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Phantoms
The unsuspecting citizens of a small California town become the victims of a devastating evil, in another suspenseful thriller by the author of Intensity and The Eyes of Darkness. Reissue.
425 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
Dean Koontz
955 books37k followersAcknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.
Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com
Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,071 reviews
September 19, 2023
I'm fiercely competitive. Like, ridiculously competitive. To the point where I choose a favorite, and from that point on I'm squarely behind that favorite until the bitter end.
The Chicago Cubs.
Star Wars.
Stephen King.
You get the picture.
Problem is, this causes me to miss out on things that threaten the supremacy of my favorites. For several months I avoided The Lord of the Rings movies because I was afraid they'd be better than the original Star Wars trilogy. Ultimately, I ended up loving LOTR, and that hasn't adversely affected my love of Star Wars.
I'm also as a big a fan of Stephen King as you can imagine, and it's no secret that on any bookstore shelf, King and Koontz are situated right there together, each with his own section of literary real estate. For many years I've been told I should read Koontz, but that silly, childish, competitive side of me dug its heels in and refused. *King* was my favorite, so I didn't need to read Koontz. So there!
*shakes head at self*
Pitiful.
Well, I'm happy to report that I've finally matured enough to give Koontz a try. My opinion of him?
He's really, really good.
While Stephen King will always be my favorite writer, I will unquestionably be reading more Koontz novels. His prose is deceptive. At first glance I thought, "What's the big deal? This is good, but it's not *that* good. It's not I-get-my-own-bookshelf good."
Then Koontz sucked me in. By the time the lawmen from the neighboring town came to investigate the problems in Snowfield, I was hooked good and proper. I enjoyed where Koontz took the story, and I found his writing more and more engrossing the further and further I delved into the narrative. I also found the tale quite creative, which is saying a great deal. The whole affair reminded me a little of the marvelous Preston and Child novel THE RELIC, which I absolutely loved.
So...I give this epic novel the rating it deserves--five stars. And I recant my embarrassing stubbornness and promise to keep maturing so I don't miss out on great writers and movies.
But I still won't root for anyone but the Cubs.
The Chicago Cubs.
Star Wars.
Stephen King.
You get the picture.
Problem is, this causes me to miss out on things that threaten the supremacy of my favorites. For several months I avoided The Lord of the Rings movies because I was afraid they'd be better than the original Star Wars trilogy. Ultimately, I ended up loving LOTR, and that hasn't adversely affected my love of Star Wars.
I'm also as a big a fan of Stephen King as you can imagine, and it's no secret that on any bookstore shelf, King and Koontz are situated right there together, each with his own section of literary real estate. For many years I've been told I should read Koontz, but that silly, childish, competitive side of me dug its heels in and refused. *King* was my favorite, so I didn't need to read Koontz. So there!
*shakes head at self*
Pitiful.
Well, I'm happy to report that I've finally matured enough to give Koontz a try. My opinion of him?
He's really, really good.
While Stephen King will always be my favorite writer, I will unquestionably be reading more Koontz novels. His prose is deceptive. At first glance I thought, "What's the big deal? This is good, but it's not *that* good. It's not I-get-my-own-bookshelf good."
Then Koontz sucked me in. By the time the lawmen from the neighboring town came to investigate the problems in Snowfield, I was hooked good and proper. I enjoyed where Koontz took the story, and I found his writing more and more engrossing the further and further I delved into the narrative. I also found the tale quite creative, which is saying a great deal. The whole affair reminded me a little of the marvelous Preston and Child novel THE RELIC, which I absolutely loved.
So...I give this epic novel the rating it deserves--five stars. And I recant my embarrassing stubbornness and promise to keep maturing so I don't miss out on great writers and movies.
But I still won't root for anyone but the Cubs.
December 29, 2014
It's amusing how I ended reading this novel. And maybe this will be the most humorous review of a truly scary horror novel. If you read it, you'll understant what I mean.
First, I didn't know that it was a novel, a long horror story book, when I bought it. Honestly!
Back then (1992), I was in a local bookstore. I read the title "Phantoms" (well in reality it was "Fantasmas" since I bought in Spanish first the book) and I thought that it was an anthology of ghost stories and that Dean Koontz (I didn't know the author at that moment) was the editor or something of the book.
I started to read the book and honestly I didn't realized that it was a novel until I got to the third chapter! :P In my defense (hehe) each chapter has titles, so I still was thinking that they were horror short stories, but quite odd since they didn't have some climax or good ending (hahaha!) when I started to read the third chapter and I met again the same characters of the first "short story" (hahaha) it was when I realize...
Oh!!! This is a horror novel!!! Hahaha, honestly, this is a true story. I hadn't read any horror novel until that moment. I had read a lot of anthologies of horror short stories with several specific topics and it was like my current reading type of books at that moment. However, I supposed that this book wanted me, and I took the call.
The humorous stops right here... bring on the terror!!!
It was the start of a great reading story of me with Dean Koontz's novels. I love his style of making books, those cool details that they repeat on each book in some way or other.
And maybe because it was the first that I read, but this novel keeps to be my favorite book of Koontz and my favorite horror novel. If you ever had the bad experience of watching the dreadful film based on this book, please, don't let that that keep you away from the wonderful experience of reading this masterpiece of literature on the horror genre.
Snowfield, a typical American town where in one night, everybody just dissapeared, every single person and animal are nowhere to be found, a real "ghost" town that was full of life just one day before. The young Dr. Jenny Paige along with her younger sister, Lisa, will have to explore this deserted town and try to find a clue of what happened.
Welcome to Snowfield. You wouldn't be able to leave!
First, I didn't know that it was a novel, a long horror story book, when I bought it. Honestly!
Back then (1992), I was in a local bookstore. I read the title "Phantoms" (well in reality it was "Fantasmas" since I bought in Spanish first the book) and I thought that it was an anthology of ghost stories and that Dean Koontz (I didn't know the author at that moment) was the editor or something of the book.
I started to read the book and honestly I didn't realized that it was a novel until I got to the third chapter! :P In my defense (hehe) each chapter has titles, so I still was thinking that they were horror short stories, but quite odd since they didn't have some climax or good ending (hahaha!) when I started to read the third chapter and I met again the same characters of the first "short story" (hahaha) it was when I realize...
Oh!!! This is a horror novel!!! Hahaha, honestly, this is a true story. I hadn't read any horror novel until that moment. I had read a lot of anthologies of horror short stories with several specific topics and it was like my current reading type of books at that moment. However, I supposed that this book wanted me, and I took the call.
The humorous stops right here... bring on the terror!!!
It was the start of a great reading story of me with Dean Koontz's novels. I love his style of making books, those cool details that they repeat on each book in some way or other.
And maybe because it was the first that I read, but this novel keeps to be my favorite book of Koontz and my favorite horror novel. If you ever had the bad experience of watching the dreadful film based on this book, please, don't let that that keep you away from the wonderful experience of reading this masterpiece of literature on the horror genre.
Snowfield, a typical American town where in one night, everybody just dissapeared, every single person and animal are nowhere to be found, a real "ghost" town that was full of life just one day before. The young Dr. Jenny Paige along with her younger sister, Lisa, will have to explore this deserted town and try to find a clue of what happened.
Welcome to Snowfield. You wouldn't be able to leave!
May 31, 2021
"En la tierra viven dioses maléficos cuyo poder duerme en la roca. Cuando despiertan, surgen como la lava, pero una lava fría, y fluyen y adquieren muchas formas. Entonces los hombres valerosos comprenden que solo son voces en el trueno, rostros en el viento, que se desvanecen como si nunca hubieran existido"
"No queremos mirar en nosotros mismos y descubrir una serie de supersticiones primitivas. Nosotros somos adultos civilizados, razonablemente instruidos, y se supone que los adultos no creen en el hombre del saco".
La doctora jennifer paige, esta de regreso en su pueblo junto a su hermana menor lisa, de la cual acaba e obtener su tutela.
Snowfield es un pequeño pueblo alejado, lindo, tranquilo y de pocos habitantes. Pero ni bien llegar se percatan de que algo va mal, todo esta demasiado desolado, silencioso, un autentico pueblo fantasma, y no demoraran en darse cuenta que todos los habitantes o bien desaparecieron o yacen muertos de formas extrañas/sobrenaturales .
Los hechos y el causante parecen tener relación con grandes desapariciones repentinas de civilizaciones completas a lo largo la historia de la humanidad, o casos como la desaparición de la tripulación del Mary Celeste o de la colonia Roanoke. Todo este trasfondo es uno de los aspectos mas interesante de la obra.
A partir de la premisa la historia se vuelve mas y mas turbia. La primera mitad es absolutamente genial.Con una narración que no da tregua. Planteando misterios, suspenso, acción y situaciones paranormales.
Pero debo decir que en un momento pierde un poco las riendas. Sobrecargando el argumento mas de la cuenta y agregando mas personajes innecesarios sobre la marcha.
En definitiva es una muy buena pieza de terror que podría haber sido aun mejor.
"No queremos mirar en nosotros mismos y descubrir una serie de supersticiones primitivas. Nosotros somos adultos civilizados, razonablemente instruidos, y se supone que los adultos no creen en el hombre del saco".
La doctora jennifer paige, esta de regreso en su pueblo junto a su hermana menor lisa, de la cual acaba e obtener su tutela.
Snowfield es un pequeño pueblo alejado, lindo, tranquilo y de pocos habitantes. Pero ni bien llegar se percatan de que algo va mal, todo esta demasiado desolado, silencioso, un autentico pueblo fantasma, y no demoraran en darse cuenta que todos los habitantes o bien desaparecieron o yacen muertos de formas extrañas/sobrenaturales .
Los hechos y el causante parecen tener relación con grandes desapariciones repentinas de civilizaciones completas a lo largo la historia de la humanidad, o casos como la desaparición de la tripulación del Mary Celeste o de la colonia Roanoke. Todo este trasfondo es uno de los aspectos mas interesante de la obra.
A partir de la premisa la historia se vuelve mas y mas turbia. La primera mitad es absolutamente genial.Con una narración que no da tregua. Planteando misterios, suspenso, acción y situaciones paranormales.
Pero debo decir que en un momento pierde un poco las riendas. Sobrecargando el argumento mas de la cuenta y agregando mas personajes innecesarios sobre la marcha.
En definitiva es una muy buena pieza de terror que podría haber sido aun mejor.
February 14, 2019
Some pretty creepy parts, and a cool monster.
But it dragged. Most of the novel is the characters speculating, theorizing, deducing and discussing the nature of the monster. There could have been less of this and more monster action.
Working toward the climax turned into a chore because I was turned off.
But it dragged. Most of the novel is the characters speculating, theorizing, deducing and discussing the nature of the monster. There could have been less of this and more monster action.
Working toward the climax turned into a chore because I was turned off.
December 16, 2010
In 1979, Dean Koontz wrote a novel called Whispers which catapulted him to the bestseller list. Koontz's status in the publishing world shifted drastically; from a rather unknown suspense producer he became the hot stuff, and in 1981 Whispers rose to the top five of the New York Times paperback bestseller list.
But this article is not about Whispers. While I'm not a fan of the mentioned novel, and consider it to be largely tedious and overwrought with banal drama and sentimentality, it shows potential in one field: the creep field. There are sections in Whispers that are genuinely disturbing to this day, and it's been three decades since the original publication - that's saying something.
However, as big a success the book was, it didn't made Koontz a millionaire, nor a cult writer. His publisher told him that if he wanted to build his career he'd have to write a horror novel - Whispers was marketed as horror, despite having little to do with the genre - horror was popular at that time. Koontz wrote four novels under various pseudonyms (all largely forgotten, more or less deservedly) and after two years he finally gave in to the urgings and in 1983 came up with Phantoms.
Now, in 1983 Koontz wasn't interested in angelic dogs and some weird new age philosophies, and most importantly he was still fresh with ideas and hasn't succumbed to the formula of rewriting the same book over and over. Phantoms was the novel which gave Koontz the label of a horror writer - a blessing or a curse? Seems like a bit of both. The book was an enormous success, earning praise of both audience and critics, who then returned to read his later work and were disappointed that it didn't had much in common with Phantoms.
Koontz opens the novel in the Hitchcockian way. With a bang - the opening estabilishes the tension and introduces the reader to the nightmare which will most certainly follow.
The scream was distant and brief. A woman's scream. - Deputy Henderson is sitting alone in the town jail of Snowfield in California, a small lazy town, when he hears the scream. The duty is dull; not much happens in Snowfield in September, and the deputy is bored. He listens intently but cannot hear anything; a quick glance at the peaceful main street makes him think that he might have imagined the scream. He almost wishes that somene had screamed; being young and brave he's ready for some action.
He sighed, looked down at the magazine that lay on his desk—and heard another scream. As before, it was distant and brief, but this time it sounded like a man's voice. It wasn't merely a shriek of excitement or even a cry of alarm; it was the sound of terror. The deputy gets up from the chair, ready to investigate, and when he's almost halfway to the door he hears a sound in the office he has just left.
That was impossible. He had been alone in the office all day, and there hadn't been any prisoners in the three holding cells since early last week. The rear door was locked, and that was the only other way into the jail.
When he turned, however, he discovered that he wasn't alone any more. And suddenly he wasn't the least bit bored.
Phantoms opens as a locked room mystery - what happened in the Deputy's office? How could someone enter the place that was empty seconds before he left it? Koontz restricts the action in the opening to a single place and a single protagonist, who is faced with danger that is shown but not explained, therefore making it intriguing and pushing the reader to the edge of his seat - this drastically increases the tension, a feat that requires considerable skill to perform on such small space.
The second chapter is titled Coming Home and introduces two characters - Jennifer and Elisabeth Paige. The two weren't close; Jennifer's work as a doctor didn't allow her to spend much time on bonding. However, on the death of their mother, Jennifer decides to take care of Lisa. The sisters drive to Jennifer's home in Snowfield, and quickly notice an unusual quietness in the town. Koontz does a great job with describing the surroundings in vivid detail, and thrusting two average people into a strange situation (another Hitchockian trope he uses).
The town is not merely quiet - it looks dead.
The sidewalks, balconies, and porches were deserted. Even in those shops and houses where there were lights burning, there was no sign of life. Jenny's Trans Am was the only moving car on the long street.
Snowfields appear to be uninhabited. The sisters are scared, but decide to find out what has happened. Koontz employs the best type of terror in this section of the book - something sinister has apparently occured in Snowfield, but neither the reader nor the two sisters have a clue what is going on. And it's not because of the lack of evidence; soon the sisters find plenty of evidence, but it produces more questions than explanations. The terror in Snowfield has occured for no apparent reason, and there is no explanation for ir. Or is there?
The silently crushing presence of a dead town is one of Koontz's best suspense in his whole career. It's difficult to discuss the book without going into spoiler territory, so I'll refrain from it. Have you ever wondered what might have happened on Marie Celeste, or who wrote Croatoan? The same mystery of mass disappearance is employed masterfully by Koontz in the first section of Phantoms. The horror employed by Koontz is the best one; no boogeyman shouting "BOO!", but a silently malevolent presence, or an imagination of this presence serves for the unrelenting sense of slowly unfolding terror. I started reading Phantoms when I was alone at night, and I was so into this section that I jumped when stray wind hit my window. It is the best setting to read this novel; silence equaling that in Snowfield, where little happens but the terror just mounts and mounts. This is Koontz at his best, a writer enjoying fresh success and experimenting with joy in the genre that offers unlimited possibilities. "You want horror?" - he asks. "All right - I'll give you horror! I'll give you the mother of all horror stories!"
Unfortunately, the first part is the only flawless one. In his previous novels, Koontz switched the narrative between protagonists, and does it again in Phantoms - in chapter 9, Jenny uses the telephone to call a sheriff from the neighboring town. From now on, the narrative will switch between a cast of characters, and this very technique largely destroys the brilliant creepiness of part one. The horror that ratcheted up with each revelation is largely diminished by the entrance of new characters and the insight into their perspective; now there's a sense of companionship and the two sisters are not alone, and when you're not alone in the dark the fear of the unknown largely disappears. Each chapter offers a new perspective; and the time spent with each character is too small to grow attached to them and to share their uneasiness and fright.
It's not the biggest disappointment, though. Koontz approached writing Phantoms with Whispers fresh in his mind; he wanted to provide a logically consistent explanation of the happenings in the town. From the afterword:
I thought I would cleverly evade their horror-or-starve ultimatum by making Phantoms something of a tour-de-force, rolling virtually all the monsters of the genre into one beast, and also by providing a credible scientific explanation for the creature’s existence. Instead of fearless vampire hunters armed with wooden stakes, instead of werewolf trackers packing revolvers loaded with silver bullets, my protagonists would save themselves by using logic and reason to determine the nature of their mysterious enemy and to find a way to defeat it.
Employing essentially the same tactic (and sharing the same sentiment) as Stoker in Dracula - Ancient Darkness against Modern Wizardry of Technology - destroys the book potential. Phantoms would become a timeless horror classic if it did not try to be too much - Phantoms would be a horror story, yes, but it would also be science fiction, an adventure tale, a wild mystery story, and an exploration of the nature and source of myth. Koontz tries to handle too many genres, too many subplots at once for the thing to work. The incredible, slowly unfolding horror of Part One disappears once the reader is shown what the protagonists are up against and how they mean to deal with the situation. I'm pretty sure that this section of the novel was spoofed in a certain movie that came out just a year later. The end of the novel retreats to the mediocrity and disappointment of most of Koontz's work.
Nevertheless, this is the novel that made Koontz known as a horror writer, and propably his sole title that has been influential in the genre and other media. I'm a big fan of the Silent Hill videogame franchise, and the influence of this work in the first installment is obvious and clear (not to mention that the titular town has a "Koontz street"). If only Phantoms held the mood of the first part, promised on the cover of my paperback edition - a mountain-country house constructed from wood, surrounded by ominous white fog, under a brooding red sky - but I'm sad to say it does not. It's a real shame, because conceptually this is one of Koontz's very best books; and it could be so much, much more. A wasted opportunity that will not be repeated.
But this article is not about Whispers. While I'm not a fan of the mentioned novel, and consider it to be largely tedious and overwrought with banal drama and sentimentality, it shows potential in one field: the creep field. There are sections in Whispers that are genuinely disturbing to this day, and it's been three decades since the original publication - that's saying something.
However, as big a success the book was, it didn't made Koontz a millionaire, nor a cult writer. His publisher told him that if he wanted to build his career he'd have to write a horror novel - Whispers was marketed as horror, despite having little to do with the genre - horror was popular at that time. Koontz wrote four novels under various pseudonyms (all largely forgotten, more or less deservedly) and after two years he finally gave in to the urgings and in 1983 came up with Phantoms.
Now, in 1983 Koontz wasn't interested in angelic dogs and some weird new age philosophies, and most importantly he was still fresh with ideas and hasn't succumbed to the formula of rewriting the same book over and over. Phantoms was the novel which gave Koontz the label of a horror writer - a blessing or a curse? Seems like a bit of both. The book was an enormous success, earning praise of both audience and critics, who then returned to read his later work and were disappointed that it didn't had much in common with Phantoms.
Koontz opens the novel in the Hitchcockian way. With a bang - the opening estabilishes the tension and introduces the reader to the nightmare which will most certainly follow.
The scream was distant and brief. A woman's scream. - Deputy Henderson is sitting alone in the town jail of Snowfield in California, a small lazy town, when he hears the scream. The duty is dull; not much happens in Snowfield in September, and the deputy is bored. He listens intently but cannot hear anything; a quick glance at the peaceful main street makes him think that he might have imagined the scream. He almost wishes that somene had screamed; being young and brave he's ready for some action.
He sighed, looked down at the magazine that lay on his desk—and heard another scream. As before, it was distant and brief, but this time it sounded like a man's voice. It wasn't merely a shriek of excitement or even a cry of alarm; it was the sound of terror. The deputy gets up from the chair, ready to investigate, and when he's almost halfway to the door he hears a sound in the office he has just left.
That was impossible. He had been alone in the office all day, and there hadn't been any prisoners in the three holding cells since early last week. The rear door was locked, and that was the only other way into the jail.
When he turned, however, he discovered that he wasn't alone any more. And suddenly he wasn't the least bit bored.
Phantoms opens as a locked room mystery - what happened in the Deputy's office? How could someone enter the place that was empty seconds before he left it? Koontz restricts the action in the opening to a single place and a single protagonist, who is faced with danger that is shown but not explained, therefore making it intriguing and pushing the reader to the edge of his seat - this drastically increases the tension, a feat that requires considerable skill to perform on such small space.
The second chapter is titled Coming Home and introduces two characters - Jennifer and Elisabeth Paige. The two weren't close; Jennifer's work as a doctor didn't allow her to spend much time on bonding. However, on the death of their mother, Jennifer decides to take care of Lisa. The sisters drive to Jennifer's home in Snowfield, and quickly notice an unusual quietness in the town. Koontz does a great job with describing the surroundings in vivid detail, and thrusting two average people into a strange situation (another Hitchockian trope he uses).
The town is not merely quiet - it looks dead.
The sidewalks, balconies, and porches were deserted. Even in those shops and houses where there were lights burning, there was no sign of life. Jenny's Trans Am was the only moving car on the long street.
Snowfields appear to be uninhabited. The sisters are scared, but decide to find out what has happened. Koontz employs the best type of terror in this section of the book - something sinister has apparently occured in Snowfield, but neither the reader nor the two sisters have a clue what is going on. And it's not because of the lack of evidence; soon the sisters find plenty of evidence, but it produces more questions than explanations. The terror in Snowfield has occured for no apparent reason, and there is no explanation for ir. Or is there?
The silently crushing presence of a dead town is one of Koontz's best suspense in his whole career. It's difficult to discuss the book without going into spoiler territory, so I'll refrain from it. Have you ever wondered what might have happened on Marie Celeste, or who wrote Croatoan? The same mystery of mass disappearance is employed masterfully by Koontz in the first section of Phantoms. The horror employed by Koontz is the best one; no boogeyman shouting "BOO!", but a silently malevolent presence, or an imagination of this presence serves for the unrelenting sense of slowly unfolding terror. I started reading Phantoms when I was alone at night, and I was so into this section that I jumped when stray wind hit my window. It is the best setting to read this novel; silence equaling that in Snowfield, where little happens but the terror just mounts and mounts. This is Koontz at his best, a writer enjoying fresh success and experimenting with joy in the genre that offers unlimited possibilities. "You want horror?" - he asks. "All right - I'll give you horror! I'll give you the mother of all horror stories!"
Unfortunately, the first part is the only flawless one. In his previous novels, Koontz switched the narrative between protagonists, and does it again in Phantoms - in chapter 9, Jenny uses the telephone to call a sheriff from the neighboring town. From now on, the narrative will switch between a cast of characters, and this very technique largely destroys the brilliant creepiness of part one. The horror that ratcheted up with each revelation is largely diminished by the entrance of new characters and the insight into their perspective; now there's a sense of companionship and the two sisters are not alone, and when you're not alone in the dark the fear of the unknown largely disappears. Each chapter offers a new perspective; and the time spent with each character is too small to grow attached to them and to share their uneasiness and fright.
It's not the biggest disappointment, though. Koontz approached writing Phantoms with Whispers fresh in his mind; he wanted to provide a logically consistent explanation of the happenings in the town. From the afterword:
I thought I would cleverly evade their horror-or-starve ultimatum by making Phantoms something of a tour-de-force, rolling virtually all the monsters of the genre into one beast, and also by providing a credible scientific explanation for the creature’s existence. Instead of fearless vampire hunters armed with wooden stakes, instead of werewolf trackers packing revolvers loaded with silver bullets, my protagonists would save themselves by using logic and reason to determine the nature of their mysterious enemy and to find a way to defeat it.
Employing essentially the same tactic (and sharing the same sentiment) as Stoker in Dracula - Ancient Darkness against Modern Wizardry of Technology - destroys the book potential. Phantoms would become a timeless horror classic if it did not try to be too much - Phantoms would be a horror story, yes, but it would also be science fiction, an adventure tale, a wild mystery story, and an exploration of the nature and source of myth. Koontz tries to handle too many genres, too many subplots at once for the thing to work. The incredible, slowly unfolding horror of Part One disappears once the reader is shown what the protagonists are up against and how they mean to deal with the situation. I'm pretty sure that this section of the novel was spoofed in a certain movie that came out just a year later. The end of the novel retreats to the mediocrity and disappointment of most of Koontz's work.
Nevertheless, this is the novel that made Koontz known as a horror writer, and propably his sole title that has been influential in the genre and other media. I'm a big fan of the Silent Hill videogame franchise, and the influence of this work in the first installment is obvious and clear (not to mention that the titular town has a "Koontz street"). If only Phantoms held the mood of the first part, promised on the cover of my paperback edition - a mountain-country house constructed from wood, surrounded by ominous white fog, under a brooding red sky - but I'm sad to say it does not. It's a real shame, because conceptually this is one of Koontz's very best books; and it could be so much, much more. A wasted opportunity that will not be repeated.
January 11, 2021
This is one of my all-time favourite books. I remember being twelve and my mother telling me under no circumstances was I to read any of her Dean Koontz books, because they 'were not suitable for a girl my age'. So of course, the minute I had the chance, I grabbed a bunch of his books and got to reading!
Phantoms is the only one that really resonated with me. Over the years, whenever I'm bored and at a loss as to what to read, I find myself drawn back to this book. My copy is positively ancient-looking - it's falling apart, the back cover is missing, and one or two pages are taped together. It's been with me everywhere: on school camp, on overseas trips... it's almost become a security blanket for me.
Personally, I think it's a great story. It's got everything - there's romance, there are awesome background characters (and pretty great main characters too). And there's a genuinely scary evil thing that still gives me the heebie jeebies when I think about it. The whole of idea of terrified me when I first read it, and still does if I'm being honest! I completely and totally blame this book for my current obsession with horror stories!
Phantoms is the only one that really resonated with me. Over the years, whenever I'm bored and at a loss as to what to read, I find myself drawn back to this book. My copy is positively ancient-looking - it's falling apart, the back cover is missing, and one or two pages are taped together. It's been with me everywhere: on school camp, on overseas trips... it's almost become a security blanket for me.
Personally, I think it's a great story. It's got everything - there's romance, there are awesome background characters (and pretty great main characters too). And there's a genuinely scary evil thing that still gives me the heebie jeebies when I think about it. The whole of idea of terrified me when I first read it, and still does if I'm being honest! I completely and totally blame this book for my current obsession with horror stories!
April 1, 2023
Excelente novela de terror con un toque de ciencia ficción de Dean Koontz.
Acá conocemos a Jenny, una joven doctora, que regresa con su hermana adolescente Lisa al pueblo de Snowfield encontrándose a todos los residentes muertos o desaparecidos. Lo que desencadenará una serie de hechos que nos llevarán a conocer mejor la naturaleza del asunto y que involucrará a policías, militares y otros cuántos personajes más que irán apareciendo y muriendo a través de la novela.
Argumento que a ratos nos recuerda a "It" de Stephen King, pero que considerando que esta novela se publicó unos años antes podríamos decir que es a la inversa. Y que a pesar de que el libro no tiene la complejidad del maestro del horror, sí está muy bien contada, muy bien escrita, al punto que su autor logra darnos una explicación totalmente lógica y por qué no decirlo, plausible, a lo que sucede en snowfield. Y es que a diferencia de otras novelas de terror acá el autor explica el asunto con la ciencia lo que a mi juicio es un más.
Quizá lo único que no me ha terminado de convencer es su final muy "happy" de película cliché hollywoodense donde todo se soluciona de manera soñada... y también un salto temporal casi llegando a su final que resulta algo contraproducente dado lo pausado y detallado del resto de la novela. Por supuesto todo termina con una batalla final y la criatura es de diez.
Excelente novela que recomiendo a todo el mundo. En lo personal no pude despegarme de ella hasta terminarla.
¡Muy Buena!
Acá conocemos a Jenny, una joven doctora, que regresa con su hermana adolescente Lisa al pueblo de Snowfield encontrándose a todos los residentes muertos o desaparecidos. Lo que desencadenará una serie de hechos que nos llevarán a conocer mejor la naturaleza del asunto y que involucrará a policías, militares y otros cuántos personajes más que irán apareciendo y muriendo a través de la novela.
Argumento que a ratos nos recuerda a "It" de Stephen King, pero que considerando que esta novela se publicó unos años antes podríamos decir que es a la inversa. Y que a pesar de que el libro no tiene la complejidad del maestro del horror, sí está muy bien contada, muy bien escrita, al punto que su autor logra darnos una explicación totalmente lógica y por qué no decirlo, plausible, a lo que sucede en snowfield. Y es que a diferencia de otras novelas de terror acá el autor explica el asunto con la ciencia lo que a mi juicio es un más.
Quizá lo único que no me ha terminado de convencer es su final muy "happy" de película cliché hollywoodense donde todo se soluciona de manera soñada... y también un salto temporal casi llegando a su final que resulta algo contraproducente dado lo pausado y detallado del resto de la novela. Por supuesto todo termina con una batalla final y la criatura es de diez.
Excelente novela que recomiendo a todo el mundo. En lo personal no pude despegarme de ella hasta terminarla.
¡Muy Buena!
October 27, 2021
Never quite know when I pick up a Dean Koontz book whether I will like it or not. He has written some very good books, but he’s also written the stupidest book I’ve ever read (Tick Tock.) Usually if it’s an older one, I’ll enjoy it. This one was excellent! Gets right into it at the beginning with the discovery of a small town in Northern California in which its residents have either died or disappeared. It’s good and creepy and at times with the science, feels like a Michael Crichton novel. There’s also some actual history in the novel regarding mass disappearances of people and fish. I was pleased that the book had a great battle of good vs evil and was all wrapped up by the end. This is a perfect read for the Halloween season, but if you’re like me, any time of the year. Can highly recommend!
March 19, 2024
If there is a person out there that would not find this book eerie, I'd be surprised.
Koontz writes fiercely here, keeping the sentences devoid of overabundant words and pretty phrases. Instead he just delivers the goods, action from page one. His writing style is not overdrawn, but instead is kept minimal to complement the story alone.
The villain is frightening, complex, and powerful. There's enough imagination and depth to it that it stays with you after the last page has been closed. Supporting characters seem real and are easy to care about. They don't chase their tails attempting daring, stupid moves, but instead seem to be genuinely driven. There are slight cliches here and there in terms of characterization, but only obvious cliches where they deserve (and are expected) to be, nothing cheap.
This is one of those books where if you're reading through it, it's hard to imagine how on earth the strings can be tied together to make sense at the end, but somehow Koontz accomplishes this. It's all wrapped up in a satisfying way, and the road on which I traveled to get there was exquisite. The plot is as complex as its villain, each character keeping it flowing instead of weighting it down, the heart and soul of the novel always kept alive by a steady supply of imagination and intrigue.
Filled to the top with suspense, horrid imagery, truly bizarre and horrifying deaths, gory details, a pure mystery, science and intelligence, well-drawn out fear and even small glimpses of hope, this is a horror book that EVERY horror reader owes it to themselves to read. Koontz really made a name for himself, and this is one of the works that accomplished that feat.
Koontz writes fiercely here, keeping the sentences devoid of overabundant words and pretty phrases. Instead he just delivers the goods, action from page one. His writing style is not overdrawn, but instead is kept minimal to complement the story alone.
The villain is frightening, complex, and powerful. There's enough imagination and depth to it that it stays with you after the last page has been closed. Supporting characters seem real and are easy to care about. They don't chase their tails attempting daring, stupid moves, but instead seem to be genuinely driven. There are slight cliches here and there in terms of characterization, but only obvious cliches where they deserve (and are expected) to be, nothing cheap.
This is one of those books where if you're reading through it, it's hard to imagine how on earth the strings can be tied together to make sense at the end, but somehow Koontz accomplishes this. It's all wrapped up in a satisfying way, and the road on which I traveled to get there was exquisite. The plot is as complex as its villain, each character keeping it flowing instead of weighting it down, the heart and soul of the novel always kept alive by a steady supply of imagination and intrigue.
Filled to the top with suspense, horrid imagery, truly bizarre and horrifying deaths, gory details, a pure mystery, science and intelligence, well-drawn out fear and even small glimpses of hope, this is a horror book that EVERY horror reader owes it to themselves to read. Koontz really made a name for himself, and this is one of the works that accomplished that feat.
September 19, 2022
Jenny and Lisa are two sisters who love each other very much, but neither of them has had the opportunity to properly connect because of their large age gap. While one was off studying to be a doctor, the other was still in middle school. After graduating, Jenny decides to invite her sister to her lovely hometown of Snowfield in California, which doubles as a friendly ski resort. The two are excited to start making many wonderful memories, but the girls find the town to be completely devoid of people. Then they found the first body in the place they were planning to make their home.
The body is strangely swollen and still warm, their face frozen in a permanent scream. 150 were found dead, 350 missing. A great catastrophe has struck Jenny's beloved home, but the poor sisters have no idea that the terror has only just begun in the tiny mountain town. At first they thought it was the work of a maniac or a group of terrorists or cultists, or perhaps even some kind of unknown plague. But then they found the truth. They saw it in the flesh, and it was worse than anything any of them had ever imagined.
This book had trouble catching my attention at first. The dialogue was awkward, the setup seemed a bit cliche, and the way the characters reacted to death and horror seemed very hollow and unrealistic. However, after the first hundred pages or so, the quality of the writing skyrockets and the source of the catastrophe becomes much more complex and interesting then the premise would lead you to believe. Once Jenny calls the police from a nearby town, receives backup from a military Biological Investigations Unit and an eccentric British professor who was fired from his position for inventing all kinds of theories regarding an ancient enemy who has been responsible for countless mass vanishings all over the world for centuries such as the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony, Shaanxi Village, Mayan civilizations and ghost ships, things become way more exciting and interesting.
The combo of many mysterious tragedies from real history, a band of unlikely do-gooders in a desolate mountain town and a terrifying shapeshifting monstrosity that's like a fusion of Pennywise, Azathoth and Satan himself makes for a compelling horror thriller. It has a rough start, but the last 75% is great and presents many interesting questions and answers regarding religion, the origins of the Satan myth, historical tragedies, and whether humans are more capable of kindness or evil.
My Rating 4.2
The body is strangely swollen and still warm, their face frozen in a permanent scream. 150 were found dead, 350 missing. A great catastrophe has struck Jenny's beloved home, but the poor sisters have no idea that the terror has only just begun in the tiny mountain town. At first they thought it was the work of a maniac or a group of terrorists or cultists, or perhaps even some kind of unknown plague. But then they found the truth. They saw it in the flesh, and it was worse than anything any of them had ever imagined.
This book had trouble catching my attention at first. The dialogue was awkward, the setup seemed a bit cliche, and the way the characters reacted to death and horror seemed very hollow and unrealistic. However, after the first hundred pages or so, the quality of the writing skyrockets and the source of the catastrophe becomes much more complex and interesting then the premise would lead you to believe. Once Jenny calls the police from a nearby town, receives backup from a military Biological Investigations Unit and an eccentric British professor who was fired from his position for inventing all kinds of theories regarding an ancient enemy who has been responsible for countless mass vanishings all over the world for centuries such as the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony, Shaanxi Village, Mayan civilizations and ghost ships, things become way more exciting and interesting.
The combo of many mysterious tragedies from real history, a band of unlikely do-gooders in a desolate mountain town and a terrifying shapeshifting monstrosity that's like a fusion of Pennywise, Azathoth and Satan himself makes for a compelling horror thriller. It has a rough start, but the last 75% is great and presents many interesting questions and answers regarding religion, the origins of the Satan myth, historical tragedies, and whether humans are more capable of kindness or evil.
My Rating 4.2
September 10, 2021
Me ha gustado mucho, aunque la explicación del fenómeno me ha dejado un poco transpuesto.
La historia arranca muy bien con un pueblo en el que sus habitantes han desaparecido de la noche a la mañana de las maneras más misteriosas, de hecho, algunos de sus habitnates han muerto de manera extraña.
La historia arranca muy bien con un pueblo en el que sus habitantes han desaparecido de la noche a la mañana de las maneras más misteriosas, de hecho, algunos de sus habitnates han muerto de manera extraña.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2023
Phantoms is one of Koontz's very best straight-horror novels. It's a cosmic horror informed by Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (one of the characters is Captain Arkham!), and examines the decimation of entire towns by a shapeshifting amoeba monster that all fans of The Blob will embrace. It's very well-paced with intense suspense and a nifty little twist at the end; very well-written and the characters are interesting, too. It was made into a film in 1998 that had a screenplay by Koontz and a really terrific cast (Peter O'Toole, Rose McGowan, Liev Schreiber, Ben Affleck, Linnea Quigley, etc.) but wasn't very good. The novel became even more famous for being plagiarized in two novels that Zebra published in 1990 and 1991 called Demonic Color and The Crawling Dark and was the subject of a court case that Koontz won.
January 8, 2024
I always enjoy Dean Koontz, so I had to borrow this one from my local library.
I'm delighted to agree on the common consensus that this is one of his best horror novels, the mystery and atmosphere of a deserted ski resort in Snowfield, California instantly hooked me.
The book opens with two sisters returning to their hometown as the few bodies that they do find are gruesomly mutilated.
The manner that the girls call for reinfoments and they way they start to investigate the strange surroundings is very effective.
The plot is nicely simple but creepy, one that you can really get stuck into as the evil that propells the narrative feels like a credible threat.
I'm delighted to agree on the common consensus that this is one of his best horror novels, the mystery and atmosphere of a deserted ski resort in Snowfield, California instantly hooked me.
The book opens with two sisters returning to their hometown as the few bodies that they do find are gruesomly mutilated.
The manner that the girls call for reinfoments and they way they start to investigate the strange surroundings is very effective.
The plot is nicely simple but creepy, one that you can really get stuck into as the evil that propells the narrative feels like a credible threat.
April 4, 2023
Good suspense and horror in this Koontz classic from the last century.
March 11, 2023
Hmm, another 'it'. Or, as mentioned in the book somewhere, a Lovecraftian nightmare. And what a nightmare it is.
A delicious one. Right from the start with Jenny returning to Snowfield, where everybody is either gone or dead. The small town atmosphere and omnipresent threat had me by the throat immediately. And it never let go after that.
Loved the monster stuff. How it operates, taunts and toys with its prey. Seriously tense at times as well. The underground scene with the fleeing animals for instance. Such a butt squeezer.
The storyline with the lunatic who murdered his family feels out of place though. A half-baked idea, shoehorned in, something like that. Should have been worked out properly or cut out entirely, I guess.
But enough complaining. This was tons of fun. Superego is simply unforgettable. Yup, gonna file this one as a favorite.
A delicious one. Right from the start with Jenny returning to Snowfield, where everybody is either gone or dead. The small town atmosphere and omnipresent threat had me by the throat immediately. And it never let go after that.
Loved the monster stuff. How it operates, taunts and toys with its prey. Seriously tense at times as well. The underground scene with the fleeing animals for instance. Such a butt squeezer.
The storyline with the lunatic who murdered his family feels out of place though. A half-baked idea, shoehorned in, something like that. Should have been worked out properly or cut out entirely, I guess.
But enough complaining. This was tons of fun. Superego is simply unforgettable. Yup, gonna file this one as a favorite.
August 25, 2011
* The quotation from Stephen King on the back cover of my paperback edition: “Gruesome. Unrelenting.” No indication of quality, just a couple of observations about the presentation. Like saying, “Action-packed,” to describe Sucker Punch.
* Dialogue isn’t one of Koontz’ strong points. Neither is characterization. Here we have a 14-year-old girl who never behaves like a child, so she might as well be 28. Here we have a cop who, with his heavy-lidded eyes and his ingratiating manner, fools people into thinking he isn’t too bright, but who, of course, is a brilliant detective. (Koontz, however, doesn’t dedicate the book to or even thank Peter Falk.) And over here we have a pretty, young woman doctor who states that even if a guy beat and raped her, she’d still give him the best medical care she could if she found him bleeding out on the street. She’s not religious, either, which is strange, since she treats the Hippocratic Oath like one of the Ten Commandments. (Funnily enough, the character she’s referring to turns out to be a prolific serial killer.)
* The book doesn’t end well. Oh, it smarmily ties up every loose end, but even before that, Koontz generates his climax from a ridiculously unbelievable bit of scientific investigation. In Jurassic Park, Crichton created dinosaurs from a simple mosquito. Here, Koontz does basically the reverse. And, yes, it’s just about that deflating.
* These criticisms aren’t the sort that occur to you only after an enthralled reading of the book. Regrettably, they occur with regularity throughout.
* Though it's not relevant to the book, the movie, also written by Koontz, is worse in every way.
* Dialogue isn’t one of Koontz’ strong points. Neither is characterization. Here we have a 14-year-old girl who never behaves like a child, so she might as well be 28. Here we have a cop who, with his heavy-lidded eyes and his ingratiating manner, fools people into thinking he isn’t too bright, but who, of course, is a brilliant detective. (Koontz, however, doesn’t dedicate the book to or even thank Peter Falk.) And over here we have a pretty, young woman doctor who states that even if a guy beat and raped her, she’d still give him the best medical care she could if she found him bleeding out on the street. She’s not religious, either, which is strange, since she treats the Hippocratic Oath like one of the Ten Commandments. (Funnily enough, the character she’s referring to turns out to be a prolific serial killer.)
* The book doesn’t end well. Oh, it smarmily ties up every loose end, but even before that, Koontz generates his climax from a ridiculously unbelievable bit of scientific investigation. In Jurassic Park, Crichton created dinosaurs from a simple mosquito. Here, Koontz does basically the reverse. And, yes, it’s just about that deflating.
* These criticisms aren’t the sort that occur to you only after an enthralled reading of the book. Regrettably, they occur with regularity throughout.
* Though it's not relevant to the book, the movie, also written by Koontz, is worse in every way.
June 11, 2021
In my teens, Dean Koontz was one of my favourite authors. I couldn't get enough. Then, for some reason, I stopped reading his stuff when my twenties hit. I honestly don't know why I stopped picking up his stuff but, after a decade or so, I think I assumed there must have been a reason I stopped and twenty three years went by without my picking up a Koontz novel.
Fast forward to 2018 and 'Phantoms' kept showing up on my Goodreads feed. Often enough that I figured 'what the Hell' and bought a copy...
... aaaannnd... I actually enjoyed it. Quite a lot, actually. I mean, it's pulpy as fuck but I'm a big fan of pulp fiction so that's not going to keep me away. In fact, I kinda feel like I owe Mr. Koontz an apology for dropping him. I'll definitely be putting him back into rotation.
Fast forward to 2018 and 'Phantoms' kept showing up on my Goodreads feed. Often enough that I figured 'what the Hell' and bought a copy...
... aaaannnd... I actually enjoyed it. Quite a lot, actually. I mean, it's pulpy as fuck but I'm a big fan of pulp fiction so that's not going to keep me away. In fact, I kinda feel like I owe Mr. Koontz an apology for dropping him. I'll definitely be putting him back into rotation.
November 16, 2016
This reminded me so much of old school King that it's automatically in the keeper pile.
10/10 would read again. :D
10/10 would read again. :D
December 19, 2021
Me ha gustado mucho, dudaba entre cuatro o cinco estrellas. Del uno al diez sería 8.5 o 9.
May 16, 2020
Reading Dean Koontz is some kind of a mixed bag for me. I only read a few his books and there were hits and there were misses. This one was the best. I read it 25 years ago for the first time (in German) and liked it quite a bit. Now that I read it again (in English) I liked it even more.
A horror novel as it should be.
Probably – or should I say hopefully? – it’s not a novel that is inducing nightmares. In fact, it was quite the opposite for me. A few days ago, the night before I read the book, I had a bad dream. Not some horrible nightmare from which I woke up screaming, but bad enough. It left me with some kind of irrational fear in the morning, a fear of something bad that’s going to happen, but I couldn’t say what it was. Being my own dream interpreter, I guess the whole Corona crisis is to blame. While pondering my dream I recalled my reaction to this very book, which was kind of odd, because I haven’t thought about it for a long time. Obviously something from the book has stuck in my subconsciousness and was triggered by my dream to surface again. Or maybe it was the other way around?
In any case, after reading I found that two of the main characters, at the beginning of the story, find themselves in a situation not dissimilar to the one I felt in my dream. Jenny Paige, the physician in the small alpine town of Snowfield CA (pop 500), and her kid sister Lisa, return to the town to find it completely empty and devoid of life. Their notion of something terrible going on is confirmed when they discover a couple of dead bodies, strangely disfigured (not in my own dream), and it takes the two of them and others quite a while to find out who or what the enemy is, or if there even is an enemy to fight. The tension until one finally knows what it’s all about, what is actually going on, is maintained here for quite some time and very skilfully executed.
Of course, with novels like these, you have to check your passion for literary merit at the front cover and put on your hat for believers of the unbelievable. After that you’re in for a wild ride through this alpine town in California during which there are some interesting things to discover that are actually true, and some which might be true. There’s a whole lot of themes from religion and myth to science and medicine, the fight between good and evil, a little history, strong women, brave men, heroes and villains and a somewhat crazy professor who wrote an incredible book, which, alas, was never published (or else I would surly read it).
Recommended horror!
A small side note: Dean Koontz is in a certain way a competitor of Stephen King and I was a little surprised to see a quote in the “praise” section of the book in which King says ‘Gruesome and unrelenting – it has atmosphere, character and story. I couldn’t let it alone until I was done. It’s well realised, intelligent and humane’. Maybe he skipped the section in which a dead person is discovered whose name was Father Callahan, the main character of his own SALEM’S LOT?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
A horror novel as it should be.
Probably – or should I say hopefully? – it’s not a novel that is inducing nightmares. In fact, it was quite the opposite for me. A few days ago, the night before I read the book, I had a bad dream. Not some horrible nightmare from which I woke up screaming, but bad enough. It left me with some kind of irrational fear in the morning, a fear of something bad that’s going to happen, but I couldn’t say what it was. Being my own dream interpreter, I guess the whole Corona crisis is to blame. While pondering my dream I recalled my reaction to this very book, which was kind of odd, because I haven’t thought about it for a long time. Obviously something from the book has stuck in my subconsciousness and was triggered by my dream to surface again. Or maybe it was the other way around?
In any case, after reading I found that two of the main characters, at the beginning of the story, find themselves in a situation not dissimilar to the one I felt in my dream. Jenny Paige, the physician in the small alpine town of Snowfield CA (pop 500), and her kid sister Lisa, return to the town to find it completely empty and devoid of life. Their notion of something terrible going on is confirmed when they discover a couple of dead bodies, strangely disfigured (not in my own dream), and it takes the two of them and others quite a while to find out who or what the enemy is, or if there even is an enemy to fight. The tension until one finally knows what it’s all about, what is actually going on, is maintained here for quite some time and very skilfully executed.
Of course, with novels like these, you have to check your passion for literary merit at the front cover and put on your hat for believers of the unbelievable. After that you’re in for a wild ride through this alpine town in California during which there are some interesting things to discover that are actually true, and some which might be true. There’s a whole lot of themes from religion and myth to science and medicine, the fight between good and evil, a little history, strong women, brave men, heroes and villains and a somewhat crazy professor who wrote an incredible book, which, alas, was never published (or else I would surly read it).
Recommended horror!
A small side note: Dean Koontz is in a certain way a competitor of Stephen King and I was a little surprised to see a quote in the “praise” section of the book in which King says ‘Gruesome and unrelenting – it has atmosphere, character and story. I couldn’t let it alone until I was done. It’s well realised, intelligent and humane’. Maybe he skipped the section in which a dead person is discovered whose name was Father Callahan, the main character of his own SALEM’S LOT?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
February 8, 2011
Should I give Dean Koontz another chance?
Maybe I am being too hard on the piece of derivative trash that is Koontz's Phantoms, but it was so bad – and so memorably bad – that I’ve never read another Koontz book. But I am probably being unfair.
After all, I often find myself reading the garbage put out by Harlan Coben, and is there really any difference? I don’t think so. Koontz is just older. In fact, I like to imagine Koontz as the seed spraying father of Harlan Coben, standing over the world of pulp fiction, dick in hand, saturating the fields of crapness like an inspirational sprinkler, and wherever his seed falls a bad writer pops up. Oops, there’s some Koontz seed on the “Coben field,” and there rises a new author, another pop hackosaurus with the storytelling skills of an illiterate mute with severe brain damage from falling out of bed. Harlan Coben, the author who, these days, most makes me want to poke out my book reading eyes (despite the fact that I keep going back for more).
But if I am willing to keep reading the bastard son, why not the father?
I dunno, but once upon a time I DID read Koontz, and it was awful. A friend of mine, a close friend, recommended Koontz because, he said, “He is awesome!” So I read him because I trusted and loved my friend, and our trust was broken forever. I fell out of love. Koontz destroyed our relationship. We’re not friends anymore.
Phantoms contains girls in peril, an Ancient Power -- the same one that killed off the dinosaurs – that’s back for more world changing ass-whooping, dumb cops and Bones McCoy style scientists (they of the “Hail Mary” science discoveries) to protect the girls in peril and make everything okay with a bacterial solution; it’s full of bad writing, bad characters, bad dialogue, and it gave birth to a badder than bad screen version starring Ben Affleck (has any actor ever made so many truly terrible movies? Does any other Academy Award Winner even come close?) Phantoms is, by any measure, pretty awful.
But I am probably being too hard on Koontz and Phantoms.
Still, I think of those other hackosaurs who’ve risen from Koontz’s seed, and I am pretty sure that my assessment is as fair and balanced as can be. I am a reasonable man, however; I am willing to admit I could be wrong. So I ask you Dean Koontz fans: “Am I wrong? Should I give him another chance? And, if so, which book should I read?”
I promise I will try it once. If I can do it for the son it’s the least I can do for the father. Maybe I’ve been wrong all these years. But I doubt it.
Maybe I am being too hard on the piece of derivative trash that is Koontz's Phantoms, but it was so bad – and so memorably bad – that I’ve never read another Koontz book. But I am probably being unfair.
After all, I often find myself reading the garbage put out by Harlan Coben, and is there really any difference? I don’t think so. Koontz is just older. In fact, I like to imagine Koontz as the seed spraying father of Harlan Coben, standing over the world of pulp fiction, dick in hand, saturating the fields of crapness like an inspirational sprinkler, and wherever his seed falls a bad writer pops up. Oops, there’s some Koontz seed on the “Coben field,” and there rises a new author, another pop hackosaurus with the storytelling skills of an illiterate mute with severe brain damage from falling out of bed. Harlan Coben, the author who, these days, most makes me want to poke out my book reading eyes (despite the fact that I keep going back for more).
But if I am willing to keep reading the bastard son, why not the father?
I dunno, but once upon a time I DID read Koontz, and it was awful. A friend of mine, a close friend, recommended Koontz because, he said, “He is awesome!” So I read him because I trusted and loved my friend, and our trust was broken forever. I fell out of love. Koontz destroyed our relationship. We’re not friends anymore.
Phantoms contains girls in peril, an Ancient Power -- the same one that killed off the dinosaurs – that’s back for more world changing ass-whooping, dumb cops and Bones McCoy style scientists (they of the “Hail Mary” science discoveries) to protect the girls in peril and make everything okay with a bacterial solution; it’s full of bad writing, bad characters, bad dialogue, and it gave birth to a badder than bad screen version starring Ben Affleck (has any actor ever made so many truly terrible movies? Does any other Academy Award Winner even come close?) Phantoms is, by any measure, pretty awful.
But I am probably being too hard on Koontz and Phantoms.
Still, I think of those other hackosaurs who’ve risen from Koontz’s seed, and I am pretty sure that my assessment is as fair and balanced as can be. I am a reasonable man, however; I am willing to admit I could be wrong. So I ask you Dean Koontz fans: “Am I wrong? Should I give him another chance? And, if so, which book should I read?”
I promise I will try it once. If I can do it for the son it’s the least I can do for the father. Maybe I’ve been wrong all these years. But I doubt it.
October 25, 2017
I love Dean Koontz and his books...
And I know that lots of reviews at goodreads doesn't seem to accompany adequately my sentiments....
Nevertheless boldly as I'm here comes my humble review!!!
First of all let me say that with "Phantoms" you have here vintage Koontz, I mean a classic piece for what Dean Koontz books stands and are loved for....
Snowfield, a little town in California will be haunted by unspeakable evil, and a small group of survivors fights against it!!!!
That's all.....
Let me say, if you love Carpenters movie "The Thing" or Stephen Kings "It", and if you are fond of "The Exorzist" then welcome in Snowfield and enjoy the ride, you will not be disappointed at all...
Koontz mix and blend Science Fiction with horror, and that he does masterfully well.....
By the way, "Phantoms" is really a genuine page-turner, you will not be able to stop until The End!!!
Having said that, the characters are in my opinion not so well developed, that's the reason for retaining one star in my rating.
But, a good and gripping read awaits you, it will entertain for sure and that's the main issue.
Have fun and enjoy, all of you!!!
Dean;)
And I know that lots of reviews at goodreads doesn't seem to accompany adequately my sentiments....
Nevertheless boldly as I'm here comes my humble review!!!
First of all let me say that with "Phantoms" you have here vintage Koontz, I mean a classic piece for what Dean Koontz books stands and are loved for....
Snowfield, a little town in California will be haunted by unspeakable evil, and a small group of survivors fights against it!!!!
That's all.....
Let me say, if you love Carpenters movie "The Thing" or Stephen Kings "It", and if you are fond of "The Exorzist" then welcome in Snowfield and enjoy the ride, you will not be disappointed at all...
Koontz mix and blend Science Fiction with horror, and that he does masterfully well.....
By the way, "Phantoms" is really a genuine page-turner, you will not be able to stop until The End!!!
Having said that, the characters are in my opinion not so well developed, that's the reason for retaining one star in my rating.
But, a good and gripping read awaits you, it will entertain for sure and that's the main issue.
Have fun and enjoy, all of you!!!
Dean;)
August 26, 2021
Fue entretenido leerlo.
Se siente como una pelicula b de terror, que por momentos intenta ser seria.
Me gusto que desde el primer capitulo tenemos violencia y gore.
En la primer parte logra crear buenos momentos de tensión, y durante todo el libro muy buenas escenas de gore, algunos casi de susto.
Si, como que en el ritmo es un poco sube y baja, en algunas partes ayuda, pero en otros alenta.
Lleno de cliches al estilo hollywood, y vaya romance mas trillado. Pero a pesar de eso los personajes resaltan, y hay unas muertes que se sienten.
Y que onda con las explicaciones que se sacaban, que antes del reveal casi que podía ser cualquier cosa.
3.5 (que subimos por la pregunta filosofica)
SPOILERS
muchos spoilers
Se siente como una pelicula b de terror, que por momentos intenta ser seria.
Me gusto que desde el primer capitulo tenemos violencia y gore.
En la primer parte logra crear buenos momentos de tensión, y durante todo el libro muy buenas escenas de gore, algunos casi de susto.
Si, como que en el ritmo es un poco sube y baja, en algunas partes ayuda, pero en otros alenta.
Lleno de cliches al estilo hollywood, y vaya romance mas trillado. Pero a pesar de eso los personajes resaltan, y hay unas muertes que se sienten.
Y que onda con las explicaciones que se sacaban, que antes del reveal casi que podía ser cualquier cosa.
3.5 (que subimos por la pregunta filosofica)
SPOILERS
muchos spoilers
November 6, 2011
I read Watchers for a class. The next week, I had to read Phantoms for a different class. I didn't think it was possible, but Phantoms was an even worse piece of tripe than Watchers was. Dean Koontz is the worst author I've had the displeasure of reading. His characters are flat and unbelievable, his pacing drags, his dialogue doesn't sound realistic, he does no research or fact-checking whatsoever, and his story ideas are tired retreads of played out cliches. His prose is heavy-handed, overdone, purple narration. If I've ever read a writer who should be punished for the poor quality of his books, it is Dean Koontz. The man is a hack. Reading a Koontz novel is like having my brain raped with clumsy diction and weak imagery. The man is not subtle, and doesn't build any kind of tension in his horror stories; instead, he beats the reader over the head with a hammer of cheesy metaphors. I could, quite literally, feel myself getting stupider as I waded through these atrocious novels. Instead of reading Dean Koontz, you should probably smash your head repeatedly into a brick wall. You'd end up with the same results in half the time.
June 9, 2016
I don't yet understand the hate for Koontz. Currently I have read three of his novels ; midnight, watchers and now this one, and I have thoroughly enjoyed each of them. Maybe I peaked too soon with his best works. Hopefully not.
For me, this was a cracking read. The first 100 pages or so were filled with dread, and so tension filled. I felt like I was there with the two sisters, as they explored the town and discovered the horrors within. It was damn creepy and really atmospheric. As more characters were introduced the tension just kept on building until finally the " ancient enemy" struck.
The less said about the enemy the better, but it is one of the most malevolent forces in fiction I have read about. A disturbing creature that has a terrific backstory and is well researched. It is such a frightening presence throughout.
Finally I believe this was written around five years before Stephen kings IT. I can't help but feel that King read this, and found a lot of ideas here that went into his own masterpiece. There are just too many coincidences. I mean the enemy in this novel is even referred to as IT many times!
For me, this was a cracking read. The first 100 pages or so were filled with dread, and so tension filled. I felt like I was there with the two sisters, as they explored the town and discovered the horrors within. It was damn creepy and really atmospheric. As more characters were introduced the tension just kept on building until finally the " ancient enemy" struck.
The less said about the enemy the better, but it is one of the most malevolent forces in fiction I have read about. A disturbing creature that has a terrific backstory and is well researched. It is such a frightening presence throughout.
Finally I believe this was written around five years before Stephen kings IT. I can't help but feel that King read this, and found a lot of ideas here that went into his own masterpiece. There are just too many coincidences. I mean the enemy in this novel is even referred to as IT many times!
September 7, 2022
`Las sombras crecían con rapidez cancerosa, rezumando en los escondrijos donde habían pasado el día dormidas. Se extendían las sombras hacia otras formando charcos de oscuridad. ´
`El mar espuma sobre la arena.
Jenny escuchó el sonido de las ruedas del molino y se preguntó qué misterios y milagros, qué horrores y alegrías, estaban siendo molidos en aquel mismo instante para tomar forma en los tiempos venideros. ´
Me ha mantenido en vilo durante cada capítulo, empieza directamente con los hechos escalofriantes que acontecen a la población de Snowfall y consigue callar hasta los huesos.
Mi segunda incursión con este escritor ha sido de fábula, de hecho me ha gustado la clara influencia que tiene de Lovecraft, me doy cuenta de que realmente esta novela ha influenciado a varios de los escritores con los que suelo encontrarme.
La criatura que aparece en la novela, es una criatura que no tiene forma, pero a pesar de ello adopta varias de forma terrorífica e inesperada. Por otro lado, el enemigo, nunca mejor dicho, absorbe todos los conocimientos del ser humano para aterrorizar, esa parte me ha encantado, es algo así como el enemigo que he hecho gracias al enemigo del otro.
La única pega que le daría a la novela es que está envuelta en un aura algo religiosa, en este caso el catolicismo, no llega a ser molesta, pero casi. De todas formas me parece una novela redonda, escalofriante y jodidamente divertida.
Volveré a visitar las historias de este escritor, sin lugar a dudas. Una lástima que en castellano ya no lo editen.
May 3, 2019
Me costó horrores hacerme que un ejemplar físico de esta obra y al final cayó en mis manos. Todo lo que leía acerca de la historia me invitaba a dejarme seducir por esta narración acerca de los sucesos que se llevaron por delante a la totalidad de los habitantes del pueblo de Snowfield. Y valió la pena la espera.
Desde el momento que entras en las calles, las casas, los comercios de este pueblo; desde que sientes la presencia de algo extraño en la oscuridad, los ruidos o la ausencia de ellos, las voces; desde que aparecen los muertos en su totalidad, o parte de ellos, y te ves incapaz de entender el fenómeno que estás leyendo en esas páginas, estas completamente atrapado y quieres seguir leyendo mas y más y más hasta descubrir el misterio que acabo con la vida de toda esa gente.
Maravillosa historia de terror que ha envejecido bastante bien. Vale la pena el dinero y el tiempo invertido en conseguir leerla.
Desde el momento que entras en las calles, las casas, los comercios de este pueblo; desde que sientes la presencia de algo extraño en la oscuridad, los ruidos o la ausencia de ellos, las voces; desde que aparecen los muertos en su totalidad, o parte de ellos, y te ves incapaz de entender el fenómeno que estás leyendo en esas páginas, estas completamente atrapado y quieres seguir leyendo mas y más y más hasta descubrir el misterio que acabo con la vida de toda esa gente.
Maravillosa historia de terror que ha envejecido bastante bien. Vale la pena el dinero y el tiempo invertido en conseguir leerla.
April 22, 2024
4 Stars for Phantoms (audiobook) by Dean Koontz read by Buck Schirner.
The author did a great job of weaving real historic disappearances into this horror story. The supernatural elements were really interesting and it had me in suspense the whole time.
The author did a great job of weaving real historic disappearances into this horror story. The supernatural elements were really interesting and it had me in suspense the whole time.
June 23, 2017
This is another long-time-later reread for me. It has some great scares and made me think twice about turning off my reading light, but it doesn't have the kick of Midnight or the cleverness of Watchers. Still worth a read for the few pants-crapping moments and well written gory detail.
February 16, 2014
This novel was definitely better than the movie version. Very suspenseful and easy to get hooked.
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