Starblood

by Dean R. Koontz, Dean Koontz

This is the First Edition Paperback by Lancer (1972)

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Ebooks, Fiction

Paperback

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 4 out of 5]

Starblood is an expanded version of A Third Hand, a novelette that appeared in a 1970 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and that was subsequently included in Koontz's first short fiction collection, Soft Come the Dragons. It's one of nine novels by Koontz to be published in his very prolific year of 1972. It's a good story about an artificial man, and presages some of his post-human or augmented human themes from later, longer novels. It's a straight science fiction genre story, but a well done one in the tradition of Theodore Sturgeon or Alfred Bester, as another reviewer here has observed. The novel is dedicated "To Dad," which is interesting in light of his celebrated problematic relationship with his father. The psychedelic Charles Moll cover is very 1972. It's one of his early books that would have been worthwhile to reprint.

[itchy · Rating 5 out of 5]

full stops:
p20: "Not yet You might as well go inactive."

p46: She was tall, but that only meant her legs were marvelously long and sensual Her figure, in all areas, was perfect, with a narrow waist and full, upthrust breasts.

p58: "...Somewhere in between, so you won't run to the police to swap information for legalized status as an addict Now and then, we'll hold out until you're screaming for it--just to keep you aware of who is master here."

p84: The man sagged, passed out, slumped on the lattice of the swing seat The gun dropped out of his hand and clattered on the floor with a noise that seemed to strike the glass darkness with a hammer, although no one inside the house seemed to notice.

p100: The Brethren entered the room every day, perhaps twice a day judging by the production rate of the fluid, collected a full bottle, dumped it into the jug, replaced the bottle and left When the jug was full, they would take the PBT away to be put into small flasks and inserted into brass statuettes for distribution.

p122: His confidence abruptly eroded by the turn in fortune, Timothy frantically .flushed out his ESP power and dropped the second guard where he stood by a pine tree a hundred feet away.

p127: In the hour since he had left Leland's mind, he had faced up to this one inadequacy of his, had met it head on, and had--if only temporarily--come to terms with it There was no use wishing for what you could not have.

cement:
p91: It was an unfinished basement room with cement slapped formlessly over the earth walls.

space:
p105: They could not have been anticipating a psionically gifted mind, much like their own, to attempt to destroy their handi work.

comma:
p133: An attempt to delude himself into ignoring the very ,real moral problem that confronted him.

This is surprisingly good--maybe inferior to today's standards, but still.

PBT was first mentioned in The Crimson Witch. It was the drug that facilitated the existence of one of two worlds in that book. Here, it was given more character, and its origin was explained--if it is indeed the same.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Timothy is a result of a military artificial womb experiment that went wrong. Born limbless he had developed some small telekinetic and psi abilities as a child and was destined for dissection when the war against Asia ended. Fitted with mentally-controlled prostheses Timothy has developed his talents but not a greatly. When his friend, Leonard, a musician, and his girlfriend are murdered by a police Hound - a robotic weapon - Timothy was inhabiting a Mindlink with Leonard and witnessed the murders. Timothy suspects it is a mob kill after clues left by Leonard. Duping the killer, reputed to be one of the infamous Margle brothers, by using an android lookalike of Leonard used to distract fans, he gets enough evidence to go to the police. Then his real problems start. The police are clearly in the pay of Margle and the Brethren, and Timothy is now a marked man. Captured, beaten and fed the new and addictive drug PBT (Perfectly Beautiful Trip), Timothy discovers that PBT dampens his psi but a huge dose triggers a new part of his mind, even more powerful. Now Timothy can control others’ minds and he is out for revenge in full-on God mode. When he discovers the source of PBT however, he becomes truly alienated. Dean Koontz has padded out a 1970 novelette into a wildly implausible romp that doesn’t break any new ground.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of his better early SF novels.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starblood - Fantastic! Koontz should absolutely reprint this, boggles my mind that he makes his early scifi so hard to get ahold of.

Taking a journey in his early scifi is so much fun. Great works, not particularly, but each is unique, without fail. Lots of ideas, risk taking, total sudden shifts. Highly recommend this one, and all the others!

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old school SF story. Mutated reject from a military super-soldier project develops super powers, goes to war against the criminal organization that killed his buddy. Fun. A quick read. I had no idea Koontz wrote stuff like this,.

[Mike Marsbergen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could easily be reprinted or even expanded. Vintage speculative science fiction, and it still holds up.

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent piece of speculative sci-fi writing from the early years of Koontz’s writing career. On the surface the story tells of the life of Timothy and is developing psionic powers. Underneath this however, there are some interesting philosophical and moral discussions taking place.
Timothy is not born he is created by the US Army as part of a program to develop super-soldiers with psionic powers to help in a current war. Timothy is the only survivor of this program but is a being without most of the outward signs of being human (two eyes, arms, legs etc.). As a ‘freak’ he is shunned by a society the rather likes todays in the early years of the 21st century, sets a premium on good looks and a certain body type /shape. He has discovered minor psionic powers which have allowed him to control some type of cybernetic arms and legs.
His world is turned upside down when visiting a friend via a mind link he sees the friend has been attacked and then witnesses the wife also being attacked. A dying declaration points Timothy in the direction of the Brethren an organised crime group who have the monopoly on the current drug of the moment PBT. The rest of the book follows Timothy as he tries to bring those responsible for the death of his friend to justice, only to be thwarted by both the authorities and the larger Brethren organisation.
One thing that has always puzzled the authorities is the origin of PBT as no laboratory has managed to determine its chemical makeup or to be able to synthesise it. Where does the Brethren get the PBT from? What will happen to Timothy as his psionic skills begin to grow? Can he survive all the challenges ahead of him?
I really enjoyed this relatively short, yet easy to read novel, although I was a bit puzzled by the fact the Koontz switches seamlessly from referring to the main character as both Timothy and Ti sometimes within the same paragraph. The book explores in an entertaining way the nature of genetic engineering and the drive for the super-soldier (a good sci-fi staple), it also explores the way society treats those who either by design or accident do not conform to the current societal norms.

[Al]

Timothy was not human - not if by human you mean a man with two arms, two legs, two eyes. Of the first criteria, he had none at all; of the last, only one. And even that one was misplaced.

Timothy was born of human stock, of course - but not of woman. He was the product of the artificial wombs, a strictly military venture, and when he was born the technicians shrugged, and consigned him to custodial care. They expected him to die within five years, like most of the freaks.

It was in his third year that they discovered Timothy to be something more than human. Cheated of a normal life through his physical deformities, nature developed his brain - and talents that were peculiarly his. Talents that would help him survive in a world made for the normal people - survive, and perhaps even more!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was actually entertained more by this out-of-print early Koontz work than some of the duds he's written in the last few years. It's an entertaining tale, with plenty of suspense and the stamp of Koontz's narrative style. It's also a sign he hadn't quite matured as a writer. For some reason, he isn't satisfied with referring to the main character in the narrative as "Timothy". Every few sentences within the same paragraph, he felt the need to change it to "Ti". I read several pages before I figured out it was the same character. His mentors Theodore Sturgeon and Alfred Bester are also blatantly present, especially apparent in the final chapter. Far-fetched, but not lengthy and, again, definitely entertaining.

[Xiamera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this one was a bit better but just ok. It was another journey into a world where the World Authority ruled and experiments had been done to create weapons. I don't think I saw the ending coming but how fortuitous it was for Timothy to finally find some measure of happiness. The whole thing made a kind of twisted sense and I liked reading about the journey to a certain extent. It was a bit more grounded in reality and wasn't too bad a read.

[Jilda Davenport · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read. I always love Dean Koontz.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

probably the first sign of the modern Dean Koontz versus the old science fiction Koontz. Great story.

[Jeffrey Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a short story in Soft Came a Dragon, expanded into a novella. ESP, teleportation, psionics, all very scifi. I enjoyed the story. Short read.