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I'll say up front that I've never read a Dean Koontz book. Oh, I know about his work, but have never read one. So, when I was shopping and looking for a horror/suspense/thriller, I looked over Koontz's books on the rack, read the back cover, the first paragraph, and bought Life Expectancy.
I'm only about halfway through it right now, but I've pretty much enjoyed all of it. It moves very quickly, and the characters are really memorable. I had the character of Konrad Beezo (what a great name!) in my head for a couple days, and Punchinello Beezo is also very well drawn.
I like Koontz's no-nonsense approach. I'm more used to the meanderings of Stephen King and Michael Crichton (not that I don't enjoy the meanderings). I've found King and Crichton to overwrite much of the time, but Koontz doesn't do that.
Regarding Life Expectancy, my only complaint so far is this: the main character, Jimmy Tock, knows that something terrible was supposed to happen on the particular day in 1994. His whole family knows; the dates have been written down since the day he was born.
So what does he do that day? He goes off and runs his errands: the bank, library, and dry cleaners (never getting past the library). He KNOWS something bad was going to happen; he even took a week off from work. Yet, he went out that day anyway.
I was really into the story, and when he went out in his car to run his errands, I was practically yelling at him not to. He could have waited one more day to go out. But he didn't.
It seemed to me that he went out for the sake of the plot, instead of any "real-world" reason.
Other than that, terrific book. I like Koontz's writing style.
allen
I'm only about halfway through it right now, but I've pretty much enjoyed all of it. It moves very quickly, and the characters are really memorable. I had the character of Konrad Beezo (what a great name!) in my head for a couple days, and Punchinello Beezo is also very well drawn.
I like Koontz's no-nonsense approach. I'm more used to the meanderings of Stephen King and Michael Crichton (not that I don't enjoy the meanderings). I've found King and Crichton to overwrite much of the time, but Koontz doesn't do that.
Regarding Life Expectancy, my only complaint so far is this: the main character, Jimmy Tock, knows that something terrible was supposed to happen on the particular day in 1994. His whole family knows; the dates have been written down since the day he was born.
So what does he do that day? He goes off and runs his errands: the bank, library, and dry cleaners (never getting past the library). He KNOWS something bad was going to happen; he even took a week off from work. Yet, he went out that day anyway.
I was really into the story, and when he went out in his car to run his errands, I was practically yelling at him not to. He could have waited one more day to go out. But he didn't.
It seemed to me that he went out for the sake of the plot, instead of any "real-world" reason.
Other than that, terrific book. I like Koontz's writing style.
allen