# How on EARTH is Dean Koontz a published author? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2002, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526 "2002-05-17T11:30:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/1 "2002-05-17T11:30:16Z")
I’d heard him talked about here occasionally, and when buying books for a long plane flight decided to try him out. What the hell, I thought naively, if it’s crap at least it’s (incredibly) long so will stave off boredom on a 15 hour flight. Goddamn he’s a bad writer. I coulda compressed his first 10 chapters or so into 10 pages. I kept reading for something to do… then I got to the part where he spends an entire chapter detailing the systematic rape and torture of a woman for no reason. So I stopped reading. What a sick bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/db5fbb/32.png) [@Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fred)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/2 "2002-05-17T12:06:12Z")
Out of curiousity, which book? ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/3 "2002-05-17T12:13:52Z")
Must have been _Intensity_ – unless Koontz has written another book featuring the loving discription of torture and rape. Yuck. That book gave me nightmares. Jess ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/4 "2002-05-17T12:56:20Z")
Nah, it was _False Memory_. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/5 "2002-05-17T12:57:59Z")
I wasted my time reading three Koontz novels, which doesn’t speak well for my intelligence. In each case I was suckered in by a promising, if stupid and cliche-ridden, setup, which was followed by disappointment. I actually stopped in the middle of the third book when there’s a situation of obvious irony, followed by Koontz _explaining to the reader that it’s ironic_. I realized then he was writing for remedial high school students. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/6 "2002-05-17T13:37:29Z")
Once upon a time, Dean Koontz was a second or third tier SF writer. Not bad, but not stunning. Then suddenly with **Night Chills** he got _good_. He produced about 6 good books of which about 3 are stunningly good. If you wanna see what Koontz is capable of, read **Strangers** , **Watchers** and **Lightning** (and to a MUCH lesser degree **The Bad Place** ). Stunningly good plotting, compent characterization, wonderful pacing/storytelling, etc. On the other hand, the vast majority of Koontz’s current output is megacrap. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/7 "2002-05-17T16:38:28Z")
I had to stop reading the latest one (This Side of Heaven? The Other Side of Heaven?) about half way through when I realized I didn’t have any connection with the characters. The scene where the woman goes to the Child Services Worker to express concern about her young neighbor and the caseworker gets snippy about the woman’s past police record and ignores her complaints…for crying out loud, this was set in California, not Florida. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/8 "2002-05-17T20:25:29Z")
Well, I must be a remedial high school student, because I’ve read (and own) everything Koontz has ever put out in his real name, and I’ve loved almost all of his books. I agree with **Fenris** about Watchers and Lightning. Those were the first two books I read, and the ones I’ve read the most. I love Koontz’s work. ---
**Author:** ![Squish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Squish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squish)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/9 "2002-05-18T01:54:56Z")
IMO, Koontz just keeps writing the same few books over and over and over. He’s a formula writer, which is exactly why he’s published–his publishers know that his books will sell. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/10 "2002-05-18T02:16:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\*If you wanna see what Koontz is capable of, read **Strangers** , **Watchers** and **Lightning** (and to a MUCH lesser degree **The Bad Place** ). Stunningly good plotting, compent characterization, wonderful pacing/storytelling, etc. > > On the other hand, the vast majority of Koontz’s current output is megacrap. > > Fenris \*\* Yeah, what Fenris said. If I didn’t know better, I’d say those four were written by someone else and published it using Dean Koontz’s name. They’re **that much** better than his other stuff. _Lightening_ is wonderful. As Fenris so eloquently put it, most of his stuff is megacrap. ---
**Author:** ![Yondan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/278dde/32.png) [@Yondan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yondan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/11 "2002-05-18T02:17:09Z")
\*\*Watchers \*\* was quite good, and it led me to try a few other books, but alas, it was also the only one I found readable. ---
**Author:** ![Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/db5fbb/32.png) [@Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fred)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/12 "2002-05-18T02:30:06Z")
I like him, and have read 99.9% of his stuff. But I’m easy to please. I skipped _False Memory_, as luck would have it. ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/13 "2002-05-18T02:36:51Z")
Man with issues (and perhaps a military background) meets woman with issues and they overcome them and some sort of bad people with the help of a cute animal (probably with a genius IQ) . . . that’s three or four of the novels by DRK that I’ve read in a nutshell. I did like _Strangers_ and _Lightning_, though. And that one about Voodoo and the little monsters. ---
**Author:** ![Omnivore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47774/32.png) [@Omnivore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omnivore)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/14 "2002-05-18T02:40:03Z")
He has had some books out that were just brilliant and then some that I had to force myself to read because they were so wordy and crappy and I figured that I could write better garbage. I’ve read nearly everything he has published and cannot say that his work has been as good as King’s and can say that some of it is downright crappy. **I** cannot get published, but _ **he** _ can get slop in print like ‘From The Corner Of His Eye.’ I started reading that book 6 months ago … and still have not finished the boring, confusing thing! ---
**Author:** ![SlightDistrurbance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SlightDistrurbance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlightDistrurbance)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/15 "2002-05-18T02:46:23Z")
Forgive me but I have quite the lot of DRK’s book on my shelf collecting dust… But I stopped reading when I asked myself… Damn, how many people suffer from fugues? And while sunsets are nice, I don’t need five long chapters describing them… But Lightning is something I could read again, for like the sixth time. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/16 "2002-05-18T03:20:48Z")
Koontz is published for the same reason V.C. Andrews did. Strictly a sold-his-soul-to-the-devil sort of thing. (It’s the least demoralizing explanation I have.) ---
**Author:** ![sundog66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@sundog66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sundog66)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/17 "2002-05-18T03:34:21Z")
How does The Voice of the Night compare to his other books? That’s the only one I’ve read, and I did find it to be raunchier than I’m used to, compared to, for instance, Stephen King, whose works I used to read a lot. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/18 "2002-05-18T04:22:34Z")
Dean Koontz is a funny writer. By funny, I mean funny in a weird way. I agree with the posters who thought _Lightning_ was quite good, but most of his other stuff leaves me cold. I do love _Tick Tock_, though, which is humor more than horror or suspense. It’s clever. So that book was funny in a ha ha way. The weirdest thing about Dean Koontz is that I was once driving somewhere in the middle of the night, and I tuned into a radio talk show that was interviewing Dean Koontz. So I started listening, and he was giving people advice about pet care. People would call in, and ask him things about their pets, and he would answer with what seemed to be fairly professional advice. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure this out. Does he have another career as a pet consultant? It was mostly dog and cat questions, but I swear he answered one about hamsters. I’m sure it was the author Dean Koontz, because when they cut to a commercial, the announcer said “we’ll be right back with Dean Koontz, author of _list of books_.” I drove out of the station’s range before I heard the title of the show … maybe it was “We Interview Famous People About Things That They’e Not Really Famous For”? ---
**Author:** ![Jenner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@Jenner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenner)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/19 "2002-05-18T05:15:05Z")
Koontz only wrote two genuinely good books in his life: _Watchers_ and _Lightning_ (_Strangers_ and _Midnight_ are entertaining but nothing to write home about). Give those two books a chance and forget about everything else he’s written. ---
**Author:** ![SlightDistrurbance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SlightDistrurbance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlightDistrurbance)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526/20 "2002-05-18T06:11:17Z")
_Ducks_ I have all of V.C. Andrews books… I am hopeless. But I can tell you how it will go!!! Child, brought up in poor envirnment, finds out parents are not her own, finds out she is rich, but her real family hates her. Also sleeps with/or dates a family member shes doesn’t know is. Becomes bitter and will rise above the wrong that has been done to her. Hey!!! I could write a book!! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-on-earth-is-dean-koontz-a-published-author/109526.md?page=2)