Latest Posts
Julie Christie
March 12, 2017
Just picked up this 2002 UK biography of Julie Christie by Anthony Hayward. Of course, I got it because of a few paged related to the film version of Demon Seed.
The Silent Corner release date moved again
March 12, 2017
I just received an e-mail from Amazon indicating that the release date for The Silent Corner has been reset back to its original release date of 6 June 2017. The listing on their site has been updated accordingly and we’re back to the date listed on the ARC. (The paper edition of which arrived at my home yesterday.)
No pre-signed editions of The Silent Corner?
March 12, 2017
The last several titles Dean’s released (Saint Odd and Ashely Bell off the top of my head,) have had pre-signed editions come out from stores like Barnes & Noble and Target. So far, with the release just a few months away, there are not (yet?) signed editions listed at either of these stores. This has me wondering if there’ll just be a standard trade edition released. I’ll keep you posted if/when more information becomes available.
Odd Thomas art
March 6, 2017
Just stumbled on this piece by JAF-Artwork on DivantArt. Click the image for the full version.
The Silent Corner: My Review
March 5, 2017
I know Dean doesn’t like to be pegged to a particular genre, but in all the years that I’ve been reading his work, I’ve found that in most cases, each novel falls into one of five categories: Science Fiction (Dark Symphony, Demon Seed, Lightning), Suspense (Whispers, House of Thunder, Key to Midnight), Horror (Watchers, Shadowfires, 77 Shadow Street), Fantastics (Odd Thomas, From the Corner of His Eye), and Thrillers (The Face of Fear, Shattered, Dark Rivers of the Heart.) Sure, there are exceptions (Hanging On) and you can quibble with me on even some of my examples, but in the end, the horror is my favorite followed by the thrillers in a very close second. The Silent Corner is a thriller in the best Dean Koontz style, and one I finished in just a few sittings.
The thrillers don’t have monsters, nothing supernatural, aren’t preachy, and usually have someone chasing after the main character. The tech involved is real although some it may be stretched a bit into the future for dramatic effect. The Silent Corner is a thriller and the first in a trilogy all centered around FBI Agent Jane Hawk, currently on leave looking into a conspiracy that she believes led her husband, and many others, to commit suicide. Throw in drones, armored vehicles, and a form of mind control and you’ll be buckled in for the ride.
As a librarian I do have one additional praise and one criticism that I do want to get on the record. First, Jane uses public libraries on a regular basis to have untraceable Internet access. Kudos to Dean for getting this one right. However, another character, caught looking at porn in a library, defended his doing so with the following:
“Look, I work with various concerned groups in the city. We try to set things right where we can. It took a while to get libraries to block the nasty websites so kids couldn’t get on them. Now and then a librarian or somebody decides it’s a free-speech issue and opens the lid on the sewer. I was told that branch was backsliding. I had to see for myself. Today, the lid’s back on, kids are safe.”
The issue of porn on library computers just isn’t that simple and I hope Dean doesn’t actually think it is.
In the end, if you’re a fan of Dean’s thrillers you’re going to love The Silent Corner and I expect the sequels when they arrive.
Blood Risk as by Dean Koontz?
March 5, 2017
An lastly of this week’s finds we have Locus #115, 23 June 1972…
In this case Dean has sold Blood Risk to Bobbs-Merrill. Oddly enough, it doesn’t mention the Brian Coffey pseudonym implying, to me, that this was another title that was originally intended to come out under his own name originally. (And to this day, it still hasn’t.)
Beatschild film part 2 & Shattered originally as by Dean Koontz?
March 5, 2017
Continuing to work my way through some recent finds we come to Locus #120, 25 August 1972…
According to this this issue the option on the yet to be filmed Beastchild was renewed at least once and, maybe more interestingly, Shattered had been sold to Random House “under [his] own name.” In the end, as we all know it came out under the K.R. Dwyer pseudonym. I wonder what happened there.
Enter to win an ARC of The Silent Corner
March 5, 2017
goodreads is giving away 25 ARCs of The Silent Corner and you’ve got just a little more than two days left to enter.
Reselling lawsuit dismissed
March 5, 2017
A follow-up to this story…
LAS VEGAS (CN) – Best-selling author Dean Koontz doesn’t directly do business in Nevada and can’t be sued on fraud claims by a Nevadan who says Koontz kept valuable signed works instead of selling them.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro dismissed a complaint filed by Raymond Davis that accused Koontz of keeping a valuable collection of signed literature formerly owned by John Paul Bodner.
Koontz and Davis were mutual friends with Bodner, who passed away in 2012.
Davis said Bodner gave him a collection books written by Koontz, many of which the author signed.
Davis said he sought his help in selling them, and Koontz agreed to sell them on consignment in 2013.
But instead of selling the books, Davis said Koontz kept them and refuses to return them. Davis sued Koontz last year, and accused the author of fraud, conversion and unjust enrichment.
Koontz sought dismissal due to a lack of personal jurisdiction.
…
Navarro dismissed Davis’ claim without prejudice, noting he could request permission to amend his complaint.
Read the full article @ Courthouse News Service.
Films Into Books -or- There's more than one John Hill in the world
March 5, 2017
There are a lot of reference books out there that were very useful in the pre-Internet days and they we marketed to, and mostly sold to libraries. Here’s one of them form 1995:
Beyond a very long bibliography of film and TV novelizations there’s essays on authors ranging from Piers Anthony to Robert Block to John Jakes. Dean gets two mentions in the first chapter since he wrote the novelization of The Funhouse.
Sadly, this book also includes some mis-information:
Just as Dean didn’t write Stolen Thunder under the pseudonym David Axton (Prison of Ice), there’s never been any proof that he wrote the novelization for the film Heartbeeps under the name John Hill (The Long Sleep.)
For reference, here’s the paperback in question:
Eyes of the Virgin blurb
March 5, 2017
Found another new (to me) Koontz blurb yesterday on the 2003
paperback edition of Eyes of the Virgin by Thomas F. Monteleone.
Beastchild film that never happened & "House of Night"
March 4, 2017
Digging though Locus #82 from 1971 I found this little gem. First the fact that Beastchild had been optioned for either film or TV. (I’d previously not known that.) Second, Dean had sold the title House of Night to Bantam. In the end, House of Night was re-titled. Do you know what it ended up being published as? (This I did know.)
Side note: Notice the bit about Harlan Ellison working on a “film” of Demon With a Glass Hand? That ended up being a classic episode of The Outer Limits.
More old magazines added to the collection today
March 3, 2017
Today was a good mail day. Three (very) old issues of Locus and Bill Munster’s Footsteps #8.
The Gurkha RPV
March 3, 2017
Again, you’ll understand eventually…
Working with Vaughn Bodé
February 26, 2017
I don’t know exactly what project this book (originally from 1974) is referring to but that paragraph is a quote from Dean. It may be referring to an unreleased screenplay based on Bodé’s The Amorous Adventures of Puck, of which previously I don’t believe I’ve mentioned on this blog.
The Whispering Room
February 26, 2017
From the end of The Silent Corner ARC. This is all I’m going to share. I’ve found no release date at this point.
Please turn the page
for a special advance preview of
the next Jane Hawk novel from
#1 New York Times bestselling author
DEAN KOONTZ
THE WHISPERING ROOM
1
Cora Gundersun walked through seething fire without being burned, nor did her white dress burst into flames. She was not afraid, but instead exhilarated, and the many admiring people witnessing this spectacle gaped in amazement, their expressions of astonishment flickering with reflections of the flames. They called out to her not in alarm, but in wonder, with a note of veneration in their voices, so that Cora felt equally thrilled and humbled that she had been made invulnerable.
The Inspire 1 Pro drone
February 25, 2017
You’ll understand eventually.
The Silent Corner ARCs
February 24, 2017
In case you haven’t noticed ARCs for The Silent Corner are starting to appear both in print (eBay) and electronically. Just got my eARC and will be starting it momentarily. Here’s one bit I will tease you with:
The Silent Corner: Those who are truly off the grid and cannot be tracked by any technology, yet are able to move about freely and use the Internet, are said to be in the silent corner.
Given my technology background my hopes are suddenly much higher than they were before. Echos of Dark Rivers of the Heart anyone?
The Silent Corner updates
February 20, 2017
Two items of note:
- Amazon is now listing a release date of May 30, a move up a week from the previously listed June 6.
- Charnel House will be releasing editions(?) in July. No further details look to be available at this time.
Black River sequel due out in April
February 20, 2017
According to the Charnel House site the following will be released in April:
BLACK RIVER: I’ll Be Watching Over You
by Dean Koontz
This is the only mention of this title I can find anywhere. Does anyone else know anything about this?