Customer Reviews

Frankenstein: Lost Souls

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(40)

 

 

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..."

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?

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.

This book is awful and unnecessary. The "last" Frankenstein book was horrible so I don't know why he is even starting a new trilogy. It pains me to say this, but Koontz has finally gone the way of Stephen King and lost touch with the average-person's reality. His characters are all either 100% good or 100% evil, which is not the case in real life and makes them all so one-dimensional and unrealistic. No one is all good or all bad. He also seems unable to write a novel anymore that isn't full of supposed-to-be-inspiring platitudes about the wonders of life, to the point that I really feel like Koontz is trying to force his religious beliefs down the reader's throat, and I resent this. Yeah, yeah, a butterfly flaps its wings in one place and it causes a tsunami across the world. Please stop beating us over the head with this in every.single.book. Also, each new book that Koontz writes has more and more of his ridiculous brand of witty banter between all the characters, which used to be kind of funny but now is used to such excess that it's barely tolerable. People just don't talk like that anywhere but in a Koontz novel and it again makes it impossible to relate to the characters. People in their right minds don't cutely discuss whether or not baby wipes are caustic while in the middle of trying to take down an armed bad guy. Ugh! Lastly, every Koontz book now has at least one character who understands the way quantam physics and multi-dimensional travel works and they are therefore able to instantly step across time and space and magically be anywhere they want - instantly! Koontz shamelessly uses this feat so that he can make things happen without having to actually come up with a realistic way for it to occur. How handy! Oh, did I mention that the dimensional traveler can bring other characters along with him when the plot requires? Yeah, very handy for the author!

I really wish that this weren't the case, because I have read every Koontz novel written and he has been one of my favorite authors for almost my whole life, but it is painfully obvious to me that Dean Koontz has retreated far enough into the ivory tower of his life that he is incapable or just not interested in writing anything but these same old formulaic stories with interchangeable characters. I really had to force myself to even finish this book.

Finally, you have to ignore the review by Harriet Klausner (#1 reviewer), because she rates EVERYTHING 4 or 5 stars. As the #1 reviewer of all of Amazon.com, that's a whole lot of 5-star book reviews so take her with a grain of salt.

I'm an avid reader, not a literary critic. I liked the book. I liked the characters, especially Jacko. I recognized the real-life population control, human-life hating theme alive in the world today. Koontz took it and made a novel of it. I like how he made the politically incorrect life (the ugly, the mentally handicapped, the elderly) to be valuable people on the earth.

If you're one of those life hating people, you won't like this book, because you'll recognize yourself as being portrayed as one of the monsters.

This isn't a scary book making you hide under the covers or afraid to walk out at night. It's more of an adventure.

I like dialogue and don't really care about the poetic lights shining on leaves. I usually skim the first paragraph of each chapter where Koontz paints his pictures. But if you like that stuff, it's there.

I think it was a good story...it had interesting characters...I think some of the critics are being a little harsh..its entertaining...I can't stand when people over analyze things...some of the reviews must have been written by people who had no childhood who don't know how to kick back and relax a little...If you like Dean Koontz you will like this book...

I've been going to Koontz for a cheap, thrilling read for as long as I can remember. The thing that differentiates his Frankenstein and Odd Thomas series from his other works is that I'm willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money (27 $) to read the follow ups. I was VERY content with books 1 through 3, and while the pages burned, I still felt like I got my money's worth. "Lost Souls" however, left me in a state of complete frustration.

First off, I have a problem with Koontz starting a new Frankenstein trilogy. Victor, and everything he created (though somehow, Erika Five lived through some magical lightning, typical Koontz cop-out)died. How is it that Victor managed to get himself back on his feet so fast? A clone can only go so far. And from a authorial stand point, WHY? IT can only create billions of questions and plot holes.

And what's with Victor's new base of operations being in the middle of absolute nowhere? WHY is my question?

In what seems to be a newer trend for Koontz, he creates 5+ plot lines that you have to follow. And with such a short book as this, you draw very little info, or interest (if any) from the characters. This creates a huge problem. Such little information is given to the reader, after what was supposed to be the end. And the information that IS given just makes one go "...Really?". This is the why I give the book 1 star. It is the worst Koontz novel I have ever read, and I've read dozens. Unfortunatley, I spent 30 dollars on this, because I don't beleive in book reviews. Heed my advice, wait for the paperback.

I didn't really even bother to read all the one and two starred reviews. I absolutely loved the 4th in the trilogy, as in series. And I was really glad there was a fourth Frankenstein. And, from the ending of Lost Souls, it ended almost in mid-sentence, so I am looking forward to the fifth in the series.
Admittedly I am a big fan of Dean Koontz. I have more hard back Dean Koontz novels than several other of my favorite authors combined.
I am rarely disappointed. Good show, Mr. Koontz.

I was at some disadvantage understanding this book because of not having read the previous books in his Frankenstein Series. But it seems to me that Koontz has brought together ideas and pieces of stories from many of his earlier books and even from works of others (nano-creatures, crime solving couples with witty dialog, unlikely heroes, cocoons[from Robin Cook], quantum mechanics, a simpleton with great wisdom, even a small amount of dog [real and toy]), and has, as in the case of Frankenstein's monster, sewed them all together - with some of the stitches clearly showing. He also reminds me of one of those entertainers who spins plates on the top of flexible vertical shafts, and keeps putting up more and more, returning to some to keep them spinning, until we are sure that some will drop - then he spins still another one. This is how he handles the many characters and themes. The main hero characters, reminiscent of Mr. and Mrs. North, of ancient TV, get off some pretty witty remarks, which, made while they race headlong into danger, seem a little too James Bondish. The science fiction, quantum-mechanics-justified walk- through-walls new model Frankenstein Monster, now reformed and one of the good guys with "Heroes" powers, reminds us of the pre-Odd Thomas Koontz - the weird science Koontz of "Lightning".

Well, all that said, I am severely prejudiced, and to me even a poorly sewn Koontz is enough for a good, entertaining read. However, just as the ubiquitous lecture on morality was ending, and the heroes were assembling to finish the bad guys, and we expect the entertainer to gather up his spinning plates without dropping even one, the entertainer just walks off the stage, leaving his plates spinning, mumbling something about further conflict and Armageddon, and ensuring a sequel. I feel like the kid at the Saturday matinee when at the most exciting part, they flash on the screen - "to be continued". Boo-minus one star!

This fourth book in the series was awesome. It left me immediately wanting to read the fifth book. If you loved 1, 2, and 3, my bet is you will love #4. I am amazed that Dean Koontz can write things that are so suspenseful, and then so funny (i.e. Jocko's eating and computing habits). Like the title says, I don't understand the poor reviews....I loved this book and couldn't put it down.