Wow. Everytime I read one of Mr. Koontz's books I think it can't be topped but each time I'm amazed. I barely know the original tale, but no wonder people have been mesmerized by the story of Frankenstein's monster for decades. I love that he's the tortured good guy. It fits so well.

Thank you Dean, for your gift of creativity!

On to book 2!!!

I really enjoyed this re-telling of the Frankenstein monster from the monster's point of view. It is very different that the Mary Shelley version (my favorite), and very different than the Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein I recently reviewed. I did enjoy the monster's thoughts on life and his wanting to come up with advanced races. Interesting concepts.

As someone rekindling a connection to books instead of watching the movie or series they based on them, this was a great read. The way he sets scenes and characters makes it easy to imagine and drags you in. The book gives you with enough answers to keep you satisfied but leaves you with the want to keep reading to find out more. The scene like chapters give you a look at many different characters that all play their roll which can be a bit tedious to keep track of but does not take away from the story in my opinion.

I read it back in the beginning of 2018 and it felt forever ago, a life time even. But I I've had fond memories of it and been looking for the others in the series without any luck. Might need to buy them someday for full prize but if they are just as good as this one, it shouldn't be a problem. Seem to enjoy rewriting s of Frankenstein more than the actual book for some reason

Will be doing a re-read on this book.

I am pretty sure that this is my very first Dean Koontz book. I've never been much into horror or sci-fi, but I was surprised by how much I did enjoy this one. The only Frankenstein I remember was the movies when I was a young person. I still remember The Bride of Frankenstein, so I didn't know what to expect when reading this "retelling."

I don't really remember much about the movies or the settings etc. because that was years ago! (ugh) But Prodigal Son is set in New Orleans with the character of Victor Helios (Frankenstein) who is trying to set up something where the world will become without god and science will rule, so to speak. But Victor isn't a typical person; he is 200 years old. I guess he is the Frankenstein that was the mad scientist of the Dr. Frankenstein who created the monster back in my day...many moon ago. Anyway the Prodigal Son's original monster is Deucalion and, just like the old Frankenstein's monster, he comes to life and isn't a very happy guy so he goes looking for his "maker," Victor Frankenstein. What I wasn't expecting were so many monsters and the serial killer aspect of the story along with a couple of detectives who I would think would be very serious, but they actually brought comic relief to the story.

I will most likely continue the series and see how Koontz continues to develop this old classic into modern day society. I think he's very crafty and seems to have a good handle on a good balance of charter types.

Recommendation: I think there are many reasons to try this book. If you liked the original classic, if you like horror, paranormal, murder/detective work, new/old/favorite authors (depending on your reading experience), and for a really good retelling of a much loved mad scientist and his monster set in a new day and age. And as an additional reason to read it, the reading goes by quickly. It was a one sitting read for me.

4.5 stars -
I'm physically reading this series at a leisurely pace.
Dean Koontz is such a gem.

Dean Koontz’s premise that Frankenstein is not a fictional story, but a well-hidden real-life event intrigued me. He’s turned the concept into a modern, even more terrifying world, where hundreds of man-made monsters have been manufactured to create a “New Race” army. The army’s purpose is to take over the world, which will be run by the power-mad Victor Frankenstein, or Helios, as he now calls himself.

New Orleans offers a perfect setting for the horrific killings that happen. Some of Frankenstein’s rogue creations cut up people to find out why they seem happy while the monsters, who consider themselves superior, are not. It’s an ironic approach to an age-old question about happiness and peace and control over one’s life and destiny.

Among the many intriguing aspects of this book is that Frankenstein’s first creation, now 200 years old and calling himself Deucalion, is still alive. He’s become the exact opposite of the monster he was and is now a wise, philosophical, and intelligent creature who wants to help the police stop Helios.

The story is told from different viewpoints of both good and evil characters, all of whom are watching their lives unravel. While some of the threads are wound up at the end of the novel, the main one is not. I usually don’t like this approach in a series, but I made an exception in this case because the story and writing are absolutely terrific.

This is the first Dean Koontz novel I read so I decided to do a little research about him; and here's what I read: According to his official website and book blog sites, Dean Koontz is one of the good authors who brought several of his books to appear on the New York Times Bestseller List. He is famous for his novels which can be perfectly described and categorized as suspense thrillers with elements of classic horror, science fiction and satire.

Frankenstein (Book One: Prodigal Son) is one of Dean Koontz's best known novels. It is a combined science fiction-horror mystery, and satirist novel. It is actually a modern version of Mary Shelley's highly-acclaimed novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus in 1818. Mary Shelley's version of Frankenstein is about an eccentric mad-scientist, Victor Frankenstein who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment (dead bodies, electricity, lightning and some other stuff). Although Dean Koontz didn't change the horror/goth-ish like theme of Shelley's version, he, however, contemporized Victor Frankenstein's image and "WORKS". Imagine the change from ugly stitches into unnoticeable beautiful sew patches and Dean Koontz named them as the "New Race".

Dean Koontz made me like Science-Fiction and Horror novels. His talent in writing didn't fail to meet my expectations. I'm going to read more and more of his works! :)

He Lives!
Both Frankenstein and his monster have achieved a level of immortality and find themselves living their 200th year in New Orleans. Nope, not joking.
But I like the way Koontz spins this one: above-ground burial crypts = easy access to bodies for Dr. Frankenstein's creepy endeavors. He's still creating people, only now he's kind of perfected it, and he's planting New World infiltrators in every area of society - police stations, churches, government. Well, that would explain a lot, huh?
But instead of a raging, homicidal green giant, Frankenstein's first creation (going by the name Deucalion) is now a peaceful monk who returns from the mountains of Tibet to confront the true monster.
I read this as part of my October Spooky Reads challenge, and although I didn't find it at all scary, it was definitely thrilling and worth continuing with the series.

Out of the last of the twilight came Deucalion with a suitcase, in clothes too heavy for the sultry night.

Koontz does a pretty good job of extrapolating the Frankenstein mythos. He doesn’t do much to alter the original history, but instead focuses on a “what if” scenario. What if Mary Shelley’s novel was an account of actual events? What if Victor and his creation were still around today? How could that have come about? What would they be doing? Etcetera. This kind of thing has a multitude of possibilities, limited only by the author’s imagination, and it’s obvious that DK had quite a bit of fun with Prodigal Son.

The story is paced very well, perhaps at the expense of deeper character development, but it’s a ripping yarn. There are some surprises, notably concerning the nature of the characters and how Koontz set his story up.

Is it somewhat absurd? Of course it is. I would expect no less. Between the Mad Scientist, the New Race, the Serial Killer and Deucalion there is bound to be a fair amount of mayhem. This is good, if you’re inclined towards Speculative Horror fiction.

I bow to no one.

Deucalion is, of course, an enigma. A curious mixture of affability and disdain, vulnerability and invincibility, he strides from the obscurity of the last two hundred years into modern day New Orleans. Of the protagonists in this novel, and there are more than one, I obviously liked him the most. Who wouldn’t? Although, to be honest, he doesn't really feature enough.

Do you believe in evil?

The novel raises a plethora of moral dilemmas. There is a philosophical argument in here somewhere; you won’t have to search too hard to find it, but you may get waylaid by the simmering violence.

All flesh is grass, and withers, and the fields of the mind, too, are burned black by death and do not grow green again.

What can I say? I enjoyed it.

This book was intriguing to say the least, as it took the classic story of Frankenstein and altered it. The author took the character and put him in a new situation in a new place, in this case New Orleans. The plot revolved around multiple murder mysteries, and that added a suspense element that I personally liked. There would be a lot of evidence and clues provided, and it was gave the reader the ability to make some guesses on was really going on in the story. One thing that I didn't particularly enjoy from the beginning is that I felt like there was way too many unnecessary details added in, and it made me uninterested a good amount of the time. It heavily depended on the chapter, as for a few of the chapters, I was able to get into it and I was excited to figure out the next thing that would happen, while in other chapters, I was extremely bored. Another element that I noticed was the explanation of characters, as each character was introduced and had a lot of action, and then much later their backstory was explained. I feel like I prefer this, as it would be boring to explain everything about the character at once, and it is better to do it later, and it is satisfying because it makes their personality make more sense. The chapters were also very short, and with each chapter the scene changed. I feel like it might have been better to have longer scenes before switching topics, but at the same time it made it a little easier to get along with the book. I liked that fact that I could somewhat feel the personality of the original Frankenstein in most scenes. There also was some humor here and there, which I enjoyed. Overall, this book kept my interest for some of the time with the suspense revolving the murder scandal, but at other times, it seemed to be talking about irrelevant topics. This book was average in my opinion, and I would only plan on finishing it if I had a lot of free time.