Latest Posts
The world before ‘Star Wars’
December 20, 2015
Inspired in part by the Japanese subgenre of giant robot movies, the 1976 Korean animated feature Robot Taekwon V is a charmingly chintzy-looking cartoon about a heroic scientist who counters his evil counterpart by pitting his lone super-android against the villain’s mechanical army. When the Star Wars robots debuted a year later, they were so charming that they altered the way these kinds of characters were deployed in the years that followed. Pre-1977, robots in 1970s science-fiction movies tended to be personality-free tools of justice or weapons of war. Sometimes they were malicious in another way entirely, as in the 1973 thrillerWestworld and its 1976 sequel Futureworld, where advanced animatronic amusement park attractions develop sentience and begin to kill the guests. In that same sinister vein, the big-screen adaptation of Dean Koontz’s novel Demon Seed, released in April 1977, stars Julie Christie as a woman who gets impregnated by her estranged husband’s supercomputer.
Read the full article @ The Kernel.
Frankenstein: Storm Surge #3 preview
December 20, 2015
Back on the 15th Bleeding Cool had an “Exclusive” preview of the third issue of Frankenstein: Storm Surge. Funnily enough, Comic Book Resources had that same preview a day earlier. Click either link for all the images.
Ashley Bell reviews
December 14, 2015
Ashley Bell is out and the reviews are coming in quickly so please excuse the link dump.
- Book review: ‘Ashley Bell’ is one of Dean Koontz’s best – TribLive
- Book review: Dean Koontz shows he is still the king of suspense – South China Morning Post
- ‘Ashley Bell’ one of Dean Koontz’s best – Press of Atlantic City
- ‘Ashley Bell’ rises to top of Koontz’s best – Albuquerque Journal / Associated Press (so has been printed elsewhere…)
- Dean Koontz’s ‘Ashley Bell’: A colorful tale that veers toward the otherworldly – Washington Post
- New Dean Koontz Book Ashley Bell Available Now – Dread Central
Frankenstein Storm Surge #4 in December 2015 Previews
December 6, 2015
Early Ashley Bell review
November 29, 2015
From Examiner.com
I have been reading Dean Koontz’s book for as long as I can remember. While I still enjoy most of his work, it has been a while since he has been able to capture my imagination as he used to do. When I first say the cover and read the description for his upcoming novel, “Ashley Bell,” I thought that this book sounded like one of his older novels and was excited to see if it would once again capture that old Koontz magic.
Bibi Blair never had time for fate or the supernatural. She was a take charge type of person that focused on the things that she could see and conquer. Bibi’s world comes crashing down around her when she finds herself suddenly afflicted by a rare form of cancer that gives her less than a year to live. Bibi at first approaches the disease as just another concrete obstacle for her to overcome but she is forced to accept that there could be something more to it after a visit from a strange man and his dog that leaves her seemingly healed. She may have overcome the cancer but the struggle of her life has just begun…
Charnel House edition of Ashley Bell shipping soon
November 23, 2015
According to the Charnel House Web site:
ASHLEY BELL by Dean Koontz will be shipping the first week in December. It will be released simultaneously with the Random House trade edition. There are few copies remaining and will ship in time for Christmas.
That’s One Creepy Cover Andres Ponce Did For Frankenstein: Storm Surge #2
November 23, 2015
More @ Bleeding Cool.
Dean's home to be moved to third place
November 23, 2015
Dubbed Villa de Formosa as a tribute to the owner’s Taiwanese roots, the three-story house will have 52,000 square feet of living space and subterranean parking under one roof…
Currently, Orange County’s biggest single-family home is the Newport Coast compound owned by Hot Pockets millionaire Paul Merage. Building permit records show it has almost 45,000 square feet on 4.8 acres.
Author Dean Koontz’ Amazing Grace, a four-lot compound in Newport Coast, appears to be Orange County’s second biggest home, with 37,550 square feet of living space and parking, according to building permits.
Read the full article @ OCRegister.com
What do editors mean when they say… "Sorry, but, the motivation is missing?"
November 5, 2015
The days of finding one of those more obscure, yet known items that I don’t already have are getting further and further apart. However I get to reset that particular clock with the arrival of this little gem form 1969 containing the essay mentioned in the title of this post.
"Post-Novel Confusion: Ashley Bell" by Dean Koontz
November 1, 2015
Red the full essay @ DeanKoontz.com.
"So Much Glamour You Want to Puke" by Dean Koontz
November 1, 2015
Back in the day, when my novel Phantoms was being turned into a film by Miramax, through their Rogue division, Gerda and I were invited to the Miramax party following the Golden Globe Awards. At the time, that party was always described in the media as the one for which all the most glamorous people sought invitations. The impression was given that the stars so desired being at this soiree that Julia Roberts might have beaten the crap out of Woody Allen and stolen his invitation if she could have gotten away with it. So I put on a tux, and Gerda dressed beautifully for the occasion, and we drove less than a block, from the Peninsula Hotel, where we were staying, to the hotel where the party was being thrown, expecting to be agape for several hours, stunned by the lavish decorations and the presence of a virtual hornet’s nest of movie stars.
Read the full essay @ DeanKoontz.com.
FINAL HOUR by Dean Koontz On-Sale Now
November 1, 2015
Who is Ashley Bell?
November 1, 2015
5 best scary books to read right now
November 1, 2015
#4: Dean Koontz is no stranger to scaring the pants off his readers, and Phantoms, one of his best known works, does just that with its premise alone. An abandoned town. Dead, but warm bodies filled with unmentionable things? Creepy to the max.
Read the full listicle @ Wonem24.
A Short, Fast Ride: Final Hour by Dean Koontz
November 1, 2015
Dean Koontz has written more than 130 books over the course of the last five decades. Many of those books have landed at the top spot of multiple best-seller lists. His next full-length novel, called Ashley Bell, will publish in early December. Koontz has remarked that everyone in his “publishing life thinks it is the best book [he’s] ever written.” To whet the appetites of fans waiting earnestly for that novel, Koontz has written the novella Final Hour, one of two novellas leading up to Ashley Bell. Though shorter in length than his usual, Final Hour is no less than everything that Dean Koontz has come to be known for.
Read the full review @ Everyday Ebook.
"Taking Our Dog Out to Dinner" by Dean Koontz
October 25, 2015
We enjoy going out to dinner. We do not enjoy leaving our golden retriever, Anna, at home while we go out to dinner. For one thing, we miss her. There’s also the fact that we worry, should we leave her home alone too often, she’ll one day write a tell-all about us, including such humiliating details as my passion for bunny slippers. Which would be a damnable lie. Besides, we bristle at the injustice of her being denied service. She’s well-behaved, cute, and never barks. I can claim none of those three virtues, and yet I am welcome in every restaurant.
Read the full essay @ DeanKoontz.com.
"Opening Lines" by Dean Koontz
October 25, 2015
A year ago or more, when answering letters from readers (real letters, not e-mails, as there is not enough time to answer even a fraction of reader e-mails), I started asking which opening lines in my books they thought were the most compelling. A little marketing research, if you will. And I learned a few things from their choices, including that no matter how long you have been writing, there is value in feedback from readers. These first lines received the most votes:
Read the full article @ DeanKoontz.com.
"Photo Session" by Dean Koontz
October 25, 2015
My publisher recently sent a highly regarded photographer to take a few new book-jacket and publicity photos of me. No one said it was because in order to make me appear appealing, a photographer of extraordinary talent was needed, with special lighting, and sixteen image consultants. But I knew. I knew.
Read the full essay @ DeanKoontz.com.
Polish review of Innocence (Niewinność)
October 25, 2015
“Zdałem sobie sprawę, że Gwyneth więcej wie o mieszkańcach tego miasta, niż ja się kiedykolwiek dowiem, i rozumie lepiej ode mnie, a przynajmniej tak samo dobrze, jakie zepsucie i bezlitosne okrucieństwo może się kryć za maskami przywdziewanymi przez niektórych ludzi.”
Koontz eksperymentuje. Człowiek, który napisał tyle powieści, koniec końców, chce czegoś nowego. Zmienia styl, jak my zmieniamy nasze przyzwyczajenia. „Niewinności” daleko do horroru, nie jest to również thriller. Czy to źle? Nie mi oceniać, jednak czytelnicy, którzy pokochali autora za sceny grozy i nieprzespane noce, tym razem przykryją się kołdrą jedynie wtedy, gdy w pokoju zrobi się zimno. Mroczny klimat zastąpiło zepsute miasto. Największymi potworami ponownie okazali się ludzie. A obraz stworzony przez Amerykanina nie jest otoczony aurą strachu, a smutku.
Z reguły w recenzji znajdziecie wiele słów o głównym bohaterze. Jeśli, tak jak w tym wypadku, występuje narracja pierwszoosobowa, to mamy już niemalże gotowy materiał na dokładną charakterystykę. Nie tym razem. Addonis jest… no właśnie. Tu pojawia się zasadniczy problem. Nasz kronikarz ukrywa się pod kapturem, ujawnia się jedynie nocami, jego wygląd sprawił, że budził odradzę nawet własnej matki.
Read the full review @ Interia360.
Register Book Club will host Dean Koontz at its January event
October 25, 2015
Please join us, and come hear Koontz, one of America’s top-selling authors, discuss the book at our public event in January.
The book is due in stores Dec. 8. We’ll read and discuss it, with regular chats online and on social media. Join the conversation at the Register Book Club’s Facebook Group. Follow along on Twitter with #OCRBookClub.
The novel is set in Orange County, as many Koontz novels are – mostly in Newport Beach, where he lives.
More @ OCRegister.com