Saturday, May 24, 2008
Sweeney Todd
****½ Sweeney Todd. Horror/musical.
Directed by Tim Burton.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman,
Carl and I saw this at the Hercules by ourselves. Although we were apparently in the minority in thinking it wasn't appropriate for the kids. I was a little disturbed by the number of 5 - 10 year-olds in the audience.
Maybe their parents were all, like me, mostly unaware of the plot (though the R rating is a hint, as is the subtitle "the Demon Barber"). I hadn't even realized it was a musical. I'm so out of touch sometimes.
Anyway. Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) used to be a happily married barber named Benjamin Barker, until Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) gets him transported to Australia on a trumped-up charge to get Barker's wife for himself. She then poisons herself in despair, and their daughter Johanna becomes the judge's ward.
Now Barker is back, rechristened as Sweeney Todd. He reconnects with old friend Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) and prepares to reopen a barbershop. When his identity is discovered by rival barber Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen), he kills him, and Mrs. Lovett uses the body for meat pies in her shop... which becomes very popular, and the two of them go on a killing and baking spree, intended to culminate in the murder of Judge Turpin.
This is very dark humor--typical Tim Burton--but somehow it works, and you're simultaneously horrified and amused. And of course, it is a musical, and the songs are great.
Categories: Movies, 4.5stars, Horror, Musical
Labels: 4.5 stars, horror, Movies, musical
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Planet Terror
**** Planet Terror. Horror.
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez.
Starring: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Marley Shelton
I gave the DVDs of both this and Death Proof to Carl for Christmas.
Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis) and his men are infected with... something that makes sores pop out all over and turns those infected into violent monsters, but they've been keeping it under control with a gas (they're all wearing gas masks). Problem is, they're out of gas, and scientist Abby (Naveen Andrews) has it, but a gunfight has punctured the containers, and the green mist is dispersing into the air.
It doesn't take long before the entire town is infected.
Our heroes are Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) and El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez). Cherry is a stripper, but her career gets cut short (heh) when one of the monsters rips her leg off. Helping them is Dr. Dakota Block (Marley Shelton), who's married to Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin), but in the process of leaving him for her lover; and the sheriff and his barbecue-restaurant-owning brother.
I had to re-watch the beginning to understand what was going on with the gas, but I'm pretty sure I have the gist of it now.
If you haven't heard about these, they're an homage to the "grindhouse" movies of the 70s--basically, cheesy horror flicks. Planet Terror was fast-moving, gore-filled, and funny... in an incredibly sick, warped way. The gore and the violence were so over-the-top that you (okay, I) really couldn't take it seriously. Thank goodness, because even so, some of the scenes were just too disgusting to watch without holding my fingers in front of my eyes. I'm not sure why that helps--it just does.
I'm not sure why I enjoyed this so much. I don't like horror, and while a lot of people compared Planet Terror to the Dawn of the Dead remake, I found Dawn of the Dead incredibly stupid. *shrug* I think it's because Planet Terror really doesn't take itself seriously. Everything's exaggerated, and there was a pervasive feeling that they were having a hell of a lot of fun when they made the movie that I found irresistible.
Categories: Movies, 4stars, Horror
Labels: 4 stars, horror, Movies
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Transylvania 6-5000
**** Transylvania 6-5000. Comedy/horror.
Directed by: Rudy DeLuca.
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Ed Begley Jr., Joseph Bologna, Carol Kane, Geena Davis, Michael Richards, John Byner, etc.
We rented this from Netflix. I'd seen it before, possibly at the theater, though we were in Germany with a small baby when it came out, so it's more likely we'd rented the video. It was just as much fun as I remembered.
Tabloid reporters Jack (Jeff Goldblum) and Gil (Ed Begley, Jr.) are sent to Transylvania to write a story about Frankenstein. Jack is skeptical, Gil is credulous, and the natives are laughing at them.
Still, there are some strange things happening, and there are some decidedly odd characters around, including a mad scientist, Dr. Malavaqua (Joseph Bologna); a bizarre butler (Michael Richards); and a pair of servants: the wacky Lupi (Carol Kane) and the longsuffering Radu (John Byner).
Turns out, there's not just Frankenstein, but a whole host of horror-movie monsters hanging out in Dr. Malavaqua's lab. Geena Davis is an oversexed vampire, and there's a werewolf (Donald Gibb), and a mummy as well.
Transylvania 6-5000 is a spoof of horror movies, so don't expect a straightforward comedy. It's slapstick, completely over-the-top humor. Basically, it's silly. Very silly. If you don't find the old banana peel gag funny (yes, it's in there!), you probably won't enjoy this.
What's also fun is the completely star-studded cast. Many of whom, we noticed, are tall: Jeff Goldblum (6'4.5"), Ed Begley, Jr (6'4"), Jeffery Jones (6'4"), Geena Davis (6'), Michael Richards (6'3"), and Donald Gibb (6'4").
Interesting bit of trivia: it has the same title as a 1963 Looney Tunes short, which is available here.
Categories: Movies, 4stars, Comedy, Horror
Labels: 4 stars, comedy, horror, Movies
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
1408
***½ 1408. Horror.
Directed by: Mikael Håfström.
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson.
I don't generally watch horror movies, but I absolutely love John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. So I went with Carl to see this at the Hercules.
Mike Enslin is a writer of books about haunted houses, who's going a bit off the deep end after the death of his daughter. Despite everything the manager of the Dolphin Hotel (Samuel L. Jackson) says, he's determined to spend the night in room 1408, that's not just haunted--people tend to die very grisly deaths, mostly self-inflicted, in that room.
So he checks in and the weirdness starts happening.
And happening.
And happening.
Cusack is absolutely brilliant in the role--what's for most of the movie a one-man show. His disbelief, anger, fear, resignation, determination, every emotion you might expect to go through, is vividly on the screen.
But there's not a solution or a reason for it. Yes, he figures out how to escape in the end, but how did the room get that way? Why did these things happen? And what about the manager? He seemed a little sinister, like he might be causing things, but apparently not.
So on the way home, and for about a half hour afterward, we discussed this and other horror movies. Carl loved it. I loved Cusack's performance, but I wanted there to be a point to it. We came up with a theory.
Here's another thought: what Mike Enslin goes through ends up helping him work through his personal demons, which figure fairly heavily in the room's torments. Maybe it's all symbolism?
Categories: Movies, 3.5stars, Horror
Labels: 3.5 stars, horror, Movies
Friday, July 06, 2007
Armageddon's Children
****½ Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks. Horror.
This is a book I've been waiting for--a continuation of the demon series, connecting it to the Shannara series. I'm calling it horror instead of fantasy, because that's what the tone feels like to me--and because the demon trilogy was horror. Barnes & Noble calls it "dark fantasy," but isn't that really just another term for horror?
It's a post-apocalyptic world, a hundred years or so after Angel Fire East. Humankind has gathered into small groups for safety and survival, living in abandoned sports arenas or office buildings. And then there are those on the outside, like the boy Hawk and his little band of children. Mistrusting adults and mistrusted by them, the children form a family of their own, and live by scavenging and bartering.
The humans are in danger from territorial disputes with each other, but also from the demons who've gained ascendancy in the lawlessness. The demons have slave camps in which they experiment on humans and turn them into creatures known as once-men. And all that stands between humans and the demons are the Knights of the Word: Logan Tom and Angel Perez.
Logan Tom's been waging war against the slave camps, but he has a new mission: to find and protect the gypsy morph--a sort of savior that first appeared in the demon trilogy.
Angel Perez's mission of protecting children is also changed, when she's tasked with finding and assisting elves in their quest for the loden stone, with which they can protect and preserve the Ellcrys--a sentient tree that figures prominently in several of the Shannara books.
And there are the elves themselves. Young elves serve the Ellcrys for a year, and it's usually an uneventful life, but then the Ellcrys speaks to Kirisin, warning him of impending doom and telling him the steps to save the Ellcrys and with it the elves.
Armageddon's Children is quite definitely the first in a trilogy--some issues are resolved by the end of the book, but most are not. I wasn't specifically aware of that when I started reading, but I wasn't surprised--most of Terry Brooks's books come in trilogy form.
I found each of the plot threads exciting, and the characters engaging, if tending toward the young-ish side.
The only thing that really gave me pause was the romance between Hawk, who's in his late teens, and a young settlement girl, who's 11. Creeped me out a bit, particularly since I was still reeling from the pedophilia in Taltos. Still, it's not a huge part of the story, and most of the time I could pretend she was a few years older, so it didn't ruin the book for me.
I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, The Elves of Cintra, which is due out in a little less than two months.
...more
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Horror
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, horror
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Dracula
***** Dracula by Bram Stoker. Horror.
It's funny how you can know a story without ever reading it... and how it can surprise you once you do read it, even though you know what's going to happen. Thanks to Dagz for telling me I ought to read this one.
What I found most interesting was how much different it was from what I'd expected, and from the movies I've seen based on it over the years. Renfield, for example, was vastly more interesting than I've seen him in movies. He doesn't just sit there and moan for his Master. There's a method to his (literal) madness. And Van Helsing fails almost entirely to resemble Hugh Jackman in any way--a fact which I found terribly disappointing.
And those three brides? Barely in the book at all.
But the biggest, and most pleasant surprise was Mina, and to a lesser extent, Lucy. I'd expected them to be the TSTL women of the films. No, I'd expected them to be worse, since it's an old book, and Everyone Knows that women are viewed more equally nowadays, right? Not so. Lucy wasn't an idiot--she was seduced and controlled, yes, but it wasn't due to her flightiness, nor was she especially susceptible.
Mina, though... I love Mina. She's a strong, intelligent character, and the men learn their lesson about trying to keep things from her to protect her when keeping her out of the loop puts them all in danger. From then on, she's a fairly equal partner in the fight, and she comes up with her share of the plans, and risks herself as fully as any of the men.
So why was this strong, equal heroine acceptable in 1897, but not in 1931, 1958, 1979, or 1992? I know there are other versions--those are just the ones I'm sure I've seen.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, Horror
Labels: 5 stars, books, horror
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Taltos
***½ Taltos by Anne Rice. Horror.Yes, I know there's a book between The Witching Hour and this one. This one was in my TBR pile, though, and that one's not. Nor will it be.
Hmmm. It's impossible to write about the plot in a coherent manner because there are several intertwining threads:
As the title implies, this book is mainly about the Taltos--a race of beings we were introduced to in The Witching Hour. Ashlar is, or at least believes himself to be, the last of his kind. He's lonely, currently obsessed with dolls (collecting and manufacturing them), and when he discovers another Taltos has been seen, he drops everything to check it out.
And of course there are the Mayfairs, as this is the last book of the Mayfair Witch trilogy. Rowan seems to be following in her mother's footsteps at the beginning of the book, though she's not quite as completely catatonic--she walks, eats, dresses herself, etc., but doesn't speak, communicate, or acknowledge the presence of others.
The family seems to be turning to the 12-year-old designee of the legacy, Mona, who's pregnant with Michael's child.
Then there's the Talamasca. There's corruption within the Talamasca: Aaron Lightner is killed, and his friend and contemporary Stuart Gordon is behind it, motivated by his plan to resurrect the Taltos race. He has a female Taltos, and he plans to find a male so they can mate.
Contrary to the average opinions on Amazon, I enjoyed this more than I did The Witching Hour. The Taltos race was an interesting concept, and we got a lot more detail about them. (This was presumably also present in Lasher, but I haven't read it.) It also lacked a lot of the problems I had with The Witching Hour: it had a coherent plot--even if there were several threads, the story itself held together quite well; and while there were still a few tangential flashbacks, they weren't nearly as numerous or intrusive as those in The Witching Hour.
However. I was completely creeped out by Mona, and not in the way you're creeped out by vampires or spiders, but in a lose-my-lunch kind of way. The nonchalant way an "affair" between a 12-year-old and a man in his 40s was handled pushed my squick buttons hard. The affair was bad enough, but that it was presented as normal.... Added to that is the fact that she's treated as the head of the family, and everyone defers to her. She's 12. T W E L V E. Not 18, not 16, not even 14--12. She's a child. Nope, just could not swallow this. As with the other witches in The Witching Hour, we're told she's very powerful, which might account for some of the attitude, if we ever saw any evidence of that power, which we don't.
And then there was the stylistic choice that was seriously nails-on-the-chalkboard irritating. Mona becomes friends with her teenage cousin Mary Jane. I rather liked Mary Jane, but she talks like this:
I'll get it, you rest there against that tree, that's the tree I told you about, the cypress tree, oldest one in these parts, you see this was the pond out there, the little pond???? You know??? Where the family would go rowing??? Here, take the lantern, the handle doesn't get hot.Grrrrr. Why use 3 and 4 question marks? One would do, really, to show the speech patterns. Just bugged the heck out of me. I'm not even going to mention the comma splices. Of course, if I'd loved the rest of the book, that would be a minor niggle.
Though I liked it better than the first of the trilogy, even if Mona had been 16 or 18, I wasn't more than mildly interested in the story. Mona at 12 just made me disgusted.
I have two more Anne Rice books in my TBR pile. They were, in fact, at the top, since they'd been random picks a while ago, but I'd postponed reading them until I read the earlier books (The Mummy and The Witching Hour). I picked up the next one to read--one of the vampire ones, I can't remember which--and found myself reading very skeptically, expecting to dislike it. So I put them both back on the bottom of the TBR pile until I get my annoyance with this series out of my head.
...more
Categories: Books, 3.5stars, Horror
Labels: 3.5 stars, books, horror
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The Witching Hour
**½ The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. Horror.I mentioned before that I have a love/hate relationship with Anne Rice's books. This one falls into the latter category.
Where to begin? Well, to start with, it took me over a week to read. Granted, it's over 1000 pages long, but that normally doesn't happen. It should have taken 3 days, maybe 4. Too bad I'm unable to put a book down once I've started reading it.
It's the start of the Witches of Mayfair series, about a family of witches, and the main story, to the extent there is one, is about the most recent descendant coming into her inheritance, but it's nothing as straightforward as that. Not even close.
I'll try to synopsize. Rowan Mayfair is a brilliant neurosurgeon, with a magic sense that, combined with her medical experience, allows her to know which seemingly hopeless cases can be cured. She was adopted at birth and knows nothing at all about her birth family. A man who restores old houses, Michael Curry, drowns while Rowan's on her boat. She rescues and revives him, and they fall in love.
Then there's Deirdre Mayfair, who's in a sort of vegatative state, and it turns out she's Rowan's mother, and the whole family are witches.
Enter Aaron Lightner, a member of the Talamasca, a group that studies supernatural phenomena, and has a big long file--mostly in the form of letters--on the Mayfair family.
Problem #1: Dr. Rowan believes that stem cell research is Coma with fetuses. This one happened early on, well before I was irritated with the book, and when I still expected to enjoy it. And every time I'd gotten over it, up it pops again, making my nutshell impression of the book a 1000+ page diatribe about the evils of stem cell research. It's perfectly fine to use magic to kill people who irritate you, but you're going to hell if you take some cells from an aborted fetus. Whoops. Sorry about that. As you can tell, it pushed my buttons. Particularly since Dr. Rowan is pointedly pro-choice.
Problem #2: The book starts with the POV of a doctor who's suspicious of Deirdre's care. It gives his whole life history (another problem--I'll be getting to it). Then nothing at all comes of it. Nothing. Ever. The doctor never shows up again. The plot thread is just completely dropped. It's bad enough when this happens in the middle of the book, but when it's what starts the book?
Problem #3: We get detailed life histories about every single person introduced in the book, whether it has anything to do with the plot or not. Some of them are interesting, but they're huge tangents, and I lost track of the plot for hundreds of pages at a time.
Problem #4: The book jumps back and forth in time. Part of this is caused by #3, but even within an individual character's story, there's jumping back and forth in time. It's disorienting, and not in a way that serves the story.
Problem #5: There's very little discussion, explanation, or demonstration of the witches' magical powers. Rowan has a little healing power, and other than that, their main magical power seems to be that they can see "The Man," Lasher. Oh, and when they die, it storms. That's pretty much it, except that they're very good at intrigue, manipulation, and shady business dealings. I'm quite possibly more demanding on this score because I've read an awful lot of fantasy, but I expect more than just "they're scary witches"--I'm not going to believe it unless you show me.
Problem #6: The History of the Mayfair Witches--the epistolary file introduced by Aaron Lightner. It's dull, dull, dull. Not only that, but it's prefaced with a note basically saying "I don't care what you think, it's not anachronistic!" accompanied by, in my head, the sound of a foot stomping. And the "letters" are really unconvincing as letters. At one point, someone's running for his life, and he stops to write a letter. Okay, I can buy that he wants to get the word back to the Talamasca. But you cannot convince me that he would take the time to describe the foliage or any of the other things that are depicted in excruciating detail that have nothing to do with the plot.
Problem #7: I did not buy the romance between Rowan and Michael Curry. You'd think that, in over 1000 pages, there'd be space to develop it convincingly, but no. She saves him, they reunite, then they have hawt secks and voila. They're in lurrrvve. Not buying it. I'm particularly not buying that they've instantly got a relationship that's stable enough to weather everything that'll get thrown at them.
Problem #8: Michael's psychic ability. It's quite cool, actually, that it showed up without warning, but that's when I expected it to be explained eventually. It wasn't.
Problem #9: Too much just wasn't explained. And some things that were huge problems just disappeared without being solved.
Problem #10: Rowan ends up being TSTL. Well, I guess that could have been predicted, given #1, but it was still an annoying surprise.
The thing is, this could have been a pretty good story if it were about 400 pages long. Cut out the life histories of every single character. Cut out the flashbacks. Cut out that damn history. Focus on the story in the here-and-now and develop it better. *sigh*
I've got at least 2 more Anne Rice books in my TBR pile. I'm approaching them with trepidation.
...more
Categories: Books, 2.5stars, Horror
Labels: 2.5 stars, books, horror
Monday, April 30, 2007
The Mummy
****½ The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice. Horror.
I really wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I've had a love/hate relationship with Anne Rice's books. I loathed Interview with a Vampire, but people kept telling me to try more, and so I did, and each book I liked a little better. Mind you, I've only read the first half dozen or so of her vampire chronicles (and of course the Sleeping Beauty books), so the recent controversies don't come into the equation yet.
Surprisingly, The Mummy is more like a paranormal romance than a horror novel, and probably would have been shelved in the romance section if not for two things: 1) it was written in 1989, before paranormal romance became a hot genre, and 2) it's by Anne Rice, and she's known for horror, so that's where it goes.
Julie Stratford's father was an archaeologist. Shortly after he discovered the mummy of Ramses II (Ramses the Damned), he was murdered by his nephew Henry.
Back in London, Henry tries the same trick on Julie so he can gain control of the family fortune, but Ramses comes to life and stops him.
Ramses is immortal because of an elixir, but he can also lie dormant for a time. It just takes sunlight to awaken him.
Julie and Ramses fall in love, and there are quite a few light-hearted scenes with them trying to explain his sudden presence and to prevent word from leaking out about the mummy come to life. The romance is complicated by Ramses's betrayal by his first love, Cleopatra, and by Julie's assumed betrothal to Alex, whose father, coincidentally, is the one man who has figured out who Ramses is and is determined to get his hands on the elixir.
There's also quite a lot of serious reflection about immortality. Rice had obviously given the subject a lot of thought (unsurprising, since she'd written about angsty immortals before), and the descriptions of the elixir's effects were very dramatic and believable--what happens, for example, if you use the elixir on crops? The subject comes to a head when Ramses finds Cleopatra's mummy and despite his misgivings, uses the elixir to restore what ends up being a murderous fiend.
One of my favorite things about this book is the ending. ****spoiler**** Despite acknowledging the drawbacks of immortality, at the end of the book, we're not whacked over the head with the notion that "all right-thinking people really would prefer to die." ****
It's also a rather open-ended... er... ending. Whether that's to leave room for a sequel, or just to allow the reader's imagination to continue the story, I'm not sure. I suppose I'll look it up eventually.
...more
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Horror
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, horror
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
TBR Challenge for September
This month's challenge is to read a book by an author who shares at least one of your initials. Here's what I picked:
***½ The Death Prayer by David Bowker. Horror.
The Death Prayer is a police procedural wrapped up in a horror novel. Or vice versa. Detective Superintendent Vernon Laverne (his name drove me nuts, btw) is known on the force as an unorthodox cop with an uncanny ability to solve cases. So when bodies are found that have been killed in seemingly impossible ways, he's tasked with tracking down the killer. But to appease his opponents, he's paired with the more practical Inspector Lyn Savage, in a kind of Mulder/Scully partnership.
The trail leads them to a spooky faith healer, and to the surprising revelation of just why Laverne is so good at his job.
I've had this book in my TBR pile for several years. I'd bought it on someone's recommendation, though I've no idea whose. It's a hard book to pigeonhole. Very atmospheric, which is why I called it "horror." It could also be classed as urban fantasy, but I don't think it succeeds in that genre as well. I had to ignore everything I "knew" about urban fantasy to enjoy the read. For example, I was certain that the killer, and possibly Laverne as well, were vampires. (They're not.)
My overwhelming impression of the book is that it's a small story padded with a horror atmosphere into novel-length. The plot is fine, the characters intriguing, and the atmosphere of the book is very convincingly spooky, but I wanted more: more characterization, more danger, more suspense, more... something to make it unique. How many hundreds of stories have the same basic plot and character types? I wanted something more to make it stand out. Maybe, as I said, if I hadn't read as much urban fantasy already, or even as many mysteries, I'd have loved it. No doubt I'm jaded.
For someone who loves police procedurals and doesn't mind the supernatural, but doesn't read much of it, this book would probably be perfect. For me, it was just okay.
Categories: TBRChallenge, Books, 3.5stars, Horror
***½ The Death Prayer by David Bowker. Horror.
The Death Prayer is a police procedural wrapped up in a horror novel. Or vice versa. Detective Superintendent Vernon Laverne (his name drove me nuts, btw) is known on the force as an unorthodox cop with an uncanny ability to solve cases. So when bodies are found that have been killed in seemingly impossible ways, he's tasked with tracking down the killer. But to appease his opponents, he's paired with the more practical Inspector Lyn Savage, in a kind of Mulder/Scully partnership.
The trail leads them to a spooky faith healer, and to the surprising revelation of just why Laverne is so good at his job.
I've had this book in my TBR pile for several years. I'd bought it on someone's recommendation, though I've no idea whose. It's a hard book to pigeonhole. Very atmospheric, which is why I called it "horror." It could also be classed as urban fantasy, but I don't think it succeeds in that genre as well. I had to ignore everything I "knew" about urban fantasy to enjoy the read. For example, I was certain that the killer, and possibly Laverne as well, were vampires. (They're not.)
My overwhelming impression of the book is that it's a small story padded with a horror atmosphere into novel-length. The plot is fine, the characters intriguing, and the atmosphere of the book is very convincingly spooky, but I wanted more: more characterization, more danger, more suspense, more... something to make it unique. How many hundreds of stories have the same basic plot and character types? I wanted something more to make it stand out. Maybe, as I said, if I hadn't read as much urban fantasy already, or even as many mysteries, I'd have loved it. No doubt I'm jaded.
For someone who loves police procedurals and doesn't mind the supernatural, but doesn't read much of it, this book would probably be perfect. For me, it was just okay.
Categories: TBRChallenge, Books, 3.5stars, Horror
Labels: 3.5 stars, books, horror, tbr challenge
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
**** Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz. Horror.
I keep forgetting to look for Koontz's books. This one, like all the others of his I've read, was purchased by Carl. It's partly because horror isn't usually my cuppa (so determined because I don't like horror movies, and reinforced because I don't like Stephen King's writing style), partly because Carl has tended to keep me supplied with enough horror novels that there's always one available when I have the urge, and partly because until recently, I've only been keeping track of new releases on my must-buy list, and I don't like to buy new releases, particularly not hardcovers, when an author has a large backlist I haven't read yet. I think I've fixed that last problem, so hopefully, I'll be reading more by Koontz in the future.
ANYWAY.
Fear Nothing is about Christopher Snow, a young man with a genetic disorder that makes light, particularly sunlight, deadly to him. Despite that, he's been raised well, and he's unremittingly optimistic and enjoys life to the fullest. Until his father is dying, bringing him out into the sun to rush to his hospital bedside. His father's last words to him are "fear nothing." Good advice, as Christopher is plunged into danger and intrigue.
He stumbles upon morgue attendants switching his father's body with that of a vagrant whose eyes have been removed, and from then on, he's fleeing for his life. Men with guns, aggressive monkeys with strange eyes, people he thought he knew behaving out of character. He's aided by his best friend, surfer Bobby, his girlfriend, and his super-intelligent dog Orson.
A couple of things distracted from my enjoyment: too many people started to explain things to him, then stopped and told him to forget about it. Once or even twice, this can build suspense. More than that, and it gets tedious.
My other complaint is that "secret government experiments" is right up there on my list with serial killers who are killing their mothers or wives over and over again as being overdone and therefore predictable and boring. Granted, Fear Nothing is 8 years old, but I'm pretty sure there've been secret government experiment stories around much longer than that.
However, the characters are interesting individuals. I loved Chris's optimism and outlook on life, and I liked how it complemented and contrasted with Bobby's laid-back surfer personality. I liked Orson, and how Chris interpreted his thoughts and behavior.
But it's the feel of the book, the rising tension, the horror, that really shines and explains Koontz's popularity. Ironically, if I hadn't cared so much about the characters, the tension wouldn't have affected me so much, and I wouldn't have been so irritated with the several characters who refused to explain further.
...more
Categories: Books, 4stars, Horror
Labels: 4 stars, books, horror
