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The Eyes of Darkness
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Stand Alone Novels 1980-1985 > The Eyes of Darkness (Group Read - February 2014)

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message 1: by Jaice (last edited Jul 15, 2010 02:46PM) (new) - rated it 4 stars

Jaice Cooperrider (plasborgma) | 1299 comments I enjoyed this novel, for the most part, and would recommend it. It is a great tale of a mother and her lost son. Though there was some social commentary on Koontz's behalf woven into the dialog and behaviors of the characters, I didn't find it overdone, like it is in some of his novels. ***Spoilers*** Some of the things that detracted from the story are the typical unrealistic romance contained in many Koontz novels and the plot device of remote psychic powers (specifically, remote telekinesis and remote telepathy). I would have been more forgiving of this had the boy not been described as having some psychic abilities well before his being abducted and experimented on in the secret government facility, rather than developing the abilities only after the experimentation (which is portrayed as having augmented his existing abilities). If that were the case, then it would be like the psychic powers in By the Light of the Moon, which also rubbed me the wrong way, because the type of scientific interventions described (injection of nanobots) would not lead to the fanciful psychic abilities described in that novel. So, even if the boy had developed his abilities only after being injected with the engineered virus, I would not have been fully satisfied, but more so than I am by the fact that the virus only served to augment existing psychic abilities. Finally, the only evidence of the boy's having psychic powers before the experimentation is that he was really good at Black Jack at a young age. :-/


message 2: by Maciek (last edited Jul 16, 2010 04:48AM) (new) - rated it 1 star

Maciek (pan_maciej) | 666 comments I'm glad you liked it, as it is one of my least favorite Koontz books. I had high hopes because it was written in the 80's, just after The Voice of The Night, whioch you know I enjoyed immensely. But this...this is just plain bad.

SPOILERZ - the whole thread contains spoilers, so if you pl;an to read the book you better do so before reading our posts.

Koontz has more often than not been compared to Danielle Steel, and this book is a good example why. Read this:

She felt as if the two of them had been here, like this, locked in an embrace, many times before.
"We hardly know each other," she said.
"Is that the way you feel?"
"No."
"Me, neither."
"I know you so well."
"For ages."
"Yet it's only been two days."
'Too fast?" he asked.
"What do you think?"
"Not too fast for me."
"Not too fast at all," she agreed.
"Sure?"
"Positive."
"You're lovely."
"Love me."

This dialogue is so poorly written that I dare to say even miss Steel would have carried it better. Koontz is just plain horrbile at human relationships and here he is at his worst.

"Tina realized that she had been wrong to think that celibacy should be a part of her period of
mourning. Just the opposite was true. Good, healthy lovemaking with a man who cared for her would
have helped her recover much faster than she had done, for sex was the antithesis of death, a joyous
celebration of life, a denial of the tomb's existence." - yeah mom...sorry your kid died, but I guess the sex made it all better huh?

Also with the phrase "Project Pandora" all suspense literally dies because it's obvious that the boy is alive, trapped in Koontz's usual government conspiracy. And the denoumenent ? Don't even kid me. If the boy can crash helicopters and make guns not work with his mind I deduce by the basics of logic that he could escape from the lab on his own, but then the evil scientist wouldn't have the chance for redemption and tying himself up (what?) and his mom wouldn't have the chance to shag the perfect, handsome detective. Also, he could write something less cryptic than "NOT DEAD" on the chalkboard.

The basic premise is good, but Koontz totally butchers it up by his usual poor characterization and foray into the field of government conspiracy. I won't even mention his resolution of the story because it's a deus ex machina of such proportions that makes me wonder how this got published, since it was 1981 and he was not yet a bestselling writer.


Jaice Cooperrider (plasborgma) | 1299 comments Maciek wrote: "I'm glad you liked it, as it is one of my least favorite Koontz books. I had high hopes because it was written in the 80's, just after The Voice of The Night, whioch you know I enjoyed immensely. B..."

I agree with all your criticisms, but they were not enough to ruin it for me as they were for you.


Maciek (pan_maciej) | 666 comments Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "I agree with all your criticisms, but they were not enough to ruin it for me as they were for you. "

I'm glad to hear that, but at the same time I'm a bit sad because I really hoped we could bash this together. Doh ! But there's still time...and books.


Jaice Cooperrider (plasborgma) | 1299 comments Maciek wrote: "I'm glad to hear that, but at the same time I'm a bit sad because I really hoped we could bash this together. Doh ! But there's still time...and books."

Yes, you've yet to read Breathless, which will provide all the mutual bashing we will ever need, trust me. I'm sure we'll have fun with Your Heart Belongs to Me, The Darkest Evening of the Year, and likely others. ;-)


Maciek (pan_maciej) | 666 comments Ha ha. Actually the first chapter of Breathless shows much promise. I'll have to look for it at my thrift store.
Do read The Darkest Evening of The Year - it's awful. However considering your opinion on The Eyes of Darkness I'm not so sure about mutual bashing of this title.
But a day without making a Koontz fan angry is a wasted one ! So I hope for the best.


Jaice Cooperrider (plasborgma) | 1299 comments Maciek wrote: "Ha ha. Actually the first chapter of Breathless shows much promise. I'll have to look for it at my thrift store.
Do read The Darkest Evening of The Year - it's awful. However considering your opin..."


I would say the first 60% of Breathless shows promise, but I doubt you'll like it after the first 10% or 20%. I'm pretty sure I'll dislike TDEotY, based on the few tidbits my aunt revealed about it a couple years ago.


Maciek (pan_maciej) | 666 comments Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "Maciek wrote: "Ha ha. Actually the first chapter of Breathless shows much promise. I'll have to look for it at my thrift store.
Do read The Darkest Evening of The Year - it's awful. However consid..."


Believe me, that novel made me think that Dean Koontz is propably content sitting at his house, lovingly petting his dog and slowly going insane.


Jaice Cooperrider (plasborgma) | 1299 comments Maciek wrote: "Believe me, that novel made me think that Dean Koontz is propably content sitting at his house, lovingly petting his dog and slowly going insane."

:-D


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Maciek wrote: "Believe me, that novel made me think that Dean Koontz is propably content sitting at his house, lovingly petting his dog and slowly going insane.
"


Thanks for making me laugh once again Maciek :-)
I haven't read Eyes of Darkness yet, but it sounds like a good story to me.


Maciek (pan_maciej) | 666 comments Dustin wrote: "Thanks for making me laugh once again Maciek :-)
I haven't read Eyes of Darkness yet, but it sounds like a good story to me. ."


LOl, no problem. I'd laught too if I didn't take it as a n actual possibility. ;)


Jenna (bookworm12186) Dustin Crazy wrote: "Maciek wrote: "Believe me, that novel made me think that Dean Koontz is propably content sitting at his house, lovingly petting his dog and slowly going insane.
"

Thanks for making me laugh once a..."


Haha that was a funny remark. i think its true of all writers.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
The Eyes of Darkness will be featured as a mini-group read beginning in February. We are still waiting for a specific start date, but if you're interested in reading this please join Nora, Lez and myself - we'd love to have you.


Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments I got my copy yesterday :)


message 15: by Lez (new) - rated it 3 stars

Lez (BigKoontzFan) Finished The Servants of Twilight earlier than i expected so am now ready for my Eyes to be filled with Darkness :)


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Alrighty Then. I will have to make this the next Dean Koontz book that I read :-)


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
I'm sure you're not really banned. If you pay your fines they will let you check out books again. How many times have you read this one?

I've never read this book. I haven't read the Servants of Twilight either - I am having lots of new Koontz experiences lately.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
I have now started The Eyes of Darkness :-)
The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz


message 19: by J.S. (new) - rated it 4 stars

J.S. Bailey (jsbailey) | 177 comments This is the first Koontz book I ever read! My sister-in-law bought it for me for my birthday a few years ago and I was thinking, Who is this Koontz guy, and why did you buy me his books? (She also bought me The Taking.) I have now read about 20 of his books. Thank God for sisters-in-law!


message 20: by Lez (new) - rated it 3 stars

Lez (BigKoontzFan) Only on chapter 9 so far, it has got off to a rather slow start and hasn't really sucked me into the story yet which most of Koontz's books usually do by the first or second chapter. Hoping it picks up the pace and hooks me soon.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
NOT DEAD


Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments finished this last night.
It does start out slow but picks up quite nicely, imnsho.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
In your not so humble opinion :-) Had you read this one before?

I hope I end up liking it a bit better than The Key to Midnight which I just read and which was also originally written under the name Leigh Nichols. The audiobooks even have the same narrator, Tanya Eby, Brilliance Audio.


message 24: by Nora aka Diva (last edited Feb 05, 2012 08:53AM) (new) - rated it 4 stars

Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments Yes, I had but it was a long time ago.
I like EOD better than TKTM, I will say that in this one Koontz isn't totally anti-scientists. Well, not all of them, yet. If that makes sense.


Jaice Cooperrider (plasborgma) | 1299 comments Nora aka Diva wrote: "...I like EOD better than TKTM, I will say that in this one Koontz isn't totally anti-scientists. Well, not all of them, yet. If that makes sense."

I like it quite a bit more than TKtM. In terms of scientists, this one is similar to Sole Survivor, because (view spoiler).


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
This book is making me laugh during times when it's not meant to be funny :-)


Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments It's NOT meant to be funny? Ohhh. huh, well at least I'm not the only one who laughed reading it then.
:)


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Did anyone else notice the use of Koontz's pen names in chapter 14 for the law practice?
Elliot Stryker says:
"I'm one of the founding partners of Stryker, West, Dwyer, Coffey, and Nichols. We're one of the largest law firms in town. I can't take a whole lot of credit for that. We were lucky. We were in the right place at the right time. Owen West and I opened for business in a cheap storefront office twelve years ago, right at the start of the biggest boom this town has ever seen...."


Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments Yeah that gave me the giggles. :)


message 30: by Lez (new) - rated it 3 stars

Lez (BigKoontzFan) It's been a few days since i last picked this one up, left it at chapter 9 which was a mistake because that's where it started to pick up the pace, i'm at the start of chapter 14 now and i'm thoroughly intrigued, wondering who, what and where those messages are coming from, i think i'm going to really enjoy the rest of this story.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Chapter Nine is my favorite chapter - a whole 2 pages long :-)


message 32: by Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado (last edited Feb 08, 2012 10:34AM) (new) - rated it 3 stars

Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
(view spoiler)


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
This book is so laughably ridiculous. I'm nearly done and debating between 2 and 3 stars.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
As this has progressed, I think I will end up rating the The Key to Midnight higher than The Eyes of Darkness. This is turning into a disappointment for me :-(

Hoping for a good ending.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Okay I will give it 3 stars, but I thought it ended rather abruptly and tend to agree with our friend Maciek on the points he made earlier in this thread :-)


message 36: by Nora aka Diva (last edited Feb 08, 2012 04:23PM) (new) - rated it 4 stars

Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments I liked this better this time around. (view spoiler)

It surprised me how much I had forgotten between the first time I read EOD and rereading it.

but I will concede that I can understand why some wouldn't enjoy the book as much as I did.


message 37: by Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado (last edited Feb 08, 2012 04:21PM) (new) - rated it 3 stars

Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Nora, can you mark that first part of previous comment as spoiler? :-) Thanks Much. (view spoiler)


Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments Done, sorry wasn't thinking.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
AL wrote: "I thought...never mind. I won't say what I would have done with the ending."

No, please tell us, just mark it as a spoiler :-)


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Don't you think it ended abruptly?


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Nora aka Diva wrote: "Done, sorry wasn't thinking."

Thanks :-)


Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "Don't you think it ended abruptly?"

A bit I suppose but I didn't care, since (view spoiler)


Jaice Cooperrider (plasborgma) | 1299 comments I think a good ending might have been if (view spoiler).


message 44: by Nora aka Diva (last edited Feb 08, 2012 06:55PM) (new) - rated it 4 stars

Nora aka Diva (DuctTapeDiva) | 246 comments Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "I think a good ending might have been if [spoilers removed]."

I wouldn't have like that at all. however I would have liked it if (view spoiler)


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
I like happy endings and I'm happy with the way it ended except it seemed very abrupt as soon as the action was over that's all :-) but Nora, I know what you mean, the end result was achieved. I'm just used to Koontz's more recent books and a little more wordy elaborate philosophical endings. It was just action, action action (view spoiler) and then as soon as the action was over we have this short & sweet conclusion:
(view spoiler)
It's okay - I'm just used to more story after the big finale. Y'all sure had some creative alternative endings. If I ever think of alternative ending that I would have like better I will surely post it here, but I'm not sure that I'll be giving it much more thought. :-) but I may surprise you.


Jaice Cooperrider (plasborgma) | 1299 comments Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "...it seemed very abrupt as soon as the action was over..."

Agreed.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Oh goody - it's so fun when we agree on something :-) when I met Dr.Dombey, I thought of you.


message 48: by Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado (last edited Feb 08, 2012 09:38PM) (new) - rated it 3 stars

Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
When I started hearing about Dr. Tamaguchi, I kept thinking of my Tomagotchi which I had in High School. I had another Giga Pet too and one time I got in trouble in class because my Giga Pet went off when it needed attention. My friend's mom used to take care their Giga Pets while they were in school. She kept them in her pocket. If you don't know what a Tomagotchi or Giga Pet is click here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giga_Pet
FYI: before these were invented, we had pet rocks.
Information on Pet Rocks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Rock
I think I am now dating myself when I admit I played with rocks before the digital age.


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
The Eyes of Darkness will be featured as our February 2014 Group Read :-)


Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl (dustpancrazy) | 6121 comments Mod
Did anybody read The Eyes of Darkness this month? I was reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I still might get to The Eyes of Darkness the first part of March.


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