Customer Reviews

Prodigal Son (Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Book 1)

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This novel brings a classic legend up to date by replacing Victor Frankenstein's previously crude monster creation techniques with biotech engineering, cloning, and computer programming. Victor has learned the secret of long life and is still alive and well in 21st century New Orleans. Now a respected scientist and wealthy member of high society by day, Victor practices his high-tech life creation projects by night in order to create perfect beings, totally obedient to his will. He seeds his creations throughout the city so that they can undermine, and eventually replace, humanity and lead to a perfect New Age society. In the meanwhile, Frankenstein's original monster, now called Deucalion, is also gifted with immortality. He learns of his creator's existence and sets off for New Orleans to seek revenge. When a series of gruesome murders occur where body parts are removed from the victims, two police detectives try to track down the killer. Is one of Frankenstein's creations to blame?

The portrayal of Frankenstein's creatures is especially interesting. Created with a carefully controlled blend of human emotion and programmed behavior, they are at times confused about their feelings. Sometimes their human component fights against their artificial one, with interesting results. In a clever turnabout, Victor Frankenstein is portrayed as a monster and Deucalion has evolved to show more human traits than his creator. At first I was amused by the fact that immortality has become a popular pursuit, and that others in the story besides Frankenstein and his creations are capable of prolonged lives and physical perfection. Yet the real-world popularity of plastic surgery, nutritional supplements, and health clubs does prove that art imitates life.

Koontz originally wrote this story as a two-hour script for a television series pilot for the USA Network. When the producer requested major changes, Koontz pulled out of the project and decided to rewrite the story in book form in order to preserve the original concept. This book is only the first in a series of novels about Frankenstein and his progeny. Although I was expecting the story to have a few loose ends to pave the way for the next in the series, the ending could have been a bit less abrupt. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story and am eagerly awaiting the next in the series.

Eileen Rieback

Dean Koontz does and excellent job with his take on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. The story takes place in modern day and Victor Frankenstein (now better known as Victor Helios)has been alive for centuries creating his super human "New Race" of people who he plans to one day control to wipe out man kind (the "Old Race")and create his vision of a more powerful productive world. Now it is up to Detectives O'Conner and Maddison with the help of Victores original monster who now goes by the name Deacullion to stop Victor and his New Race and save mankind.

This was a great book that was hard to put down. If you have the time its very easy to read in one sitting. It offers suspense, excitment and a bit of humor. Highly recomended for all Koontz fans.

Though a fan of Koontz, when I first saw the title of this book I was afraid it would be trite. But I was wrong. This is one of Koontz's best efforts in years. He does not rewrite the story of Frankenstein, rather, he builds on it.

It is the present day and Dr. Frankenstein is alive and well and continuing his efforts. His goal is more clarified. He is no tragic figure, but an evil man bent on building a race of perfect beings that will replace humanity. Over the two hundred years since the events portrayed in Mary Shelley's book (which, in an nice twist, is explained as a semi-historical account based on legends and hearsay), Dr. Frankenstein has amassed a fortune and a vast biotech empire. Through modern genetics and science, he no longer has to piece together his creations from dead humans. He grows them and programs them with directives and information. He and his creations bide their time, infiltrate humanity, and await the time to strike openly.

Opposing these efforts is Dr. Frakenstein's first creation. The Monster still lives, but has become more and more human while his creator has become less. Koontz and Anderson do a great job of portraying the monster as a suffering man, noble in spirit yet malformed in body. His path and mission cross paths with two homocide detectives on the trail of one of the New Race who has become a serial killer after he realizes that his programing and superior genetics has left him empty, missing something that humans seem to possess.

Koontz and Anderson's decision to place the story in New Orleans was a stroke of genius. They do a good job of capturing the mood of what is perhaps America's most foreign, haunted city. The food, the history, the music, the graveyards. All are effecitvely portrayed and woven into the story.

The book is a quick read, with 4-5 page chapters dealing with one sequence of events, the moving to another. Despite this, it does not come across choppy. The writers keep the pace going while making the narrative clear.

A good book. Reminscent of, though not quite at the level of, Koontz's excellent Twilight Eyes.

The story offers little by way of surprise. Yes, it's about Frankenstein. Yes, that Frankenstein. We learn that Viktor Frankenstein was a real person, not merely a figment of Mary Shelley's imagination. Two hundred years ago, he learned so much about the human body from his experiments that he succeeded in creating a semi-human being--the original Frankenstein monster. He also learned how to augment his own body in order to defy death.

Two hundred years later, Frankenstein is still alive and living under an alias in (pre-Hurricane Katrina) New Orleans, where he is still creating "new" humans in the hope of eventually repopulating the earth with his super-race, eliminating the "old" humans, and becoming the godlike ruler of the world.

His first creation is still around as well. He's given himself the name Deucalion (after the Noah-like ark builder of ancient Greek mythology) and has been living a life of seclusion in a Buddhist monastery in Asia. When Frankenstein created Deucalion, he hadn't yet learned the finer points of making his "new" people look exactly like the "old" humans, so Deucalion is horribly disfigured. He's shy, gentle, huge, ugly, and basically your all-around likeable 200-year-old nice giant.

When Deucalion learns that Frankenstein is still alive, he sets out for New Orleans to kill him before he can carry out his evil plans. Meanwhile, one of Frankenstein's new creations has gone haywire and begun a killing spree in the Big Easy. The cops are stymied by the mysterious case, and their problems are only compounded by the fact that unknown to them, one of the detectives working on the case is a member of Frankenstein's new race. Things come to a head when Deucalion joins forces with the cops and the fact that there are strange human-like beings with two hearts and other obviously engineered features running around the city comes to light.

This is the first in a trio of books about the strangely deathless Frankenstein and the problems brought about by his sinister creativity. The book's characters are reasonably well developed, and the settings are brought to life with lavishly descriptive prose, neither of which is surprising in a Dean Koontz book. More surprising is the amount of sexual content--way to much in my view. Profanity is kept to a reasonable level, but the violence and gore is a bit over the top at times.

All in all, I liked the book. My main hesitation in recommending it is that there doesn't seem to be any real reason to read it. Whereas the original Frankenstein was a social morality tale masked in a horror story, this is pretty much just a horror story with little to commend it by way of a moral. Readers who want a scary book that will challenge them to think would be better off reading Koontz's much earlier (and solo) work Watchers, a Frankenstein-like story about the dangers of genetic manipulation and social hierarchies.

Frankenstein: The Prodigal Son is one of Dean Koontz's best novels. It is fast-paced, full of action and suspense, and the characters are ones you become attached to. Definitely a page turner...I couldn't put it down. Highly recommend this to anyone who loves a suspenseful thriller. Warning: Once you've read this, you'll have to read #2...and if you liked it as much as I did, you'll probably end up angry that #3 isn't out yet. Can't wait!

I decided to read this book after I was told of its' existance from a friend. I hadn't previously been a big Dean Koontz reader, having only read maybe 2-3 of his stories, but the idea of a new Frankenstein story intrigued me. I was definitely not disappointed in any way with this story. It almost felt like light-hearted reading compared to some of the other stuff that I had read recently. While not as much as I'm used to, it had enough action and gore to keep me going, and what a great story it contains! I zipped through the first two books just in time for that supposed 'Winter '06' Book 3 release, and I have yet to see anything further about it. I really want to see how this story continues, and I think anyone even slightly curious about this story will feel the same. If you happened to catch the movie that was released related to this, don't even bother comparing....the book is SO much better

Koonz is the only author that I've ever read where I either love or hate the book. I have to say, the first two Frankenstein books are the best of the best. I pessimistically began this book thinking, "How is he going to pull of Frankenstein living in the 21st century?" Not only did Koontz pull it off, he did it with flying colors. The book reads fast, there is the right mix of understated humor and supernatural story telling, combined with well developed characters that hold the readers interest. I'd recommend reading both books one and two, as the final installment of the trilogy is due out in early 07.

I resisted reading this book, even tho I am fond of Koontz's books. It just sounded trite and boring to me. But I finally caved and got it. What a surprise that it was just loads of fun. Yes, it was grisly (after all, we are talking Frankenstein here), but it had Mr. Koontz's usual good pacing and story telling, believable characters, etc. I look forward to the next installment, which I will certainly not resist reading!

I'm not much of a Dean Koontz fan; his tendency to use `deus ex machina' to resolve plots and such has always put me off. I'm also not much of a fan of the horror genre anyway, so I rarely read Koontz. However I had heard a bunch about this series, including the rumor that Martin Scorsese had at one time expressed in interest in producing it for TV. Anyway, I was really kind of glad to read this and see that Koontz had put a little life and a novel twist to the old story. I'm actually looking forward to the next two parts.

Having recently finished Velocity, which had me hooked until the abrupt and meaningless ending, Koontz's modern spin on a classic tale is tremendous through and through, except for the fact that it had to end somewhere.
Koontz sets up a brilliant storyline, beginning with the gruesome yet loveable Deucalion, otherwise known as Dr. Frankenstein's first creation. Weaving in series of characters from their viewpoints, including a homicidal female body part-collecting freak, Victor Helios (Dr. Frankenstein, who through his own bio-technology and enhancement has been able to keep himself alive for all these years), the doctor's wife, and a young autistic creation of Frankenstein's whose fascination with crosswords and order keep him somewhat sane.
The only thing that I would have changed, had I been the author, would be the character that collects female body parts. The fact that he was neither a creation, nor involved with Helios or anyone else, until Helios had him taken out, was a bit odd to me. He was undoubtedly a fascinating character; however, his relevance to the story is a mystery to me and seemed to just be a façade for adding a bit more length or meat to the novel.
Other than that minor detail, which subtracted an imperceptible amount from the book, I loved the book and it was an extraordinarily fast read. The next thing I plan to do is pick up the sequel and continue to follow the tales of the valiant Deucalion and his treacherous architect.