The Taking

I have loved Dean Koontz for many years. Even in recent years, when others have complained that his stories are too rambling and less exciting, I have still enjoyed his work. This is the first book he has written that I was completely disappointed with.

I get the distinct feeling that this book was seriously rushed. There is very little character motivation, and the only character that isn't completely two-dimensional is the main character, Molly. Her husband Neil might as well have been a potted plant with a shotgun. And maybe it's just me, and the fact that I've read all his books, but the "twists" were not only highly predictable, but also depressingly lame.

As far as theme, he could not have shoved it down the reader's throat any more forcefully. It became highly annoying, and the book would have greatly benefited from a far more subtle approach.

Nothing in the book makes any sort of sense at all because the main character keeps taking up these false explanations (which are far too simplistic), and so you must wait until the final chapter to figure out what at least some of it meant. The ending, sadly, was the most frustratingly sophomoric ending he has ever written.

Add to that the little-girl voice of the narrator who pronounced at least a handful of words wrong, and you have a sad mixture.

The only good things I can say about this book are that Koontz still has a way with metaphors and his descriptions are vivid.

I have listened to over two dozen audible books, and this is by far the worst narrator I have ever suffered through. It was like listening to Donald Duck doing a little girl doing characters. And when she did the men, they sounded like little tiny zombies. This title never had a chance with me, I couldn't get past the narration.

This fan of Koontz was distressed with the narrator. Her delivery of the prose and absolute inability to deliver credible voice characterizations was so annoying that I nearly abandonded the book in the first chapter. On first hearing her voice I seriously thought that the narration might be first or second generation computer speach. We pay a serious premium for the convience of audio books, and we deserve a better delivery.

This work of Dean Koontz is a bit thicker than many of his other titles. Dig in to your religion histories, Dantes works, Apocliptic writings, myths, and beliefs, current physics-cosmology, Hawkings multiverse concepts, the writings of man's concepts and beliefs on evil, redemption, and hope... and perhaps then... your ready to grab this book and dig in.

An approach with the actual existance of evil as a given, the whereabouts of 'HELL and it's Potentates, separate universes, or parrallel universes, as a new repesentation of where the 'bad guys'may reside.
A marvelous concept and combination of modern physics, cosmology, the existance of evil, the power and nature of human redemption, and the triumph over the darkness without and within.
I give it an A+. Read it!

Koontz always follows same classic formula, lonely person A, experiencing very strange things, meets hero person B (opposite sex) and somewhere children are involved. Then the mystery unravels itself and you understand what the very strange things were.

This follows his classic structures with 2 exceptions
1) There are dogs this time as well
2) (SPOILER!!) The very strange things are not fully explained but it is implied that they are Biblical.

Listening to this, it seemed like his standard formula with elements of Lassie, E.T. and the Bible mixed in. The abrupt ending was disappointing, but he had built the story up to such a peak, that three quarters of the way through you are thinking "How can this end?"

It still has his good narative and excellent descriptive passages which saves it somewhat and - because of the dogs - I give it a 3 star rating.

if i wanted to hear 9 and 1/2 hours of Lisa Simpson's voice, i would have watched 19 episodes of The Simpsons...the narration sucked...period. Pulled me out of the story more than not and i hated her for it...

I'm a big fan of Koontz. He has written some truly classic stories that really hook you. The characters are well developed and interesting, the plots keep you guessing, and they are a lot of fun!

This book, unfortunately, doesn't have any of those characteristics. In fact this is the first Koontz story that I've ever come away from feeling like I'd just read a book by a beginning author who shows little promise. Very disappointing.

The premise of the story is fascinating. The first 1/3 of the book just about lives up to its promise. Koontz develops a great sense of mystery and dread early on. But by mid-story the plot has become the literary equivalent of an extended car chase in a low budget movie. The worst part is that Koontz completely writes himself into a corner. By 2/3 of the way through the story you are starting to realize that he's backed himself into a corner, and there will be no graceful way out. Your suspicions are confirmed when the story ends abruptly with a truly lame conclusion. I literally stared at my Audible player and said "Are you kidding me? That's it? He couldn't come up with something better than that???" I had the definite feeling that Koontz had written most of the book years ago, couldn't find an ending, and put it aside for a few years. Then he needed to deliver a book to fulfill a contract. So he pulled the unfinished story out, slapped a 2 page ending on it, and shipped it. It really is that bad.

Steer clear of this one. There are a LOT of Koontz novels that are worth spending your time on, but this is not one of them. If you want a great story go with Odd Thomas or The Face.

Audible lists this book as a mystery. It's not only pure SI-FI,but bad si-fi with no ending.It built me up,then left me hanging. If that's not enough KOONTZ is so wordy that he has the ability to make at two block walk down a street in to a whole CD. Save your time and expence. Skip this one.

I am only 3 hours into this book. I just cannot understand HOW whoever is in charge of selecting narrators thought the reader of this one was suitable for a best-selling author like Koontz. Like almost everyone else who gave a review, I feel this reader has no place narrating. Her voice is flat, no inflections, no pauses. Kind of like if Rosie the Robot were reading. When she tries to read male quotes, she sounds like she is gargling. It is very hard to get into the book when you are wincing at the narrator's bad reading.

Wait, I know! Maybe they are trying to force people to buy the hard cover book! That's the only reason I can think of to have a bad reader narrating a best selling novel.

Dean Koontz 4 stars, narrator zero stars.

I have been reading Dean Koontz since Watchers in hardback. I own every book in hardback beacause I could never wait for paperbacks. I downloaded "The Taking" on the first day it was available and spent the entire time waiting for it to get better.

There was far too much description and redescription of the thoughts ant theories in the main character's head. I found myself yelling BLAH BLAH BLAH at my iPod. Without all this rehashing the book would have been less than 3 hours long.