Dead and Alive - City of Night

Classic Koontz with the 200 year old monster story of Frankenstein updated to the 21st century. A riot of murder and mayhem and clones and NWO stuff. Kinda reminded my of our present situation with Muslims.

Started out great. Intriguing with a good plot. Developed interesting characters, but then used way too many contrived conveniences to get out of tricky situations. Eventually making his evil genius look like Elmer Fudd.

The universally bad reviews of the movie I Frankenstein, which I have not seen, reminded me of the retelling of the Frankenstein story by Dean Koontz. Although Koontz’s pulp fiction style is not Tolstoy, the series is a thoughtful and devastating critique of modern materialism. It is also fun to read.
Unlike some modern academics who either twist Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein into the opposite of what she is saying or perhaps just can’t read (I once heard a lecturer explain the novel as caused by postpartum depression!), Koontz rightly understands Shelley’s gothic classic as a cautionary tale against man’s self-destructive penchant to believe that he can improve on God’s creation. He also agrees with Shelley that science could be the chief weapon in man’s utopian arsenal and that the monster he creates he will no longer be able to control.
In Koontz’s five-volume updating of Shelley, Victor Frankenstein is alive in pre-Katrina New Orleans and is bent on creating a perfect race from his laboratory in order to destroy the imperfect human race, which his creatures have been programmed to despise and hate. Interestingly enough, they become envious of man’s love and hope and despair of their pointless existence. Later in the story Frankenstein’s clone creates humanoids that are concerned above all with efficiency. Their very obsession with efficiency is their undoing.
Opposing Frankenstein is a ragtag collection of detectives, gun-toting Riders in the Sky church members and some of Frankenstein’s own creatures, led by Deucalion, his first creation. The series has its failings (the two detectives are irritating and the wedding at the end does not make sense given certain aspects of the plot). Nevertheless, Koontz shows great inventive powers and humor. He is also hopeful because he shares the essentially biblical view that evil will be used to destroy itself. Titles such as Prodigal Son, Dead and Alive and Lost Souls show that Koontz wants to write something more than horror and science fiction, although the series has sufficient blood, gore and gadgets to satisfy aficionados of those genres.
For those who think such fiction is not worthy of a serious reading, please note that the volumes are dedicated to C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton and begin with apt quotations from each of them. I recommend that you curl up with these readable novels, easily available through the store and other dealers, and take them seriously. Let us with Koontz doubt the world’s false promises and hope in God who brings good out of evil.

Dean Koontz is the greatest miracle worker alive. He has the power to resurrect Frankenstein.

Who would have thought that an old weather-beaten, overused down-and-out character such as Frankenstein could have ever been reborn in our present age.

And yet Koontz has done it. Successfully!

I was riveted from book one all the way to the end in book five.

Loved it.

Bizarre yet entertaining, as usual I had a very hard time putting the book down for any reason. The light shining through the darkness and the inspired moments of laughter make this a very appealing series.

The only thing I disliked about the Frankenstein Series was that there were only 5 books. I have read most of the books by Dean Koontz and I enjoyed them all but Frankenstein was my favorite. Thank you Mr Koontz for the countless hours spent writing books the way you have so that readers like myself can enjoy your work.