Lost Souls

You may remember that Viktor Frankenstein created a mechanical monster in which he inserted the spark of life, and that this monster frightened an entire generation of Transylvanians, and that the myth has lived on. Except it is no myth. In fact, Frankenstein created a second monster only a few years ago in New Orleans. Carson and Michael, two members of NOPD, put an end to Viktor then, and saw him meet his death in a New Orleans landfill. But now, rumor has it that Frankenstein is alive again, and plans to take over the world by replicating each person with one of his engineered robo-beings.

This is a delightful read. Well, maybe not that--parts certainly are yucky if not horrific. It's filled with intriguing characters, starting with show more Carson and Michael, now married, who fear that the birth of their baby daughter may have taken the edge off their work. And then there's Erika Five, the fifth wife that Frankenstein built. And her friend / sidekick / child Jocko, who was a tumor that developed a life of his own. In these characters we often find humor, in spite of the dire straits in which they find themselves.

Never a dull moment It's a fast read, and teens are going to love it. However--although one needn't have read the previous titles to enjoy this one--oh, no!--it's acliffhanger! To be continued in The Dead Town, coming in Spring 2011. Although this ending is not quite as sudden as some, still the reader really wants to know what's going to happen next. Lost Souls stands as a highly entertaining reading experience--we just haven't heard the end of the story yet. show less

This is the fourth episode in Koontz’s Frankenstein series and it will be the last that I read. It’s not so much über-smart Erika Five or gentle-giant Deucalion that bothers me. Or our two hero cops, who have become a bit too sedate. Or even Victor, who can’t help but to be the most badass mad scientist, ever. But I think I’ll go insane if I have to read any more of Jocko’s shtick. It’s just nails-on-a-chalkboard to me, or whatever the literary equivalent is. Enough said.

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Title: Lost Souls
Series: Frankenstein #4
Author: Dean Koontz
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 402
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Victor is alive. Or at least, his replacement clone is. But Victor 2.0 isn't quite the same as Victor Helios. Victor Immaculate, as he calls himself, doesn't want to replace humanity now, he wants to destroy it. If he can do that, he'll have negated Scripture, thus making him more powerful than God.

With an show more array of new replicants and a new type of human called Builders, Victor sets forth his plan to begin exterminating humanity in a small town in Montana. With key officials replaced, the Builders can begin feeding on the towns people and begin the cycle of death and destruction.

Michael and Carson, now private eyes with a baby girl named Scout, realize that they have more to lose than ever. Scout means more to them than their own lives. When Deucalion comes calling telling them he has a hunch that Victor is alive, they don't want to believe him. Then Erica Five, who has been living in a small Montanna town, calls Carson and tells her she has seen Victor. Now Michael and Carson have no choice. If they want there to be a world for Scout to grow up in, they must go out and do battle once again.

We also follow various townspeople from Rainbow Falls as things begin to go downhill. A vagrant and a special needs man, both in jail but for opposite reasons, survive the first wave of Builders' feeding and must work together to stay alive. An old man and a young boy, both in the hospital, must depend on each other to escape the hospital, which has become a major center for the Builders. Two X-Files style FBI Agents are also in town chasing down rumors that The Money Man, a shadowy figure, will be in town and they mean to nab him.

Everything is set in motion for a climactic battle for the survival of Rainbow Falls and the world itself. Then the book abruptly ends. Like a meat cleaver right down the middle of a carcass of a cow.

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this novel much more than the previous one and it was all set to be a 3 ½ star book. Then came the artificial ending. It was obvious that this book and the next, titled Deadtown, are really one story but due to length was cut in half. However, that cutting was done with all the finesse of a drunk butcher, who was blindfolded and who was told that one of the slabs of beef hanging in his freezer was really a pinata and to have at it. No resolution of any kind, no story arc completed, just full stop. That is bad story telling and it pissed me off. So I knocked that coveted ½ star off. I sure taught Koontz a lesson with that!

Besides that grievance, I did like this. I didn't give it much detail in the synopsis but we really spend more time in the town of Rainbow Falls with various townspeople than we do with either Michael and Carson or Deucalion. That worked well as the Koontz definitely goes into “horror” territory more than in some of the previous Frankenstein books. How the Builders consume people is something else. There was one instance of where a church group was locked into a building and when some Builders were let loose and the replicants were watching, almost every single adult in the group pulled out a gun. The replicants were all killed and some ex-soldiers led the group out. It was great. God, guns and guts (ie, courage, not literally guts. With this book, there might be some confusion, hence this awkward, longwinded and rather unnecessary explanation)

The X-Files guys, (one of whom is named Dagget for goodness sake!!!!), play almost no part beyond being introduced and giving the reader a tiny bit of info.I suspect they'll play a bigger part in the final book with how everything gets cleaned up.

Given how quickly the storyline for Victor Helios was wrapped up in the previous trilogy, I suspect the next book (which is also the final book in this series) is going to follow the same pattern. Koontz definitely has a paint by numbers plan for this series. A special needs child, the badguys beginning to fall apart on their own (evil consuming itself), etc, etc. It's not a bad formula, just a bit obvious.

I chose not to read the final book immediately, due to my reading setup, but for anyone else, I'd recommend they read the first trilogy all in one go and then this duology in one go. I suspect it might make the overall narrative less choppy feeling if each story arc is read as one big book.

★★★☆☆ show less

He really really should've stopped at book 3. I tried and tried to get through this but I couldn't... I know I made it past page 50. Koontz jumped the shark with this book because it went so far off the Frankenstein storyline it's not even funny. So apparently Victor Frankenstein is still alive (I'm okay with that), Deucalion cured the boy's autism (I'm kinda okay with that), Erica and the ugly gnome are living together happily (I'm okay with that). What I'm not okay with is a new set of clones and to get rid of the humans they are cloning, a being rips their heads off and sucks their energy to kill them?!?!? LIke wtf. Nope, not finishing it nor am I going to read Book 5. I'm going to pretend it was a trilogy. That is all.

I see quite a few one star ratings here and I understand what has caused this.

Volumes 4 and 5 in this story are really more accurately 4a and 4b. Volume 4 doesn’t have an ending. It just stops in the middle of the action and continues in Volume 5 with the addition of redundant verbiage recapping what just happened in volume 4. I have never read a story that was so clearly spread out to make one volume worth of action stretch into two volumes. If you read them close together, be prepared to do a healthy bit of skimming.

I finished the series because I wanted to see what would happen. Anyone thinking of stopping at Volume 3 really isn’t missing much. I like the main characters and was unimpressed by the supporting cast who I found to show more be largely unbelievable and in some cases annoying, especially one that reminded me of Jar-Jar Binks. show less

This felt like a completely different story and I really wish the author had stopped with book three. Book four had too many characters to follow and the ones we already knew from the previous books lead totally different lives.

I'm really not wanted to continue with book five but I cannot help myself. On some level, I am hoping that the last book redeems the fourth. Otherwise, this rating will likely be (lowered after the fact). It may seem unfair to rate a book by the quality of its sequel but this book cannot carry itself on its own.

Book #4 in the Koontz Frankenstein series and the best one yet. This one is the first to come out in hardcover and it ended way too soon and with nothing resolved. Leading me to look up the date of the next one! This is a fantastic re-imagining of the classic story which starts out for our police officer partners in modern day New Orleans. The first 3 books culminated in what appeared to be the end of the series.

But no -- it continues and has been improved upon. The trademark Koontz mixture of humor with the other worldly lends itself to this story in a way no one else can.

I'm breathlessly awaiting the next installment!