Koontzland - Dean Koontz discussion

Tick Tock has been chosen as our October 2012 Group Read!!!!

I just remembered I've already read it lol I keep forgetting what I have and haven't read my bad

I am definitely looking forward to reading this. My dad said it was a great read. Plus I already have this one as well! =D

It will be fun to re-read this. Have only read it once :-)

Ah, this is good. I have so many other books to read, this is a short one so easier to squeeze in :) Besides, it's a good laugh as well.

I should have been paying closer attention. I started this book a few days ago!

This was a fun book to read. Quick read too!

I read this book when it first came out (and at least one other time since then), but I vaguely recall an email that this was going to be the group read so I thought what the heck, time for a reread.
Even though I have read it before, I'm going to try to make my comments as I read, almost as if I've never read it before.
CONSIDER THIS A WARNING OF SPOILERS (I'm about a quarter of the way through the book)
#1. The book hasn't aged as well as I first thought. There have been several references to definitely late 90's events: Y2K, and those newfangled cell phone things. ;)
#2. Tommy is a bit thick. There's a weird voodoo doll on your doorstep that leaves you creeped out. Ooh, lets take it in the house.
#3. While Tommy is justifiably not willing to call his mom to translate the note, why is he not willing to call one of his 3 siblings or even his father?
#4. Why does he think that setting the couch on fire is a good idea? I mean really. Leave the house and trap the beastie while he's in the couch. Don't hang out considering how you should set the couch on fire.
More updates as I read.

Thanks Tanya :-)

I am going to start reading Ticktock now so I can get a head start because once I get the chance to go to the library this weekend, I am picking up Odd Apocalypse and reading that one right away, since my library is only giving me two weeks without renewals on it. My library has a rule with new books only being allowed out for two weeks per person. Anyways, Once I am finished with Odd Apocalypse, I will finish Ticktock.

Some libraries do that on books that are high demand - it don't work out well for me because I am a slow reader. I will also be reading Odd Apocalypse next so hope to see you in the OA Discussion thread :-) I'm going to read Odd Apocalypse, then Hideaway and then Tick Tock. 3 Koontz titles in a row - hope I survive.

Yeah, Thats exactly why I am going drop everything I am reading once I get Odd Apocalypse. I am just a bit sad I can't afford the book at this time since Resident Evil 6 is coming out this month. I just read three Dean Koontz books back to back to back, Demon Seed (I also watched the movie two nights ago as well), Odd Hours, and Odd Interlude. After I am done with Odd Apocalypse, I plan on reading finishing whatever I have left in Ticktock, then move on to finishing Fear Nothing (I am taking FOREVER to read this one, I dot know why.), then if I am not starving to read something else, which I may since my favorite Author has a new book coming out in the middle of next month (Zom-B Book 1 by Darren Shan), Seize the Night. I will totally be in the OA Discussion Thread! =D

FYI OA = Odd Apocalypse. I just got tired of writing it out :-) So that will be your next book as soon as you get it from the library. I've got mine from the library now - so that's why it's gonna be my next book too.

I watched Resident Evil Retribution in the theater. I haven't had any previous Resident Evil experience. What is Resident Evil 6?

I seem to be in the minority, but this will be the firrst time reading TIck Tock for me! The description and reviews sound pretty good. It seems darkly comic and intentionally absurd. I just finished Life Expectancy, and that was the same thing, so I guess I'll see if Tick Tock is similar in tone.

We are in the same boat. I just hate only having two weeks with it since I am usually a slow reader. I under stand. Heck I am a terrible speller and I have wrote Apocalypse so much that I know how to spell it only recently.

How was Resident Evil: Retribution, I haven't seen it yet. Anyways Resident Evil 6 is a video game. Resident Evil Retribution is a live action movie that is really loosely based on the video game series. There are way more than just six Resident Evil games. There are side series and a main series. The main series contains 9 video games, 6 being the last one in the story so far and with two movies completely rendered in CGI which in my opinion is better than the live action movies. But yeah, I am a HUGE gamer, I have read most of the Resident Evil books, seen all but the new live action movie, and own most of the video games... missing a total of two games in the series as of this moment. I highly recommend either playing the games in the main series or reading the books that were based on the main video game series, they surprisingly awesome for being based on a video game. I remember when my dad was about to buy me the first book, a guy came up to me and told me they were great and followed the video games really well. Turns out he wasn't lying. But unfortunately they are all out of print and I want to get the three I don't have.

Christopher, I am in the same boat as you are, I have never read Ticktock before. I am actually a pretty new fan of Dean Koontz. I've just been reading Dean Koontz pretty much nonstop... The only time in these 3 months I have been a fan of his that I read a book by a different author was when I decided to read a Children's Chapter book my dad brought up to me to read.

Christopher wrote: "I seem to be in the minority, but this will be the firrst time reading TIck Tock for me! The description and reviews sound pretty good. It seems darkly comic and intentionally absurd. I just finish..."

Personally I like Life Expectancy much better. Dean wrote think crazy Tick Tock book because he had just finished writing Intensity and needed something a little less "Intense".

Josh, I'm not into games at all. Resident Evil Retribution was okay but I actually preferred Dred which I saw yesterday.

Josh wrote: "I decided to read a Children's Chapter book"

What is the chapter book that you read? Any good? Sometimes I like to read books written for a much younger audience such as childrens and young adult books just to make me feel like I accomplished something. I like to be able to say I read a whole book in one day (never mind the fact that the print was extra large and the book was full of pictures). My reading goal for 2012 is 80 books - when I start falling behind, I read childrens books to make everything better. Don't worry it's not cheating, it's just a clever way of playing the game :-)

Josh wrote: "Christopher, I am in the same boat as you are, I have never read Ticktock before."

Josh wrote: "We are in the same boat. I just hate only having two weeks with it since I am usually a slow reader."

Josh, how many "boats" can you be in at the same time? :-) You are in the same boat as Christopher and the same boat as the crazy little brown owl, but they are different boats. Are you teleporting?

P.S. I am just kidding I know it's just figure of speech - just something to think about like the time travel in Lightning, the ending scene in Relentless, or the quantum physics in From the Corner of His Eye.

Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "Josh wrote: "I decided to read a Children's Chapter book"

What is the chapter book that you read? Any good? Sometimes I like to read books written for a much younger audience such as childrens and..."

I read Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I loved the tone of the book but I got easily bored of the story which was why it took me three days for me to read it. My dad is HUGE fan of Neil Gaiman. Its the first children's chapter book I read since I was in 5th grade school to be honest. I never read very much before 5th grade. I always felt like I was forced to read in elementary school. It wasn't until I found books that was for Young Adults until I started reading for fun. Then my teachers couldn't get me to read a book on the list of books that had computer based tests. The book that got me into reading was Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare By Darren Shan. I consider Cirque Du Freak as the greatest vampire novels I have ever read. Anyways, Darren Shan writes a bunch of young adult novels in which the last one I read by him, I literally did finish in one day. Like I said above he is my favorite author. I did start reading a book for fun in 4th grade that was an adult novel, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Jurassic Park is my favorite movie since in 1993 when I was 3ish. So I really wanted to read Jurassic Park. My dad had the book. He was like yeah, you are old enough now to read the book. It took me FOREVER to read the book. I started it back in 4th grade. It took me DAYS just to read 10 pages back then. The book traveled with me EVERY where with me. My dad originally wanted the book back when I was finished with it. By sixth grade I had to Ductape the cover back on it not because I abused it BUT becaue I didn't leave the house without it. I had a jacket that had a pocket that the book would actually fit in. I got halfway done with the book by 6th grade. I then put the book down for a couple of years, then in the summer of me going into ninth grade, I read the rest of the book the night I picked it up back up. By then the book was so so rough looking that the book's spine was falling into half. My dad didn't want the book back after the condition of the book by the time I was done with it... I had to go back a second copy of the book to be able to reread it which I did get a second copy and reread it in two days a year ago. It is my favorite book ever. But yes, children's books aren't cheating as long as they aren't picture books then those are usually cheating when there is only a sentence per page. But hey, they are some great children's books. My favorite children chapter book series is the Bunnicula series by James Howe and the Jurassic Park Adventures series that was cancelled sadly.

I JUST reached my goal of 26. I dont think I have ever read 26 books in one year before now.

I way over explain. Sorry about that. Its a bad habit of mine.

Gotcha Dustin haha. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to finish the second Frankenstein book and probably start Tick Tock around the second week of October or so.

I loved both Life Expectancy and Intensity. Intensity might get the award for most accurate title for a novel lol. Tick Tock sounds good though. If you had to give one or two words to describe it what would you say?

I actually didn't even know Dred was out. But yeah the only reason why I go see Resident Evil live action movies is because it is Resident Evil. I usually like the movies but they are nothing like the video games. I prefer the sciencey take on zombies that only the video games go over in detail. The books based on the video games also do but the movies don't. The movies are just based on half naked women fight zombies in my opinion. I can't complain but I do prefer science over just dumb entertainment.

Anyways now a comment on the book. I really love Tommy's Mother. She is so funny! =D That's my only comment though. I am not all that far at the moment.

Christopher wrote: "If you had to give one or two words to describe it what would you say? "

Psycho Doll

Josh wrote: "I read Coraline by Neil Gaiman. "

I read that one about 2 1/2 years ago - I didn't really like it - I don't think it should be read by children - can be rather disturbing. My favorite by Gaiman is The Graveyard Book which I own. I think Gaiman is a good storyteller and he's got quite the reputation. Stardust is pretty good and it was made into a movie which I plan to finally see soon. I own a couple of other Gaiman books: Anansi Boys and American Gods but I haven't read them yet. I also have read Neverwhere which was interesting.

I have been wanting to give Circue de Freak a try. Michael Crichton is too much for me - I tried to read one of his books when I was in middle school, likewise I carried that thing around with me for months until I finally gave up.

It is for sure a little bit disturbing. My dad when he packed a box full of the Dean Koontz books brought all of his Gaiman books up as well. He forgot to bring The Graveyard Book unfortunately. He had it in a different place because he said it was an odd shape. He is planning on mailing it up to me with two Dean Koontz books, one that he was reading at the time and left at home when he visited me and the other when he just bought along with my copy of Resident Evil Afterlife, He borrowed it cause he wanted to see it before going to see the new one. But anyways, I have all the Gaiman books waiting for me to read them on my bookshelf that you mentioned.

You may want to read the Saga of Larten Crepsley before Cirque Du Freak. Larten Crepsley is a prequel to the Cirque Du Freak books and it was the perfect lead up. I read them back in May. I also recommend the Demonata by Darren Shan as well. They are pretty amazing too. I haven't read the City Trilogy by him yet. What I know about them is they are his first adult novels. Lady of the Shades is his newest adult novel that has not be released in the US yet. I am thinking about importing the novel. The only book I didnt think was amazing just alright by him was the Thin Executioner. I still need to finish that one. I can't wait to read Zom-B by him... I just have to see if I get a job by then. If not I probably won't read it til a later date since I doubt the library will get it in.

Michael Crichton is hard to read depending on the book says my dad. I have only read Jurassic Park, The Lost World and Prey by him. Great books. Jurassic Park and the Lost World being my all time favorite two books. But I love Dinosaurs and Michael Crichton treats them with total respect in my eyes. I have tried finding there novels about Dinosaurs but have not succeeded yet. But yeah. If you want to try him again I highly recommend Jurassic Park especially if you liked the movie.

About half way through this and really enjoying it, interaction between Tommy/Del is good

And Scootie is great :)

I'll start when I finish Odd Apocalypse :-)

I'll start when I finish "A Game of Thrones", which should only take me another week or so.

Yeah, I finished Odd Apocalypse but I have started another non-Koontz book. I decided to alternated Koontz and non-Koontz books. I will really make TICK TOCK my next one. Currently reading the latest by Tess Gerritsen, Last to Die, book #10 in the Rizzoli & Isles Series.

I'm excited to participate in my first Koontzland group read. :) I had to request Tick Tock via interlibrary loan at the library here in Tucson, and it came in yesterday!! I'm going to start it today. I've never read it before and am looking forward to it, as it's been several years since I last read a Koontz title.

I finished it already and I loved it! I thought it was a great re-introduction for me to Koontz stories, especially given that I've avoided them for the last several years because of how very disturbing I found the last story of his I read. Tick Tock was scary, supernatural, and even funny! I loved the characters and the screwball comedy their interactions created. I have a feeling I'll be reading it again before I have to return it to the library. :)

Finished at last! I didn't care for Tick Tock at all. It was too weird to be scary..much like the Chuckie the movie. Just not my cup of tea!

Did anyone read the "A Note to the Reader" after the story where Koontz describes this as a mixture of supernatural thriller and screwball comedy

Paul wrote: "Did anyone read the "A Note to the Reader" after the story where Koontz describes this as a mixture of supernatural thriller and screwball comedy"

I did, Paul. I found it very interesting. It was also helpful for understanding why this was not the truly scary Koontz book I had been expecting to read. (For one of those, I suppose I'll have to see if the library has or can get one of the other titles he mentioned in that Note. :D )

Books and films about dolls turning into monsters are not my cup of tea. And I felt rather disappointed with Tick Tock until Deliverance Pain appeared and all story turned into somewhat like farce. This is how Tick Tock should be read - without expectance for something scary. Book concentrates so much on interaction between those funny characters (everyone was cool), that I didn't feel it as something like supernatural thriller, but a good comedy.
After the serious beginning (when I started to feel annoyed) I got much fun.

Quite an enjoyable read.

Jen wrote: "I finished it already and I loved it! I thought it was a great re-introduction for me to Koontz stories, especially given that I've avoided them for the last several years because of how very distu..."

Which Koontz title was it that you found so disturbing and which turned you off Koontz for so long? :-) Just Curious.

Paul wrote: "Did anyone read the "A Note to the Reader" after the story where Koontz describes this as a mixture of supernatural thriller and screwball comedy"

Yes.

Gail wrote: "Finished at last! I didn't care for Tick Tock at all. It was too weird to be scary..much like the Chuckie the movie. Just not my cup of tea!"

:-) TICK TOCK is not among my favorites either.

Matīss wrote: "Books and films about dolls turning into monsters are not my cup of tea. And I felt rather disappointed with Tick Tock until Deliverance Pain appeared and all story turned into somewhat like farce...."

I agree. Glad you were able to enjoy the book in the end :-) I'll be re-reading TICK TOCK soon.

Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "Which Koontz title was it that you found so disturbing and which turned you off Koontz for so long? :-) Just Curious."

Thanks to help from you and others in the "welcome to the group" discussion (thanks!!) I think it was Lightning. I'll need to re-read it to be sure, but it's not high on my list of re-reads given that I've now only read two of Koontz's many books. :)

I finished Tick Tock yesterday. I have to admit in the beginning I didn't like it too much. It just seemed like too much of him running around his house the doll thing chasing him. But once he was out of the house it was great! The nice thing about retirement for me is that I don't remember half the books I've read so a re-reading is like the first time. Anyway I loved the humor in this story. I also liked that the female was smarter in some ways and the better planner of the two. Of course of loved the mothers. I could just really picture Tommy's mother laying the guilt trip on him!

Jen wrote: "I think it was Lightning. I'll need to re-read it to be sure, but it's not high on my list of re-reads given that I've now only read two of Koontz's many books. :) "

Disturbing Subject Material = The Janitor?

Karen B wrote: "I have to admit in the beginning I didn't like it too much. It just seemed like too much of him running around his house the doll thing chasing him. But once he was out of the house it was great! "

I remember someone else mentioning how they liked the outdoor scenes much better than the indoor scenes, but I must be a wierdo (or maybe just crazy) because I remember liking the indoor scenes better than the outdoor scenes. Will find out if memory serves me well, when I re-read this book in the near future :-)

Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "Yeah, I finished Odd Apocalypse but I have started another non-Koontz book. I decided to alternated Koontz and non-Koontz books. I will really make TICK TOCK my next one. Currently reading the late..."

Do you have Last to Die on audiobook DC? Let me know what you think of it.

Yes, I have the audiobook of Last to Die from the library. I'm in the last 100 pages now. It's pretty good but still doesn't outrank some of the others in the series in my opinion. I do like that earlier books and characters play important roles in this story. We'll see how the ending is, but Last to Die is getting a 5 star rating from me no doubt.

When I'm done with Last to Die,
TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK :-)

Coming into this preeeeeetty late, time to catch up!