The Taking
Dean Koontz
Bantam, Jun 2004, $27.00, 338 pp.
ISBN: 055380250X

The rain keeps Molly Sloan indoors so she works on her book that she hopes to complete soon. However, she observes the oddity of the torrent pouring at over seven inches an hour and it has luminescent glow as if snow was falling. On her porch is a horde of coyotes acting as if they fear what is out there but they are friendly towards Molly. Her husband Neil awakens from a nightmare and joins her. From TV they learn that the storm is worldwide.

The Sloans see the probable cause when an UFO hovers in the sky and weird looking fungus and spores multiply at a geometric Malthusian rate. People vanish into the ground or levitate into the air; corpses walk and decapitated heads talk. Special dogs congregate around the beleaguered couple as Molly and Neil search the nearby town for children of parents who disappeared. They believe that the children and their guardians cannot be touched. In less than thirty-six hours the world that the Sloans knew is gone and both wonder how the ETs will deal with the survivors.

This apocalyptical thriller is a chilling frightening tale as two scared souls fight back against overwhelming odds, but take the time to try to protect the children though being a good Samaritan can mean being a dead Samaritan. Dean Koontz is at his best with this sure shot New York Times best seller that deserves many kudos. The science of the invaders is so far ahead of humanity it compares to prehistoric man seeing TV or movies. Readers will never look at rain the same way as Mr. Koontz has subtle changed the rhythm.

Harriet Klausner