The thing that bugs me about Koontz is his tendancy towards the Amazing Psychic Dog novels.
I like dogs. They can be wonderful pets. Dogs good. But we get that after 18 zillion books about supernatural psychic AmazoDogs.
Buffy! If I wanted to fight, you could tell by the being dead already.
Glory ,'Potential'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Strix - Apr 27, 2006 12:23:55 pm PDT #389 of 28061
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
Aims - Apr 27, 2006 12:30:39 pm PDT #390 of 28061
Shit's all sorts of different now.
This one's no different.
Kathy A - Apr 27, 2006 12:33:43 pm PDT #391 of 28061
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
The only two Koontz books I've read are Watchers and Lightning, and I loved them both. Watchers is one of the Amazing Psychic Dog books, but it's just too much fun, and Einstein is quite the personality.
Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 27, 2006 1:09:54 pm PDT #392 of 28061
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
I've read one single Clive Barker book ever, a very very long and twisted thing I can barely remember anymore except for a vague impression of something like a cross between Gaiman's Neverwhere and the first King/Straub Huck Finn pastiche collaboration, only approximately 90 billion times more fucked up.
The Great and Secret Show?
I have to confess I loved that book. The stuff about the war across the secret face of America and Fletcher just wanting to become sky gave me chills.
JZ - Apr 27, 2006 1:20:11 pm PDT #393 of 28061
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
That might have been it, though the title doesn't quite ping me. I really can't remember much of anything specific, except multiple dimensions. And possibly sentient spiders. And a general atmosphere of nearly incalculable bentness.
Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 27, 2006 1:50:17 pm PDT #394 of 28061
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
Hmmm, may have been Weaveworld then.
I'd recommend reading "The Hellbound Heart" and "The Forbidden" (the latter being the story Candyman was adapted from) as finer examples of Barker's writing. I really think he handles horror in short story and novella form better than anyone alive.
Nicole - Apr 27, 2006 2:28:22 pm PDT #395 of 28061
I'm getting the pig!
I like Barker but sometimes he's confusing. I skim a bit when he goes off on his tangents.
I like Koontz to a certain degree. I enjoy the characters and the dialogue but then he seems (to me) to have this HUGE build-up with a corny reveal. I lovingly think of some of his books as being similar to the Big Bad Snake episode of Buffy.
I love King but I admit to skimming when he describes a field for three entire pages. All in all, though, I enjoy King the most. His voice and his characters ping me in (mostly) all of the right ways.
Volans - Apr 28, 2006 2:19:39 am PDT #396 of 28061
move out and draw fire
I still can't forgive Koontz for the phrase "his well-oiled piston of lovemaking."
Hil R. - Apr 28, 2006 2:51:07 am PDT #397 of 28061
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Snerk. Puzzle Embedded in Da Vinci Code ruling [link]
If you pluck all the italicized letters out of the text, you find that the first 10 spell "Smithy Code," an apparent play on "Da Vinci Code." But the next series of letters, some 30 or so, are a jumble, and this is the mystery that needs to be solved to break the code.
Ginger - Apr 28, 2006 4:27:23 am PDT #398 of 28061
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I still can't forgive Koontz for the phrase "his well-oiled piston of lovemaking."
I'm not sure I can forgive Gutenberg for the phrase "his well-oiled piston of lovemaking."