Post by Vaughan on Aug 15, 2009 11:29:04 GMT
Having mentioned recently that I'm not a fan of Serial Killer novels, I hop off to the local secondhand store to see what they've got, and find myself walking out with this. I didn't realize it was a serial killer type story - but sometimes that's the breaks.
It's a short read at only 207 pages, and as it stands it's easy to read.
This is my second Koontz novel since returning to horror fiction. The first, The Taking, was hugely disappointing. After a good build up it peters out in a horribly preachy finale.
Still, at 207 pages it was less likely to happen here - and to be fair that is the case. The action and mystery starts on the very first page, and goes on to the final page - once the action is over, the novel is over. No "and they moved on" epilogue, no useless Prologue.
Before I get carried away and say this is a novel I'd recommend to the members here, let me temper the whole thing by saying that this novel never rises above the level of a "movie of the week". In other words, it's very predictable, the outcome of the action sequences can be guessed during their setup, and the climax is fully formed in your mind as soon as you realize the basic premise.
Here's the plot in brief (I don't generally cover the overall plot in my reviews, since finding out what goes on is the main driving force of reading a book in the first place. So I keep to personal opinion. in this case, however, it might well save you some money and time.)
Man meets girl. Man is mentally disturbed. Woman leaves man. Woman meets new man. Woman marries man. Woman and man move from their base, Philadelphia, to San Francisco. Woman flies to SF, man drives their car. Man is pursued across country by mentally disturbed man. Stuff happens in the pursuit. The end.
It's the kind of plot that has we've seen many many times, and sadly its predictability hasn't really made it any better. I can watch countless horror films with the same basic plot, I can read pulp fiction that follows a formula, but with a story like this I just get a little bored. There's no gore here, no outrageous violence, no particularly interesting characters. It's by the book, and stereotypes suffice.
To balance it out, of its type it's not too bad. Sadly, while I think the writing is better here (better as in being more Pulpy, and certainly to the point) it's not overall a more compelling read than The Taking. In fact, I'd even go as far as to say that if you have a choice between reading The Taking or Shattered, I'd say go with The Taking because the journey to the rotten ending is better.
Why did I buy it? Well, this is Koontz from 1973 - so reasonably early. I've not written the guy off at all, and have three or four other titles to tackle after this one. Apparently Shattered was originally released under a pseudonym, K.R. Dwyer.
All in all, definitely a second tier title. You're stretching things a bit to even consider it a horror title. A thriller then, and an average one at that.