krankins2

Just wondering which of his books you find most enjoyable, my favorites are

1) Dragon Tears
2) Lightning
3) The Door to December
4) Intensity
5) Hideaway

Also, some of these books could turn into great films (although Hideaway and Phantoms weren't exactly great films). So why haven't more of his books been used for the big screen? I think one reason may be is that the plots are simply too dense to translate into a 2 hour time frame, and I am not a big fan of turning them into tv series like Stephen King's The Stand or It.

Bean-si

My Dean Koontz Phase finished about 10 years ago but I do remember enjoying the following immensely:

1). Strangers
2). Twilight Eyes
3). Phantoms

I've tried to read From the Corner of His Eye (Is that the right title? I having a bad title day!) but it was too much like hard work.

movielib

1. Dark Rivers of the Heart
2. Dragon Tears

After those my other favorites in no particular order:

Mr. Murder
Lightning
Midnight
Phantoms
The Bad Place

Nighthawk

1) Strangers
2) Fear Nothing
3) Seize the Night
4) Intensity
5) The Servants of Twilight

Xytraguptorh

Intensity
Watchers
Phantoms
Hideaway

That's all I can think of now, though I've read some of this others and enjoyed them.

cineman

Watchers
Dragon Tears
Dark Rivers of the Heart
Intensity
Mr. Murder


Some of his latest have been weak (Soul Survivor, From the Corner of His Eye). I hope he's not losing it. Maybe it's the toupee.

Skywa|ker

I was a big fan at first, but after about the sixth book I started finding that I was figuring out the plot path before I reached the half-way point. At that point I stopped reading... I don't like it when things get too predictable.

woofman

I just finished reading my first Koontz novel "From the corner of His Eye" and was impressed. From the sound of everyone's comments though some of his older work is much better. I'm starting "The Door to December" today look forward to the others way down the road. I take forever to finish a book...

cooper2000

I really enjoyed:
Hideway,
False Memory
Cold Fire

Kelvecion

I liked in particular:

Phantoms
Whispers
Lightning
Shattered
Dark rivers of the heart

Not many I didn't like.

Over all fave: Phantoms

BoatDrinks

Questions for Koontz fans:

Though I have read tons of books, I have never read a Koontz novel. Who does he compare to style-wise and story-wise? Are all his books alien related stories? Does he have a series with a recurring lead or characters?

If I was to read my first Koontz book, what would you recommend?

DodgingCars

I probably haven't read enough authors to compare his writing style to another -- but story-wise he's comparable to Stephen King's horror books. I would say most of his book aren't alien related at all -- they just deal with different areas of horror, the supernatural, etc.

There is no series with recurring characters as far as I know.

My biggest problem with Koontz and the reason I finally stopped reading him -- is because after you have read a couple of his books, you've sort of read them all. He also has a horrible habit of screwing up the endings. The first 3/4ths of his books will totally draw you in and keep you turning the pages -- and then it's like he has no idea how to end the story and I usually end up unsatisfied with the conclusion. He also seems to use similar characters -- there seems to always be a guy main character, a girl main character, and a little kid. And the guy and girl always end up together.

movielib

I agree Koontz somtimes has trouble with endings. I think the most prime examples of that are Cold Fire and Hideaway, books that started great and fell apart at the end.

But I think some of his books have great endings. Books where the original premise is followed through to a logical and satisfying conclusion include Dark Rivers of the Heart (my personal favorite), Dragon Tears, Lightning, Midnight, Mr. Murder and many more.

Regarding his characters: there is a lot in what you say about that. But you forgot the dog. There's usually a dog.

I think it's almost impossible to pigeonhole Koontz. Although he is almost always portrayed as a horror writer, many of his books do not really fit into horror. Phantoms I would call horror; Lightning is sci-fi time travel with twists you've probably never run into before; Strangers is sci-fi aliens[/b]; Mr. Murder is kind of sci-fi cloning with a bit of supernatural telepathy and a large thriller element; Demon Seed (both the original and the revised version) is an A.I. run amuck thriller; Dark Rivers of the Heart has nothing of sci-fi or horror or anything supernatural at all; it is a straight thriller and one of the very best I've ever read. Intensity is a serial killer thriller with woman in danger hero. I can't even begin to describe what genre Midnight might fit into.

As far as recurring characters, I believe he has done that only once, with Fear Nothing and Seize the Night. Personally, I did not care much for these books.

As far as what to read first, looking at this thread I see so many different lists of favorites it's obvious we all have different opinions and I don't know what you'd like. So I'll recommend that you read something from my list in my first post in this thread.

krankins2

movielib - you beat me to the dog comment, so true!

DodgingCars

See, I didn't like the ending to Midnight. That's the one with the mysterious murders in a small town, right? Oh wait.. that really doesn't narrow it down -- does it.

I haven't read the others you mentioned, but I have Dragon Tears at home -- maybe I'll read it.

It's been awhile since I've read him -- I forgot about the dog.

You've obviously read more Koontz than me. I've only read about 5 or 6 of his books. And despite what my earlier post may have suggested, I enjoyed the books. I'm just usually unsatisfied with his endings.

David_M

I used to be a big fan of his, but I haven't liked any of his books that I've read in the last couple of years. Here some that I really enjoyed and could highly recommend:

Phantoms - I think this is my favorite of his, don't judge it by the movie that was really lame.

Nightchills - This one is really good, it's about a government experiment in a small town using drugs in the water supply to control the minds of the townspeople. Of course the head of the project turns out to be a pervert and wackiness ensues

Darkfall - I liked this one, but not everyone does. I don't remember if Phantoms or this came first, but you can see the pattern of most of Koontz's later books start to emerge. Man, Women, a couple of kids battling the forces of evil But I still like it, it has little monsters what's not to like

movielib

Dragon Tears is my second favorite Koontz book. It's one of the most chilling novels I've ever read.

One particular thing that a character does has left me with one of the most chilling images that I have in my mind and I will not forget it as long as I live (although this is a relatively minor incident in the book, given all that is going on, it so typifies something about the character to me). If you read the book I'll bet you'll know what I am talking about.

And not to be overlooked is the fact that Dragon Tears has the best of all the Koontz dogs. Really.

Geofferson

I really enjoyed Intensity and Mr. Murder.

TheOne

Phantoms
Lightning
Night Chills
Watchers
Darkfall

I like his earlier books better than his recent ones. They should of more "thriller" than horror. Sort of more Stephen Kingish.

cineman

I, too like his earlier work.

My favs:

Watchers
Dark Rivers of the Heart
Intensity
Dragon Tears
The Bad Place

most recently: False Memory

AGuyNamedMike

I've read half a dozen of his books and liked Shattered the best. As has already been said, after awhile the books seem to be just rehashes. I also noticed that he seems to write for a specific demographic, unmarried women 25-45, of which I am not a member.

Braddok

I have a Koonz book that I have not gotten around to reading yet. I think it's called Funhouse. Anyone have a comment on how it is? Noone seems to have mentioned it yet

madara

Christopher Snow novels! It has to be one of longest and most painful waits I ever had. I only enjoy about .05 percent of books out there and this series is definitely one of them!

Cedar

Braddock, I think Funhouse would fall in the category of lesser quality when viewing Koontz's work. I have read about 20 plus books of his and he was the author who I began my reading interest with. I haven't read his last few books because my reading interests have turned to regular fiction and mysteries. But he is a prolific writer with many good reads many have already mentioned in this thread. Hit a used book store in your area and try some of the ones mentioned. If they arn't your cup of tea you won't have invested much. One thing I always liked about his stuff is that you usually are off to the races from the first couple pages. His books are usually very fast reads and interesting.

My personal favorites are Watchers, Intensity, Dark Rivers of the Heart, Mr. Murder, Midnight, Lightning and Whispers.

kcdny

False Memory was my fave
Tick Tock was the worst