Shadowfires [Import] [Hardcover]

Dean Koontz (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Headline; New Ed edition (1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747204276
• ISBN-13: 978-0747204275
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,015,024 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rayeshuuuulllllll...., July 21, 2005

By 

M. I. "krushedvelvet" (Old Bridge, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Shadowfires (Mass Market Paperback)

Moments after a heated arguement in the street with her ex husband, Rachael watches in horror as he is brought down by a dump truck. Just an hour ago, they were sitting in his lawyers office finalizing their divorce, and now he is dead, killed before her very eyes. Though Rachael feels horrified by his death, she feels no grief...sorrow, but no sense of loss. Eric, her ex, was lost to her a long time ago. Feeling a sense of relief, but at the same time a queer unease, Rachael heads home to unwind after her wild day. But the day isnt over...she receives a phone call from the morgue...Erics body has gone missing. Soon events spiral out of control and Rachael is on the run from a stalker...a stalker that looks remarkably like her dead Ex husband.

Shadowfires was, at first, hard for me to get into...the story really stretched the limits of my imagination, but eventually, the tension wound so tight and the story and its characters got so interesting, I was willing to let go and just enjoy the ride. All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I love DK's characters. I think he does an amazing job with his villains...they are so 3 dimensional. Even as Im hating them, Koontz allows you in deep to see a softer side that makes them seem so human. I hated Eric, he was a sick twisted pig, but at the same time, there was a part of me that felt sorry for him as DK revealed more and more about his past and his motivations. Truly, Koontz is brilliant.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not one of My Favorites, January 27, 2007

By 

Thriller Lover (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Shadowfires (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm a huge Dean Koontz fan, and I have read almost all of his fifty plus novels. SHADOWFIRES is mildly entertaining, but it really isn't one of Koontz's strongest efforts. This novel was written in the mid-1980s under the Leigh Nichols pseudonym, and I thought it was the weakest book under that name.

SHADOWFIRES is essentially a long chase story, with a man/woman team on the run from a lot of sinister forces unleashed by a genetic experiment gone wrong. Koontz has explored this territory before in superior novels such as WATCHERS and MR. MURDER. If you're new to Koontz, my advice is to read those novels instead of this one.

In the end, SHADOWFIRES is a bit too long and drawn out, and I think Koontz put too many characters in this book. I also found the two main characters to be kind of boring and cookie-cutter. Koontz also spends too much time on description and exposition in this book; I found myself skipping through paragraphs to reach the end.

This is actually a pretty decent book, but I give it two stars when comparing it to other great novels in Koontz's canon. Try those instead -- WATCHERS, INTENSITY, LIGHTNING, FEAR NOTHING, and ODD THOMAS are the ones that most people consider the best.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Fire From The Start..., September 15, 2004

By 

Chucky West "velvetvoz" (Berlin, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadowfires (Mass Market Paperback)

"Shadowfires" was another wonderful book in the long line of great Koontz novels, and this one was no different.

We have the story of a woman named Rachel, and her husband, Eric Leben. Eric was a doctor in genetics who was fighting with his wife until he is pushed in front of a bus, by her, and killed. Rachel felt that maybe freedom was at last hers, until hours later, Eric is missing from the morgue, and we learn the awful truth of his secret work.

I felt that this book had action from the very first few pages, and did not stop until the very last word. I was thrilled with the roller coaster of a ride that Koontz took me on, and i could not put the book down once i started on the journey. Koontz makes great use of location, and our fears of within, to give us this great chiller of the experiments of man to be more than human. A definite gem in the Koontz collection, a must have for any collector, and a great place to start for anyone taking a look at his work for the first time. A Masterpiece. My only wish of this book: It should have been made into a movie. -CW