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There once was a killer who knew the night, its secrets and rhythms. How to hide within its shadows. When to hunt.
He roamed from town to town, city to city, choosing his prey for their beauty and innocence. His cruelties were infinite, his humanity long since forfeit. But still...he had not yet discovered how to make his special mark among monsters, how to come fully alive as Death.
This is the story of how he learned those things, and of what we might do to insure that he does not visit us.
Koontz has a lifelong love of writing that led him to spend much of his free time as an adult furiously cultivating his style and voice. However, it was only after his wife Gerda made him an offer he couldn't refuse while he was teaching English at a high school outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that he had a real opportunity to make a living with his avocation. Gerda agreed to support Dean for five years, during which time he could try to get his writing career off the ground. Little did she know that by the end of that five years she would be leaving her own job to handle the financial end of her husband's massively successful writing career.
Koontz first burst into the literary world with 1970's Beastchild, a science fiction novel that appealed to genre fans with its descriptions of aliens and otherworldly wars but also mined deeper themes of friendship and the breakdown of communication. Although it is not usually ranked among his classics, Beastchild provided the first inkling of Koontz's talent for populating even the most fantastical tale with fully human characters. Even at his goriest or most terrifying, he always allows room for redemption.
This complexity is what makes Koontz's work so popular with readers. He has a true gift for tempering horror with humanity, grotesqueries with lyricism. He also has a knack for genre-hopping, inventing Hitchcockian romantic mysteries, crime dramas, supernatural thrillers, science fiction, and psychological suspense with equal deftness and imagination. Perhaps The Times (London) puts it best: "Dean Koontz is not just a master of our darkest dreams, but also a literary juggler."
When Koontz was a senior in college, he won the Atlantic Monthly fiction competition.
Koontz and Kevin Anderson's novel Frankenstein: The Prodigal Son was slotted to become a television series produced by Martin Scorsese. However, when the pilot failed to sell, the USA Network aired it as a TV movie in 2004. By that time Koontz had removed his name from the project.
Some fun and fascinating outtakes from our interview with Koontz:
"My wife, Gerda, and I took seven years of private ballroom dancing lessons, twice a week, ninety minutes each time. After we had gotten good at everything from swing to the foxtrot, we not only stopped taking lessons, but also stopped going dancing. Learning had been great fun; but for both of us, going out for an evening of dancing proved far less exhilarating than the learning. We both have a low boredom threshold. Now we dance at a wedding or other celebration perhaps once a year, and we're creaky."
"On my desk is a photograph given to me by my mother after Gerda and I were engaged to be married. It shows 23 children at a birthday party. It is neither my party nor Gerda's. I am three years old, going on four. Gerda is three. In that crowd of kids, we are sitting directly across a table from each other. I'm grinning, as if I already know she's my destiny, and Gerda has a serious expression, as if she's worried that I might be her destiny. We never met again until I was a senior in high school and she was a junior. We've been trying to make up for that lost time ever since.
"Gerda and I worked so much for the first two decades of our marriage that we never took a real vacation until our twentieth wedding anniversary. Then we went on a cruise, booking a first-class suite, sparing no expense. For more than half the cruise, the ship was caught in a hurricane. The open decks were closed because waves would have washed passengers overboard. About 90% of the passengers spent day after day in their cabins, projectile vomiting. We discovered that neither of us gets seasick. We had the showrooms, the casino, and the buffets virtually to ourselves. Because the crew had no one to serve, our service was exemplary. The ship dared not try to put into the scheduled ports; it was safer on the open sea. The big windows of the main bar presented a spectacular view of massive waves and lightning strikes that stabbed the sea by the score. Very romantic. We had a grand time.
"A Dean Koontz novella for only $1.99? Yes please, sign me up!" I thought.
What a stupid choice that ended up being. >.<
This is *not* a novella, it is a few chapters out of the full book that will be published next month. My advice? DO NOT BUY IT. You'll end up paying for it twice.
I am so angry Koontz pulled a money-making stunt like this. He already has a rabid following - why would he need to publicize the upcoming novel in such a sneaky and underhanded way?
The story itself is suitably creepy and violent and awful, just as one would expect from Koontz, and were it a stand-alone novella (as purported,) I would not be nearly as disappointed. However, this is one reader who will not be buying the book it's taken from.
Ugh.
118 out of 122 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Chrystalh
Posted October 30, 2010
For those of us who read Dean Koontz and know his writing well.... Do not waste your dollars; you will be dissapointed. This is NOT a full BOOK, it is merely a prologe and exerpt of a book to come in December! The writing is terrific as expected for this author. The story has full promise, but cuts you off just as you are getting to know the characters. Shame on you Barnes and Noble for promoting this as a full book from a terrific author at a terrific price! I am incredibly let down by this, and to think, I PRE-ORDERED this in anticipation of the release date thinking how amazing it is that B & N is able to do this for us Nook lovers at such an incredible price! Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.... The sample of a book I can download for free. How sad that I wasted good dollar bills that could have been directed to another purchace for a full read. Buyer Beware! If it seems to good to be true, It is.
73 out of 78 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.DolceVita
Posted November 2, 2010
I am so disappointed that I paid for only 60 pages of a book. I WANT MY MONEY CREDITED TO MY ACCOUNT. Your advertising is very misleading and shame on you for taking this approach to misleading your customers!!!!
62 out of 65 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.vstevens
Posted November 2, 2010
Barnes and Noble I am very disappointed in you. This is misleading and not an entire book but only a small portion. Very, very misleading and I had to give a rating otherwise it would be zero!
48 out of 53 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.okie_oma
Posted April 9, 2011
Don't be fooled. How exciting to be able to get Dean Koontz for almost no money! Even a Novella would be worth it, right? WRONG! This left you with the feeling of being cheated. It felt like it was the the introduction to a full book, like there had to be another 400 pages missing. If it was, in fact, just a sample of a complete novel, call it that. If it wasn't, and really was a novella as advertised, it missed its mark.
16 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Malloryzoo
Posted March 16, 2011
i learned to read the reviews before purchasing with this one thats for sure!
15 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.DangerBoy
Posted November 6, 2010
Did you all not read the part that said (Novella) when you purchased this for $1.59? I know I did and I expected it to be short hence the word (Novella). in no way did Barnes and Nobles mislead anyone with this purchase. I thought this was a good read and well worth a buck fifity nine.
13 out of 24 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.bookholiday
Posted December 5, 2011
I Also Recommend:
An exceptional novella- hard to put down. Enjoyed it
12 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.tg45
Posted November 2, 2011
I as many other readers, was very disappointed to find out that this was only a sample that should of been free. I consider myself of at least average intelligence,& an avid reader,also a huge dean koontz fan, but did not know that novella meant small part of a whole story!!! I guess I've learned something new,along with feeling like I've been cheated out of my 1.99 from barnes&noble.For those of you who got it for 1.59 you got a even better deal! I feel that this was a very sneaky underhanded thing to do to all the dean koontz fans out there!!!
8 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.xxxMW
Posted August 17, 2011
I'll buy NO MORE Koontz "books".
8 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This story is similar to a real story about a father who sets his son on fire. After that is pure fiction about a serial killer. Good story way too short for me.
6 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 16, 2011
Though it no longer says novella
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 29, 2011
Did I miss that in the description?
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I found this to be a highly entertaining short story that did the job that it set out to do, which is to convince me to buy the connecting novel what the night knows. Even if there wasn't a connecting novel I would find this a fun back and forth between a young boy and a serial killer.
2 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 17, 2012
This entire "novella" is included at the back of the ebook edition of What the Night Knows. Information like that in the description of WTNK would have saved me the two bucks of basically buying the same thing twice.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 11, 2012
This Novella (check dictionary for meaning of the word) Great! The Novella answered some questions I had after reading What The Night Knows. I did not purchase the Novella before reading the Novel but I would have known it was a short story because I looked up the meaning of the word. Also, why do folks expect something for nothing? Why do they expect a full novel for such a small amount of money? If it's too good to be true, then dig a little deeper and find out all the facts instead of blaming others for your mistake.
Thank you Dean Koontz for another great read and looking forward to many more!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.lynn3
Posted February 10, 2012
I WISH I HAD READ THE REVIEWS FIRST- I DID NOT REALIZE IT WAS A SHORT STORY. LIVE AND LEARN I GUESS. THIS WAS THE 2ND TIME I THOUGHT I WAS BUYING A BARGAIN BOOK AND IT TURNED OUT TO BE A SHORT STORY.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.10-1-13-3
Posted April 2, 2011
THIS NOVELLA SEEMED TO BE THE INTRODUCTION TO "WHAT THE NIGHT KNOWS" WHICH IS ALSO BY DEAN KOONTZ. LUCKILY, I READ THEM IN THE CORRECT ORDER, WITH THIS ONE FIRST. THEY ARE A BIT LIKE SOME OF THE OLDER DEAN KOONTZ BOOKS. THERE IS ENOUGH TENSION AND HORROR TO REALLY SCARE YOU. AND, ALTHOUGH IT OFTEN LOOKS HOPELESS, YOU WANT TO BELIEVE THAT THE AUTHOR WILL SAVE THE INNOCENT. YOU JUST HAVE TO READ THEM TO SEE FOR YOURSELF.
1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 21, 2012
I liked it. Thats about all i can say. Other stories ive read by Dean have been really creepy to me.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.krasykatiebug
Posted May 20, 2012
Well, I just want to make one suggestion to everybody who gave this book a bad review...before you buy a book, no matter which one, scroll down to the product details. It tells you right there in black and white how many pages the book is. Don't just go by what barns and noble "tells" you. Check it out for yourself and you won't get "ripped off".
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Overview
The chilling account of a pivotal encounter between innocence and ultimate malice, Darkness Under the Sun is the perfect read for Halloween--or for any haunted night--and reveals a secret, fateful turning point in the career of Alton Turner Blackwood, the killer at the dark heart of What the Night Knows, the forthcoming novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.There once was a killer who knew the night, its secrets and rhythms. How to hide within its shadows. When to hunt.
He roamed from town to town, city to city, choosing his prey for their beauty and innocence. His cruelties were infinite, his humanity long since forfeit. But ...