Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Book One – Prodigal Son
Though we’ve already reviewed the second book in this three-part series, we’d be amiss not to praise the one where it all began…
If you watched USA’s modern-day FRANKENSTEIN movie last October, you may have wondered why noted author Dean Koontz’s name had disappeared from the credits, since the whole thing had been his idea. Turns out he didn’t like the direction the Parker Posey/Michael Madsen vehicle was going, so he bailed and decided to put his vision out as a book instead.
I’m glad he bowed out, because DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON is a very good, quickly paced read. Don’t think it’s merely Mary Shelley’s story transplanted (pun not intended) to the ’00s. Far from it, it’s a police procedural disguised as a scientific horror story.
Having perfected a youth formula, mad scientist Victor Frankenstein is some 200 years old, living in New Orleans and creating a “New Race” of two-hearted humans. His first creation from way back when is no longer a murderer, but a calm soul who comes to the city to help the cops nail a serial killer, whose sinister connections to Frankenstein become all too clear.
Don’t be put off by the fact that this debuted in paperback rather than the more prestigious hardcover, nor that Koontz probably did little more than plotting it (letting co-writer Kevin J. Anderson drive), because surprisingly, the book is not your usual Frankenstein story. This one is more crime-minded than … well, any that have come before. If you haven’t yet tried this, do so! It was one of my favorite books of last year.
The follow-up BOOK TWO – CITY OF NIGHT is now out; BOOK THREE comes out next summer, but has yet to be announced.
[...] Cue opening credits. Like a one-man Mulder and Scully, Odd then uses his supernatural powers of detection – not to mention a string of mysterious, taunting cellphone calls – that draw him to the remains of a quake-ravaged Indian casino and hotel in the desert. There he locates Danny, a childhood best friend stricken with brittle bone disease, as well as his captor. It is here, already at the book’s midpoint, when things pick up and take a turn that wouldn’t be out of place in Koontz’s FRANKENSTEIN series. [...]
[...] • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK THREE – We don’t know its subtitle. We don’t know who’s co-writing it. We don’t even know when exactly it’s coming out. But given that we loved BOOK ONE and BOOK TWO, we know we’ll eat it up just as soon as it arrives. Quite possibly my favorite book series of this decade. (Summerish) [...]
[...] RUMORS’ emphasis on the procedural reminded me of the excellent DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN books, which distinguishes the book from all the tired, been-there-done-that vampire fiction out there. Yet Niles and Mariotte leave plenty of room for the hardcore horror as well, so this novel won’t disappoint Niles’ fans thirsting for his oddball touch. The recent DARK DELICACIES anthology gave us proof that Niles could pen a short story as captivating as his comics work, and RUMORS builds upon that promise in the long form. [...]
[...] There’s something wrong with the world when a third book in Dean Koontz’s ODD THOMAS series is announced before a third book in his FRANKENSTEIN series. Not there’s anything wrong with Mr. Thomas and his supernatural adventures, but we’ve eagerly impatiently been waiting a year for the FRANKENSTEIN trilogy to wrap up, while Odd showed up a second time just this past fall. [...]
[...] OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR: • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF NIGHT by Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman • DEMON SEED by Dean Koontz • THE FACE OF FEAR by Dean Koontz • FOREVER ODD by Dean Koontz • ODD THOMAS by Dean Koontz • VELOCITY by Dean Koontz [...]
[...] OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR: • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF NIGHT by Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman • DEMON SEED by Dean Koontz • THE FACE OF FEAR by Dean Koontz • FOREVER ODD by Dean Koontz • THE HUSBAND by Dean Koontz • ODD THOMAS by Dean Koontz • VELOCITY by Dean Koontz [...]
[...] BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR: • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson • THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN by Kevin J. Anderson [...]
[...] THIS AUTHOR: • BROTHER ODD by Dean Koontz • THE DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR by Dean Koontz • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF [...]
[...] THIS AUTHOR: • BROTHER ODD by Dean Koontz • THE DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR by Dean Koontz • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson • DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF [...]