The Sci Fi Guy

One of the authors that lies somewhere between horror / thriller and science fiction that I enjoy is Dean Koontz. I have no idea how he manages to churn out so many stories year after year, but his tales are uniformly well written, if possibly formulaic. There’s usually a hero with extraordinary powers, and almost all of his stories feature dogs, too.

The Taking was published in 2004, but like much of what you read here on SciFi-Guy.com, I like to keep myself surrounded by great fiction no matter when the novel was published or the movie was created.

To begin The Taking, we’re greeted with a loving couple of mis-matched likeness in a quiet lake town in Southern California. What follows is a tale that Koontz cues up with vivid imagery - of a dark and terrifiying night where nothing makes sense and few have a chance for survival. This is a grizly story, and definitely in the realm of horrific science fiction, but Koontz meanwhile creates characters that we the reader imminently want to succeed and make it.

The strength of Koontz’s The Taking is on the question of what would happen if suddenly humanity was faced with the deepest, darkest horrors of our minds - and whether or not an alien invasion could take the form of a psychological mind game. The main character, Molly, is forced to constantly evaluate who is trustworthy and who should be feared, as her and her husband try to rescue those that seem immune from the terrors that are bestowed upon this dark night. Not only that, but she’s forced to face her darkest pains from her past, including a psychopathic father that shouldn’t be there. The town itself is drawn vividly, so that the reader is immersed in a “purple fog” in what’s obviously a small town.

Truth be told, this is a page turner, plain and simple. It’s hard to find a place to leave off because each harrowing moment of Molly’s adventure leads to another question. The most pressing question Koontz’s asks was actually written by another science fiction writer years ago - what would an alien invasion of a species thousands of years more advanced than us look like? What would they do to colonize this world, and would we know the difference between madness and chaos versus the planned extermination of humankind.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Science Fiction Books, Dean Koontz, Horror / Thriller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.