Listen to the review:
Listen to "Book Review: QUICKSILVER By Dean Koontz." on Spreaker.
 |
| (c) Amazon. |
Quicksilver is a problematic book to review, to say the least. It's Koontz mostly on autopilot, rehashing themes, ideas, and plotlines that he's always been obsessed with. It's a "tell" book, not a "show" book, meaning that Koontz tells the story mostly through dialogue.
The plot is slight: a young journalist who suddenly finds his life turned upside down when two mysterious men in black try to kidnap him. From there, he is hurled into a strange adventure that involves guns, monsters, and horrific visions. Koontz basically uses this threadbare and tired concept to wax poetic on the horrors of nihilism, totalitarianism, and the weight of personal courage in times of mass evil. The tone shifts from funny, to preachy, to, ultimately, troubling violence, leading to a tepid ending.
Surprisingly, it builds to a somewhat dark last third that is relatively affecting, with a shift of tone that some might find jarring.
Overall, it's an uneven, overlong, forgettable novel, but one which has something of value to say, even if it takes its sweet time and oodles of self-indulgence on Koontz's part to get there.
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.
Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer
No comments:
Post a Comment