Dean Koontz, Watchers

Watchers was probably my favorite Dean Koontz book out of all the ones I have read of his. However, I still feel it fell a bit short for my taste in novels. It had suspense, but not very suspenseful as I'd like. I would type more about the book but I don't want to write a spoiler here. So I guess just see for yourself.

Watchers is gripping from page 1 to its end. First book I completed, I have now read all Dean Koontz books available.

507 page paperback. this is the first Dean Koontz book i've read, which i picked up due to it having favourable reviews elsewhere. It soon became clear that it wasn't going to be a deep or thought provoking piece of writing, dropping itself into the popular fiction category would seem just. Not my ideal read but you can't tell till you pick it up. After i'd encountered the main characters and a fairly basic plot, i found myself wanting to skim through the clumsy character history's that littered each new subplot. I understand their purpose, building the personal conflicts and jeopardies for suspense, but they were just too blocky in their construction. A lump of character history everytime before you'd even got accustomed to their name. It also slowed up the story and made the action scenes seem shorter, failing to hold their tension in the process. It's really very basic writing, everything is written down on the page leaving little room for your imagination to get involved. You know exactly what's going to happen and who will live and die, which makes the story feel contrived and rather weak. On the plus side, it's fairly consistent, has likeable main characters and some good suspense scenes. It's popcorn fiction, if you like an easy read that won't test you at all, it's an ok book.

Watchers was the first book by Dean Koontz that I read and in 3 days I made my way through this wonderful story of love and compassion. There is suspense around every corner and subtle humor from a wonderful host of characters. You will fall in love with the dog that this story revolves around and be left wanting to feel sympathy for his mortal enemy. This book is very hard to put down and will keep you on the edge of your seat and of course rooting for the good guys. Great read and at times downright frightening. Koontz is wonderful, and after this novel I went and read 4 others and loved them all.