[Review] Breathless by Dean Koontz
It's been a while since I read a Dean Koontz, but this one is new and I picked it up in hardback. It's relatively small, so I went ahead and read it.
Normally I love Dean Koontz for his spiritual messages that aren't specifically religious messages. In that department, Breathless delivers once again.
However, in plotting, it's a little lacking, which disappoints me to no end because that's what Koontz is really famous for, his intense plotting. It's not unusual in these later books, though, for the plot to be a little thin. Most of the characters in Breathless spend a great deal of time doing not much while moving toward a lackluster climax.
My biggest disappointment: in a plot that seems to point towards the connectedness of all things and the purpose of chaos and coincidence, not all of the disparate characters come together, and even when they do, the connection is tenuous at best for some.
The real central plot is that involving Grady and Cammy. Lamar ends up being connected in a tangible way.
Henry ends up being connected in a tangible way, though not nearly as much as Lamar.
Tom? Liddon? Tom's connection is laughable, and Liddon's all but nonexistant. Liddon's best connection to the rest of the plot is through Tom, whom he never meets, and who never meets any of the other characters. This entire part of the plot really has no point to the rest of the book, and could have been a novel in and of itself. Then we could have learned more about Tom's past and Liddon's motivations.
Koontz, really? You could have done better. Much, much better. Is it the pressure of cranking out a new novel so quickly? I mean, that seems to be part of it, considering the quality of your plots recently has been steadily dropping. Breathless just made it noticeable to me, a fan willing to by a hardback of your newest.
Okay, longer than I expected.
Normally I love Dean Koontz for his spiritual messages that aren't specifically religious messages. In that department, Breathless delivers once again.
However, in plotting, it's a little lacking, which disappoints me to no end because that's what Koontz is really famous for, his intense plotting. It's not unusual in these later books, though, for the plot to be a little thin. Most of the characters in Breathless spend a great deal of time doing not much while moving toward a lackluster climax.
My biggest disappointment: in a plot that seems to point towards the connectedness of all things and the purpose of chaos and coincidence, not all of the disparate characters come together, and even when they do, the connection is tenuous at best for some.
The real central plot is that involving Grady and Cammy. Lamar ends up being connected in a tangible way.
Henry ends up being connected in a tangible way, though not nearly as much as Lamar.
Tom? Liddon? Tom's connection is laughable, and Liddon's all but nonexistant. Liddon's best connection to the rest of the plot is through Tom, whom he never meets, and who never meets any of the other characters. This entire part of the plot really has no point to the rest of the book, and could have been a novel in and of itself. Then we could have learned more about Tom's past and Liddon's motivations.
Koontz, really? You could have done better. Much, much better. Is it the pressure of cranking out a new novel so quickly? I mean, that seems to be part of it, considering the quality of your plots recently has been steadily dropping. Breathless just made it noticeable to me, a fan willing to by a hardback of your newest.
Okay, longer than I expected.