Fear Nothing

This book takes place in Moonlight Bay, a small coastal town in California that Mr. Koontz has written about before. Christopher Snow lives life in the dark. He has a rare disease called xeroderma pigmentosum—XP for short—a genetic disorder that makes its victims super susceptible to cancer from almost any kind of light. Chris's nightmare begins when his father's dead body is stolen from the morgue by a strange man, and he then gets chased by phantoms. At first, I thought the author was taking me down a familiar road of crazy genetic scientists gone mad (and I wasn't far off), but soon, the plot took a couple of twists that pulled me in and kept me reading. The characters were pretty standard for all of DK's books; however, I still show more found them intriguing. Bobby Halloway is the grooviest dude ever, Sasha is the most fabulous girlfriend on the planet, and Orson, of course, is the smartest of dogs. Since the author left this book open-ended, I must immediately read the sequel, Seize the Night. show less

I keep forgetting to look for Koontz's books. This one, like all the others of his I've read, was purchased by my husband. It's partly because horror isn't usually my cuppa (so determined because I don't like horror movies, and reinforced because I don't like Stephen King's writing style), partly because he has tended to keep me supplied with enough horror novels that there's always one available when I have the urge, and partly because until recently, I've only been keeping track of new releases on my must-buy list, and I don't like to buy new releases, particularly not hardcovers, when an author has a large backlist I haven't read yet. I think I've fixed that last problem, so hopefully, I'll be reading more by Koontz in the show more future.

ANYWAY.

Fear Nothing is about Christopher Snow, a young man with a genetic disorder that makes light, particularly sunlight, deadly to him. Despite that, he's been raised well, and he's unremittingly optimistic and enjoys life to the fullest. Until his father is dying, bringing him out into the sun to rush to his hospital bedside. His father's last words to him are "fear nothing." Good advice, as Christopher is plunged into danger and intrigue.

He stumbles upon morgue attendants switching his father's body with that of a vagrant whose eyes have been removed, and from then on, he's fleeing for his life. Men with guns, aggressive monkeys with strange eyes, people he thought he knew behaving out of character. He's aided by his best friend, surfer Bobby, his girlfriend, and his super-intelligent dog Orson.

A couple of things distracted from my enjoyment: too many people started to explain things to him, then stopped and told him to forget about it. Once or even twice, this can build suspense. More than that, and it gets tedious.

My other complaint is that "secret government experiments" is right up there on my list with serial killers who are killing their mothers or wives over and over again as being overdone and therefore predictable and boring. Granted, Fear Nothing is 10 years old, but I'm pretty sure there've been secret government experiment stories around much longer than that.

However, the characters are interesting individuals. I loved Chris's optimism and outlook on life, and I liked how it complemented and contrasted with Bobby's laid-back surfer personality. I liked Orson, and how Chris interpreted his thoughts and behavior.

But it's the feel of the book, the rising tension, the horror, that really shines and explains Koontz's popularity. Ironically, if I hadn't cared so much about the characters, the tension wouldn't have affected me so much, and I wouldn't have been so irritated with the several characters who refused to explain further. show less

This is my favorite Dean Koontz book. It develops into the usual Koontz conspiracy plot, but begins with a woman who begins having panic attacks that center around her own possible capacity to do harm with anything close at hand. This turns out to be hypnotically induced - leading me to wonder, COULD you plant a suggestion in someone's mind causing them to be paralyzed with the fear that they will do some unspecified evil? Probably. It's intriguingly diabolical. And of course it's satisfying to watch the good guys triumph in the end, as they mostly do in Koontz.

First of all, this is one of the strangest books I have ever read. Dean Koontz clearly has a mind unlike most people on this planet. But I love it. The bizarre science fiction interests me in a way that most other things can't. The thing that starts this book off to a total victory in my liking of it is the main character. He is an extremely personable and lovable guy. And wait, he has a disease in which he sunlight harms his skin rendering him ultimately nocturnal. You can't go wrong with this in my mind. Once I read this, I was hooked. Now on top of this, throw in some great action scenes, crazy science projects, and um... evil monkeys, and you've got something I can't resist. Sure people may say that this is just too crazy and show more impossible for enjoyment, but I am certainly not one of those people. Simply having an interesting, in this case extremely interesting, main character who displays natural heroics and nothing "phony" (thanks Holden) creates an irresistible book that I was unable to put down until it was finished. The sequel, "Seize the Night", was equally entertaining, and even more insane. show less

Having enjoyed some of Mr. Koontz's work very much in the past, I was eager for this book, after hearing about how popular it was. What a letdown...

The story started off really well. it was interesting reading about a character with such a genetic issue like Chris, and how it has affected his life in such a way. I would have liked to read more about that. As the bigger picture was revealed, it became more incoherent. The monkeys, for example, and the story about them... I found the story just too implausible. Mr. Koontz has a good writing style, but this story was a major letdown, and extremely cliched and cheesy in some ways, especially the scene where Chris goes to visit his friend on the boat and there's the whole conversation the show more friend had with/about the dog and cat and all that.

Definitely not one of Mr. Koontz' best work, I recommend Darkfall or Lightning instead. show less

Koontz once again demonstrates the fact that he has an amazing imagination and is a deft hand at pacing, but an inadequate second grader when it comes to description. During a long chase scene involving a ne'er do well cat with good intentions I was convinced I had just read instructions for hooking up a stereo system.

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Title: Fear Nothing
Series: Moonlight Bay #1
Author: Dean Koontz
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 450
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Christopher Snow was born afflicted with (insert really long medically sounding name), otherwise known as XP. His body can't heal from UV damage and something like a flashlight can take years off his life or make him go blind in months. He is now 28 and his parents have sacrificed a lot to give him as much show more freedom as possible. He roams the night, writes successful novels and surfs.

Several months ago his mother died in a car accident. The book opens with his father expiring from cancer in the local hospital. Everything Chris ever starts to go sidewise as he sees the local mortician replace his father's body with some hitchhiker's. His father's body is loaded into a van and taken away to Wyvern, a supposedly closed military base.

During the next 2 days Chris uncovers a lot of secrets hiding in Moonlight Bay. His mother was involved in genetic experimentation with the aim of helping cure Chris's XP. Chris's father's cancer might have been caused by a rogue genetic experiment gone awry. Chris finds out that the experiments have been successful, but not in the way his mother intended. The politicians and top army brass have used it to enhance intelligence in animals and to transfer animal characteristics to humans. Unfortunately, the carrier evolved and people began becoming infected unknowingly and spreading it even outside of Moonlight Bay.

Several of the solid citizens of Moonlight Bay have already fallen to the gene therapy. The Chief of Police dreams of raping and killing little girls. He tries to kill Christopher to keep his secret but dies in the attempt. A troup of bloody thirsty enhanced monkey's attack Chris, his girlfriend and his beach bum friend one night. The troup is led by a court-martialed sociopath who has been hiding his own “becoming” from all his superiors.

To top it all off, it turns out that Chris's own dog, Orson, is the product of the tests and is just as intelligent as a human. Orson, however, shows no sign of the psychopathic murderous tendencies exhibited in almost all the other patients that Chris has seen.

The book ends with Chris realizing that he simply can't fight this end of the world as we know it.

My Thoughts:

I actually read the sequel to this 18 years ago. I wasn't reviewing per se, so I didn't remember any details and so nothing was spoiled for this book. Just an anecdote, that is all.

In the character of Chris Snow are the seeds that will, 5 years later, turn into Odd Thomas and that much more successful series.

I found the scene between Chris and the Chief of Police to be as horrific as Koontz intended without it being offensive. There is nothing graphic in what Koontz writes and yet when the Chief is talking to Chris about his nightmares and his plans and his descent into animal savagery, I was horrified. It walked the line of talking about something absolutely evil without crossing that line into being voyeuristic about it. More authors should take note, as it takes real skill to write that way.

I enjoyed this but once again, like his Frankenstein series, Koontz is actually only telling one story and splitting it up into “books” to satisfy publishing demands. This book ends with Chris and Co surviving the attacks by various infected creatures, human or otherwise but the threat is so big that it IS the end of the world as humans know it. If I hadn't known there was another book, I would have assumed this was a standalone with the Big Ending (ie, the end of the world) left up in the air for the readers to imagine.

Considering how proto-Odd Thomas Chris Snow is, I was figuring that Snow's girlfriend was going to die the whole book. Color me pleasantly surprised when she made it through almost unscathed. That'll teach me to be cynical.

The other thing I'm learning about Koontz seems to be that he likes to write about short time periods. The first ¾'s of the book only took 12hrs and the final ¼ was the next 24. Thirty-six hours for a 450 page book. I'll have to remember that so I don't expect dramas drawn out over the years.

★★★☆½ show less