|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Dylan O'Connor pulls into a motel off an Arizona highway, with his autistic brother, Shep, ready for food and a rest. He is not expecting to be captured by a mad doctor and injected with a strange substance. The same happens to travelling comedian Jillian Jackson, and the two swiftly become allies. The doctor warns them that they will now become targets, and his words become true when large Chevrolet suburbans arrive at the motel. The arrival of a new Koontz novel is always a great event, as his fans wait avidly to see the latest mix of imagination, humour and powerful wording. With BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON’, however, his fans may well be disappointed. He has his trademark dry humour, but his prose, normally so florid and eloquent, here seems slow and in some places, even turgid. Koontz is known for deep descriptions, but in this novel, there is nothing to set the world on fire. As usual, his characters are interesting and by selecting an autistic child as a key character, Koontz sets himself a hard target. He seems to treat the subject well and gives the character some of the best lines. However, the characters are subject to the plot and BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON’ is just not exciting enough. The ending, particularly, is predictable in some places and completely unsatisfying in others. There is nothing particularly wrong with the book and if it were written by another author, then it could be seen as a good read. However, Koontz has enormously high standards and in this novel, he has failed to reach the bar that he has set. There are much better examples of his talent out there and BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON’ is his weakest novel for some time.
Reviewed by Luke Croll, October 2003
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
