and my heart broke about a million times as he's reminded of his wife and girls in nearly every thing he does.

Any book that can keep me on edge like this one did and make me care so much about a character gets my recommendation. There were a few parts that dragged a little bit but overall it was an interesting, emotional and nail-biting read.

Koontz writes an thrilling story and he continually surprises me but it's his talent for characterization that keeps him on the top of my favorite author list.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered once I got into this book that I remembered the movie based on it (very loosely based). My daughter tells me I actually tried to read it once before and laid it aside.

I can sort of see why.

For a long, long (long,long,long,long) time this book does try the patience. Our protagonist is in despair over the sudden loss of his family in a plane crash. The event is a year in the past but Joe Carpenter is still shattered.

And he tells us about it...he loses control, he creeps out strangers by stopping them when he thinks they are his lost wife and daughter...and he goes on and on (and on, and on, and on, and on,) about it all.

I really had to hold on tight to stay with the book.

There's another thing...the idea here, Koontz has done it elsewhere, and better.

A child brings spiritual enlightenment

Let me suggest that you try One Door Away from Heaven it's a far superior book and has the same basic plot idea at it's base. This one is okay...readable, not nearly Koontz's worst. It's just not all that great.

My opinion of course.

[Karen B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Koontz has a nice blend of characterization and plot in this novel. We meet Joe Carpenter who has basically given up on life after the death of his family in a plane crash a year ago. He seems to have nothing to live for. Then he meets a strange woman at the graveside of his wife and daughters taking photos of the gravestones. Why? Then he finds that she is being chased and he is under being watched as well. Why again? The reporter in him is still alive as he becomes determined to find out what is going on. Is Rose really a survivor of the plane crash? Is there more to the plane crash than what he has learned so far? How is Rose tied to his children? Joe begins his own investigation, running from the same forces that are after Rose. Is it possible that his daughter, Nina, is alive? Is there such a thing as an afterlife? Koontz once again leads us on a fascinating journey through Joe's search for the truth.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a big Dean Koontz fan, I’m always eager to dive into his book, and I’ve slowly been working my way through his backlist. Although I have found a few books I haven’t loved, I’ve enjoyed the majority. With Sole Survivor, we have a book where my rating sits in the middle.

At first, I was intrigued by this one. There were many aspects I was curious about, details that had me hooked. I was happy to power through it, turning the pages at a rapid pace. However, I did find this one dragged a bit at times. There were certain details I would have liked to see more of, certain aspects that were never given the depth I would have liked, and the ending left me wishing there had been a bit more.

All in all, there were some good ideas with this one, but it was not done as well as other Koontz book. It’s worth a read if you’re a Koontz fan, but I would not recommend it as an introduction to his work.

[Jenny Jo Weir · Rating 3 out of 5]

So...yeah about that.
Um, well...I'm not going to lie, this was a bit over my head. I mean, I think I get it but it was a tad out there and I might be a bit confused on a few things though I really liked the message in the end...at least I think I do.
Again, sorry but it left me wondering about a whole lot...and I didn't exactly like wondering what happens to the other party. Is it just me or is there a second book that gives answers? It seemed like the beginning of a series but I don't see any other books linked to this one so I'm hoping someone out there can help me figure this out or at least help me clear up the ending.
Anyways, it's a good book overall, very creative and extremely imaginative so kudos to Dean for being so open minded.

[Wesley Lebakken · Rating 1 out of 5]

wow… this book was… so bad. the whole time i felt like i was being spoon-fed info about why the characters felt how they did. every side character referenced had multiple comments about how they were attractive (as if that’s all the matters). he used so many over the top literary illustrations that were so annoyingly unnecessary so i eventually just started skipping over them. and then the ending was SO LAZY! some suspense had been built (really, really weird storyline to get there), and then it just… stops… would not recommend

[Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! My second DK book (Intensity which I loved!) and he’s batting 1000! This one only gets progressively better as you stay with it till the last part of the book where it gets mind-blowingly awesome. Can’t wait to read more of his work!

[Иван Величков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Типично произведение за Кунц, с обичайните пет лъжички захар в повече от колкото ми харесва. Все пак си заслужава трите звездички, най-малкото заради идеята, не толкова оригинална от екс мен на сам, но определено залегнала в онова кингово недоразумение "Института", което ще продължавам да се правя, че не съм чел. Още повече, че в двете глави в които описва условията в базата за надарени деца има много повече смущаващи неща от колкото в онази цялата ен-стотин страници трагедия.
Джо Карпентър е изгубил семейството си в самолетна катастрофа. От тогава депресияята разбива живота и кариерата му на разследващ журналист. Един ден засича мистериозна непозната и всичко се преобръща от надеждата, че малката му дъщеричка е оцеляла. Когато се впуска да я търси, започва да се натъква на странни феномени, а истината за катастрофара звучи все по-фантастично.

[Tgordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It was scary in a way that only Koontz can be. I always enjoy trying to open my mind to understand the higher concepts that in our world usually don’t exist. Or do they? Do people comeback from a fire and a massive aircraft crash? Joe who lost his whole family in one sure hopes so.