Dean Koontz
Ballentine Books, New York
1995
Paperback
$7.99 US
I've been reading quite a bit about the new horror and splatterpunk genres and was interested in finding out more about them. I had been told that Koontz was on the softer, more general public, side of the splatterpunk writers so decided to pick up one of his books and read it first.
This was my first reading of any of Koontz' works. I found a copy of Intensity with its front cover torn off in a throw away pile. It took me three days to read it. It wasn't the cliff-hanger the front pages PR suggested it would be. I was able to put it down (with somewhat regularity might I add).
While the story is somewhat interesting, the antagonist is predictable and, I'm sorry to say, I was able to identify somewhere around the middle of the 436 pages. I never could figure out this guy's reasoning.
One critic at the Austin Chronicle suggested that the protagonist was "possibly the best female character yet in the thriller genre." Guess I haven't read enough of this genre yet because if this character is the best in the genre, the female characters in this genre must leave much to be desired.
The climax of the book occurred way too early, in my opinion, leaving the end of the book extremely anti-climactic. This left me with an extreme feeling that my reading the book was a waste of my time.
Overall, I guess the book was OK. I know I probably wouldn't have paid $7.99 for the book new and if I had I would have felt extremely dissatisfied after reading it. I recommend this book only to aspiring horror writers for its extended descriptions. Koontz does seem to be good at that.