Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've always enjoyed Dean Koontz. I haven't read a whole lot of his books...but probably a good half-dozen of them over the years, and none have ever been disappointments. However, he's managed to leave me disappointed this time. Not because this book didn't have all the elements of a really great book. It did. But simply because it never fully realizes its potential. Koontz gives a great setup. Lots of characters with rich histories...many of them rooted in deep pain. The gentle furniture maker who used to be a military assassin, the dedicated veterinarian who was the victim of mental and physical abuse for 10 years as a child, the serial killer who's only once come close to being caught and is on the hunt again...as a work for hire, and the twin who is on a gruesome mission to "become" his brother. All strong stuff. And then we've got the overriding mystery...two nearly-indescribable creatures who appear out of thin air and display nobler-than-human behavior. Why are they here? Where did they come from? And will they become guinea pigs in the labs of big, bad Homeland Security? This really is a compelling set of questions...and it takes about 7 hours and 45 minutes of the 8-hour audio book to get to this place. But then...Koontz seems to weary of the story, or run out of ideas, or something. Whatever the cause, he neatly wraps up many (but not all) of the questions he's raised so quickly that it belies the (at times plodding) pace of the earlier parts of the book. Personally, I was left wanting. There's a gentle-enough sensibility about the book...I'd even describe it as beautiful at points...that I can't believe this was a cynical attempt on the author's part to provide a setup and then not finish the job...but it comes up so short of his usual work that I still had to consider the possibility. Read the rest of the review at [...]