Koontzland - Dean Koontz discussion

Sole Survivor has been chosen as a September 2012 Group Read along with Hideaway. Please feel welcome to join us for one or both of these group reads :-)

Already starting Hideaway just need to get Sole Survivor

read sole survivor years ago and really don't remember it- just ordered hideaway from the bookstore-can't wait!

I'm going to request Sole Survivor audiobook from the library. I own a paperback of Sole Survivor but I need an audiobook to help me get through it :-)

i read sole survivor a few weeks ago and loved it! will definitely be taking part in this discussion:)

Just started sole survivor today...OMG! Cant wait to discuss with y'all!

I gotta get off the computer and read some books so I can get to Sole Survivor - got a few ahead of it in the reading line up.

I got it a few days ago and started it. And I happen to finish it the same night. It was awesome. I couldn't put it down.

That is a lot of pages in one day Ross! Glad you enjoyed Sole Survivor :-)

Just found this one today at the used bookstore...got it for a whole 15 cents! Lol!

15 Cents?!!! That's insane! Did you use some kind of coupon scam?

I got my Sole Survivor hardcover in local second hand clothes store(in periferal town of Latvia) , where they used to sell also books and dvds from UK. It did cost 0.7 our local moneys, that would be about 1.27 USD. I also got The Vision there. But 15 cents... I agree, thats insane! That's in price of 3 boxes of matches here.

I've read it so many times (well, I've read all Koontz so many times, lol!) At least I'm glad I've gotten Billy Zane out of my head while reading it, ha!
I've started it last night, only on page six, and already I feel a stronger connection to Joe Carpenter than ever.

"He was surprised that he was still not dead after all this time. He was not alive either. Somewhere between. Halfway in the journey. He had to find an ending, because for him there could never be any going back."

This is so me right now ...

No, no scam. Just a local used bookstore. A lot of the Koontz books I own came from that place and were also 15 cents!

Christopher wrote: "No, no scam. Just a local used bookstore. A lot of the Koontz books I own came from that place and were also 15 cents!"

It is a good place.

"Being angry with Creation was pointless. Raging at the imagined occupant of some celestial throne was wasted effort, as ineffective as throwing stones to extinguish the light of a star. People, however, were a worthy target of his rage."

I just checked this one out from my library's digital selection. It will be my first time reading an ebook period! I have been wanting to read this since I saw part of the mini series on TV.

I would like to see the tv mini series.
I wouldn't mind using an ereader but I bought mine at Borders before they went bankrupt and the ereader I have is a piece of sh*t called Alluratek, so e-reading is not a convenient option for me at this time.

"The Zero Point was the instant from which every future event would be dated, the eye blink during which crushing loss reset your internal gauges to zero. It was the moment at which your shabby box of hopes and wants - which had once seemed to be such a fabulous chest of bright dreams - was turned on end and emptied into an abyss, leaving you with zero expectations. In a clock tick, the future was no longer a kingdom of possibility and wonder, but a yoke of obligation - and only the unattainable past offered a hospitable place to live."

"Hope is a bird that always flies, the light that always dies, a stone that crushes when it can't be carried any farther."

Sounds about right.

Here's a difficult lesson to learn:

"Love is worth the risk of loss. Anger harms no one more than he who harbors it. Both bitterness and true happiness are choices that we make, not conditions that fall upon us from the hands of fate. Peace is to be found in the acceptance of things that we are unable to change. Friends and family are the blood of life, and the purpose of existence is caring, commitment."

So what? Just suck it up and make yourself happy? If you pretend for long enough that you're okay on your own, you'll one day start to believe yourself? How do you accept a solitary existence and be happy about it even?

Let's have fun a little bit:

"Once, when cornered by a pinwheel-eyed man who insisted that the mayor of Los Angeles was not human but a robot controlled by the audio animatronics department at Disneyland, Joe had lowered his voice and said, with nervous sincerity, 'Yes, we've known about that for years. But if we print a word of it, the people at Disney will kill us all.' He had spoken with such conviction that the nutball had exploded backward and fled."

I dont remember the TV mini series very well but what I do remember of it was great. I recommend it.

I just started reading it! I am using my phone as a kindle ereader with the Kindle App. Its not the best since its screen is so much smaller than an actual ereader but it does get the job done especially when it is a free ebook.

I have a book to finish before I start Sole Survivor, but I'll catch up with you all soon :-)

Finished it!

I've read this book many times before, but I did get much more out of this book during this reading. The story of loss, of being left behind alone in the world, of losing all hope ... it's not only applicable to death.

Koontz writes a decent mystery, a conspiracy with supernatural elements, and a first example of his religiously tinted stories in which he seems to be looking for heaven in an alternate dimension.

The first time I read this I wasn't really into it, but loved it the second time around. I think the bleak tone threw me off at first. I've always thought of this as his most depressing novel. But good because of it. So many of his novels have some version of a wisecrackin' protagonist. This is one of the books where DK surprised me.

I'm just wondering what everyone else's opinions on this book are? While I love the creepy, sometimes gory elements that Koontz brings to his novels, this one was disturbing on a whole other level. The gory parts were minimal compared to his other novels (The Taking comes to mind), but when everything starts coming together at the end it feels even creepier than the usual scary things. I felt that the story itself, and what was behind all of the events, was so twisted. I have not read many Koontz books yet, but this was absolutely one of my favorites. I would love to hear what you think!

I found it intriguing :-) Wouldn't mind re-reading Sole Survivor - it's been a while.

Sole Survivor is in my top 10 favorites of DK!!

FYI: The STEPHEN KING FANS Group is reading SOLE SURVIVOR During the Month of October 2015. If you need more Koontz, this is something to consider :-)

That's interesting.....and cool