Customer Reviews

Fountain Society: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was expecting a horror story at first, then was dismayed to find out that it involved the government, but was pleasantly surprised as I began reading more and more. While we do know what is going to happen to some of the characters before they know, he does a wonderful job of making us anxious for the characters without thinking they (the characters) are stupid for not seeing it sooner.

A twist at the end just added to the overall readability of the book.

Great work Mr. Craven!

My daughter brought me this book to read -- Her belief: Wes Craven = Stephen King. But to me Wes Craven = slasher movies. Wasn't I refreshingly surprised to find a well-written medical thriller that even involved a romantic twist! Mr. Craven had hidden his writing talents from people like me who don't like to see teenagers slashed! This was a terrific first novel.

You quickly learn that this is a first novel and pray to the Higher Being of choice that the "author" find his true calling. The tale is contrived, the characters are phony and the whole thing reads like one of those awful books that are nothing but expanded screeplays (you can almost hear "ACTION!"). Here's an original plot - evil scientists work in secret for years of finding IMMORTALITY. It's not what you think. They don't use drugs or DNA modification or even download your mind to a PC. No, the Fountain Society creates clones for future "use". Yes, that's correct. This stunning secret is important only because these 30 something clones serve as new hosts for our important scientist braim - never mind that these folks have families and a life. Sure it's murder but it's for the our own good so who are we to argue?

Dialogue is strictly movie fare, complexity and subtlety are not our writer's cup of tea. Characters are caricatures - growling army Colonel, eager politicians, scheming scientist, beautiful model, conflicted young student, etc. The "science" (LOL) is hokey, especially the idea that the replanted person retains memories, skills and preferences of the former brain. Now unless a recent discovery has located synapses in our bottoms or big toe, this is highly unlikely. Even more unlikely - the clones of a husband and wife meet and have an affair. He is apparently dies only we know he was kidnapped for nefarious purposes. For some insane reason, our heroine, acting on a hunch, leaves her native Switzerland for the very island where boyfriend is now walking around with a new brain. And wouldn't you know - the first night he takes a jog on the beach there she is - the woman of his (wet) dreams. They have lustful beach sex and he is torn between his old wife and hot clone (yes, it is that silly). But first we have the requisite chase scene where teams of inept military types bungle every capture attempt in a replay of Dumb & Dumber. You quickly turn pages from one airport to the next (snore)only to arrive at a Hollywood ending that can be seen a mile away. Our hero makes the ultimate sacrifice & flies into the compound at the exact moment Evil Scientist #1 was on the verge of getting his new body - drats!

I happen to be a pretty big fan of Wes Craven films-- I think he makes horror into something funny and smart-- no mean accomplishment. I suppose it's only natural that I'd be disappointed by his first attempt at a novel, given that my expectations were pretty high.

_Fountain Society_ is based on the idea of amoral scientists deciding to extend life through cloning experiments and a love affair trying to survive through all the associated horror. The book begins *very* slowly and is full of clunky cliches and most of the major plot points are easy to guess. It did start to redeem itself by the end-- Craven started to get more of a feel for his characters and express more of the complexity that makes him such a good filmmaker. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough to save the novel as a reading experience.

I *will* read a next novel, should there be a next novel, but I'd definitely take a miss on this one.

If Fountain Society is about facing one's mortality andconsidering the prospect of living for an eternity then I know how thebook's central character Dr Peter Jance feels. This book is dreadful and took me a lifetime to read, and they were wasted years. Fountain Society is a poorly constructed hack job, although kudos should go to Wes Craven for getting the words orgasm and Wizard of Oz into the same sentence.(He gets the star for that) The main flaw of this book is that after a superb opening Craven goes on to give the reader the whole plot from the get-go, we know more than the heroine, so we spend our time reading about her trying to discover the mystery. WE KNOW IT! The clever twists? Big deal, Every plot point is signposted in advance, so who cares? The characters are one dimensional, from the mad scientist to the beautiful and intelligent model this is nothing we haven't read before in hundreds of Michael Crichton/Philip Kerr's books. The dialogue reads like it was lifted from a bad 50s B-movie. If you want an excellent thriller about cloning, its morality and repercussions then read SPARES by Michael Marshall Smith. It is truly excellent

This is a pretty well-written debut novel from film auteur Wes Craven, though it loses points for lacking originality and for having the feel of a quickie book that was tailored for purposes of a future screenplay. Craven certainly knows how to weave an intricate plot and he can stage plenty of exciting action and suspense. However, Craven took a real wrong turn upon writing this novel because he turned away from his core strengths (horror and the surreal) and embarked on a completely typical techno-thriller of the long-overdone Crichton/Cook/Clancy strain. In short, we have a conspiracy of corrupt government scientists who will stop at nothing to reach their evil goals, while a small circle of righteous good guys try to save the world. It's been done - a lot.

Granted, Craven's fictional conspiracy is quite creative, as the evil eggheads have concocted a unique method of achieving their own immortality (though there are a few too many incredible coincidences and implausible leaps of logic). Unfortunately the majority of the novel depends on stock thriller stereotypes, like the single formerly corrupt scientist who suddenly develops a conscience, the saboteur working from the inside and mysteriously helping the protagonists, the robotic government spooks who serve as the bad guys, the innocent woman who gets mixed up in the conspiracy against her will but becomes the (un-)surprisingly valiant heroine, the brutal bureaucrat who keeps the money flowing, and the evil genius who refuses to contemplate his actions. These template characters rarely rise above the shallow and behave as would be expected in a novel of this genre, regardless of the rather unique travails they face as parts of the backdrop conspiracy. Meanwhile, the action leading up to the climax is fairly exciting, but once again there are very few surprises and Craven is unable to move beyond stock screenplay suspense devices. As a filmmaker, Wes Craven is known for trying new things, even if they don't always work. But in his first stint as a novelist, all he did was competently replicate the shopworn ideas of others. [~doomsdayer520~]

The story was good, but I felt that it skipped around a lot and it seem's that their was something missing. Maybe I'm just used to more intense story writing, like Dean Koontz, and John Saul. I feel this book would be better as a movie. Wes Craven is good at that. Fountain Society is worth reading. I guess for a first novel it's not that bad.

I have always seen Wes Craven as the best director of horror movies or thrillers. He is just different as Clive Barker who just tries to shock you with the most disturbing images you can think of. And altough this can be very frightening (I almost got sick when I saw "Lord of Illusions") even though his movies are NOT B-movies like the other horror flicks, it's not exactly my kind of horror movies.

But Wes Craven has something different. He can make a movie scary but not unpleasant to watch. He is also pretty original.

That's also why I wanted to read this book. This, and because I heard that Wes is going to make a movie of it. And this book reads exactly like a movie. I think because he is a movie-director he knows what you can show in a movie or not and what works and what not. But I could almost visualize how this movie would be going to look like.

If you are going to read this book, it is for the best that you don't know much about the story but just the plot. Because there are a lot of strange twists and very original things which you just HAVE to find out by reading.

Though there is one comment on this book. Wes Craven is well known as a horror/thriller director and this story doesn't have much opportunety's to be gory. It also has much romance (!) which you wouldn't expect from Craven. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely don't have a problem with this but to make this book still enjoyable for his fans he puts in some characters which don't realy matter for the story but just to get killed in a bloody way.

Though still, I'm realy looking forward to the movie or his next book!

One would never think Wes Craven could be justifiably be accused of being pedantic. However, there is a feeling here that this story could have been ghost written by a student in Creative Writing 101 at Hooterville U.

When I heard Wes Craven had written a novel, I wasn't sure what to expect. I've always enjoyed his movies, but...a novel? I heard him discuss it in a TV interview and was curious enough to take a chance on "Fountain Society." I'm so glad I did. This novel is not only intelligent and well-researched, it's fast-paced and thoroughly entertaining. He approaches the subject of cloning with realism, yet tells his story in a way even lay readers will find fascinating. His characters are well-developed and intriguing--I was especially taken with Alex, whom I hope Mr. Craven will bring back in another novel. I hope there will BE another novel from this enormously talented writer/director.