Cold Fire

Dean Koontz is a lyrical writer. His descriptions are poetic; his characters well-developed and fun to spend time with. The dialog is crisp. As always with Koontz, there is one plot. His characters run from an evil that chases them and closes in on them. But art is in the details, and Koontz is a master story teller.
In this outing Jim Ironheart receives mysterious instructions from a god like being, and he goes out to save the lives of innocents. Jim is a Batman without the Cape. Superman without the Clark Kent glasses.
But how does he know when someone’s life is about to be threatened? How does he show up at exactly the right moment to save a life? Holly Thorne is a reporter, and, yes, she is his Lois Lane. She learns of several miraculous incidents and decides to follow Ironheart. They find themselves in a plane crash, where his otherworld powers save most of their fellow passengers.
Then there in an old windmill, part of his grandparents’ farm. They go there to learn about Jim’s mysterious powers and about what sends him on his quests.
Soon both Holly and Jim are having the same dreams - nightmares really. Then the dreams change, and Holly makes a surprising discovery. I can’t give too much away, but Robert Vaughn fans will enjoy how this story unfolds.
In some ways this book seems like three novellas stitched together. It is unusual for a Koontz novel to be put together in such a patchwork way. While I understand why the book got some of the bad reviews, I’m still going to give it a five.

I rarely read supernatural thrillers, because I have a hard time finding these kinds of stories credible. So I was pretty sceptical as I approached this book. I read the beginning in which the protagonist, Jim Ironheart, is driven by a voice in his head to leave his city to prevent that a certain event takes place. It isn’t clear exactly what it is about.
What won me and pushed me to go on was the author’s style and his beautiful prose. Koontz with a few words takes you inside the mind of the character and does so with a very suggestive language. It works so well that I decided to put aside my distrust of the paranormal theme and continue reading.
And I haven’t regretted it at all.
Although the paranormal element is central in this novel, the way it is told, the empathy that the author manages to create towards the two main characters (Jim and Holly) and being able to live their emotions firsthand shifts the focus from the supernatural to the characters themselves. The novel becomes their story. The ambiguity of Jim (and ambiguous characters are always my favourite) and the fears of Holly catch you. And that’s what makes the difference, because, when you create a bond with the characters, they become credible and with them everything that surrounds them, resulting in a solid suspension of disbelief.
Faced with this, had the book treated any other theme, it would still be able to conquer me.
In fact, although the events are impossible in real life, which usually makes me lose interest in the story (unless it is science fiction), this has not happened with this book, because the way they are presented makes them perfectly logical.
Finally, to conclude in the best way this novel, there is the open ending that makes you smile imagining what might happen next.

Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli, author of Red Desert - Point of No Return

My favorite Dean Koontz book. The story is excellent and completely unpredictable, which is saying something these days, when everything is formulaic. I really loved the romance between the two main characters, and thought their development was masterfully handled. Highly recommend if you like suspense and an original plot. Also, the postscript is absolutely hilarious. Loved hearing Koontz's thoughts on making the book into a movie, and his insistence on adherence to the story!

In parts excellent and in most other parts overly descriptive and over explained. I've read loads of Mr. Koontz'z books in the past and most of them have been excellent. This one I think often talks down to the reader and explains things over and over which have already been hinted at and should be left for the reader to work out.

The book could have been written in half the pages and would have been the better for it.

It's not all bad and I loved some of the writing as always but put together as a whole this one didn't really do it for me. It's a real shame because I have always been a big fan and I had looked forward to it.

I would still recommend that people try his other books. I can't remember them all but I know that I enjoyed "Whispers" and a few others were also riveting.

The summer after my eighth-grade year, I picked up a copy of "Cold Fire" and literally could not put it down. Koontz's approach is dualistic; the first half of the novel is a gripping psychic adventure that, thematically, recalls Stephen King's "The Dead Zone." Rich in symbolism, it unfolds in a series of like episodes, and is written in vivid, haunting prose. The second half becomes almost completely occultic, Satanic, and abstract, as Koontz explores the backstory and source-of-power of the central character, Jim. As in Koontz's other novels, some dark events in the book are written with such clarity and attention to detail that I found it difficult to eat for days afterward. (One nauseating passage, in particular, involves a massacre at a "Dixie Duck" family restaurant. It is forever etched into my memory). Though the first half of "Cold Fire" is *much* more engaging and easier-to-grasp than the second, the work as a whole remains successful--a classic page-turner. One wonders why this little gem hasn't yet been adapted for television or the big screen.

"Cold Fire" by Dean Koontz starts off very strong. We are introduced to former teacher Jim Ironheart, sort of a "Batman meets Charles Bronson" kind of guy traveling the country saving lives just before tragedy strikes. Koontz throws in a spunky newspaper reporter named Holly Thorne who crosses paths with Ironheart, and whose curiosity leads her deeper into Jim's troubled world. The opening chapters of the novel are gripping and suspenseful. The entire episode of Jim and the two maniacs in the motorhome is classic Koontz suspense.

After setting the stage with some pulse pounding action, and some true nail-biting passages things kind of fall apart in the middle of the novel...and go downhill from there. I don't want to ruin the tale so I promise not to spill any spoilers. As Jim and Holly dig deeper into what is "sending" Jim on his life saving missions, and trying to find out what is causing the vivid sleep shattering nightmares both have been experiencing the story kind of falls apart. What was a taut action/thriller gets bogged down in psychobabble junk, corny scenes and a lousy non-ending.

I think Jim Ironheart and Holly Thorne deserve a better finale than what "Cold Fire" gives us. I would love for Koontz to re-visit these characters and perhaps catch us up on what has happened to them since the events of this novel. As it is, "Cold Fire" just kind of peters out, and the payoff is less than spectacular. If this were the first novel in a trilogy or series I would definately rate it higher, but as a stand alone tale it just doesn't live up to other Koontz tales.

You can usually count on Koontz to deliver a suspenseful novel with well written, three dimensional characters. But in "Cold Fire" the suspense is lacking. There are some pretty spectacular sequences but they're not integreted into the story in a way that makes them suspenseful.

Koontz creates characters with depth, that are psychologically believable, and this is one of the things that sets him apart from many other suspense novelists and is one of the things I used to like him for. But this time, he's taking it way too far, and combines it with some supernatural elements that never feels believable.

"Cold Fire" is a disappointment pretty much from the beginning. It feels like Koontz tried too hard on the psychological part and forgot the suspense. And to add insult to injury it ends up in an anticlimax that feels like a half hearted attempt to copy Stephen King's "The Dark Half". Not recommended.

In Dean Koontz's Cold Fire, the author introduces his two primary characters - Jim Ironheart and Holly Thorne - by way of a series of heroic adventures. When Jim saves the lives of Billy Jenkins, in Portland, Oregon, and Lisa and Susan Jawolski, in the Mojave desert, and several other people, he falls into the radar, and into the scrutiny of Holly Thorne, a reporter for the Portland Press. Of course, Jim has special powers - he is somewhat of a mentalist or a psychic - and, thus, Holly soon discovers that he is a complicated man. However, he is a man who comes not with batteries, but with baggage, that is, he has his own secrets. Even with his secrets and mysteries, Holly finds him rather handsome and fascinating, and pursues him both on a professional level - as a reporter - and on a human level - as a woman. Jim doesn't make it easy for Holly, as she uncovers the secrets of his life - facts about the wind mill on his grandfather's farm in Svenborg, the murder of his parents, Jamie and Cara, at the Dixie Duck restaurant, Willott's story, and the mysterious death of his grandmother, Lena - that for years had not only tormented Jim for most of his life, but prevented him from being able to establish lasting relationships. She discovers that there is both a good side and an evil side to Jim, often comparing him to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Holly's persistence and inexorable drive, to get to the truth and to help Jim, even if it might result in her own death, is more than a little admirable. I'm sure you'll find Jim to be an interesting and compelling character, and Holly to be a rather endearing one. If anything, Cold Fire is entertaining. It is a great read, and, hence, I highly recommend putting it on your summer reading list, but it is also a great read for any time of the year. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Dean Koontz's "Cold Fire" starts out well and keeps going in that general direction until the end it suddenly stumbles and becomes a cliched and rather stupid novel.

Koontz's spectacular characters are here, as well as the dialouge and the books first 300 pages or so are good. But when "the twist" is revealed in the last 100 pages it just goes downhill. Holly Thorne is a reporter who currently works for a local paper writing the "Arts & Leisure" section. She's unhappy with her job and one day when interviewing a teacher-turned poet, she witnesses a man rescue a young boy from being hit by a drunk driver. The man intrigues her and when she offers him a ride to the airport she drops him off, and begins trying to find out desperately who the man is. She finds out he's Jim Ironheart, an ex-teacher who won the lottery and has seemed to have been saving people from near death. Then (cliche) she finds herself falling in love with Ironheart. Problem is he's been whispering in his sleep "there is an enemy, it will kill us all."

C.

***WARNING... minor SPOILERS!***

Having read several of Koontz' novels, I consider myself to be a fan of his work, but I have found that occassionally he does pull a boner. "Cold Fire" started off great and really fueled my imagination as Jim Ironheart cavorted around the world saving lives, under the apparent influence of some supernatural force with an agenda of its own. Unfortunately, something happened to the plot and what seemed to be a supernatural thriller degenerated into a story about a mentally deranged psychic who just needed a loved one to slap some sense back into him. I'm all for suspension of belief, and such is required for the type of novels that Mr. Koontz generally writes. "Cold Fire", however, expected me to do more than "suspend my belief" but in fact toss it out the window completely. I doubt that even being beaten over the head with a hammer could have dulled my senses enough to have permitted me to go along with the premise that a man as severely disturbed as Ironheart turned out to be could be "cured" merely by having a former reporter with the hots for him make him confront his past. Thankfully, I didn't let this turn me off of Koontz entirely and have since read a number of other great novels of his.

The writing is Dean Koontz. The classic 'protagonist with troubled past' is Koontz too. But the rest of it is blah.
First of all, the characters' names. Only Dickens has been able to successfully give characters names that described their personalities. Thorne & Ironheart sound like a Harlequin fantasy. Second, the lack of a good antagonist. Koontz may have been trying to get away from Phantoms, Watchers, Midnight, etc. but this is a sad attempt to make us scared. The big secret of the book is a letdown worse than a bungee cord breaking. Ultimately, there's the happy ending where the bad part of the hero is exorcised and there's only good ol' Jim riding off into the sunset with his adoring sidekick (who's as interesting as Saran Wrap). As far as I'm concerned, Cold Fire lacks Intensity, and is a Bad Place.

Another one of those lovely books in which there is a mysterious psychic person (who doesn't really understand his power or how to use it) and another character trying to connect the dots on all the disasters this guy has stopped by being in the right place at the right time. The main character discovering the truth about himself (and how far it goes back and what its implications are) is one of the main themes.

This is one of the harder Koontz books to review. As others have noted, it starts out well and then goes nowhere...slowly. The payoff is inadequate, for the buildup.
As usual, Koontz's characters carry it off, but just barely. The problem is that he sets up too many wonderful possibilities, and out of all of them decides to choose the most prosaic, unlikely, and dissatisfying ending.
It's not a bad book, just a disappointing one from someone as gifted as Koontz. Don't start out with this title. Work your way back to it, after reading his better titles and seeing why he became a bestseller. If the basic story idea of this one sounds appealing to you, read Strangers instead - it's quite similar, but much, much better.

When I reviewed "Hideaway" here I pointed out that the reviews claimed he tackled themes worthy of CS Lewis. Well, said I, Hideaway was really garbage, which is something CS Lewis only tackled when he put it out on the curb. What I wasn't saying was that Koontz was incapable of such depth. I think this book does a good job of exploring thematic issues--What is Capital T Truth? Should we question the unknown? Don't get me wrong. It's not a philosophy book. It's a cool book about a guy who hears voices in his head, and then he realizes that if he listens to them IT HELPS PEOPLE. Although sometimes it's some pretty bizzare stuff. Cold Fire is a better example of Koontz's hard-and-fast rules about good and evil that turned me on to him and away from King.

The book starts out with an interesting premise and some captivating scenes, but it goes swiftly downhill. The female lead is inconsistent in her motivations, and she and the male lead fall in love for no reason. There is no lead up to the love, no explanation given afterward... It just happens. The author does not show their love, he tells it in the simplest, most unsatisfying words possible. The main plot also crashes terribly, as what originally looks like brewing supernatural mayham turns out to be ridiculous crap instead.

The writing itself is bad, too. Infodumps are common, dialogue is unrealistic, etc. If this were a good story with decent characters, the writing would be tolerable, but no such things are to be found in this book.

Don't waste your money on this.

I've read a small handful of Koontz Novels. While some grabbed me and were great, some--like this one--struck me as nothing more than a poorly executed comercial effort to sell by the name of the author; and the name of the author is about all this book has going for it.
Several reviewers felt that the book started out great and got bad. I am more under the impression that the books beginning was truly awful, and improved slightly by the end; either way, the effect is an awful book that is only vaguely interesting for half of it's extent. If you really want to give Koontz a fair read, go for Intensity or The Eyes of Darkness, and leave this one on the bookshelf. I am dissapointed in the author for even allowing this to be published under his real name--he should have left it to one of his extensive pseudonyms of the past.

The mysterious Jim and the annoying Holly. I caught myself cheering her on in her quest for his attention! Then on the very next page, I was on Jim's side for kicking her butt out of the house for intruding! I think he should of let her into his life a little earlier in the story and developed their teamwork more. I felt a kick in the pants when the pieces were falling together for Holly and I. We should have seen it coming! I'll have to have a chat with the young lady when they get back from their adventures. I found myself cheering them on when they were embarking on the next "mission" as a team! Goose bumps gallore

I don't usually read Koontz because the stories are usually too gross. Although it has been many years since I read it, I absolutely loved Watchers.

Cold Fire is inferior. It is a 382 page book that could have and SHOULD have been edited to a 182 page novella. It killed some beach time for me, but I'm glad I paid $2.00 for it at the used section at the local library.

You can find much better reads than this....like ANYTHING by Ken Follett....or watchers.

Sorry Dean, I'm a OC guy too and I enjoy reading about the local settings, but this one doesn't do you justice...but I see it WAS written in 1991...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A weakness in some of Koontz's books has been his lack of character development. This time he hits gold with his two main characters. They are very well-rounded characters. The hero is incredibly brave and sexy and yet he is quite vulnerable. The woman is his perfect match. The chemistry between these two is the primary reason I enjoyed this book. The plot is exceptional. Better than I expected. I enjoyed trying to find out why the hero is able to save others. The ending was satisfying. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys romance, suspense and horror.

This book pulled me in right from the beginning. Later, I was having my doubts as it appeared to veer off-course into alien spaceship territory. But I stuck with it and I'm glad I did because the author surprised me. I enjoyed the twists, the gradual revelation of plot, and the interesting premise. I've always enjoyed Dean Koontz novels.

Pure and simple- excellent. This is one of those books that once the author finishes with the last line, he KNOWS he's got a best-seller. You have a man with a power, to see the future, only he doesn't really have complete control over it. An image will come to him of a child being killed, or of a devastating accident, always with mere minutes to spare in saving their lives. Theres even a bit of a story behind the windmill by the pond on the cover of the book. I'd love to share more, but in the interest of NOT ruining the story for you, I'll let you go ahead and read it for yourselves.

My first foray into Koontz novels and I was happily surprised. Well paced, creepy, and just plain weird. In Koontz's hands, a windmill becomes the setting for chills of a psyche-nature. Refreshingly, the source of Ironheart's special power is not the expected one(s). A terrifying flashback involving a fastfood joint will stay with you a while, as will the Dutch-style windmill. Is it just a case of fearing fear itself? Read Cold Fire and find out!

This book had an interesting premise, with suggestions of a supernatural battle between good and evil, but around the midpoint of the novel it starts to stumble. The overly psycho-analytical therapeutic touchy-feely stuff at the end of the novel feels like it was written by a different author from the more action-oriented gung-ho beginning. The supernatural mystery aspect of this novel also suffered from this disjoint. A good mystery author misdirects the reader but still creates a logical chain of events. The "solution" to the mystery is a borderline deus ex machina that's totally unsatisfying. Many things that were suggested or built up at the beginning of the novel are rendered pointless by the end.
Having said that, Koontz's prose is certainly readable, his characters are interesting, albeit implausible, and the book was such a quick read that I can't feel too bitter about the ending.

While visiting a book shop back in the eighties here in Australia I stumbled across Dean Koontz while searching the Stephen King's. I did what we are told not to do and bought this book because of the cover. I read it cover to cover in two days and loved every moment of it. A superbly suspenseful novel mixing in elements of science fiction. A relatively thick book but somehow Koontz can keep you flipping pages without dead or slow passages. I have since read all of his work on the back of reading this one novel. Still it remains one of my favourites purely because of the seamless blend of science fiction, horror and suspense. Anyone staring at those big letters, "DEAN KOONTZ", on the jacket of novels but not sure if they should spend their hard earned money, my advice would be go for it but be prepared to return for more titles

Koontz is one of the best writers of fiction today, but Cold Fire and Hidaway are two of his worst books in my opinion. Not much there. Readable but I would check these out from the Library before you add them to your collection. Ironically I own Hard Cover copies of both of these books. I made the mistake of buying them when they first came out because I was a big fan of his other works. I don't own much fiction in my library and I would gladly swap these two books for Hard Copies of Dragon Tears or The Bad Place. I will trade both for a Hard copy of Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon.

Dean Koontz's hard work has definitely paid off with his gripping novel Cold Fire. As is common with many of Koontz's novels, the setting is constantly moving. Jim Ironheart is a masterful character whose realism brings him to life! Ironheart, driven by God, has special abilities that enable him to arrive at the scene of an accident before it occurs, therefore miraculously saving the lives of the "would be" victims. Holly Thorne, a free-lance reporter who is looking for a purpose in her life, witnesses one of Ironheart's heroic rescue and her heart and attention are immediately captivated by his selflessness. She encounters him for a brief moment and then they both go their separate ways. Within the lapse of 24 hours, Holly realizes how intrigued she is by Jim's intellect and heroism. She decides to pursue him while he goes on his adventures. As Thorne progresses through the novel, she becomes infatuated with Ironheart and his extraordinary powers, while he is undergoing the most important fight of his life, a psychological battle with his past. It is not until the ending that you figure out what is happening with Jim Ironheart. The only part of the entire novel that I found disappointing and shocking was the finale. It was not what I had expected or hoped for, but overall this book was exceptionally well written. I highly recommend it to any of you adventurers or amateur psychologists out there.

Koontz is one of the best writers of fiction today, but Cold Fire and Hidaway are two of his worst books in my opinion. Not much there. Readable but I would check these out from the Library before you add them to your collection. Ironically I own Hard Cover copies of both of these books. I made the mistake of buying them when they first came out because I was a big fan of his other works. I don't own much fiction in my library and I would gladly swap these two books for Hard Copies of Dragon Tears or The Bad Place. I will trade both for a Hard copy of Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon.

Dean Koontz's hard work has definitely paid off with his gripping novel Cold Fire. As is common with many of Koontz's novels, the setting is constantly moving. Jim Ironheart is a masterful character whose realism brings him to life! Ironheart, driven by God, has special abilities that enable him to arrive at the scene of an accident before it occurs, therefore miraculously saving the lives of the "would be" victims. Holly Thorne, a free-lance reporter who is looking for a purpose in her life, witnesses one of Ironheart's heroic rescue and her heart and attention are immediately captivated by his selflessness. She encounters him for a brief moment and then they both go their separate ways. Within the lapse of 24 hours, Holly realizes how intrigued she is by Jim's intellect and heroism. She decides to pursue him while he goes on his adventures. As Thorne progresses through the novel, she becomes infatuated with Ironheart and his extraordinary powers, while he is undergoing the most important fight of his life, a psychological battle with his past. It is not until the ending that you figure out what is happening with Jim Ironheart. The only part of the entire novel that I found disappointing and shocking was the finale. It was not what I had expected or hoped for, but overall this book was exceptionally well written. I highly recommend it to any of you adventurers or amateur psychologists out there.

At the risk of sounding like a laudy book critic, I literally could not put down this book. From it's chilling opening to it's spellbinding denouement, this book is a stunning tour-de-force. I won't reveal any of the plot (seeing as all the other reviews have already done that), but I will tell you this: I read this book in broad daylight and I had to switch on another light, and I am the most jaded horror fan ever (I slept through Alien the first time I saw it). I loved every character in this book, and the imagery (always a Koontz forté) was as vivid as the world you're living in. In conclusion, wow.

When I started this book, it was pretty good. The storyline was reminescent of Early Edition, where the main character knew of upcoming bad events and people to save and I enjoyed reading it. After the part with the plane, the book started to falter, and by the time the main characters went to the Windmill (sorry to be so specific, but I don't think it will ruin the story), the book was just plain terrible. The twist of the story was predictable and far fetched, so at page 380, I just put the book down. I didn't read the ending, and I don't even care.

Absolutely loved it! Borrowed from my school's library and enjoyed every reading session i dedicated to it. The mystery and intrigue behind Jim's "visions" persisted up till the last page. Easily a must read

the first half of the story tells of how ironheart is compelled to help others as if he is a superhero. the second half has him trying to uncover why this is happening to him. i was so enjoying the first half that i feel koontz could almost have made two books out of this one. for me, it slowed down when the rescues stopped. it is definitely not my favorite, but i would still recommend.

This is book both suprised and disappointed more than once. Beginning strong and continuing with a powerful storyline this novel compelled me to read on. I became more or less bored towards the end of the climax. Also, the resolution left much to be desired. I personally feel that for Koontz, this book was slighty under his superb level of creativity in writing.

The beginning of this book had me hooked. Why would a virtual stranger fly all across the world to save people. The beginning helps solve only a portion of that question and towards the end it lags with a dreary back story and lots of slow paced non-action. The "love" story intertwined in this was a bit off in my book but hey - i had to give it 4 stars for trying.

Considering this was the first Koontz book I read, and by now I've read many, I'm gald I started with this one. It turned out to be wonderful. I like the characters, in fact, in this book, I grew to really feel for the characters, and I felt all the pain for the main character. I have noticed in some Koontz book, his characters seem shallow and underdeveloped, but since there were only two, as in Intensity, you really become gripped by the suspense. I highly recommend it, though it does have an odd ending, but if you're into the paranormal, and like to think mental illnesses can indeed be more than you think, you'll love it!