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Post by D-chan on Nov 27, 2004 2:42:21 GMT -5
This is true. *blinks* What we imagine can be far worse than what a visual effect can show us. I've seen very few truly scary movies, and the only two I can think of are 13 Ghosts and Signs. The former because the ghosts flickering was creepy, and they could show up out of nowhere without warning, and the latter because of the lack of music. Both of those toyed with my psyche, and that is why they're scary.
*muses* So in my opinion, the best way to pull off the majority of Dean Koontz books would be to have a lack of music. He writes for suspense, after all, not as much for horror. There's a big difference.
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Post by cesmith on Dec 28, 2004 10:58:33 GMT -5
I just found the Dean Koontz movie *Phantoms* in the bargin DVD bin at Best Buy. I was surprised to see that Dean Koontz wrote the screenplay, so there should be a faithful translation of book to movie. I will see it as soon as the Holiday activities die down and time once again is more predictable. Under my tree was the newest Dean Koontz book, *Life Expectancy*. It will join *Odd Thomas* on my books to read list.
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Post by D-chan on Dec 28, 2004 16:20:22 GMT -5
I was surprised to see that Dean Koontz wrote the screenplay, so there should be a faithful translation of book to movie. Now I'm curious. I shall look harder for this movie. As for Life Expectency, I read an excerpt from it at the end of Odd Thomas (which has become one of my favorites now) and it looks even more fascinating than I had expected. I'm amazed that he can always come up with such new material.
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Post by D-chan on Mar 6, 2005 3:01:32 GMT -5
Recently finished reading Frankentein Book One: The Prodigal Son. Dean Koontz collaborates with Keven J. Anderson.
Wow.
At first I had trouble picking up the book since, you know... it's Frankenstein. Been done to death. But after the first couple of chapters, he (and Anderson) do what they can do best: suck me in. I seriously couldn't put this down-- and I found Victor Frankenstein (in modern days, known as Victor Helios, interestingly enough) to be one of his most fascinating villains yet. And Deaculion is one hell of a Frankenstein monster. <3
Has anyone else read this?
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Post by cesmith on Mar 6, 2005 23:00:04 GMT -5
I just picked the book up. I saw it last week and had decided to skip it. I usually do not like collaborations and as you said, Frankenstein has been done to death. Also, it doesn't help that I have the last two Dean Koontz books still unread. However, as I walked through the store I saw it again today and I read his intro and thought of your post and decide I had to get it after all. I'm glad I did. So far I have read only 60 pages but it is fascinating. The character are interesting and his villian may rival the one from his story *The Bad Place*, one of the most depraved villians I have ever read a story about. Still haven't found time to watch *Phantoms*, but I will probably get to it this week, finally. Were you able to locate it yet?
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Post by D-chan on Mar 7, 2005 0:41:48 GMT -5
Book Two is apparantly a collaboration with another author. I'm just hoping it will stay faithful to the first collab at this point.
But no, I have not been able to locate it yet. >.> He's very elusive when I really want something of his...
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Post by cesmith on Mar 12, 2005 13:47:45 GMT -5
D-chan. I don't know where you live, but, if you are interested in a US college I will guess you live in the US. If so, you will be able to find *Phantoms* at a BestBuy store. If there isn't one near you, you can order the movie from them, online, for only $7.99. Here is the website: www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=3441172&type=product&id=43820 Still haven't found time to see it but I am nearly done with Frankenstein.
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Post by cesmith on Mar 13, 2005 20:55:40 GMT -5
Finally found the time to watch *Phantoms*. It's one of those movies that you are glad you had a chance to see but wouldn't go out of your way to see again. Special effects were good, acting was so-so and the story translated decently to the screen but lacked the atmosphere and uncertainty of the book. There were changes in the story, of course, but I would have to reread the book to know exacly what they are. Not a bad movie and yet... disappointing.
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Post by D-chan on May 5, 2005 23:29:41 GMT -5
I posted these in my LJ, but thought maybe you guys might like them as well. Some of you may have read them, some may have not. They're snippets from his personal author's notes, and give me great reason to want to meet him in person. ^^
... Some writers budget this money wisely, to make it last through the writing of the book, while others blow it immediately on alcohol, drugs, trips to Las Vegas, cool hats, exotic snakes, recreational lobotomies, huge teddy bears, ice sculptures, attemps to ingratiate themselves with members of the performing Osmond family, on more alcohol, on antique spoons, contemporary spoons, spoons of the future, spoons from alternate realities, collectible celebrity spoons, forks, on still more alcohol, on women named Lola, on men named Fabio, on people of uncertain gender named Sassy, on reviving the dead, on murder-for-hire contracts to dispose of inconvenient loved ones, on alcohol, on costly short-term liver rentals, on gimcracks, geegaws, baubles, bangles, frippery, frillery, atomic-powered frillery. . . . Really, there is no end to the number of things on which irresponsible writers will squander their money... - the afterword in Strangers
... Like all my pen names, Leigh met a tragic end. (Please see the afterward for The Funhouse for the death of "Owen West," who also wrote The Mask.) I used to tell people that while taking a tour for research purposes, Leigh had been killed in an explosion at a jalepeno-processing plant. Later, I insisted Leigh died in a catastrophic rickshaw pile-up in Hong Kong. The truth, of course, is uglier. After drinking too much champagne one evening on a Caribbean cruise ship, Leigh Nichols was decapitated in a freak limbo accident. - the afterword in The Key to Midnight
... I now tell people that West died tragically, trampled by musk oxen in Burma while researching a novel about a giant prehistoric duck which he'd tentatively titled Quackzilla. - the afterword in The Funhouse
After Midnight became the first of my novels to reach number one on the national bestseller lists, a critic in a prominent publication wrote that I was an overnight success and had been sold with "a massive and slick ad campaign" to a gullible public whose "lips move as they read his tedious novels about vampires in modern dress." Midnight is not a vampire novel. Vampires do not appear in any of my novels. I have never written about a vampire in modern or antique dress, nor in pajamas, for that matter. The vague yet error-riddled details on the review made it clear that this man had not even skim-read the book. I killed him.
Finding his home address proved to be easy. He had once written glowingly about his town in which he lived. His number was listed in the phone book. With the number came a street address. When he answered the door, I said, "You don't what 'tedious' is until you spend an eternity in Hell re-reading the reviews you've written," and I shot him twenty times with a pair of ten-round 9-mm pistols.
In another version of this fantasy, I showed up at his door with a trained crocodile named Chloe. After savaging him at her leisure, Chloe ate him alive. Then she and I watched television together, capered in the dead critic's swimming pool, drank his vintage Scotch, and waited until she had passed his remains, whereupon I gathered him in a series of blue-plastic doo-doo bags, conveyed the bags to ground zero at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, and from a safe distance of forty miles, I watched his remaining physical mass be vamporized into a gigantic radioactive fart. - afterword in Midnight
... I have been fortunate to write, for the most part, the books that I wanted to write, without regard for the market, and doubly fortunate that the market has always proved to be there for whatever kind of novel I've written. From the start, Berkley Books pushed my works with confidence, and everyone in their offices will be forever safe from Chloe, my crocodile. Chloe will not go hungry, however, for I will always be able to point her toward enough film-studio executives, film producers, and film directors to satisfy her appetite. - the afterword in Midnight
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Post by D-chan on Jun 12, 2005 0:25:36 GMT -5
Just finished reading The Taking. Not sure which is creepier; that or Phantoms. At least Phantoms had a scientific explanation for what happened. *shudder* The Taking was far more... creepy, in the way it's hard to wrap a logical explanation around.
I now own 27 of his books. *sigh* And it's nowhere near all of them.
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Post by cesmith on Jul 30, 2005 19:50:33 GMT -5
D-chan, I just bought Frankenstein, Book Two, City of Night today. I will have to read it after I finish Harry Potter (Though I did read the first chapter and it is good.), but in the back pages I saw an announcement that there will be a sequel to Odd Thomas , Forever Odd, released in November of 2005.
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Post by D-chan on Jul 30, 2005 22:12:14 GMT -5
I bought my own copy of City of Night yesterday. Though I haven't had the chance to read it yet (still working on Strange Highways).
But Odd Thomas getting a sequel? SCORE! Thanks for the heads up; I'll have to keep an eye out for it!
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Post by cesmith on Aug 11, 2005 5:57:39 GMT -5
Book 2 is finished and they managed to leave every single character in a cliffhanger of sorts. Really liked this book. It seemed better written than the first, with richer details. I enjoyed it so much that I even read it while walking home from work one day. The 3 1/2 miles flew by that day. The only problem, having to wait a YEAR for the third and final book. Oh well, it gives me time to catch up reading his other books that I am so far behind on.
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