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Post by vaughan on Jun 23, 2009 10:43:32 GMT
I bought two Koontz novels - and early one (Phantoms, as yet unread) and this one from 2004. I was not familiar with his work, and have only learned later about his aspirations and beliefs (both political and religious). As such, my view of this book wasn't at all coloured by this.
Since this is my first comment on Koontz let me list the good:
Firstly the writing style is quite good. He spends a good bit of time on descriptive work, and while no-one ought to mistake this for "literature" it is nonetheless entertaining and interesting. The descriptive work draws you into the story, and allows you appreciate what the characters are going through - his sense of place is excellent. Yet the writing is not at all stuffy, and you shouldn't get bored at any point. The pacing is good.
The plot itself goes through several cycles, and each of them is interesting. The first cycle is a rain that falls in the middle of the night, it glows slightly, and has a faint odour. The torrential downpour continues for hours, flooding cities, and affecting the small community in which the story is set.
In this time wild animals become tamed, interference blanks out much of the TV stations, and there are scary images coming from with the International Space Station - something is coming, something alien.....
In the second phase the small town congregate in a bar to talk about what they're going to do. There are those that want to wait it out, those that want hide out and protect themselves, those who want to go to war, and those that just give up and decide that getting drunk is the best policy.
The third phase is the strange growths everywhere, and a blinding fog that masks much of what is going on. There are things in the tree's, flying through the sky, and people find their mission......
to say more would be to spoil things, but suffice it to say that the book covers quite a bit of ground, and the sense of mystery is excellent. As the book rolls on more questions are raised than are answered, which keeps you turning from page to page to get to a solution.
Once that solution comes...... well again I won't write any spoilers, but personally I wanted to throw the book out of the window. It made sense to me after I'd read some biographical information about Koontz, but I didn't appreciate it. Perhaps I shouldn't use the words "made sense to me", because in reality Koontz does indeed wrap everything up, and answer all the questions. There is definitely a conclusion here, and he doesn't leave you hanging.... However, I wanted so much more, and while I know I'm reading pulpy fiction, I don't like to be cheated as I felt I was here.
I'm a bit hand strung here, because I can't tell you what bothered me without running the ending, which I won't do. Suffice it to say, I'd hoped for something a little better.
Still, the journey is good, and in places reaches all the way to terrific. Koontz can clearly write, and this 410 page novel is (mostly) a joy to read. However, given the climatic scenes, it went quickly from a 7 out of 10 to a 4 out of 10 for me.
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Post by valdemar on Aug 6, 2013 7:33:36 GMT
I have read a lot of Dean Koontz' work, and I have to say that 'The Taking' is the only one [so far] that I have disliked. It is well written, surely, and full of nice horrid detail - but it concludes pretty abruptly, and, I must stress, rather 'preachily'. Far be it for me to spoil it if you haven't read it, but people disappear either up into the sky, or are drawn down through the floor. I shall leave it up to you to make of this what you will. Having said this, Mr Koontz can write a superb story. My favourites are, in no particular order: Odd Thomas - A young man who can see dead people, and shadowy harbingers of doom; The Face - The young son of a mega film star is menaced by someone called 'Moloch'; Tick Tock - The tale of a young man threatened by a doll-like figure; Winter Moon - Starts off as a cop story, ends up as a 'something nasty in the wilds of Montana' tale; Dragon Tears - Possibly one of the best 'That boy ain't right' stories ever written; Shadowfires - What can I say but: "He meddled with things man should leave alone..."; Strange Highways - A novella, set in an area of Pennsylvania where the coalmines are afire underground, and featuring a life-changing timeslip. I enjoy reading his books, as he generally doesn't take things too seriously - not at first, anyway; his 2004 novel 'Life Expectancy' is one of the most gleefully dark books I've ever read [if you suffer from Coulrophobia, I suggest you don't read it, though.] Like Dennis Wheatley, Koontz does repeat minor details over and over: you will soon find out what his favourite Chinese meal is; his favoured target point on a 'Big Bad's' body is; and church interior architecture, with one word being favoured time and again [see if you can find the word I mean]. Despite this, his books are entertaining and fun, and, in a lot of cases, full of startling ideas. Best of all, they are very HUMAN books, and you soon get to like the heroes [and the villains too, in several cases]. Yes, I count myself as a fan.  |
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Post by mattofthespurs on Aug 6, 2013 8:17:34 GMT
I've read pretty much everything Koontz has ever written (including his early sci-fi stuff released as Ace doubles and even his very early 'erotic' novels) and I thought "The Taking" was one of the worst, most ham fisted, ill conceived, poorly written books ever written by him ("The Darkest Evening Of The Year" scoops the award for the largest pile of dog shit on his CV...and yes, 'scoops' and 'dog shit' are intentional).
If memory serves it was his next book after the superb "Odd Thomas" which made it all the more disappointing in my opinion.
"Phantoms", on the other hand, I enjoyed immensely. Certainly the first half of the book is very creepy and builds to fine crescendo.
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 7, 2013 9:52:30 GMT
I've read pretty much everything Koontz has ever written (including his early sci-fi stuff released as Ace doubles and even his very early 'erotic' novels) and I thought "The Taking" was one of the worst, most ham fisted, ill conceived, poorly written books ever written by him ("The Darkest Evening Of The Year" scoops the award for the largest pile of dog shit on his CV...and yes, 'scoops' and 'dog shit' are intentional). If memory serves it was his next book after the superb "Odd Thomas" which made it all the more disappointing in my opinion. "Phantoms", on the other hand, I enjoyed immensely. Certainly the first half of the book is very creepy and builds to fine crescendo. The only things by Koontz I have enjoyed have been the Odd Thomas books. The Taking was awful. Absolutely awful. I really can't believe how bad that book was. Odd Thomas, on the other hand, are easily enjoyable. |
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Post by mattofthespurs on Aug 7, 2013 10:22:51 GMT
I thought the first Odd Thomas book was, by far, the best Koontz book of the last 25 years and possibly his best ever.
I enjoyed the next one, "Forever Odd", but felt the series has been in a perpetual decline since.
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Post by mattofthespurs on Aug 8, 2013 12:13:51 GMT
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Post by David A. Riley on Aug 8, 2013 12:29:31 GMT
Thanks for that link!
I've watched the first few minutes and it looks excellent so far. I'll give it a whirl tonight.
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