Customer Reviews

From the Corner of His Eye

5 star:		(178)
4 star:		(100)
3 star:		(64)
2 star:		(48)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

I avoided Dean for a few years - couldn't get into the sun-sensitive guy. But "From the Corner of His Eye" is horrific and spiritual all at once. You will not believe how the evil guy is finally vanquished. And yet, after reading the whole book, you might.

"From the corner of his eye" refers to God's attention on us all. The book deals with alternate realities and how we just might be able to redeem ourselves in other, very closely aligned worlds, if not in this one.

And in Dean's vision, some are able to cross over - very briefly, very slightly - until the end, when a full-fledged visit is finally possible.

This book's a lot of fun, full of the very sympathetic and lovable characters for which he's known. He's trying to share something special with us here. I'm, for one, open to it.

With much misgiving I approached this new Koontz, since the last few were disappointing. Well, this one more than makes up for the gap. In this book Koontz uses his skill with characterization and gives us a jumble of characters, all realistically drawn, yet just a touch of fantastical, even magical realism to some of them.

It's a genuine book, not an "bad Army" or "bad government" book, and is quite definitely a 625 page page-turner. When the book ended I wanted more.

The only negative for this book is his scrunched ending chapters. We have come to care for these people, and he jumps ten years in about 15 pages. Even though most of the ending is pre-ordained, it would have been nice to see the characters grow.

Warning -- do NOT read the blurb on the book jacket, or it spoils a pivotal surprise. It's still exciting when it happens, but it would hae been nice to have the surprise tickle my soul.

BUY THIS BOOK! It is as wonderful as Strangers and Lightning, in a totally different sort of way, but reminiscent as strangers come together and build their community, the Koontz way.

Dean Koontz's "From the Corner of His Eye" is probably the best book ever written by a man who has had more than his share of great reads. Rare is the storyteller who excels not only at spooking us, but also at making us realize how beautiful the world and its inhabitants can be. I recommend this book whole-heartedly. Much like his other steller works, such as "Intensity" and "Lightning," Koontz takes us into the mind of an absolutely diabolical madman. However, at the other end, there are characters whose goodness makes them impossible not cheer for and care about. This novel ultimately deals with good versus evil, but other themes are present as well: dealing with loss and rediscovering faith just to name two. This may seem like too much for one novel, but Koontz weaves the story in a way that ties all ends together in a unique and interesting way. There is also a neat bit of science fiction in the novel dealing with quantum machanics. This should come as no surprise to longtime Koontz fans, as his novels have dealt with time travel in the past. ("Seize the Night" for example). However, here there are no headaches from trying to understand any theory. Koontz explans the theory in a simple and easily understandable way, as much of the explaning comes from the precocious three year olds in the novel. Again, it seems like alot, but Koontz's touch is brilliant. As I finished the book, I thought about how amazing it was that someone could think of, much less write, such a complicated story and make it smooth and endearing. Koontz quite simply has a beautiful mind. Many critics call Koontz "a poor man's King," referring to Stephen King. It should be noted that King reads and adores Koontz's work. This book shows why.

I swear, some day Koontz is going to end a story with a boy on crutches raising a Christmas toast, crying, "God bless us, every one!"

I'm a long-time Koontz fan - I started with his original Demon Seed, bought at a 7-11 in '73 - and it always pains me to have to pan him. He's been off his game since Lightning, back in '88, only rarely anymore writing up to his former glory. His characters have gone from naively charming to simply naive, and his melodrama is more often comedic than not. It's like he's regressing into a second or third childhood, or something. But he rarely writes for adults, anymore.

What's really tragic about this one is that the first seven hundred pages are wonderfully written. There are some flaws, the most notable being that the wunderkind blind hero is just too good to be true - he's not quite as bad as a one-legged eyeless leper in a wheelchair dragging himself through a snowstorm, crying, "It's all right, mama! I will bite through the trees with my teeth, that you and papa shall have enough firewood!" but he's pretty close.

But despite that, for those first, long, involved seven hundred pages, you're really hooked. And then - well, in pretty much one sentence, the whole thing comes a-tumblin' down like a cheap house of cards. And exactly at the moment that I found myself saying, "Well, at least he actually managed to write a book without a dog in it," in trotted the adorable labrador.

Cut Dean some slack. He's in some funky slump. We'll let him work it out.

Meanwhile, read any number of his other truly fabulous past titles - Phantoms, Watchers, Whispers, The Face of Fear - almost anything pre-1988. And if you want one of his better post-'88 titles, try Dark Rivers of the Heart or Mr. Murder.

Dean Koontz has done it again. Just when you think that all the ways to twist and turn a story have been used.....He twists it again. Junior Cain is as unnerving as Edgler Vess. Bartholomew is as complex as any character Koontz has brought to life. I usually take several days to read a book, but with this one, two sittings. I couldn't put it down. 'From the Corner of His Eye' is a must for all suspense fans.

This book is an interesting melange of genres. It is at once mystical, suspenseful, horror filled, part sci-fi, and tinged with the supernatural. Add to this a little boy with beautiful eyes, who is a child prodigy, gifted beyond his years, and capable of entering parallel universes or realities; a child who can literally walk in the rain without getting wet. Add yet another unusually gifted child prodigy named "Angel" who was conceived out of a violent rape. Mix in the rapist, who is also a socio-pathic killer, a priest turned cop who is aware of the existence of parallel or alternate realities, because he has the ability to send inanimate objects there, and stir in a woman whose goodness is almost legendary. What do you have? You have a best seller on your hands!

The book is a very quick, easy read. You won't want to put it down. The only real criticism is the fact that about twenty five years are crammed into the last dozen pages. It is as if the author had a limit on how long the book could be and had to have it end before it exceeded the limit. Having taken about six hundred pages to get to a certain stage, it was a little jarring to go at warp speed for the last dozen pages. Still, all in all, it is a good read.

I often wonder from what odd corner of the brain come the plots for books by writers such as Dean Koontz. The characters and the situations in his works scare the heck out of me, and how he dreams them up is just amazing. This latest book is a typical example. It grabs the reader from the first page, and the interest and excitement doesn't let up until the end. I was so interested in finding out how the work ended that I slid over huge chunks of description, and some of the dialogue, just so that I could keep pace with the story line. There are a lot of impossible things happening, but I will credit the author with tying everything up fairly neatly at the end. Ah, the end! It's been a long time since the ending of this type of book gave me such a good feeling. Usually by the end of a thriller type work I was worn out with excitemnt. This time, I felt exhilarated, happy and hopeful, and it's a tribute to the willing suspension of disbelief that Koontz brings to his book that I was able to feel this way. Read this book, and be prepared to be frightened along the way, but redeemed by faith at the end.

I have read all Mr Koontz's work, including that published under other names. I have never found Dean Koontz to be a flashy or extremely immaginative writer. What I have found him to be is absolutely reliable. He just tells a good readable story from the beginning to the middle to the end. I have never once regretted the hardcover purchase price of a Dean Koontz book. And that is high praise indeed.

This latest book, From the Corner of His Eye, is not Mr. Koontz's finest. Good and evil are too finely drawn with no in between fuzzy area where I might have felt comfortable. The evil vilian Junior Cain, a pyscho/sociopath serial killer, is so evil the only way to humanize him was to have funny things happen to him after he killed somebody. Imagine a man so rotten his own digestive system doesn't like him. The rest of the characters are so good, they are perfect, even the batty Issacson brothers pull themselves (sort of) together out of love for their sister Agnes and her astounding child Barty.

Read this book. I'm probably nitpicking here. This is a better story and Dean Koontz is a better writer than about ninety eight percent of what is out there.

I cannot remember when I have been so disappointed in a book. I read my first Koontz book over sixteen years ago and, for many years, have had enormous admiration for his large body of work.

"From the Corner of His Eye" had such great promise. The first 150 pages were terrific. And, then, it was as if Koontz forgot the basics of writing, lost his focus or just lost interest.

The contract between a "horror" or "supernatural" writer and the reader has some basic rules. Ask the readers to suspend their disbelief one time. It can be a really, really big suspension of disbelief, but it can only happen once. The theme of quantum mechanics was a marvelous one. The premise was intriguing and the lead-in promising. But, then, over and over again, Koontz introduced more and more demands for the suspension of disbelief. He had multiple prodigies, coincidences that were ridiculous and so many characters that I had trouble trying to decide who I was supposed to care about.

Had this book gone to a publisher without Koontz' name, it would never have made it past an editor. I have to believe that the editor for this book was an awed and anxious beginner fearful of offending the master.

The worst part was that there were still great moments of humor and insight interwoven with preachy, obvious ploys to capture sentiment. The good stuff kept me going when I should have given the whole thing up. The final insult was, after finally slogging my way to page 600, to find that Koontz clearly had lost interest in the project altogether. The final 20 pages rushes through the years 1968 to 1986 in a tying up of loose ends that felt both self-indulgent and arrogant on the author's part. ....

I believe I've read everything that Dean Koontz has published, and I must say that this book was quite a disappointment for me. It started out so thrilling I could not put it down, but after the first two scenes at the fire tower and the ride to the hospital, it was all too easy to lay it aside. The antagonist was such an idoitic villian he got on my nerves rather than scared me, and all the other characters were so completely perfect and saccharine sweet they had no connection to the real world where I live, where people are intriguing blends of good and not-so-good characteristics. The ending was as flat as a proverbial pancake and, overall, I just have to wonder where in left field this book came from? As a "faithful reader" of Koontz's work, I'll just wait for the next book and hope for better. (3 stars were given because of the terrific beginning.)