Face
by Dean Koontz
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dean KoontzEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-01-05
ISBN: 0007130716
Number of pages: 688
Publisher: Harpercollins Pb
Book Reviews of Face
Book Review: You Can See Terror Coming, but You Can't Stop It
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is one of Koontz' best. The beginning was a little slow, but I was hooked around page 50 or so and could barely keep from flipping to the end to see how it all ended. What impressed me most about this book was the outstanding ending, with more than one of those twists that many authors try to put into a book, but here they are all successful.
Channing Mannheim is the highest paid actor in the world. Handsome to the point where he is called "The Face," he lives a life style that none of us can imagine. Surrounded constantly by bodyguards, servants, and various hangers-on, he is the epitome of the rich and famous. While Channing is mentioned frequently throughout the book, we meet this world-famous man personally but once. However, we lack not for principal characters. The most important are Aelfric (who likes to be called Fric) Mannheim, Channing's 10-year-old and somewhat normal son, Ethan Truman, a former police officer, now head of Channing's security and married to the late Hannah Truman, Corky Laputa, anarchist extraordinaire, and Dunny Whistler, once (and perhaps always) Ethan's best friend, though turned to a life of crime before he died.
While these four characters are the focus of the multiple chapters, Koontz does his very best to complicate the story by introducing a host of secondary characters. The characters are described in sufficient depth to enhance your understanding of the personalities of the principal characters, and while the complexity of the story challenged my ability to keep track of who's who, in general I was able to stay on top of what was happening in the story.
With all these characters running about there must be an interesting story here, and there is. To describe the happenings in detail would give away too much, so I offer a flavor. The reader quickly finds out that Corky has a good acquaintance by the name of Rolf Reynard. Rolf is supposed to be leaving mysterious packages at the estate of Channing Mannheim, but he makes a big mistake and Mannheim's security spots him on camera. Let the weirdness begin.
We are quickly lured into a world inhabited by some of the strangest, and often some of the most chilling, people and events of any Koontz book. A man walks from a mirror. Anarchists plot to sow disorder on the world by killing and trying to cause racial unrest and unrest in general. Any opportunity to increase anger by one neighbor toward another is taken. We also discover that these anarchists have an evil in them that may be more responsible for their enjoyment of chaos than a dislike for order. Dead men may walk. A central character is killed, or is he? We come face to face with unspeakable evil. We meet ultimate good. Koontz has managed to cram a lot into nearly 700 pages of reading pleasure.
Koontz has a history of unsatisfying endings. This book is proof that when Koontz comes up with a good ending, it can be a great ending. While I had predicted portions of the ending, much of it, including most of the key aspects, was a total surprise. Portions of the last part of the book were worthy of James Bond. I suspect that this book would make an excellent movie. I plan to go see it if it should become one.
Koontz has written all types of books, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, thrillers, and just plain weird books. This book is a supernatural horror story, and a very good one. While the action is steady and paced versus a roller coaster ride, it is like the long, long climb to the top of a single steep hill. While the wait can seem endless, the drop at the end is worth it. Fans of Koontz will find this to be one of Koontz's best. Fans of horror novels will enjoy the clever ending. Excellent reading here!
Summary of Face
A novel of fear and suspense, love, loss and redemption, from one of the greatest storytellers writing today. The Face is Dean Koontz's most chilling, gripping and original novel to date. THE FACE. He's Hollywood's most dazzling star. His flawless features inspire the love of millions -- but light the fires of hatred in one twisted soul. A few rain-lashed days before Christmas, a warped star-hater has sent six sinister messages to him, promising a very nasty surprise for the festive season. The Face's security chief is Ethan Truman, an ex-LAPD cop trying to rebuild his life. Having tracked down the messenger but not the source of the threat, he's worried. But not half as worried as he would be if he knew that Fric, the Face's ten-year-old son, was home alone and getting calls from a pervert claiming he's Moloch, 'devourer of children'. While the unnatural downpour continues, Ethan must face the secrets of his tragic past and the unmistakable premonition of his own impending violent death as he races to solve the macabre riddles. Meanwhile, a terrified young Fric is planning to go into hiding in his father's vast Bel Air mansion -- putting himself beyond Ethan's protection. And Ethan may be all that stands between Fric and an almost unimaginable evil !Ten-year-old Aelfric Manheim is home alone when he receives a call from a stranger with a simple and terrifying message, "There is trouble coming, young Fric...You're going to need a place to hide." Meanwhile, security chief for the Manheim estate, former detective Ethan Truman, is tailing a "deader than dead" body that got up and left the morgue when he vividly experiences his own death--twice. In The Face, Dean Koontz delivers yet another spellbinding and chilling novel, where real and imagined monsters walk the streets, ghosts travel through mirrors, and the devil makes house calls. Stalked by both real and supernatural evil, the bright and sensitive Fric, virtually orphaned by his A-list Hollywood parents, and the brave but disillusioned former detective Ethan Truman, himself suffering from the loss of his wife, must rely on their wits and each other to escape a dark and disturbing fate.
The supernatural lurks just beneath the surface of the "real" in Koontz's novels, and The Face is no exception. Ghosts, angels, demons, child predators and serial anarchists run rampant in Koontz's tale--the unsuspecting reader never knows what is real or imagined until the characters themselves know--creating a disorienting and frightening experience, and one that is vintage Koontz. Whether it be the real-life "agents of chaos" who roam the world creating mayhem and death or the phone lines that carry words of the dead to the living, this is Koontz at his most powerful and terrifying.
In The Face, Koontz has created a modern fable for adults, taking the bones from tales of old and breathing new life into the characters. Clearly written for adults, The Face nevertheless channels the wit and wisdom of Aesop as well as the violence and villainy of the Brothers Grimm. While Koontz's penchant for elaborately singsong descriptions can be grating, ultimately it lends this tale its folkloric quality, i.e. "The June-bug jitter, scarab click, tumblebug tap of the beetle-voiced rain spoke at the window, click-click-click." In this fable, the world is a menacing and threatening place for adults and children alike, and the naïve and uninformed go trip-trapping through life with no notion of the trolls that lurk in the dark. The moral of this story is that, good or evil, you will get what is coming to you; it's up to you to succeed or fail for you alone decide your path punishment or redemption. --Daphne Durham
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