Dean R. Koontz

A thoroughly mundane and mediocre writer who produces pablum that reads like he stole the plot of an old made for TV movie. Highly contrived, largely devoid of character development, primitive narrative stream and a large tin ear for dialogue.

I have to agree with Kid Icarus on this one. I've resisted reading Koontz for years, but a friend of mine is a pretty big fan, and at his urging, I'm reluctantly trying to wade through one of his recent works. It's tough going. I don't like to abandon a book once I start reading it, no matter how bad it is (which means I'm either a determined reader or a masochist), but I'm tempted with Koontz. I don't think Stephen King is any great writer, but, at his best, he's at least entertaining.

Koontz isn't a good writer, and he isn't entertaining. Koontz is to horror what Jacqueline Susann was to drama.

Maybe I've just picked a particularly bad Koontz novel, and haven't given him a fair shake. Unfortunately, there are so many good books out there to read, and only a limited number of hours in any given lifetime to read them in. If I ever do get through this particular Koontz novel (or even if I don't), I can guarantee that it will be the first and last thing by Koontz that I'll ever deign to read.

I have read a few Koontz novels and was never impressed. This kind of stuff reminds of like bad TV movies that would be made if the Sci-Fi channel and the Hallmark channel ever got together.

When you buy a Dean Koontz book, you know what you are buying, a good thriller. Some of the earlier books are very gory, and some are predictable, but overall, a Koontz book is one that is hard to put down!

  Koontz is brilliant, His novel The Watchers is still my favorite book to this day and will always be. He got me into reading and I will always support Dean Koontz.

He has some great books and some books are just ok but when you write as many as he does they can't all be excellent.

Overall a very solid writer and a great man.

I love the Odd Thomas books!!  His early works are a bit dry and TOO descriptive.  I think he has come into his own and as Patheral said, don't compare King and Koontz ~ definitely different writing styles.

I read his books years ago, enjoyed them but don't recall much about them. I just recently picked up a paper back at the airport - one of the Odd Thomas series, finished it with relish and jumped into the next one immediately. I love ghost stories but I also enjoy having a chance to get to know the characters in both books and film and you are given that opportunity with Odd Thomas. As it turns out, he's also a character worth knowing. Purely without pretense, he has a sharp sense of irony and humor and gentle philosophical nature. No, it's not King - it's Koontz...two different guys two writing styles. I have enjoyed the work and see merit in both.

It always interests me when people compare Koontz to King, because their writing styles are so different when it comes to horror. Give Koontz credit for his own writing style.  He's pretty good.  Yeah, he does tend toward the formula writing, but that's okay because  he does great things with the formulas. I like the Odd Thomas novels.  Those are great!  And his story The Face, that was pretty good for the most part (a bit long).  There are some novels of his that right on put me to sleep, but so far, I've liked most of them.  Oh, and his website is pretty funny.  I've gotta admit, the man has a sense of humor.

Excellent story teller. My favorites include, Watchers, Lightning, Twilight Eyes, Intensity, False Memory, Dark Rivers of the Heart and especially Strange Highways.

he's wonderful. strange highways is the best.

I read a few books by this guy about 15 years ago. Average, readable, but not above the norm for this genre.

im rating Koontz a flipping 5 you guys...i love all of his books...i don't know what you all are talking about...his book false memory...GREAT! i loved it..i read it almost 3 times!

I love him and his work! Captivating, memorable and well writen. He has his ups and downs with books and some are better than others, but overal he iz an excellent writer with some timeless pieces.

I used to read him when he first start with Midnight and other 'not to bad ' novels. But after 3 or 4 books, he really begain to bore me off. Always repeat your main story base is not a problem (lovecraft is good exemple of 'creating' a world and use it good for almost every books)but Koontz is so Fake. Each of his novels is like a hollywood movies and ending are so predictable of so stupid like the door to December. Lighining is the only readable novels and for the rest ..? At your own risk

I find Koontz to be a rather repetitive writer, for the most part. All of his stories follow the same formula, making most of the rather predictable. He can tell a good story, but it would be nice if he varied them a little. Watchers, Phantoms, and Whispers are probably his best books.

Is it just me or do the authors tend to borrow ideas from each other? I get the feeling they all read each other's books.

The Face was a gripping book, but its length was something to consider. To me, Koontz is on the same level with Stephen King, with his formulaic writing style, lengthy novels, and constant publishing of newer books. He is great at suspense, though, and pretty good at setting the tone.

He's been called a poor man's Stephen King, and has nearly as many books out. Definitely hit or miss with me. Intensity and the one about the psychotic kid (can't remember the name) are probably the best.

His books are fascinating....really good books

He kept me latched onto the pages of Midnight wondering what was going to happen! He knows how to create suspense!

Love his work! Like Stephen King but the action starts way sooner with Koontz. Ever notice in most of his older work there's a golden retriever somehow worked into the story??

I wanted to like Koontz, i really did, but the first book i picked up by him was Shadowland? (or was it Shadowfire?) (the one where the guy turns into a lizard) and it was so bad that i could never read anything else by him without thinking of that. (an analogy would be a person unfamiliar with Stephen King reading The Tommyknockers first!) So if you want to get into Koontz, i recommend that you try a different book first.

JUST READ HIS INTESNITY, & I LOVED IT!! THE BOOK DEEPLY DRAWS THE READER INTO THE STORY & TERROR OF THE STORY. I CAN'T WAIT TO READ MORE OF HIS BOOKS!!

Koontz' books are all the same, and they all suck. Intensity was the only passable one. His characters are terrible and I finally realized that I don't have to read another book about a super-intelligent dog or child genius again.

The Face is the most recent Koontz book I've read. It was excellent, up to his usually standards.

If you enjoy these type of books, then I highly recommend Dean R Koontz. He can scare the wits out of just anybody. And this man definately does his research before writing a novel. EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT. He is very underrated and deserves any award that comes his way. Keep up the good work Dean !

Sort of middle-of-the-road among horror writers. His books can be incredibly engaging and chilling, but they can also be sensationalistic crap (Night Chills for example, could have been a lot less pornographic - read it if you're the kind of person who wishes the Penthouse forum was a little more terrifying). He does have some neat ideas, but there are so many other authors I would rather read. I would recommend him to people just starting out reading horror novels, or to people who are sick of King.

Koontz on a good day is King's equal,on a bad day he's at the level of a jr high student.Strangers,Phantom,and my favorite Twilight Eyes are topnotch.He seems to churn out every third book or so for a payday,much like a good actor doing a crappy movie.

This guy is sick! I've read quite a few of his books and loved them all. I read "Intensity" about a year ago and I still get the heebie-jeebies when I think about it.

Because I have not read any of this authors works but my friend seems to enjoy them, I am going to give this author a four.

Koontz can be a brilliant suspense writer when he wants to but too many of his books are average to above average. When he is on, he is ON - he can rivet you to your seat in superb novels like Intensity, False Memory, Watchers, Midnight and Phantoms. Other times he misses the mark. Koontz at his best writes like a heat-seeking missle.

While many may not agree, I believe that Koontz is the best there is, PERIOD. He tells his stories with a huge amount of description while letting your imagination also decribe the surroundings or the character or the situation. King and Rice also write with a lot of description, but leave little to the imagination. This is why Koontz is a better writer above all. He was the 2nd bestselling author in the year 2000, and that was above all forms of writing not just horror.

Koontz is the best horror/mystery writer I ever read. Within the first couple of pages the action starts and keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way through. Mr. Murder was the first one I read, and at times it was scary reading it at night by myself after everyone went to bed. That's how I rate a good murder mystery. If a book has the power to scare you enough to where you're looking over your shoulder, it's a good one. Koontz is definetly the BEST.

There is a difference between being prolific and being good. Koontz is very prolific, but he isn't very good. Somebody here said "wooden" and that is a good description. Microwave popcorn for the brain. Suitable for waiting for airplanes and while having your hair done or your oil cnanged but not much more.

Dean Koontz is the only author of books that i've kept on reading....his books i mean, HE IS the best author hands down, i love his stories...always new and interesting...weird and suspenseful..awesome...and if he can keep me interested..then he is awesome.....

Absolutely fantastic author. You won't find better, particularly Lightning, The Bad Place and From The Corner of His Eye.

I've read 90% of his work and thank you for the sweaty palms and nightmares, but WOW, what a read. Thank you, Mr. Koontz

I have read about 22 of his books I really enjoyed them all. I have to take a break fron his books sometimes because ny dreams get too hairy.

In my opinion Koontz is a brilliant writer.I have read all of his books,including those written under his pseudonyms Deanna Dwyer,Coffey,Axton,West and KR Dwyer and nearly all are superb! I would put him in the same category as Graham Masterton. I feel that these two novelists are the two true masters of this genre.The prose is excellent and in my opinion no one can touch them,including King!All you Koontz fans out there, if you have not read Masterton go out now and buy one of his books, you won't be disappointed!!!

Dean Koontz is definately talented. His books really give me the creeps some times. My favorite book of his is Watchers. Lightning was great too. The length of his books are good. I don't like reading a description of something for 50 pages, and I don't like having to spend hours reading 1000 pages to find out how Stephen King's books end (although Stephen King is an excellent author too). I really enjoy the mystery and horror of Koontz's novels. Stephen Spielburg really needs to make movies out of some of them.

I love Dean Koonz books,espeially "False Memories"!Thank You and keep intriguing us with your books.

Dean Koontz has written over fifty books,and Ive read all three of them.

Dry, dull, insipid horror writing, with wooden characters and childish plots. Have not enjoyed anything I've read by this author. Pants.

If you don't like Dean Koontz, then you don't understand his writing. He is, by far, an awesome and outstanding writer. I first discovered him late one night with PHANTOMS. The first two chapters scared me so badly that I had to put down the book and turn on NICK AT NIGHT...and I have read horror all my life. He grabs you by the throat on the first page and doesn't let go until the last page. As a teacher of writing, I often read aloud to my students, excerpts from Koontz's books. It is probably the only time that I command complete silence in my classroom....

Dean Koontz is, in my opinion, the best author of horror that I have ever read. Each book kept me hooked from start to finish, with the exception of Icebound, which was very 'un' Dean Koontz. It was as though he had tried a different style of writing and it does not suit him. I found it monotonous, and tiresome. Other than that, the rest of his books are absolutely fantastic! My own personal favorite is Intensity, (though the film does not do it justice). Why not make a film out of Night Chills? Compared with other authors, Dean Koontz does not over-state situations or over-describe things like scenery and people, but tells you all that you need to know to imagine the viewpoint, unlike Stephen King who writes 1500 page novels with 1000 pages of description and 500 pages of action.

A BRILLIANT WRITER AND STORY TELLER,HIS OBSERVATIONS OF THE BEST AND WORST OF HUMAN SPIRIT ENTHRALES ME.STRANGERS WAS MY FIRST BOOK AND KEPT ME RAPT FROM PAGE 1 SUPERNATURAL BUT BELIEVABLE,JUST.AREA 51....?. JAMES HERBET ALSO HOOKS ME,BUT IN A MORE EERIE AND DARK WAY.WEAVEWORLD IS JUST PURE GENIUS. BACK TO KOONZ...JUST LIKE ALL GOOD FEELGOOD MOVIES HE PUTS YOU RIGHT THERE IN THE SHOES OF THE GOOD OR RIGHTOUS ONE,SORT OF LIKE RELIGON WITHOUT ALL THE ABSTAINING OF THINGS YOU ENJOY.BY FAR MY FAVOURITE IS TWILIGHT EYES,A ME AGAINST THE WORLD KINDA BOOK.GOBLINS ARE AMOUNGST US BUT KEEP FIGHTING!!!

great stories but his in-depth descriptions are SOOOOOOO long winded ! Needs to cut back on this.

The true Master of this genre ! This man gets sooo deep, he makes you wonder "this could really happen". Very good prose, a sense of humor most horror writers don't have. Very chilling work from this man, where does he get his ideas ?

Dean Koontz is my all-time favorite author. I love his books, and I save them to read over and over again. I'm always looking for new books from him, and now that I know the other names he has used as an author, i'm going to get those books too. His books make me laugh and cry. I can't put them down until I have read the whole book, then I have to stop and think about them for awhile. I really love them. Thanks to Mr. Koontz, or whoever he really is.

took the public a while to realize what a master he is, but better late than never. I've known it for decades. Skip over Fear Nothing and it's sequel, Sieze the Night, these were written for the beach-mongers who want a simple, easy to read book. We true fans love his deep, twisted and intelligent work, like his newest, False Memory.