Prodigal Son

An interesting mix of horror, science fiction, mystery, and crime fiction. Not what I normally read, but I enjoyed it. Deucalion was hands down my favorite character, but not the only interesting one. Not what I'd normally read, but was worth it.

Okay, this was a little different. I've read a few Koontz before, but this felt difference, perhaps because it's a nod to Mary Shelley. I liked this extension of the original story and found the characters pretty interesting, although I had trouble keeping track of all of Viktor's creations! I think part of it is that this is an introduction to a series and so it's really setting us up while bringing O'Connor and Madison into the supernatural/science fiction world of Viktor and Deucalion. While there is some resolution to some of the plot lines, there are a lot of unanswered questions that I imagine will be addressed in subsequent books. I enjoyed it enough that I will be reading on in this series.

Prodigal Son is the first of five books in Koontz's Frankenstein series. It was first published as a collaboration with Kevin J. Anderson, whose name was removed in later editions, and I wonder if it was re-written or revised or what happened. I'm usually not enthusiastic about re-boot or re-make stories, as I think that the contemporary author (or artist or filmmaker or musician or whatever) would probably be better off doing their own original work, and that if the original work has survived for a long time, then the original creator probably did it right the first time. However, this one is strikingly original and well-crafted and tells a wholly new and modern story. It's set in a nicely portrayed contemporary (pre-Katrina 2005) New Orleans and features a pair of police detectives seeking a serial killer who get a whole lot more than they expected. It ends with a classic cliffhanger and the first three books, at least, have to be read in order to get a full story, but I believe it's well worth it.

Loved it. It's a good thing I have book two on hand though, because book one is certainly not a "stand-alone" book. Koontz does NOT disappoint with this tale of Frankenstein and his monsters.

Imagine if Frankenstein was not fictional? Imagine if he found immortality and has used the last two centuries to perfect his monsters? In Koontz's book, Victor Frankenstein has seeded our society with his soul-less followers. He plans to eliminate the human race and replace them with his followers who will do his bidding.

Spooky. Creepy. Loved it.

You guys want to know who my favorite Koontz character is? Is it Odd Thomas? No. Laura Shane? No. Deucalion from this book? No.

"He was a child of Mercy. Mercy born and Mercy raised. His name was Randall Six."

Koontz is known for making his characters one of two ways. The good guys are saintly good. They give change to the telephone companies. They never use bad language. They never engage in pre-martial sex especially after what happened to Koontz in the 90s that made him start to write this way. Perhaps their only flaw is their reluctance to kill bad guys even though they make it clear they are very bad.

The bad guys, however are 100 percent evil, 100 percent of the time. They kill, they torture, they rape. Why? Just because they LOVE it. They can't live without it. To point out that confident people who love themselves don't HAVE to resort to harming others is just making Freudian excuses.

This is why I love Randall Six though (and this book). He's NOT the typical stock Koontz character. He's a villain, perhaps, but an anti-villain. He's a young man with severe OCD tendencies and autism created by an uncaring tyrannical jerk and he wants to find the secret to happiness. He's perfectly willing to just ask the main character's autistic brother but he's also willing to take the secret by force if he has to.

This one character with this simple, meaningful goal is one that I rooted for when he begins his escape from the Hands of Mercy. He needs order, so constantly writes in crossword puzzles. When he sees the tiles on the floor, he pretends he's doing yet another one as he crosses them to make his escape.

He's more compelling than stock evil-atheist/scientist-character number 612: Victor Helios. More compelling than stock mutant/loner/outcast number 987: Deucalion. More compelling than the male and female duo of the week, one serious and the other extremely witty of course.

When he escapes, he hides in a dumpster. A hobo tries to kick him out and gets his neck snapped. Of course he did. Randall Six has the same programming that all the New Race have.

Sounds like a Freudian excuse to me, Koontz.

Anyways, the plot in his book is good. Here Koontz let's us now that the New Race, produced by Helios is building numbers to replace the Old Race through violent revolution. Pretty cool! But that's the overarching plot over the three books in the first series. The primary plot of the novel itself is detectives have to find a serial killer, which turns out to be one of the New Race individuals trying to find the meaning of happiness. And no, it's not Randall Six.

The climax is good for a Koontz novel. Here you have the two detectives tracking down the serial killer and battling on a rooftop.

Unfortunately, this book has some of the same flaws as The Husband. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. Short chapters. I find it jarring, especially when the subject matter between paragraphs often doesn't change. Here, the short chapters are tolerable, because you switch viewpoints a lot between characters, whereas in The Husband, it was just stupid.

Overall? Recommended.

Update: It's "Randal" not "Randall." I have been talking about this guy being my favorite Koontz character for a decade and the entire time I have been spelling his name wrong. Randal would not approve. =(

I’ve gotten so that I think anything Dean Koontz writes has to be good, and this one has all the requirements: a doing good couple falling in love, combined with unimaginable horror--and in this case, the horror is compounded beyond belief. Suppose Frankenstein’s monster did not die out on the Alaskan ice floes, but had managed to survive, even unto today’s world? More, suppose Dr. Frankenstein, who was the real monster, had also found a way to survive--and to continue his ungodly experiments? When the book opens, Frankenstein is living in a Tibetan monastery when he gets word that Dr. Frankenstein not only is still alive but is creating new evils in New Orleans. As the plot unfolds, we begin to see just how bad these new evils are. Meanwhile, there are a couple wise-cracking detectives, who don’t want to admit they are falling in love with each other, who are trying to solve the blossoming evils. Everything leads up to a rollicking conclusion … that does not get resolved, because the story is continued in Book 2, leaving the reader hanging, much as in the old serial movies that used to appear in episodic fashion in the movie theater each Saturday matinee.

Dark, gruesome, and thoroughly enjoyable!

I think I'm really going to enjoy this series, the first is a true pleasure to read.