Winter Moon [Library Binding]

Dean R. Koontz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1993

"Koontz is brilliant in the creation of his characters and in building tension."
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
In Los Angeles, a hot Hollywood director, high on PCP, turns a city street into a fiery apocalypse. Heroic LAPD officer Jac McGarvey is badly wounded and will not walk for months. His wife and his child are left to fend for themselves against both criminals that control an increasingly violent city and the dead director's cult of fanatic fans.
In a lonely corner of Montana, Eduardo Fernandez, the father of McGarvey's murdered partner, witnesses a strange nocturnal sight. The stand of pines outside his house suddenly glows with eerie amber light, and Fernandez senses a watcher in the winter woods. As the seasons change, the very creatures of the forest seem in league with a mysterious presence. Fernandez is caught up in a series of chilling incidents that escalate toward a confronation that could rob him of his sanity or his life--or both.
As events careen out of control, the McGarvey family is drawn to Fernandez's Montana ranch. In that isolated place they discover their destiny in a terrifying and fiercely suspenseful encounter with a hostile, utterly ruthless, and enigmatic enemy, from which neither the living nor the dead are safe.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A brush with death prompts L.A. policeman Jack McGarvey to move wife Heather and son Toby up to Quartermass Ranch, a Montana estate bequeathed to them by Eduardo Fernandez, the father of Jack's former partner. The McGarveys settle in, dismissing strange noises and smells, as well as weird trances that seem to grip Toby from time to time, as the embodiment of common fears of urbanites confronted by open spaces. It seems Eduardo had had uninvited visitors: the Givers, creatures from another dimension who came for an incomprehensible, apparently evil purpose. Scared out of his wits, Ed succumbed to a heart attack, but not before scrawling his discovery on a legal pad and stashing it in the freezer. These Givers are actually takers, assuming control of bodies and corpses to use them as vehicles in which to create mayhem. And now they want control of Toby. Bestselling author Koontz ( Hideaway ) exploits and occasionally skewers many horror novel and film conventions--including telepathic mind control games and the obligatory "surprise" blizzard during the climatic battle--to great effect while building tension in this gripping parable about the real cost of "getting away from it all."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

It seems these nasty octopi have invaded Montana. At first, you don't see them. Then they go inside raccoons and squirrels and crows and make their brains explode. Then they ride around on corpses { }a la Night of the Living Dead. Shotguns won't stop them. Uzis won't stop them. Fire won't stop them. Only mind control works. The mind of the innocent: young Toby McGarvey, son of that brave policeman Jack McGarvey, who was nearly killed ridding the earth of scum down in L.A. The family comes to Montana because they inherit a ranch from Eduardo Fernandez, whose only son was Jack's slain partner. There's also some stuff about a crazed movie director out on a killing spree, but it's never quite connected to the octopi. Are the octopi symbolic of the evil that slinks and oozes among Angelenos? Probably not. Does Koontz mean to trade upon the contemporary myth of cattle mutilations? Maybe so. Anyhow, this paperback original is the first of 10 that Ballantine intends to publish, and the print run is two million. John Mort --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Library Binding
• Publisher: Rebound by Sagebrush (December 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785728465
• ISBN-13: 978-0785728467
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,304,227 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

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From Los Angeles to Montana, the horror continues..., June 28, 2004

By 

DanD - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Winter Moon (Mass Market Paperback)

Jack McGarvey, one of L.A.'s finest, is wounded in a violent and spectacular gunfight. In Montana, Eduardo Fernandez encounters something in the woods...something which means him harm.

When Eduardo dies, and McGarvey inherits the man's cabin, it seems like a dream: a chance to get away from the city and really LIVE. But living may turn to dying, and the McGarvey family is about to find out. There is still something in the woods, and it wasn't satisfied with Eduardo. It want's McGarvey's young son...and is ready to do anything to get him...

This isn't Koontz's best, but as a sci-fi thriller, it's pretty darn good. A "creature feature", yes, but it's more than that, as any Koontz novel is: it's a novel of a man defending his family against an unknown evil, and coming to grips with himself. A reworked version of an earlier Koontz story, this novel is, like most of Koontz's work, a nearly-flawless thrill ride of chills and suspense. Dean Koontz is a masterful writer; "Winter Moon" is an incredible novel. Get the picture?

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not One of Koontz's Best, January 25, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: Winter Moon (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read every novel by Dean Koontz, and I would put WINTER MOON in the bottom third. This is not a terrible novel, but it's very slow paced in the middle and the ending is not particularly satisfying. This is supposed to be an alien invasion story, but the alien is essentially little more than a two-dimensional monster. Little explanation is provided for why the alien behaves as it does, and I found this story made very little sense as a result. Koontz has told this type of monster story much better in other novels, most notably PHANTOMS.

This novel also is very preachy in spots, where Koontz promotes his personal views on gun control, urban crime, the film industry, graffiti artists, heavy metal music, and a variety of other subjects. Although I mostly agree with Koontz's views, I don't read fiction to validate my own political beliefs. In any case, the sermonizing slows down the story.

I'm a big Dean Koontz fan, and my advice is to avoid this novel if you've never read Koontz before. Instead, read some of his stronger novels, such as WATCHERS, ODD THOMAS, PHANTOMS, INTENSITY, LIGHTNING and FEAR NOTHING. Those novels will turn you into a fan.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy and Disturbing, February 22, 2005

By 

John Smith "john smith" (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter Moon (Mass Market Paperback)

Well, wow! does this book have punches!!

I have to admit to a particular part of the book when Eduardo encounters one of these "Givers" on his front porch. He hears them walking and aproaching his door, he demands a reaponse, but there is none; and finally when he comes face to face with this entity it kills him!

Another disturbing part of the story is when little Toby and Jack are out in the cemetary where most of the family appeared to have been buried a few yards from the house and when Jacks tries to figure out what his son, Toby meant by when he said: "Where do we go when we die?"

And with that said Toby looked up from the epitaph and looked directly at his father and Jack noticed that it was not his son he was speaking to. His eyes were completly black and it was though you could almost see through to him...

THis was beyond scary!!!! I definatly recommecnt this thriller to anyone who isn't scared easily!