Book Review: Relentless by Dean Koontz

Relentless by Dean Koontz
Bantam Books
356 Pages
Copyright 2009

Cullen ‘Cubby’ Greenwich is a best-selling novelist. His wife Penny writes and illustrates children’s books. Their son, Milo, is a genius on the level, if not beyond, Einstein. They have an Australian Shepherd mix dog named Lassie. Life is perfect until literary critic Shearmann Waxx savages his latest work. Cubby finds himself drawn into a terrifying battle for not only his life, but that of his wife and son and all of their friends when a not completely by chance encounter with Waxx spins out of control.

So. I’ve skipped most reviews of this book because I didn’t want to accidentally read anything that would spoil it for me. I had, however, noticed more than a few people who referred to it as ‘vintage’ Koontz, which gave me hope going in. Koontz’s latest works have, in the opinion of many readers, including me, not measure up to his older works.

Relentless does seem more like the old Koontz than the new. But, in any ways, it is still formulaic. You have the good man, the woman he loves, the ‘spooky’ child, and the dog that appears to be much more than a dog. And you have villains who are seeking to change the world with their evil technology or their attempts to control humanity by controlling what they read, watch, view, and think.

Don’t get me wrong here, I enjoyed this book. It did remind me of vintage Koontz. It was well-written, fast paced, and I liked the Greenwich family. However... in spite of my enjoyment, I can still say it was flawed. The Greenwich family is too perfect. The secondary characters were too ‘quirky’. The villain lacked something that I’m not sure I could define. Maybe it was a difference. He seemed too much like other villains, both in previous Koontz works and in other works by other authors. The explanation as to why it was all happening lacked... something. It wasn’t fleshed out enough. And, finally, the ending was more of a whimper than a bang. It’s like a movie where the climax happens off screen and the viewer is left feeling cheated. This is the second Koontz book that I’ve read recently where I’ve felt this way about the ending. The previous one, that I can remember, was The Darkest Evening of the Year.

There’s a quote I’d like to share where Koontz, himself, seems to sum up what I’m trying to say:

The temptation was great to believe that I had passed from the dream of the library into a dream of blindness and had not yet come awake.

As a writer, I succeed by deceiving readers into accepting that the story I’m telling is as true as their lives, that what happens to my characters should intellectually and emotionally involve them no less than they should be concerned about their real-world neighbors. But I have never been good at self-deception.

I was awake, all right, and Waxx stood or crouched, or roamed, somewhere in the bedroom.”

.
I liked the Greenwich family... but I wasn’t as involved with them as even Koontz believes I should’ve been.

Recommendation: It’s not a bad book, and in some ways, it is a return to old school Koontz. Unfortunately, I’d still have to say if you’re looking for a great Koontz novel to read, try one he wrote back in the 80’s or 90’s, like Watchers, The Bad Place, or Fear Nothing and its sequel, Seize The Night. The Odd Thomas series is also pretty good. Start there and then give this one a try. It won’t necessarily disappoint you but you’ll probably like the earlier works more.