"Shadowfires" by Dean Koontz

Stumbles at first, then recovers. -- 4 Stars (Originally written February 23, 2009)

Having once again fallen away from reading for pleasure, I made a New Year's resolution to get back in the habit. So the first thing I did was pick up some books by my two favorite authors: Christopher Andrews and Dean R. Koontz.

"Shadowfires" is actually an older Koontz book, originally published under a pen name. And as I read it, it showed, in both good ways and bad. It was definitely a Koontz book, but it was rougher and more raw than his later works.

"Shadowfires" starts with a bang, shooting us into the action in less than 10 pages. Unfortunately, after such a promising start, the story then stalls out for a while. As a rule, I have no problem letting a mystery unfold, but this is one of those cases where one of the main characters (Rachael) has FAR more information than the other characters, OR the reader. So for about 100 pages, we are treated to frustrating, tight lipped silence from Rachael as she rushes from situation to situation, with her love interest, Benny, in tow. And when she finally spills her guts, the revelation is easily predicted.

Eventually, the plot regains its feet, and from there Koontz is back in his element. The story is equal parts horror, thriller, conspiracy, science fiction, and cautionary tale. We're treated to Koontz's same old characters, the man and woman with terrible histories who find life and love together, but I've come to accept that. The villain's motivations are deep, disturbing, and sadly realistic in their way. What starts as a simple and not very exciting premise grows into something much more.

One of Koontz's rougher, less polished elements here is a tendency toward repetitious descriptions. Something will be described from one character's point of view, and then a few pages later, it is described again (in much the same way) from another point of view, and THEN it happens again a few pages after that. I'm fine seeing the same elements from different points of view (Christopher Andrews does this, and very well), but having the texture of a monster's skin described as being scaly over and over and over got monotonous.

But still, Koontz pulls it all together for a very satisfying ending. For the first 100 pages or so, I had feared I might have to give Koontz no more than 3 stars (or worse), but by the end, he proved himself once again, leaving me feeling that this was a 4 star effort after all.