Seize the Night 32c Flr by Dean Koontz

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Author: Dean R. Koontz
Release date: December, 1999
Media: Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 0553667181

Christianity, Bestiality and Peperridge Farm Cookies

For all the rave comments in the introductions to Koontz's novels, I fail to see what is so fabulous about them. Sure, they're a little suspenseful, but only in about the middle twelve pages. The reader spends chapter after chapter reading about the tiniest, most minute details of every object in every room through which the characters travel; minor details that have nothing to do with the plot. I don't need to know every detail of a set of Victorian curtains in a room in a house when the point of the characters being there is that they're going to kill a priest. Get to the point already!

It seems that Koontz spends a lot of time filling space. He frequently interrupts the story to tell the reader about something completely irrelevant, perhaps a rant on the virtues of Christianity or another paragraph about how wonderful dogs are. Sure, dogs make great pets, but I don't want to hear about how great dogs are when the main character is on the verge of a major discovery. Irrelevant rants are a poorly-chosen plot tool for so popular an author. It is as if the author were inflicted with a literary Tourettes Syndrome.

Sure, I like dogs as much as the next guy, but the level to which Koontz takes his obsession with them borders on bestiality. In fact, in one of his novels (_False Memory_) Koontz even goes so far as to have the antagonist assume that two of the primary characters are having sex with a dog in the back of a truck. His fascination with Christianity is nearly or as prominent.

It seems that at least every third paragraph is filled with God's intent, God's wishes, the afterlife and all things Christian. It is not tough to see that the author is playing with the morals of gentle readers. Because of this, it is not hard to see why Koontz's novels are so popular. The novels are not popular because they offer good suspense or a detailed plot, they are popular because they play to every cliche`e moral quality that Americans value: Dogs, Christianity, holidays, romance and gluttony. Beer and heterosexuality are pushed on the reader, plus the occasional product placement.

DId I say occasional? In some parts, the product placements get completely blatant. In the novel _False Memory_, Koontz spends pages discussing a rich man's favorite products including Mercedes Benz and "Milano cookies, by Peperridge Farms." I took a hiliter to one of Koontz's novels, hiliting each product placement in two chapters featuring a particular character. In those chapters I found no less than twenty-four blatantly obvious product placements.

To summarize, if you like dogs, Christianity, heterosexuality, beer and Christmas on a level bordering obsession, I'm almost sure you'll love Koontz's novels. However, if you're looking for a steady plot and good character detail, you'll have to look to another author. - an Amazon customer review

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