Customer Reviews

The Taking

5 star:		(132)
4 star:		(120)
3 star:		(96)
2 star:		(76)
1 star:		(144)

 

 

I have been anxiously awaiting this book since first reading about it months ago. When I got it yesterday, I devoured it. The first 100 pages give you no let up at all. You can literally feel the end of the world approaching as an evil, foul-smelling rain descends on Molly and Neil's house. What awaits her on the porch and in the garage gives you more of a sense of dread than if actual razor-toothed gremlins were staring up at her. The peace and calm exhibited from everything in this scene of destruction makes it that much more powerful. For the first half of the book, you have several possible answers thrown at you. An emergency broadcast from the space station will give you literal chills.

The only thing I didn't enjoy was the ending. As the culprits of this destruction are unveiled, it loses some momentum. While the answer makes sense, you start to lose that sense of "something's out there waiting for me". Instead, you sort of keep watching from a sense of macabre interest--sort of like driving by a car wreck slowly. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of surprises and suspense thrown in, but I think the book would have been much more powerful if we'd been left in the dark just a little longer. The feeling of defeat and utter hopelessness doesn't let up, but the overall fear and dread die away as the revelations come in.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with this story though. Highly recommended.

I think the almost perfect dichotomy in the ratings for this book is telling. As of January of 2009 there are 220-4&5 star ratings and 201-1&2 star ratings. An almost equal level of love and hate for this book. This seems very unusual.

As for myself, I loved this book. I'm a Koontz fan, so you might expect me to like another of his excellent novels, but there really is a great deal to like about this story. The story itself is an alein invasion story, but not your average, overdone nasty outerspace invaders type of tale. This one is done with a twist that I haven't seen done this way before, although I'll admit to not having read a great deal of Sci-Fi. Koontz admits in a podcast that I've listened to that his inspiration for the story came from Arthur C. Clarke, who suggested that alein technology from an advanced civilization might seem somehow supernatural to us. Koontz wondered about turning ACC's idea on it's head and suggesting that a supernatural invasion might seem like advanced technology to people in a society who don't believe in magic anymore. To people who only believe in science and the material world. I found this concept fascinating and Koontz's execution of it very well done.

I appreciate his use of metaphor and simile. His prose is vivid and often poetic and evokes such strong visual and auditory images in your mind as you read that you feel as if you are experiencing his created world first hand. His description of sights, sounds and smells become so real that one can feel the dark portent in the oppressive, driving rain, the bizarre behavior of the animals and the emotional response of his human characters. There is a scene early in the book where the main character, Molly, encounters a group of Coyotes in an uncharacteristic pack, frightened by the ominous falling rain onto her front porch. The description of this encounter is told so vividly and compellingly that it truly sets the tone for the otherworldiness of what is happening to the world around her. You can feel and appreciate her apprehension, her awe at being able to stand among these animals that, under ordinary circumstances, would turn on her in a heartbeat. It's a perfect scene to help set the mood of the story. And there are plenty more of them in the opening sequences of the book.

Another of the aspects of this novel that I enjoyed was DK's ability to express philosophy to the reader through the story and inner dialogue of characters. "During Molly's lifetime, architects had largely championed sterility, which is order bled of purpose, and celebrated power, which is meaning stripped of grace. By rejecting the fundamentals of the very civilization that made possible it's rise, modernism and it's philosophical stepchildren offered flash in place of genuine beauty, sensation in place of hope.... All of humanity's follies seemed worth embracing if that were the price to preserve everything beautiful in civilization. Although the human heart is selfish and arrogant, so many struggle against their selfishness and learn humility; because of them, as long as there is life, there is hope that beauty lost can be rediscovered, that what has been reviled can be redeemed."

There is one point to this novel that I didn't like much. In the early part and a bit more than halfway through the book, Koontz introduces some elements that are common to the average horror novel; grotesque beasts and walking-dead cadavers. I personally hate this kind of stuff, but I do understand what the author was trying to convey with these elements in his story. Satan always tries to mimic the perfection of God and wishes to create life where none exists, like God did, or raise the dead to walk again, as God will do in the future. But, all his efforts can only be abominations and grotesqueries, like the beasts and zombies in the book. So, even though I didn't personally like these elements, they certainly had a place in the story.

There is a very strong theme of Christian theology that runs through this novel and I think that is where the extreme dichotomy in ratings comes from. I personally believe that the many individuals who rated this book so poorly might consciously or unconsciously have a problem with the metaphysics of this story, not with the literary mechanics of the story itself. Not everyone, mind you, but it might explain the extreme spread in ratings. Those who agreed with the philosophical viewpoint, or those who just plain like Dean Koontz and his style would tend to rate it better. Even so, there is too much good writing that has to be ignored for the many one and two star ratings this book has received. And it just does not deserve so many low ratings.

In my opinion, this is an excellent novel. It is very well written, rich in metaphor and philosophical meaning, and at times very poetic. I found much of it a joy to read. At the very least, the plot and storyline always kept me interested and wanting to keep reading along. I found myself, as always in DK's novels, caring about the characters and their futures. And I love dogs as much as the author does, I'm sure, so any book with at least one dog in it merits high praise from me. This book had slews of them, so I was in literary heaven. Five Stars!!!

When Molly Sloan awakens one night to the drumming of an oddly scented luminescent rain, she senses that something is off-kilter. The coyotes huddle frightened on her porch. She feels a disturbing presence moving past in the sky. When her husband Neil awakens with nightmares, the two of them watch news broadcasts about bizarre supernatural occurrences, shocking violence, and public panic that arise around the globe. It starts to look as if an alien invasion has begun. Then the power goes out. Molly and Neil join up with some of their neighbors, trying to identify what is happening and how to deal with the increasingly evil and omnipotent entity that appears to be taking over the planet. The townspeople splinter into factions, each with its own opinion on how to handle the crisis.

The story starts off with powerful mood-building imagery and with echoes of Koontz's "Strangers" and Stephen King's "The Stand" and "The Mist." Koontz then cranks up the suspense and horror as alien vegetation begins to invade the town, the residents are dispatched in gruesome and mysterious ways, and the dead come to life. Now the story segues into a Twilight Zone screenplay, as the supernatural and otherworldly occurrences increase. By the halfway point, Molly and Neil are now on a crusade to save the children at any cost, even though they wonder how anyone, adult or child, could survive this hellish new world order. When there are only 50 pages left to go in the story, I am wondering how Koontz could ever resolve the plot instead of leaving the reader hanging until a sequel. Then comes a disappointing ending that plays strongly on Koontz's increasing trend to use religion and hope in his books. Dogs feature prominently in this story, as they do in many of Koontz's books. However, the author's trademark sense of humor is conspicuously absent here.

To be fair, I give the first half of the book a five star rating for an excellent portrayal of a horrific and inexplicable entity gaining absolute control over the earth. I give the middle a three star rating as Molly assumes absurdly heroic proportions in the midst of Armageddon. The ending deserves one star as a cop-out and a disappointment. So how can I sum the book up? If you are a Koontz fan like me, you will want to read the book. The first half is a powerhouse of creepiness and it has a story line build-up that showcases the best of Koontz's storytelling abilities. But the second half will likely let you down, unless your favorite theme in Koontz's books is the transcendence of horror by uplifting spirituality.

Eileen Rieback

I loved it! Fast,unusual,disturbing,suspenseful-an excellent story!
I read it through over 2 days(something I never do) I did have the added advantage of reading
it during bad weather which reinforced the books atmosphere.
This is a story more than a book or plot orientation. It moves and keeps moving. In some ways the opposite of the Odd Thomas series which feature
characters & dialogue more than action.
DK evoked a wider range of thought & feeling from me than with his other books. The story does raise many interesting religious/philisophical questions about survival choices,aliens,death and heaven & hell.

As readers we sometimes have certain expectations of how a novel should or could proceed. If the novel proceeds in a direction so completely different from the direction we expect, and the difference is less than pleasing, then we become upset. Such can be a reader's experience with this book.

The book begins with an incredible amount of promise. A strange rain begins one night, waking Molly and Neil Sloan from their sleep. There is something strange happening in the world; something very strange. The strangeness increases even more in the daylight. Every element in the first portion of this book is intriguing and fascinating, and pulls the reader further along, seeking resolution and answers. However, there comes a point when it seems as though Koontz loses track of his purpose, or perhaps he inadvertently communicated a different purpose in the first part of the novel than where the story eventually leads us.

I would like to discuss what happens at the end of the story, but I would rather not spoil any more of the ending than necessary, so I'm going to be vaguer than I would prefer. Koontz' story evolves into metaphysical contemplation and become more akin to the "Left Behind" books than to "The Watcher." I realize that Koontz has been writing for a long time, and he has yet to explore the subject matter of this book in the kind of depth that he does in this book, but the ending left me somewhat unfulfilled. I really liked how the book was progressing, but the ending just seemed a bit too trite. Further, there were a couple of things that I thought Koontz could have developed much more, but did not; quite strange given the current trend for 500+ page novels.

The result is that I am mixed regarding this novel. I would like to see Koontz take another shot at writing this novel with a different ending. Of course, that is pure wish because it will not happen. However, another author might yet take up the incredible beginning and create another story altogether. The potential is there, because it was unrealized in this book. Five stars for the beginning and two stars for the end. I'd give the book 3.5 stars if I could, but it gets 3 stars because of the ending.

Using that line of poetry from T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" is an appropriate way to describe Dean Koontz's ambitious end-of-the-world novel for many reasons. His borrowing of Eliot's work as a sort of theme for the story was one of many interesting stylistic quirks in "The Taking". Truth be told, the references piqued my interest in poetry at first, but quickly became trite as they were repeated page after page in a way that strikes me as more self-indulgent than necessary to plot or character development.

When I first started reading this novel, I was absolutely intrigued. I know Koontz's prose has been considered pretentious, but I found the poetic style to be artistic. It's refreshing to know that some current authors actually HAVE a large literary vocabulary.

Where things began to go wrong for me was when Molly's past was elaborated on. It felt forced, more like a soap opera script that was thrown in to add "depth" to the character. Instead the story of her childhood abuse (including a scene where she guns down her abusive father in her grade school classroom) distracts from the fascinating end of the world scenario and doesn't add anything to her rather bland character.

The middle of the book lacks the eerie sense of uncertainty and doom that makes the start so riveting. We get a better sense of the aliens who have invaded the Earth and have caused the bizarre and deadly weather patterns. Death and destruction is detailed in almost every page. Some of the imagery is quite gruesome and imaginative. The scene with the doll that comes to life and threatens the survivors is downright disturbing.

If "The Taking" starts with a bang, it progressively fizzles out into a whimper by the final chapters. It ends with what must be literally the most blatant example of deus ex machina of all time. (I won't spoil it here.) The final pages of the book slips into Koontz's philosophical views about the nature of humanity. The novel which I had enjoyed so thoroughly in the early chapters had regressed into a lecture about Christianity. After such a promising beginning, I slammed shut "The Taking" feeling annoyed. Why do so many religious people insist that the only explanation for the unexplainable is that God or the Devil is behind it? The world is not so simply black-or-white. It bothered me that Koontz tacked on biblical babble to the end of this book in order to wrap things up. It felt cheap after all the talk of the possibilities of other worlds and phenomenon beyond human understanding to fall back on the Bible.

Do the good points of "The Taking" balance out the negative ones? I suppose that would be up to the individual reader to decide. I can't recommend this book, but if you need something to skim over on a long flight, I'm not going to disuade you from it entirely. Just check it out from the library to save yourself money and keep your expectations low.

OKay, here's the deal: Koontz can flat-out write, I doubt anyone could argue with that, and The Taking delivers some very fine writing. The story is full of creepy horror and mind-bending description, the main character is well-developed and believable. And the overall theme is one that will make you think about the state of the human soul. Koontz delves into his more religious side in this book (I like that). The downside is that the ending leaves a bit to be desired. Koontz kinda takes the easy way out and has the resolution just . . . happen. Also, have a dictionary nearby because Koontz pulls some words out that I'd never heard before, proving his vocabulary is much broader and deeper than mine.

There was a time when I could not wait for the next Dean Koontz book to come out. Those were the days of books like 'Watchers', 'Lightning' and 'Whispers. The last few, especially 'The Taking' have been down hill and not worth the bother. It seems Koontz is far more interested in getting his own political views across than he is in writing good books. Sorry to say it but this was my last Koontz read.

This is the first full-length horror I've ever read. The Dance Macabre by Stephen King I perused in college, but it was a tome of short stories. No Frankenstein, no Dracula, no whatever the big horror books are. Gotta say, the genre, if they are all Koontz-like, has got me intrigued, if not downright excited.

My inclination, regarding the 3-star rating, is that most reviewers are Koontz fanatics and are comparing this book to his others. But since this is my first Koontz, my review is just in comparison to other books by other authors in different genres.

I'm a fan of the inventive metaphor and clever word play. Koontz's wordsmithing skill is right up my alley--much less pretentious than say Michael Chabon, who is another fantastic scribe yet has me going for the dictionary every 4 pages with some wild ten dollar word, which is, I'm sure, the perfect descriptor but just over-literate for a common SDSU Cum Laude college graduate.

Phrases like, "...as silent as a bubble" and "...claws of lightning ripped into the belly of the sea..." are just good, clear depictions. Simple and effective, and I adore reading that and wondering what inspired Koontz to equate a floating bubble with silence. Love it.

Took me a while to actually care about the characters, but the writing was so superlative that I kept on it and am glad that I did.

I know a lot of folk are put off by the semi-religiosity of the ending--it's ashame really, the rampant Godlessness of this generation--but anyone who has any interest in Armageddon or God or Christianity shouldn't find it overly preachy. But I'm fascinated by religion and all things Godly, so it was not a stretch for me and the religious slant was organic to the story. I was actually heartened and was hoping, though apparently this is not the case, that much of Koontz's work contained some spiritual, heavenly bent.

Again, the driving force of the novel is the inventive and suspenseful writing, and the thrilling plot. Koontz is a quality craftsman whose labors I will gladly indulge in again...and again.

I want to be "smart-alecky" here and just say things like "this book SUCKS!" but that isn't what people want to hear. I ask myself why am I even reviewing a book that has already gotten over 180 reviews and the answer is this:

I am a huge Koontz fan, or I was - lately, I've been less impressed. I have all of his pre-2000 signed first-editions. I say this because I want you to understand that I am a big fan and not just jumping in and talking trash about your favorite author.

That said, I have to also say that this was the worst Dean Koontz book I have ever read. More than that it is on my top 5 worst books I've ever read. I actually listened to this on unabridged audio CD since I no longer have the luxury of long reading hours since I commute, but the story is the same and audio is often more entertaining as you get the story told to you with a myriad of voices. From the first five minutes of listening, I caught my mind wandering to other things. I made myself focus, but kept being distracted because it just wasn't grabbing me. However, I know not all great books start out great. I was surprised by some of the reviews here who liked the beginning even though they didn't care for the rest... interesting. I did not like the beginning, I found it boring and lifeless. The main characters were presented as these enigmas with their lives coming out in little wisps throughout the book when Dean could have more easily explored the characters from the beginning making the reader become interested in them and like them. As it was, they were flat and uninteresting. The plot was designed to give Dean a forum to voice his opinion about the state of the human race and civilization, as most of his plots are designed to share his messages. This time, however, we were forced to endure this awful book filled with a silly theme, unrealistic characters, and verbose, over-descriptive passages that gave Dean a forum to use all of those big words that he's collected over the years. Worse than that was the constant TS Eliot quotes. By the end of the book, my eyes involuntarily rolled with each one and I couldn't stop shaking my head back and forth in annoyance. This was way over-the-top.

And, last, I know you all love the dog(s), but c'mon. Can we get a little imagination here, a little change in the "theme"? Give us a few books without dogs! PLEASE!?!

For me a review that is "helpful" gives the reader of the review an idea of what the person (reviewer) thought about the book and why. In all honesty, if I had read the reviews included here (including my own), it would not have kept me from reading the book because of my enjoyment of previous Dean Koontz books. Because of this, I realize that people who have READ this book and LIKED this book will obviously not find this review helpful although the review was not created for them , but for the people who are considering reading this book but have not yet. So, if you are intent on reading this book, try getting it from your local library (like I did, thankfully) so you aren't out the dollars and if you have already read this book, this review is not directed towards you. If you're on the fence or are just trying out Koontz, try some of his older stuff: Lightning (my fave), Watchers, Servants of Twilight, Dark Rivers of the Heart, or Midnight. These books have better storylines, better developed characters and apparently Dean didn't have quite the vocabularly he is now demonstrating.