Synopsis
Seize the Night is the second book of a series featuring Christopher Snow, who suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), and his frantic search for the missing child of an ex-girlfriend. XP is a condition that renders Snow extremely sensitive to any form of light, limiting him to a lifetime spent in the dark of night, to which he has adapted and thrives.
The search for the child takes him to Wyvern, an abandoned government R&D facility on the outskirts of town, that rumors link to any number of wild genetic studies and, as we find late in the story, time travel experiments. Snow survives a number of threats, from swarming suicidal birds to rabid and super-intelligent rhesus monkeys and genetic mutants, and in the process loses his best friend Orson, his canine companion, himself a product of the bio-engineering that takes place at the Wyvern facility.
With the help of some friends, Snow later returns to Wyvern to rescue what he deduces to be a group of missing children, only to find a host of new challenges. * * *
My Two Cents Worth
I am an avid reader and most of my friends know that I am always looking for "new" authors, genres, and writing styles. Many of them recommended I give Koontz a try, so I did. Seize the Night was my first Koontz book and I was hindered by the fact that I had no knowledge of the prequel in the series.
That being said, I was initially quite pleased by the author's way with words in the first 42 pages, but it was exactly here that my focus was lost. The clever dialogue, interesting setting, and vivid descriptions of the games that a person's mind plays as they maneuver in a totally darkened environment ended abruptly.
Just as the action promised to race, it became mired in wordy and disjointed paragraphs that completely derailed the story line. By the time Snow leaves Wyvern to gather his friends for the return trip (page 208) I had lost interest.
The following 130 pages - as we meet the friends who are to accompany him back to the lab - was much too long an interlude in the plot for me. The characters were weak, not to mention unnecessarily odd, and the "surfer dude" dialogue made me crazy. I didn't like it at all.
From page 370 to the climax of the story, the wandering and excessive descriptions of the laboratory became a hindrance to the action. Finally, as the mystery is being revealed and the action mercifully hits its peak, Snow stops to read newspaper clippings he finds taped to the walls of the dark hallway through his night vision goggles. I found this to be a very weak way to discover some of the missing clues about the evil kidnappers. I was disappointed and it felt like the author had forgotten to disclose some important details earlier in the plot and threw them in as an afterthought.
Koontz is such an accomplished author but I feel like this was the wrong book for me to start with. I will choose another of his books in the future, but this one didn't do it for me. Sorry guys.
Paperback
443 pages
6 hours!!
Seize the Night is the second book of a series featuring Christopher Snow, who suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), and his frantic search for the missing child of an ex-girlfriend. XP is a condition that renders Snow extremely sensitive to any form of light, limiting him to a lifetime spent in the dark of night, to which he has adapted and thrives.
The search for the child takes him to Wyvern, an abandoned government R&D facility on the outskirts of town, that rumors link to any number of wild genetic studies and, as we find late in the story, time travel experiments. Snow survives a number of threats, from swarming suicidal birds to rabid and super-intelligent rhesus monkeys and genetic mutants, and in the process loses his best friend Orson, his canine companion, himself a product of the bio-engineering that takes place at the Wyvern facility.
With the help of some friends, Snow later returns to Wyvern to rescue what he deduces to be a group of missing children, only to find a host of new challenges. * * *
My Two Cents Worth
I am an avid reader and most of my friends know that I am always looking for "new" authors, genres, and writing styles. Many of them recommended I give Koontz a try, so I did. Seize the Night was my first Koontz book and I was hindered by the fact that I had no knowledge of the prequel in the series.
That being said, I was initially quite pleased by the author's way with words in the first 42 pages, but it was exactly here that my focus was lost. The clever dialogue, interesting setting, and vivid descriptions of the games that a person's mind plays as they maneuver in a totally darkened environment ended abruptly.
Just as the action promised to race, it became mired in wordy and disjointed paragraphs that completely derailed the story line. By the time Snow leaves Wyvern to gather his friends for the return trip (page 208) I had lost interest.
The following 130 pages - as we meet the friends who are to accompany him back to the lab - was much too long an interlude in the plot for me. The characters were weak, not to mention unnecessarily odd, and the "surfer dude" dialogue made me crazy. I didn't like it at all.
From page 370 to the climax of the story, the wandering and excessive descriptions of the laboratory became a hindrance to the action. Finally, as the mystery is being revealed and the action mercifully hits its peak, Snow stops to read newspaper clippings he finds taped to the walls of the dark hallway through his night vision goggles. I found this to be a very weak way to discover some of the missing clues about the evil kidnappers. I was disappointed and it felt like the author had forgotten to disclose some important details earlier in the plot and threw them in as an afterthought.
Koontz is such an accomplished author but I feel like this was the wrong book for me to start with. I will choose another of his books in the future, but this one didn't do it for me. Sorry guys.
Paperback
443 pages
6 hours!!
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