Frankenstein: Lost Souls [Hardcover]

Dean Koontz (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 15, 2010

#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz brings his fertile imagination and unparalleled storytelling abilities to one of the most timeless—and terrifying—creations in all of fiction: the legend of Frankenstein. In Lost Souls, Koontz puts a singular twist on this classic tale of ambition and science gone wrong and forges a new legend uniquely suited to our times—a story of revenge, redemption, and the razor-thin line that separates humanity from inhumanity as we consider a new invitation to apocalypse. 
 
The work of creation has begun again. Only now things will be different. Victor Leben, once Frankenstein, has not only seen the future—he’s ready to populate it. Using stem cells, “organic” silicon circuitry, and nanotechnology, he will engender a race of superhumans—the perfect melding of flesh and machine. With a powerful, enigmatic backer eager to see his dream come to fruition and a secret location where the enemies of progress can’t find him, Victor is certain that this time, nothing and no one can stop him.

It is up to five people to prove him wrong. In their hands rests nothing less than the survival of humanity itself.

They are drawn together in different ways, by omens sinister and wondrous, to the same shattering conclusion: Two years after they saw him die, the man they knew as Victor Helios lives on. Detectives Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison; Victor’s engineered wife, Erika 5, and her companion Jocko; and the original Victor’s first creation, the tormented Deucalion, have all arrived at a small Montana town where their old alliance will be renewed—and tested—by forces from within and without, and where the dangers they face will eclipse any they have yet encountered. Yet in the midst of their peril, love will blossom, and joy, and they will discover sources of strength and perseverance they could not have imagined.

They will need all these resources, and more. For a monumental battle is about to commence that will require all their ingenuity and courage, as it defines what we are to be . . . and if we are to be at all.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dean Koontz on Frankenstein: Lost Souls

When it comes to predicting the future, I am Nostradamus's idiot great nephew. In the 1980s, I believed that by 2010, we would all be traveling regularly to no-sales-tax shopping malls on the moon and zipping over to Mars for a Frappuccino. I thought we would be enjoying genetically engineered house pets like cadogs (half cat, half dog, all affection), miniature eaglebbits (flying rabbits), dry chihuahuas (little dogs that never need to pee), crocodobers (highly effective home guard dogs), and spongerbils (sponge gerbils that not only can be cuddled but will mop your floors and wring one another out in a bucket of water).

I also predicted that by now we would be flying everywhere with personal jet packs, and carrying clever autofloss machines to strip the bugs out of our teeth in thirty seconds flat after landing. Back in 1980, I predicted that by now John Belushi would be president, but I don't count this one a complete miss, because Al Franken is a United States Senator, which I admit surprises me considering that Mr. Franken isn't nearly funny enough to hold high office.

When I finished the third Frankenstein novel, Dead and Alive, I foresaw that it was the end of the series. As it turns out, I was as right about this as I was about my prediction that the annual Academy Awards TV special would be hosted five years running by Muammar Gaddafi.

My original trilogy brought to an end a story cycle, but the themes of Shelley's novel are more timely by the month. I realized that I could do much more with the concept than I had done thus far. Furthermore, an entirely new kind of technology of creature-creation occurred to me, and it was a lot more terrifying than the messy-gooey, strictly biological New Race that Victor developed in the first trilogy. By moving the setting from New Orleans to Rainbow Falls, Montana, I was able, as well, to change the atmosphere and to have fun with Armageddon occurring in snow-and-cowboy country.

As always, if readers hadn't been so enthusiastic about these books, I wouldn't have been able to proceed with the series. I appreciate your support more than I can say. I've received a lot of mail from readers who said they didn't read these novels for the longest time because the whole Frankenstein thing turned them off, but when they finally tried them, they discovered these weren't at all like what they expected, and they loved them. I always try not to give you the same old same old. Lost Souls has the flavor of my first three Frankenstein titles, but otherwise it does not clump over familiar territory. This time, Victor is much scarier and smarter than his predecessor, and his war against humanity is a blitzkrieg that comes on like a storm.

Lost Souls, like the books after it, is self-contained even though it is a part of a larger narrative. You can plunge into it and, if you like it, then go back to Prodigal Son, City of Night, and Dead and Alive if you wish. I am currently working on The Dead Town, recounting the next phase of the war against humanity, and I suppose it might sound a little strange to say I'm having a good time chronicling our doom.

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From Publishers Weekly

Set in Rainbow Falls, Mont., Koontz's goofy, grisly fourth riff on the Frankenstein theme (after Dead and Alive) finds Victor--previously presumed dead but apparently as easily resurrected as cinematic incarnations of his monster--perfecting his "New Race" of humanoid replicants. As affectless pod-person lookalikes gradually replace the town's citizens, the task of saving humanity from Victor and his megalomaniacal plans to "destroy the soul of the world" fall once again to husband-and-wife detectives Michael and Carson Maddison; Victor's soulsearching original monster, Deucalion; and a host of local yokels who provide both sympathy and comic relief. That the "good guys" are instantly recognizable by their abundant compassion, generosity, and sense of humor and the "bad guys" by their fussbudget fastidiousness and dedication to efficient extermination of inferior humans helps lay the foundation for the humanitarian homilies that punctuate the narrative.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (June 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055380801X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553808018
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (217 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and raised in Pennsylvania where I graduated from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University). When I was a senior in college, I won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and have been writing ever since. My first job after graduation was with the Appalachian Poverty Program, where I was expected to counsel and tutor underprivileged children on a one-to-one basis. During my first day on the job, I discovered that the previous occupier of my position had been beaten up by the very kids he had been trying to help and had landed in the hospital for several weeks. The following year was filled with challenge but also tension, and I was more highly motivated than ever to build a career as a writer. I wrote nights and weekends, which I continued to do after leaving the poverty program and going to work as an English teacher in a suburban school district outside Harrisburg. After a year and a half in that position, my wife, Gerda, made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "I'll support you for five years," she said, "and if you can't make it as a writer in that time, you'll never make it." By the end of those five years, Gerda had quit her job to run the business end of my writing career. Gerda and I, along with our dog, Trixie, live in southern California.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 114 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars **Here there be spoilers** July 1, 2010

By tomfromboston

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

As I'm writing this, I'm grinding my teeth for having wasted money on the hardcover addition. The book borrows heavily from previous Koontz novels (remember Phantoms?), including the other three Frankenstein novels, a couple of movies, and of course the Bible.

The novel's problem isn't that it lacks action. The problem is that it gives you no reason to care that there is any action. The characters are so paper-thin and the dialogue so frustratingly sub-par, I wanted to skip whole pages until the dialogue ended. And the aforementioned action occurred in the last 25 pages. The book's chapters are 2 or 3 pages long, most paragraphs only 2-3 sentences, and there is a dearth of descriptive narrative.

What's new? A unoriginal 'creature' is introduced, a creation of the Victor-clone (which if you haven't figured out that Victor is a clone in the first 20 pages, then shame on you). This new creature is called a Builder. The Builder is composed of nanoanimals (a.k.a. nanobots, tiny autonomous machines). The Builders are super-strong, can change their shapes and attack flesh and blood and anything inorganic, repair themselves, create more nanoanimals, or transform themselves to look like playmates and/or playgirls. In other words, very hot men and women.

If this sounds just like the nanoanimals in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition), whereby Gort transforms from a solid object to a whirlwind of nanoanimals, it's because they literally are. Whether or not Koontz saw the movie, the Builders are mini-Gorts. Composed entirely of nanoanimals, they can consume anything in their path. Including the plot.

The Victor-clone is an utter conundrum, and he is written as being utterly insane, so you end up not caring what happens to him because you can't relate to how he thinks or behaves. He wants to destroy the human race, then destroy the creatures that destroyed the human race, then commit suicide once everyone is dead. That's his master plan. Wow. That's the best Koontz can come up with? It's so amazingly silly you're not sure if you should laugh or cry or ask for your money back.

And why does he want to turn Earth into a human-free world just like Gort was doing before Klaatu (played by Keanu Reeves) stopped him/them/it? Lots of mumbo-jumbo about a tree falling in the woods and if it makes a sound if no one is around to hear it. We, apparently, are the trees in the forest. Once again, no suspension of disbelief.

The book is short, like all his recent books. Remember when he wrote four- or five-hundred page tomes dripping with character development, great descriptions, nail-biting action? Not anymore. Imagine him writing a book like his novel Strangers or Lightning and publishing it today? I think it would get five stars because you felt like you got your money's worth. Oh, and they were actually great books.

As the years go by his writing is getting so by-the-numbers that I literally can tell you what will happen to this or that character. He doesn't even try anymore. And why should he when we would plop down $20 to read his grocery list. His grammar is also devolving, which I think is a reflection of his editor not giving a hoot and rubber-stamping whatever comes out of Koontz's Macbook.

If he were writing this pseudo-religious drivel when he first started as a novelist he'd be dead in the water. No publisher would touch him. Some will say he earned the right to preach. My response is for him to get a pulpit, build a chapel, and call it the Church of Counted Sorrows. So yeah, we get it. You believe in something other than a great dark void after death, a soul-shattering emptiness that your readers feel after reading the highly unrewarding Lost Souls.

The other thing I've noticed in his books from the last decade, including this one, is that his stories have become frustratingly localized. Characters in his current crop of books simply don't get around much (remember Strangers?). Two main characters in Lost Souls live in San Fran when they are summoned to Montana, and that's about it. It's almost sad to see Koontz's imagination unable to visualize other locales. Not everyone lives in Laguna beach, where most of his stories take place. Sure, Stephen King does the same thing with most of his books as well, and to me it's pure and simple laziness. How many disasters can befall Castle Rock or California?

46 of 54 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Big Disappointment July 7, 2010

By Richard Madigan

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Instead of book four "Frankenstein: Lost Souls: A Novel" a better title would have been - book three and a half "Frankenstein: Dead and Alive: The Lost Chapters"

I really wanted to like this book but found it a complete disappointment. I enjoyed the series up until this point, with the fisrt book really being my favorite. It seems that this series has gone from a fun to read, stand alone novel (book one), to a pretty good, enjoyable on its own sequel (book two) to a somewhat disappointing less original follow up (book 3), to the latest installment which is really nothing more than the ending that should have been added to book 3. Rather than rehash all the shortcomings concerning dialog, character development, and plotting that have already been described by previous reviewers (which I totally agree with) I would simply add that prospective purchasers not bother with this unless they have read the previous books, and readers of the previous books not buy it if they simply want to find out what happens after book three. I can answer that in 2 words. "Not Much."

If this is any indication, book five (Coming in spring 2011!) will be about three thousand words describing how Victor Frankenstein's clone and the nano-monsters are defeated, but not before the super duper secret clone of the clone (Victor Frankenstein ver. 3.0) escapes to his island hideaway, or lair in the Alps to begin plotting mankinds destruction all over again. Perhaps the title of that book should read - "Frankenstein: Here We Go Again, Again..."

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Half of a book - don't bother July 4, 2010

By Jason Rowley

Format:Kindle Edition

I have been a Koontz fan for many, many years. This is the first time I was actually angry with an author.

Why? This is only half of a book. Literally. The whole story in this new book is just a rehash of the previous books. Sure, there are some new ideas added. But, it isn't until the end that he finally gets around to starting the new story arc and suddenly... Buy book 2 in 2011!

This was a terrible disappointment. If this is the new Koontz, he needs to just start writing dog stories 100% of the time.

As for me, I will absolutely not be buying book 2 or 3 when they come out. In fact, Koontz, you owe me a refund.