It comes with the job, but often I’m asked if I know when the third novel of the DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN series will come out. After so many promised dates passing by, “never” seems to be the most correct answer. In the meantime, fans will just have to make do with DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: PRODIGAL SON — VOLUME ONE, a comics adaptation of the series’ first novel, which Koontz co-wrote with Kevin J. Anderson.
This five-issue collection follows that book’s plot to the proverbial T, hinging on the “what if?” concept that Victor Frankenstein never stopped making monsters. Today, having rendered himself immortal, he goes by the name of Victor Helios and continues perfecting his creations.
But what happens when one of them commits murder, and the victim is a fellow “brother”? The corpse’s double organs raise a big ol’ red flag with the cops; Det. Carson O’Connor and her partner, Michael Maddison, are assigned to investigate. Their trail bisects that of the original monster, named Deucalion, who comes home to New Orleans from a monastery when he senses something is wrong.
Also threaded into the tale are Carson’s autistic brother; Randal Six, a crossword-obsessed creation of Helios who seeks the boy out; and Helios’ “perfect” wife, whom he also made. As with the novel, the story — adapted here by Chuck Dixon — is quite well-told, even if the focus seems to shift off of Carson. It’s not for nothing that the series’ mix of horror, mystery and thrills has intoxicated so many readers, who are clamoring for the third part of the trilogy to finally be placed.
But don’t look for plot closure in this book, newcomers. It comes to an end on a cliffhanger, promising to continue in VOLUME TWO, but those single issues have yet to surface.
What I’m not a fan of is the art by Brett Booth, at least not when it comes to people. They’re drawn to outrageous proportions, and their faces are filled with too many sketchy lines, inked too deeply, making them all look like they’ve been clawed by cats. Deucalion appears as if he stepped off the cover of a romance paperback, and his hair is drawn with more vim and vigor than Carson’s lovely locks.
Booth fares better in this volume’s bonus story, written by Koontz himself, in which Helios’ journals recall the day his genetic work resulted in a fused-twin monster, which wreaked havoc on his lab. The creature is illustrated to appear horrifying, and is. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS 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 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 GOOD GUY by Dean Koontz
• THE HUSBAND by Dean Koontz
• IN ODD WE TRUST by Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan
• ODD HOURS by Dean Koontz
• ODD THOMAS by Dean Koontz
• VELOCITY by Dean Koontz
• YOUR HEART BELONGS TO ME by Dean Koontz
Related posts:
- Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Book One – Prodigal Son
- Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Book Two – City of Night
- In Odd We Trust
- O, BROTHER, where ODD thou?, asks Koontz
- Brother Odd
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I went to DK’s official website and he had a video q&a thing from, I think, November 2008. Koontz says he is almost done with the third book and that it will be out before we’ve forgotten what happened in the first two books. Vague, as usual, but at least he almost has it done. He says there is no collaboration this time.
BZZZT! I’ve long forgotten anything that happened in BOOK TWO. He’d better recap.
I’m wondering how they’ll handle the release of this one. Since the other two were mostly written by the collaborators, will the third be issued in hardback instead of paperback?