Phantoms

By: Dean Koontz

Narrated by: Buck Schirner

Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Closer...
They found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California.

...and closer...
At first, they thought it was the work of a maniac. Or terrorists. Or toxic contamination. Or a bizarre new disease.

...and closer...
But then they found the truth. And they saw it in the flesh. And it was worse than anything any of them had ever imagined.

©2008 Dean Koontz (P)2008 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

"First-rate suspense, scary and stylish." ( Los Angeles Times)
"Schirner's pacing and pitch respond to the story's context, and his characterizations of female characters are impressive." ( AudioFile)

Meh.

I look be Dean Koontz, but this story kinda dragged. Difficult for me to pay enough attention to follow along to get everything out of this story that it had to offer. Narrator was fantastic though

Probably my most favorite book.

I first read this many years ago. It was my favorite then as it's my favorite now. I truly enjoy the tale that is spun here, the build up, the character development, and the very suspenseful moments that litter this book. My hats off for this fine masterpiece!

Great read!

Great read! Koontz always delivers!! I think this is not one of my favorites but close

Entertaining but campy and tropish

Read it 25 years ago in high school and LOVED IT. After going through it again it shows its age a little...good plot, but most of the characters are thin and poorly developed. Have to remember that sci fi and horror tropes are what they are because of Koontz and King, and this novel makes it clear why King won out in the battle of the horror writers. Koontz churned out novels, but the difference between the two is like having a really good home cook make you a steak on a good grill set up and going to a top of the line steakhouse. They're both really good meals, but at the end of it all there's really no comparison between the two. There's no nuance or subtlety to Koontz; its very entertaining but only has a surface level to it, there are no layers to be explored or questioned either in the plot or the characters. Conflict only exists between the pro- and antagonists, with none inside the characters themselves. The editing is also sloppy, with an entire plotline existing that serves literally no purpose other than functioning as a convenient cutaway to preserve tension within the main plotline. It's like Koontz knew he had a good plotline (but not great, King's "It" is what "Phantoms" wants to be, only much much better from basically all metrics that can be applied to fiction) but he didn't have the meat to fill the story out, so the book becomes bloated with extra characters and dead-end plot devices that serve no purpose. Its a fun but ultimately forgettable ride.

Interesting but prolonged

The theory was interesting with good character development. However, parts were very repetitive and the book could be much shorter.

Very Exciting story

I read this decades ago when I was a teenager. It was flawless to me then. The core story is still phenomenal, and it’s still a major page turner. Now that I’m older and have read a bit more, dean koontz’ dialogue and character development can be a little less sophisticated than i remember, but if you can get past that the story is incredibly engaging and has a lot of moments that are more terrifying than I’ve read from almost any other author.

Yes...SCARY!!!!

I enjoyed this book and yes it is quite gruesome and scary and I really enjoyed the narration, he did a good job with the female characters.

Think I've found another favorite author

When in doubt, I can't miss with Koontz or Cornwell. (nor the In Death series.)

Great narrator, ok book

I read reviews saying the narrator was awful. I completely disagree. I enjoyed him more than the overall story. It was not really terrifying in the least.

Scary Awesome

This was my first listen of this author's work. I know...where have I been!? Well that is another story. As for this one...I loved the way the story unfolds, just a little detail at time and was scary all through. Kept me guessing. I enjoyed the characters and the narration was very easy to listen to.