Prodigal Son

This tale was a reimagining of the Frankenstein legend. In this story Mary Shelly wrote a fictional book secretly based on rumors she’d heard of an actual case. Victor Helios (aka Dr. Frankenstein) now lives a luxurious life in New Orleans with servants and even a wife created by his own hands. His goal is to replace the Old Race with members of the New Race, his creations with an improved biological design that are stronger, hard to kill and resist aging. Victor’s first creature is still alive as well. Now named Deucalion, he is attempting to find peace in a Tibetan monastery when he receives a letter from an old friend warning him that Victor still lives. Leaving the sanctuary of the monastery, he travels to New Orleans. Deucalion show more eventually combines forces with two homicide detectives named Carson and Michael, who are investigating a serial killer known for removing a single body part before dumping the body.

The narrative switches between several characters but is done seamlessly and is not confusing. There is the narrative of Carson, caring for her autistic younger brother Arnie; Deucalion, the first creature designed by Victor and who almost died trying to destroy his creator; Victor, smug in his belief of superior knowledge and ability to control his creations; Victor’s created wife Erika, who longs for freedom from her brutal husband; Randal 6, the only creature designed with autism so he can endure horrifying experiments; and lastly Roy Pribeaux, the all too human serial killer who catches the attention of one of the New Race.

The individuals of the New Race created by Victor manage to be both pitiable and frightening in their capacity for violence without remorse. The unreasoning, escalating anger of the autistic Randal Six toward Arnie for being able to feel the happiness he himself is denied is both pathetic and chilling. Most of the members of the New Race are searching for more meaning in their life than Victor has designed into them. They are without a spiritual center, without the capacity for happiness, and without free will. The story ends on a cliffhanger, and I already have the next on my shelf. Four and a half stars and recommended. show less

Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son is consistently enjoyable and occasionally more than that.

The premise here is good fun: Frankenstein’s monster – plus the not-so-good doctor himself – turn out to be still around, and they’ve not exactly kissed and made up. A New Orleans setting is good place for both to surface, just as a weird serial killer is at work. Our protagonists – in addition to our patched-together main man, of course – are a team of off-the-shelf homicide cops. They’re both young, good looking and have the suppressed hots for each other, but they’re serviceable leads.

More interesting are some of the other stories swirling around the murder mystery plot. One member of our cop duo has an autistic show more brother whose presence is mirrored by an autistic creation of Dr F. And just what else has he created? It turns out he’s been busy over the past couple of centuries, and the revelation of his plot and its functionaries increasingly take center stage as the story goes on. Clearly, there is much more to come in the books that follow.

The unexpected pleasure here was Koontz’s contemplation of quite profound questions of existence and its meaning. This isn’t a consistently ‘deep’ book – it’s still a page turner – but its premise and the issues it raises have some sticking power.

Recommended. show less

Summary: A serial murderer is loose in New Orleans, and something far worse that two detectives begin to unravel, helped by a mysterious, tattooed figure by the name of Deucalion.

A serial murderer is on the loose in New Orleans. A number of women have turned up dead–missing one part of their bodies–feet, hands, ears, lips surgically removed–you get the idea. A few men have also died, with internal organs surgically removed. Detective partners Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison are leading the investigation. She is intense, hard-driving both inside a car and out. Maddison is her complement–utterly loyal as a partner, always able to deprecate both himself and Carson in a way that keeps it real. Carson also has charge of her show more autistic younger brother Arnie, building a castle fortress in his room.

The fortress is an image, a warning that there is indeed danger afoot, far worse than just a serial killer. Carson’s first hint is a mysterious visitor, Deucalion. He has come to New Orleans from a monastery abroad, ostensibly the inheritor of a theater. He moves with lightning quickness, practicing an unusual sleight of hand, and tattooed on one side of his face, concealing extensive scars. He claims to be more than two centuries old, assembled from body parts, brought to life in a lightning strike–by Victor Frankenstein. He claims Frankenstein is still alive in New Orleans, also known as Victor Helios, who presents as a city benefactor. He also develops a special bond with Arnie, who is also in danger.

The real truth is far more insidious. Helios has perfected his abilities to create human life, apparently soulless but enhanced creatures, a perfect race being infiltrated throughout society until the day Helios realizes his dream of replacing the human race. Yet something is going wrong. Created without aspirations other than to serve Helios and subservient to his wishes, some are beginning to think, and act, and even kill on their own. It turns out that you cannot create humans and ensure they will remain automatons. They long for meaning, for joy, or even just to escape their bondage to Helios–longings far more human than Helios will permit.

A fellow blogger recommended this book, to amend the lack of “thrillers” in my reading. I can see why Koontz is so popular. It is not because of the depth of his characters. Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison seem pretty stereotypic characters at this point (there are four more books in this series). It is because of the swift movements and turns of the plot that keep you turning the pages. It’s the ability to keep drawing you deeper into the maelstrom (if you thought this was bad, wait until you see this). Then there is the exploration of the nature of beings made by other human beings. Is there something truly human within? Someday, if it hasn’t already occurred, we will probably find a way to clone human beings. Will we do this with the will to power of Helios? Will we try to de-humanize them as we have with slaves and the trafficked? And what will we do when they cease to buy it?

All I know is that I will start looking for book two, City of Night. Thanks, James. show less

i used to be a huge dean Koontz fan, and for a good while - about 8 years - I let it go. I'd seen this on the shelves many times and wanted to read it, and ended up picking it up at a local library fundraiser. Glad I did.
According to Koontz's intro, this really began as a project for USA network to develop into a series for TV. Sounded like it had all the right backign and help to make it akiller series, and someone wanted to edit too much for Koontz. Typical network junk. Shame. Would have been great from what I've read.
Premise - Mary Shelley wrote that Dr. Victor Frankenstein died. well - he didn't. He is alive and well, and living in New Orleans. And he hasnt stopped his work on creating life - he's perfected it. No more lightning show more storms, and criminal body parts. He's cloning, bio-engineering, etc to make a New Race. And they have started getting out of hand, some actually killing people to try to find what is missing inside them.
2 detectives from New Orleans have been working the murders, and are getting more and more frustrated. Then the really bizzare happens - one of the lead detectives runs inot Victor's first creation from 200+ years ago at one of the crime scenes. And he (Deucalion) wants Victor stopped for good, and helps enlighten the detective as to what they are really facing.
An excellent thriller, with lots of unexpected twists and turns, Koontz delivers a new twist on an old classic with gusto. show less

I didn't think I would love another Koontz series like I did with Odd Thomas. I was wrong. I love everything about old monsters, aka Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy. This book was absolutely great! I loved all the characters (side note should be more Deucalion in the book but I digress). The spin on the story was wonderful as well as Victor Frankenstein continues in the modern day to make more of his monsters into an army to take over the world. I did not guess the killer at all... kudos. And of the course ending is left wide open for book 2.

I'm impressed and pleasantly surprised. I've been burned by Koontz novels in the past and had all but given up on him. You can only read so many books with a compelling story and characters that flops in the end before you look elsewhere.

This is different. I'm a sucker for the Frankenstein story, so a re-telling sounded intriguing. Even better that I know Koontz is a heck of a storyteller. He doesn't disappoint here AND it didn't run out of steam at the end. I have my fingers crossed for the second book.

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Prodigal Son
Series: Frankenstein #1
Author: Dean Koontz
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 498
Format: Digital edition

Synopsis:

Deucalion, otherwise known as Frankenstein's Monster, has been hanging out at some Zen Buddhist Monk Temple Mountain Retreat kind of place. But when Victor Frankenstein, now known as Victor Helios, appears on the scene, Deucalion knows that Victor is continuing his attempts to create a new breed of show more humanity and replace the old with the new.

At the same time, a mass murderer has appeared and this gets the New Orleans PD involved. Carson O'Connor, the sole caretaker of her younger autistic brother, is partnered up with Michael Maddison. They are the chief detectives and their goal is to bring this scumbag to justice.

Both of these events overlap. Can Deucalion put a stop to Victor's plan to exterminate humanity and can Carson find a killer who kills for the perfect body part? One of these gets answered and the other will take the rest of the series to answer.

My Thoughts:

I would classify this as an urban fantasy police procedural.

Deucalion's part is much smaller than I had hoped. He starts the ball rolling but then just kind of disappears. Koontz writes at the beginning that he started this whole project for a tv show and it really shows. When things moved over to Carson and the serial murderer side of things, I felt like I was reading a detective murder tv show.

In many ways I felt like this had the supernatural side of things that was missing from Koontz's Odd Thomas series. Victor Helios is truly one scary guy and while he's supposedly dabbling in super science, it really comes across as “magic”. Victor is cruel, intelligent, ruthless and so dedicated to his view of Materialism that it blinds him to anything else. This introduces certain flaws into his character and weakness that can be exploited.

There is a much longer story arc going on. I liked that the serial murder case was solved. It gave a good ending so I felt like I had actually finished a book. Yet the arc dealing with Victor and his plans to overthrow humanity seems big enough to fill the rest of the series with no problem.
I enjoyed my time reading this and look forward to the rest of the series. This is my second foray into Koontz territory and so far I'm pretty pleased. I always thought of him as second rate Stephen King horror wannabe but these books are showing me just how wrong I was. He's writing some good thrillers.

★★★☆½ show less