What a difference a chapter can make?

After chapter four, I was tempted to jump ship and abandon this whole experiment!  I was really just disinterested in Koontz's Frankenstein and nothing in his words changed my mind!  But out of loyalty to a wonderful writer I stuck to him and one chapter later I'm completely hooked!  It's really amazing how that works.  But I guess this is why novels have to be amazing from the first line if they even have a hope of getting published, because unless the writer's last name is King or Koontz slow starting novels don't get read.

That being said, I'm very disappointed here, normally Koontz has me from the first sentence.  In fact as I was reading Chapter six, I kept thinking that it should have been Chapter One.  Maybe it's just the editor in me, but I think novels should jump out at in you in the first chapter.  Grab you by the seat of your pants and not let go till the end.  And Koontz usually delivers me just that.

Of course, I have gotten away from reading him.  In the last fifteen years I've read exactly one new (to me) Koontz novel.  And I also re-read Lightning this summer.  Wow, what a fantastic novel that is!

It was the Face of Fear that drove me away.  Man was that book dull.  Sure a guy who was afraid of heights had to climb down a skyscraper from the outside, but who cares.  It was not well written.  My cousin felt that he was now publishing the books he'd written in his youth that no one wanted before he got a name.  It made sense, but I didn't care about his stories or characters anymore, which is what Koontz book is all about.  But I felt the same way about King for awhile.  I thought he lost his fastball, but man was I wrong.  So I figured Koontz deserved another look see, I'm glad I decided to take a peek.

The character introduced in this chapter was perfect.

When you read the book, that joke will make a bit more sense.

So now I'm in.  I've decided a chapter by chapter account would be insane and might give too much insight into the book.  So I'm going to read twenty five chapters before I check back in with you.  There's just this side of a hundred, so I figure three more pieces before the a general review.

Well, here goes nothing.

Written by Matt Brennan