Dean Koontz is a rare author in that I cannot get a feel for his style. I have listened to five of his books on CD without coming to a conclusion, but I have at least decided to continue with print books...which is usually a sign I like an author more than the average run.
Breathless, which came out last year, was the first I actually read. It was a quick read, and I enjoyed it. I thought it had an interesting premise. Now, I can tell that Koontz definitely has a slightly conservative bent to his books. Sometimes there will be a politically incorrect statement that makes me chuckle. In this book, there seems to be a clear reference to some kind of higher power controlling and ordaining things. This didn't bother me, but I can at least understand some of the criticism, since the implication is that evolution is untrue and that there is a God.
Now onto Velocity, which I listened to on CD. **Possible Spoilers** Again, I thought it was a good story, but I had a number of issues. First, I really don't buy the premise than an average guy would let a situation spiral so out of control that he couldn't go to the police and would commit murder and hide the bodies, all to protect himself from being framed. I just don't know that you can justify all of his actions. What actually surprised me was the judgemental tone the protagonist (and apparently the author) takes on the issue of pornography. One character has quite a bit of bondage porn at his house. I am not an expert, but I believe this is a fairly common fetish, and that this kind of porn is legal. I can see where it would spill into the "8mm" world of extreme torture and snuff films...but it's mentioned that these are the kind of tapes you can find at any adult store. It just seems like a bit of a jump for the protagonist to say "you're sick" and basically blackmail a person into leaving a community because he himself is not aroused by the content. I am not here to argue the first amendment or any issues of exploitation of the female form. I just don't know how self-righteous you can be about what other consenting adults do on film, or who is turned on by it. Save it for your televangelism show.
OK, off my high horse. The Koontz experiment continues, and nothing is resolved.
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2 comments:
Hi, I'm Aubrey_Smith over on Gaia; I participate in the Sanctuary Guild and Book City forum and noticed you have a blog. I've read Dean Koontz quite a bit and I'm going to warn you that all of his books have a conservative bent, as well as a Christian overtones. When I read his stuff I try to ignore it because he has some good concepts in a lot of his books but there's also a lot of lemons. I recommend both Lightning and the Odd Thomas series if you want to continue to try his writing.
Thanks for the comment! I've certainly noticed the conservative bent, and have even chuckled at some of the un-politically correct comments...but I was not prepared for the self-righteous tone in Velocity.
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