Koontzland - Dean Koontz discussion

This Koontz work has an especially intimidating and ruthless villain that alone makes it worth reading. The premise of long-delayed resuscitations is very interesting and well-done. I enjoyed all the characters in the book (especially the villain), except for the young girl, who really annoyed me. The thing I did not care for in this one were the very overt Christian elements. ***Spoilers*** I would have been okay with just the afterlife bits--bringing back some abilities from a brief afterlife experience--but it was overdone and unnecessary to have a specific arch angel and a specific demon possessing the two lead characters, IMO. I also was annoyed by the heat affecting the art magazine, as there was no physical aspect to their connection at any other time and their psychic bond should not affect objects around them, it was just unnecessary.

Agreed, the girl was horrible. As for the ending, as I stated somewhere, Koontz has a habit of writing himself into a corner so tight that he must use miracles and impossible convergences of circumstances just to end the book. That's nasty, because it destroys the whole pleasure of reading - you know that a meteorite or something will kill the bad guy and end titles will come up.

I really enjoyed reading Hideaway many years ago. I read it when it first came out in paperback. The villian was one of the best and made the book for me. Brutal, callous and cold...entertaining read.

Maciek wrote: "Agreed, the girl was horrible. As for the ending, as I stated somewhere, Koontz has a habit of writing himself into a corner so tight that he must use miracles and impossible convergences of circum..."

Is this where the term "divine intervention" would apply?

Yes. The action's so tight, but there is a divine intervention and all ends well.

Maciek wrote: "Yes. The action's so tight, but there is a divine intervention and all ends well."

That has occurred in several of his books I've read.

Maciek wrote: "...you know that a meteorite or something will kill the bad guy and end titles will come up."

:-D

I like Hideaway :-) I'll read it again sometime.

Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "Maciek wrote: "...you know that a meteorite or something will kill the bad guy and end titles will come up."

:-D"

This is not a joke. A thing similar to this happened in one of the books, though obviously I won't tell which one.

Maciek wrote: "This is not a joke. A thing similar to this happened in one of the books, though obviously I won't tell which one."

I'll pretend you didn't say that and hope I never come across that book. :-|

Wow, a meteorite or something killing the bad guy?? Sounds oddly familiar...

Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "Maciek wrote: "This is not a joke. A thing similar to this happened in one of the books, though obviously I won't tell which one."

I'll pretend you didn't say that and hope I never come across that book. :-| "

Don't worry. It's not a literally similar event - to my knowledge no meteorite saved the day (yet)- only something that's as absurd as this.

Hideaway chosen as September 2012 Group Read along with Sole Survivor, please feel welcome to read or re-read one or both of these titles with us :-)

Maerhys wrote: "Literally, LOL that this read, which is low on my list next to one of my all-time faves. My birthday month will make for some interesting Koontz reading."

Sole Survivor is one of your all time Favorites?

I'm surprised that you didn't care for Hideaway. Cold Fire also ranks at #4 on my list!!!!!!

Actually Life Expectancy has maintained my #1 ranking ever since I first read it and I have since re-read it a few times. Cold Fire ranks at #4 :-)

I'll have to pay attention to the politicking of characters when I re-read Hideaway :-) I have noticed this in other DK books for sure.

This one is my favorite. I have read that some people don't care for the ending but I love it. I have always been intrigued by the never ending battle between angels and demons and I believe the ending to be great. But I am sorry I cannot join this month's group read. I just found out that my library network has his early work "After the Last Race". I have never read it so I have to put that one at the front of the list.

Just finished this one! Can not believe I have missed this one as Dean Koontz is one of my fav authors. This one tops my list so far. I absolutely loved it! There is nothing better than getting inside a killers head, and DK definitely delivered on that!

this book is vintage dean in my opinion so i enjoyed every minute of it- it grabs you right from the opening chapter and keeps you riveted until the end.

imaginative story with memorable characters and a satisfying ending.

Loved this one. The villain was really disturbing. My biggest beef was the main "good guy" was kind of bland. Koontz is usually better than this at creating his heroes. A lot of the Christian mythology went right over my head; I only got it in retrospect after reading reviews. That's the risk you take with a Koontz book, I suppose. The girl was alright as those characters go (again, in a Koontz book it comes with the territory). I did not mind being inside her head because you could feel all the insecurities and it offset the super-smart annoying kid vibe that she could have so easily been giving off otherwise.

looking forward to re-reading Hideaway later this month :-)

about 1/3 of the way through this, so far very good, certainly put if high in my list of favourites (although give me a couple of months and I will have forgotten what it was about)

I'm sure there will be memorable parts that will stay with you :-) I plan to re-read Sole Survivor first. Will experience Hideaway later this month.

I just finished Hideaway yesterday. Believe or not, one of the most amusing sections was Koontz's afterward. As I have been trying to re-read Koontz, I have to buy some of them for my Kindle and I think his afterwards are well worth reading. Now as for the book itself. It's definitely not in my top ten list of favorites. In fact, when I picked it up, sure that I had read it previously, I didn't remember anything except Hatch and Lindsey's accident and Hatch's resuscitation. Regina was amusing when we first met her with her feisty attitude and referring to herself as a "cripple" but after that I found her like a part of background setting.
As for the villain, even though I learned what happened to him when he was younger I still couldn't understand his certainty or desire regarding returning to hell. And is it true that this "evil" can be caused by genetic factors. I'd rather have seen his brilliant Doctor father looking for a method of creating the solution to combat it.

Regarding the "spiritual" element in the end, I usually don't have a problem with Koontz's inclusion of some of the spiritual. As for the "Catholicism" to it I chalked it up as Koontz needing some kind of religious object for Hatch to latch onto. I can't quite see Hatch hitting the villain with a copy of the Koran or the Bible. But I think the "angel" bit weakened Hatch's standing up to the enemy. I don't mind a little supernatural help but I like heroes who mostly depend on their own wit, guts, spirituality or whatever to defeat the bad guy.

Karen B wrote: "I just finished Hideaway yesterday. Believe or not, one of the most amusing sections was Koontz's afterward. As I have been trying to re-read Koontz, I have to buy some of them for my Kindle and ..."

i enjoyed the afterword as well

really enjoyed this one, one of his books that was hard to put down

20% into it. This is one of the books I've had in Dutch for a long time and never really got into. I've read this once in English, and liked it far better. This will be the second time. Last time I read it, we had a whole discussion about the mythology behind Vassago and Uriel, there's actually a lot more to it than what Koontz puts in this book.

60% into it. Lindsey's encounter with the critic: how "Relentless" is that! :)

"She was like some princess locked in a tower, pining for a prince to climb up the vine and rescue her. The tower that served as her prison was life itself, and the prince for whom she waited was Death, and that from which she longed to be rescued was the curse of existence."

Interesting

Masha said the main good guy was rather bland. Well, if you mean Hatch, you're right, but I don't really consider him the "main" good guy. He's more like a vessel, and when you look at the whole there are only a few parts told from his point of view. It's actually Lindsey who's the main character; the book even starts with her story.

I'm kinda bummed that I missed out on this read discussion. I voted for Hideaway time and time again, and just when I wasn't paying attention, it actually gets chosen. *sigh*
It's been years since I last read it, and the two biggest things I remember are:
1. the bad guy was EVIL. Easily in my top list of bad guys, and
2. the movie was crap.

hi tanya!

you still have time to reread hideaway if you'd like to (these threads stay open so everyone can continue to discuss the book)

just an fyi -in the afterword, dean also mentioned how much he hated the movie

Tanya, I am still planning to read Hideway, but I will probably be a little behind and not get to it until the first part of October, so if you decide to still read the book, you will not be alone :-)

Thanks guys, I just might. I actually just started TickTock (yeah I'm ahead on this one instead of behind), perhaps when I'm done with that I'll post some updates in here.

i really liked this book kept you guessing till the very end! i just watched the film interpretation of it and it was shocking compared to the book, they included things that didn't happen in the book and the villain was nothing like i imagined him.
was very disappointed with it.r

i never read this book i always cross by it but never pick it up

Shangre wrote: "i never read this book i always cross by it but never pick it up"

It's actually quite good. I've only read it once. I didn't get around to re-reading Hideaway last Fall when it was featured as the group read. I would be interested in re-reading it so be sure to post in the mini-group read thread when you want to read it and I'll join you.

cool