By the Light of the Moon

I have yet to receive this book as well as the blood of Olympus it has been two weeks.

I read all the bad reviews of this book and I have to wonder ... what book were these people reading? I loved the characters - Shep being my favorite. I thought Jilly was completely realistic and I know several people like her. Yes, initially, she seems like a b%@#$, but if you take the time to get to know her and give her a chance, she grows on you. I thought the premise of the story was very interesting, and the inclusion of the Art Bell-like character was humorous. I read it in two days during a cruise and it was a great choice.

The newest series in the new and improved and enlightened Dean Koontz at first disappointed me because it took about one half of the book for the plot to come together and make us feel connected to the characters.Nanotechnology is the latest and greatest science written by the best writers out there (the best being Prey and The Eighth Day), and Koontz puts his touch in a tale of redemption.The novel sets itself up for a sequel of two and that will be great - now that a premise is set, let's run from the get-to, please? A definite read - just have a little more patience - this is no From the Corner of His Eye, but to me that is the tops he's done in a long time.(where is the guy who can only get around in the dark?)what happened to those novels? Any more coming?

As a long time reader of Dean Koontz books, I have been somewhat disappointed with his most recent novels. Although by most standards they are very readable, they lack much of what has made Dean Koontz a solid best-selling author for so many years - strong characters, tight storytelling. I found the author's recent books to be overly descriptive and somewhat flowery (sorry, but it's hard to describe the exact nature of the problem - also note, I still read them all!). I am very pleased then to say that his most recent novel, By The Light of the Moon is not only his best in recent years but may be his best since Dark Rivers of the Heart.The characters - Dylan, Shepherd and Jilly - are brought together after they have been injected with nanobots, microscopic biological machines, which bring about unique changes in our characters. Dylan is able to identify events already happened or yet to come in the residue left by a person's touch on various objects. Jilly develops precognition. Shep, Dylan's autistic brother, develops the most exciting ability. He can "fold" from "here" to "there". He seems to be able to grasp the edge of reality where he is and fold it out of the way while folding into another location. While this "folding" can be accomplished in either space or time, the ability to "fold" into other dimensions is hinted at, creating exciting possibilities for these characters in the future. The author describes this process so eloquently that it reminds one of Stephen King and Peter Straub's young Jack Sawyer "Flipping" into the Territories in The Talisman and Dark House. The author follows these character's actions with little interruption by the band of black Suburbans following them (full of thug golfers (you'll see!)). This is somewhat unusual for Dean Koontz who usually keeps the tension up by moving frequently from one cast of characters to another. Not so in this book. It works very well, however. The action is fast paced and "can't put it down" exciting.Some might be disappointed by the ending which sets us up for additional stories, but I loved these characters so much that I can't wait for more. Dean Koontz has with this novel created a new band of superheroes, but done so in a way that we care greatly about them and look forward to getting together with them in the (hopefully, near) future.

Ever since the Christopher Snow novels (Fear Nothing and Seize the Night), Dean Koontz has been perfecting his own sub-genre, the spiritual thriller. His work has fully come to fruition in his two latest books, One Door Away from Heaven and By the Light of the Moon.It's interesting to compare the latter with Michael Crichton's Prey. Both deal with nanotechnology. Both are in the thriller genre. That's where the similarity ends. Crichton is a Cassandra. Koontz is a prophet of the good news (not really the Christian gospel, but something very close). The thing that most clearly separates Koontz from Crichton is the former's deep concern for people, especially those who would generally be considered the dregs of society-trailer park denizens, kids with terminal illnesses, dead-end divorcees. These are the people through whom salvation comes, not the scientists, not the theologians, not the cultural arbiters.By the Light of the Moon, perhaps Koontz' most accomplished novel to date, concerns three misfits, Dylan O'Conner and his adult autistic brother, Shep, and Jillian Jackson, a third-rate stand-up comic. These three share a common, albeit bizarre, thread of recent personal history: each has been infected with an unknown substance, administered by a benign-looking although ego-maniacally demented mad scientist, that will either destroy them or endow them with remarkable powers-or perhaps both. They find themselves thrown together and on the run, from mysterious forces who want nothing less that their termination, with extreme prejudice. What happens is a series a serio-comic chase scenes, personal revelations, and general Koontz-inspired mayhem and high jinks, all ending in a remarkable turn-around-is-fair-play denouement, featuring the most memorable minor character, apparent UFO-obsessed radio-talk-show-host Parish Lantern (great name, btw), since Kilgore Trout. By perfecting the relational-friendly spiritual thriller, Koontz has done us all a great service: He has figured out how to insinuate deep messages into the most unlikely set of story circumstances, all the while entertaining our socks off. For that, I believe he has become the most important novelist of his generation. On a personal note, I am the father of an autistic son approximately Shep's age, and I must say I was very moved by Koontz' conception and portrayal of an individual suffering from this condition. My son, Christopher (his name means "Christ-bearer"), is about at the same functioning level, and Koontz has exactly caught the mystery and much of the nuance of autism. Except, perhaps, for the depiction of autism by Dustin Hoffman in "The Rain Man" (based on the son of famous autism researcher, Bernard Rimland), Shep O'Conner is the most accurately rendered fictional autistic character I have seen.Thank you, Dean Koontz, for your quirky, idiosyncratic vision. May it ensue in many more such inspired creations.