The Flesh In The Furnace

by Dean R. Koontz

A puppet master has his hands full when his puppets - living puppets - convince his half-witted assistant to kill him and set them free. When freed from the puppet master, who they had once thought of as cruel and thoughtless, they find themselves in what may be an even worse situation. The half-witted assistant now has their lives in his hands, and they are not so competent hands after all. They strive to free themselves once again, and find that their perfect life they'd thought they had created has turned against them.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction, Ebooks, Novels, Thriller, Science Fiction Fantasy

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Librarian'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

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of nine novels by Koontz that was first published in 1972. He was extremely prolific in his early years! It's a far-future story, set on a mostly depopulated Earth, and tells the story of a puppet-master, his deficient assistant, and the puppets who rebel. It's much more of a horror novel than science fiction and is an early examination of the Frankenstein myth and related religious themes that he would so often return to in later books. It's a short novel, but quite well written for its time compared to other contemporary genre fare. The back cover says: "Dean R. Koontz, one of the fastest-rising stars in the science-fiction firmament, has written a novel of haunting horror and icy eroticism." There you have it.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very strange and facinating early novel by Koontz. Highly enjoyable.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

** 2.6 STARS ** 47,415 words

I've now read 11 book by Dean Koontz, and most of them are very good to excellent. The Flesh in the Furnace is my first 'turkey' by Mr Koontz, unfortunately.

I found some good ideas in this one. But, for the most part, I was bored. The story kept loosing me, and my visualisations of the scene was just not there, which is not something that ever happens when I read a Koontz book.

I know he wrote some very good books in his early career. This is not one of them.

[Derek Hansen · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good idea, spoiled when the author remembered he was Dean Koontz.

[Kathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Der Lebens-Automat" ist ein älterer Sci-Fi Roman von Dean Koontz. Ich muss ganz ehrlich gestehen, dass dieses Buch schon ein wenig krank ist. :D Also ich finde die Vorstellung von lebenden Puppen zumindest sehr gruselig. Und dann kommen auch noch Spinnen im Buch vor. Ich musste mich echt überwinden, das Buch zu beenden, obwohl es nur so wenige Seiten hat. Das Thema ist so gar nicht mein Fall. Als Dean Koontz Fan wollte ich das Buch aber trotzdem lesen.

Der gute Schreibstil des Autors hat es tatsächlich im Endeffekt geschafft, dass ich das Buch sogar teilweise recht interessant finde. Die Vorstellung, das Puppen die Welt übernehmen könnten, ist zwar gruselig und abstrus, irgendwie aber auch schon wieder fast genial. So etwas muss einem erst einmal einfallen. Von mir gibt es daher 3 Sterne.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wild Koontz book from his early days. This one had so many fascinating concepts and characters. Again, I’m always more creeped out with smaller “monsters” or creatures than I am the larger ones and this one has plenty of those to go around!

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

eponymous sentence:
p47: Then he remembered the flesh in the Furnace and knew better.

The earlier it was, the harder it was also to imagine a futuristic setting. Technology's advancement is never linear.

Oh, and this book has a shitload of spiders.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½. More of a horror story than science fiction, perhaps a transitional work between Koontz's being a SF nobody and a horror writer second only to S. King. Very strange premise, but it was interesting and as an arachnophobe, very unpleasant. For some reason Koontz's early science fiction novels are hard to get. I suppose most or maybe all of them only went through a few printings; perhaps, when fame embraced him and his dumb suspense tales, he did all he could to distance himself from his beginnings. I suppose I could look all this up, but knowledge won't make the early paperbacks any cheaper. The only other one I've read is "A Darkness In My Soul," which was so excellent that it began another completist obsession that I can in no way afford.

[Shari Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This seems to be a bridge between Koontz's Sci-Fi early stuff and his signature horror of more recent vintage. I didn't really care much for this one though, there was no one to like or root for. Every character in the book was either evil, self-serving, or undeveloped. I guess I'm like Bonnie Tyler - I need a hero.

[Andrea Zanotti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carne nella fornace Dean R.Koontz romanzo del 1972, recuperato in un mercatino dell’usato dopo aver letto la sinossi, si è rivelato essere molto diverso da come mi sarei atteso. La sinossi mi aveva a dir poco estasiato. Quando ho letto di un simil Dio, un creatore di burattini dotati di attributi umani, destinati a ribellarsi al proprio dominus, non ho resistito. In realtà il romanzo è altra cosa, una sorta di horror dall’ambientazione weird, non male, ma le attese alle volte sono diaboliche, rischiano di far passare in secondo piano una buona opera, quindi prendete con le molle la mini recensione.

Diciamo che il testo è comunque invecchiato molto bene, il ritmo si fa serrato quando serve e le atmosfere cupe non mancano. Personalmente ho molto apprezzato i brevi estratti dai Testi sacri delle Vonopo, le creature aliene simili a ragni che hanno creato la Fornace della creazione/distruzione dei burattini. Righe decisamente ricche di fascino, che reinterpretano il millenario archetipo della Divinità Padre costretta a nutrirsi dei propri figli per non esserne detronizzata. Veramente ben scritte e ricche di spunti originali di riflessione. Recensione completa su: https://evasioneletteraria.blogspot.c...

[begemot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this a long time ago in the Russian translation («Кукольник»). It was a proper horror story, but I remember that I couldn’t find anyone to root for. Both the maker and the dolls were horrible and morally reprehensible.

[Stuart Lilley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read but also not a brilliant read
Was it sci-fi or was it horror.
Could have been a great horror story with the puppets

[Vanessa Rea · Rating 3 out of 5]

What in the world. But it made me think. Pretty good.

[Joe Baca · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ok read. It started out interesting and took a turn. Would I read it a second time? Maybe, but probably not.

[Nigel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not 100% sure about this book. I didn’t think it was one of Koontz’s best, even among his early works that I have been reading recently. If I was to categorize it I would have to say it was a sci-fi /horror. The basic plot is that sometime in the future there is a very sparsely populated planet earth with the majority of the population having left once the environmental problems with the planet got too bad. On the planet is a puppet master who uses alien tech to create ‘puppets’ for use in performances. These puppets are in essence living entities created using some kind of clone technology. At the end of the performances they are returned to their constituent parts and new ones created. By the end of the book these puppets have developed their self-awareness to the point whereby they begin to turn on their creator.
There are a lot of pseudo religious passages about the man-god conundrum and the perils that lie in wait for man who takes on the god like qualities of creation. There were some definite parallels between the puppets becoming self-aware and the fears of AI in current society and what happens if the creation becomes more powerful than the creator.
This was an OK book which heled to pass the time on the train, but it was nothing special.

[Xiamera · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok then. I don't know what I read. At the end it seemed to parallel the death of Christ. I was not pleased and for the majority of the book nothing made sense to me. The only thing that was clear was Sebastian had a mental disability that no one probably understood and it was to their detriment. Also, Bettina was a stone cold bitch.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very early book by Koontz. The central idea, of living puppets who overthrow their puppet master is quite interesting and the story was basically good. Koontz certainly developed into a better storyteller later, however.

[Tanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok. So, I got this as a birthday present and despite the fact it's novella length at best, took three months to read it. I loved it though. Koontz really works in nice biblical references. Of course I had to knock off one star for being slightly politically incorrect .

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't hate this. While I do think it could have had 20% or so cut, it held my interest, and the characters didn't make me want to see them all dead sooner rather than later. And that's pretty unusual for me and Koont's work so far. Certainly the best thing by him that I've read thus far.

[Takedown · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring

[Alessandro Pellizzari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Temi molto interessanti, intessuti in una trama buona ma non eccelsa, ed eccessivamente lenta.

[Jilda Davenport · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started out Good then fizzled.

[Al]

Early Koontz story of a race of living puppets doing the bidding of the Puppet Master.

[SciFiOne · Rating 1 out of 5]

1985 grade F

(might have abandoned it)

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorites by DK. Made me distinctly uncomfortable a number of times, which naturally means I loved it.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Early work and it shows. Too sci-fi for Koontz.

[Simon Gelling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than I was expecting ...weird and original story,I enjoyed it.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my favorite of his so far