- Long, clunky, with overdeveloped characters that still feel underdeveloped, like the final act.
Strangers
The premise is promising: a multitude of characters from different places all start experience strange, worsening symptoms. They are drawn to a collective location for some mystifying reason. But once we start on the trek Koontz lays out for us, it becomes hard to hold on.
Things move too slowly to maintain a strong sense of interest: Dom’s nightmares, though worsening, just do not develop at a pace that feels engaging, and throughout the novel there is an unclear sense of who we should focus on. New characters are introduced even as we wait to get hooked into the ones we already know, and are forced to again begin trying to connect with new ones in the same slow, sluggish manner.
Finally, the introduction of endless mysteries without any conclusions drags on far too long – the audience is left waiting, and even page read then feels like some pleasure-less investment towards some ultimate goal. And once pushed through, we are forced to ask if it was worth it.
A worthy idea that could have been condensed dramatically; editing would have helped keep the audience engaged instead of holding their breath for an obscenely long time.
In his spare time, Koontz wrote his first novel, Star Quest, which was published in 1968. Koontz went on to write over a dozen science fiction novels. Seeing the Catholic faith as a contrast to the chaos in his family, Koontz converted in college because faith provided existential answers for life; he admired Catholicism's "intellectual rigor," saying it permitted a view of life that saw mystery and wonder in all things.
Many of his novels are set in and around Orange County, California. As of 2006, he lives there with his wife, Gerda (Cerra), in Newport Coast, California, behind the gates of Pelican Hills. In 2008, he was the world's sixth-most highly paid author, tied with John Grisham, at $25 million annually.
