Some of the short stories in this collection are very good. "Soft" by F. Paul Wilson and "Metastasis" by Dan Simmons are excellent examples. Others like "The Vaults of Yoh Vombis" and "The man with a thousand legs" (sorry last reviewer) are exceedingly bad. My advice: if you find it on sale or used, pick it up and read a story or two in your spare time between novels.

Most of the stories that were chosen for this anthology were masterpieces of horror and wonder, such as "Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft, or "Orange is For Anguish, Blue For Insanity" by David Morrell, and so I must give high praise for this terrifying collection of horror's finest. But there are also some exceptionally bad stories that were included for reasons unknown, like the preposterous "The Man With a Thousand Legs," by Frank Belknap Long, and a so-called Sci-fi story that excludes any real science called "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis," by Clark Ashton Smith. The inclusion of these two leaves me no choice but to deduct a star from what would otherwise have been a perfect rating. Four Stars. A must read, nonetheless.

I just got done reviewing the "Sceince Fiction Hall of Fame" which I think is the first best anthology of all time. But this even though it's quite a bit newer is a close second. Don't Listen to the first reviwer "man with a thousand legs" was a great storey and "vault of Yoh Vombis" was even better. Most of the stories in this anthology are spectacular including "Hell-fire" which in my opinion is one of the best short fiction storey's I have ever ever ever read. "Nightmare Gang" was another great storey especially since I have NO respect for Koontz but with this storey credit and quite a lot is due to him, a very good piece.

Definitly a must buy!!!

After reading Watchers, I couldn't wait to read another book written buy Koontz. That's why I decided to by three!. Unfortunatelly it wasn't a very good decision. The stories are boaring dificult to follow and wors, predictable! Should I swap to King?

All three of these books are great to read for Dean Koontz fans.

HOUSE OF THUNDER has a young woman who wakes up in a hospital with little memory left to tell her who she is, where she is, where she came from, and what she is doing there. But soon, she begins to have visions (or she is actually seeing) four dark figures from her past. Now, the question is what do they want from her?

SHADOWFIRES has a woman who wants a divorce from her manianical husband, and he gets killed in a traffic accident on the day there supposed to get the divorce. A few days later, she is being stalked by someone or something that resembles her dead husband.

And MIDNIGHT finds the residents of a small town changing into beasts that act out there dreams and fantasies. Only a select few are left to battle a mysterious force that is chaging the town into a living hell.

Both of them are great books. Stephen King used to be my favorite writer until my brother introduced me to his books, and I'm glad he did. So far I have'nt found a single one of his books that are bad or that saunds good.

I have been a fan of Dean Koontz's work for a few years now and have been slightly disappointed by the past few books I read...Midnight changed it all around, though. Midnight capturedmy attention and kept me up most of the night reading. I loved it and this book alone has made me once again proud to say I'm a fan of Dean Koontz!

This could possibly be his best work. Dean gives us a brilliant look into the life of Laura Shane, a woman who's whole life has been watched over by her "guardian angel." When she finds out who the angel really is, the mystery is revealed.
EXCELLENT!!

P>The novel in this book is The Bad Place. I had actually read this DK novel before, and liked it again upon the second reading. It is by far the longest novel in the book. In reality it is the only one that I think deserves novel status. It is true DK, suspenseful, thrilling, and loaded with bits of the paranormal. DK is not the finest writer on the planet, but at times he does succeed in coming up with some of the strangest story ideas you'll ever see. If you like different/wierd, you will like The Bad Place. Individually, I would give it four and one half stars (I rarely give anything five stars as I consider a five star rating to mean nearly perfect and must read).

The next "novel" in this book is Demon Seed. Demon Seed is one of those books that people read and typically love or hate with very little middle ground. The truth is that Demon Seed is weak from a literary point of view. There is not a whole lot of flesh on the bones. Even DK himself acknowledges that Demon Seen was more a "good idea than a novel". It is about a computer that believes itself to be in love with a woman and uses that as an excuse to do anything it wants to her, which it does. After it proceeds to lock her within her highly automated home, the really scary stuff begins. DK does a good job making the computer sound like an abusive man who had any number of reasons why his abuse was ok, even good for, the woman that he "loves". While thin and disappointing in some areas, this is still a fast and entertaining read with quite a bit of insight into the abusive mind thrown in for salt. I give it four stars.

The last book, The Eyes of Darkness, was the most disappointing. The idea for the novel was very good, which is probably what makes it so diappointing. Even what there was of the novel was pretty good, but it wasn't well fleshed out at all. The characters were all very static. Also, it seemed that everything came too easily to the characters as they were going through their struggles. It is not surprising to me that this book was originally released under the name of Leigh Nichols before DK was writing under his own name. It has every bit of the feel of what a DK outline would turn into in the hands of a less expereinced writer. I give it 2 and one half stars.

I bought this book and it took me a little while to get into it. It was a little slow at first, but once things started picking up, I finished it in a week. So many twists and turns, you never know what to expect next. An EXCELLENT read!

Drug dealer crime lords are being brutally murdered, found with thousands of small stab wounds. Their bodies are found in locked rooms. How did the killer get in and out?

Answer. They're little evil critters. Some call them rats, they're wrong. Some call them goblins, they'd be closer to the truth. One man knows the answer though. His name's Baba Lavelle and he's a Bocor (an evil Voodoo sorcerer) and he sent the things that kill. They do what he wants and he wants blood.

Jack and Rebecca are two cops who are assigned to the case. Lavelle doesn't like this intrusion and they and jack's children are in grave danger.

This isn't a bad book. A bit far fetched and I doubt Jack would be trying to get his partner into bed when he was worried about his kids. Apart from that though it's a worthwhile read.

I just finished the last book of the boxed set: Strangers. It was fantastic. Although a long read, it went by very fast due to the character descriptions. Dean Koontz spent a long time on each character so that you get to know and like every one of them. I was so riveted by this book, I wound up staying up very late some nights and being exhausted for work the next day! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good, solid book that stays with you always.

This is one of the best Koontz novels I've read yet. He takes his usually captivating style to a new level of gripping fear.

Given that this was written a number of years before Koontz got into horror/suspense, this book is okay. It is, however, an interesting idea.

I have read quite a number of books now by Dean Koontz and enjoyed most of them. Besides some of his earlier work, the only major disappointment to me was Fear Nothing (so much so, that I haven't dared read the sequel yet; I mean, as a person who hates dogs I can only stand so many books about clever canines...; besides, the book read as a major rush job). So it was a pleasant surprise that False Memory was so gratifying. The book is full of warm characters in the typical Koontz-style and the familiar wonderful humor (where else can you find a sadistic killer complain about self-mutilation (i.e. piercings etc.) being the rage today?).

The story is wonderful and well written. OK, it is a tad long and there are the usual metaphors that sometimes work and sometimes just distract or annoy. The idea behind the story works very well, and I just can't understand the reader complaining about reading 'who did it' after just 200 out of 600 pages. I mean: in case you didn't notice, it is not a whodunit!!! Actually, the book wouldn't have worked nearly as well and turned out a major disappointment if the question who did it all was kept hidden till the last couple of pages.

For me, the book was a very enjoyable read and kept me really looking forward to his new book. Hopefully, it won't feature another smart dog...

This was my first reading of Dean Koontz, and it prompted me to read some of his other works. I was very impressed with the writing, the characterisation, and the suspense in the novel. As in some of his other works, there is a sinister quasi-government organisation, but this time it's personal. I really loved the main characters Dusty and Martie, and koontz's description of all the characters really brought them to life. The book deals with very disturbing and frightening themes like rape, child abuse, murder, and mind control, and some people could be disgusted, but the basic goodness of human beings shines through all the horror. There are other memorable characters in the book, like Dusty's half brother Skeet, the lovable self destructive addict, Fig, the monosyllabic alien hunter, Dr. Mark Ahriman, one of the most complex characters i've ever come accross in fiction, and Valet the dog, Dusty and Martie's touchstone, a fully fledged character in his own right. The action in the book mirrors that in The Lord of the Rings, the video game Martie is working on, as she and Dusty journey to a meeting with evil in their own personal Mordor. After reading the book a second time I understood the motivations a lot better and i'd reccomend this book to anyone who loves a good story and excellent writing.

Dean Koontz has done it again. Being an avid fan of the cross-genre author, and having read every book he has ever written, this is definitely his best work to date. His characters are believeable, flawed, and all-too-human. This scenario, combined with the often-complicated workings of the subconsious mind, link the reader to a very plausible situation where one's occupation as a doctor of psychiatry may not always be to help others, but to help yourself to others. The book is about Dusty, a housepainter from a rather dysfuntional family, and his wife, Martie. He and his wife live a quiet and seemingly uninteresting life, interrupted only by a suicida brother and a friend suffering from agrophobia, a fear of the outside world. Martie's childhood friend suffers inexplicable from this fear, and they are further bound by their excursions to Dr. Ahriman's office, where Susan is currently seeking help. Then, one day, Martie herself is afflicted by a strang fear of herself. Shocked at first, she is slightly amused to see herself acting so strangely...until it happens again and again. Dusty, helplessly watching his wife fall into a downward spiral of self-fear and loathing, seeks Dr. Ahriman's help for his wife. With this, however, he uncovers a web of deciet and intrigue that will keep the reader begging for more. The story is further enabled Koontz's characteristcally witty exchange between characters. The emotions behind the characters also keeps the average reader completely in step with what is happening. All too often, I had to pause for a few moments and remind myself that it was just a book! Koontz has outdone himself yet again, and I can only hope that he will continue to put out such great works of fiction unmatched even by Stephen King, who's books lack the integrity and believability that has become Koontz's trademark.

They're hiding stuff only in your worst nightmares. The typical Koontz thriller with stuff that will send chills down your spine and told from first person point of view it made it much more real.
This is from a trilogy that I haven't read otherwise, but found it easy to follow and the main character of Christopher Snow very interesting. He has a rare disease called XP, which makes him prone to skin cancer. He cannot go into the sun at all and must live his life at night or by candlelight.

The story is about him trying to find out how his parents died. They seemed to die of mysterious circumstances and the things he sees while roaming the night after his father's death sets the tone for the book. It all takes place in 48 hours. His entire life as he knew it will change. The town he loves so much is hiding a deep and dark secret that could distroy him and everything he loves.
The only people he can trust are his surfer best friend Bobby and his midnight dee-jay girlfriend Sasha and his beer lapping-almost-human dog Orson. Everyone else seems to have some kind of link to this madness and is determined to silence anyone getting in the way.
Can Chris save them all from this threat? Will his XP be a blessing in disguise or a curse far worse than he can imagine? The town of Moonlight Bay is about to become an Eden full of snakes of every size and shape.

I love how Mr. Koontz makes animals so real in his stories and almost human in a sense. Not alot of authors do this and its a nice change of pace. Orson was a blast and became one of the main characters that we cheered for. The plot was also very different and unique. Alot of reviewers had problems with the action, but I loved it and became engrossed in the story quickly. Very surprising and weird, a true Koontz book :)

Tracy Talley~@

Although not as suspenseful as "Midnight", "Fear Nothing" is a great addition to the Koontz Moonlight Bay saga. The basic plot concerns Christopher Snow, who suffers from a pigmentation disorder ('XP') that prevents him from venturing outside in the daylight. This disorder confines Snow to a nocturnal existance (described poetically in several sections by Snow) and limits his contact with the 'normal' people in his community. However, if you read "Midnight", Koontz's 1980s novel, you know that very few people are 'normal' in Moonlight Bay! Snow's parents die separately but mysteriously, and when Snow witnesses his father's body in the hospital"s "cold room" being replaced with that of a transient -- sans eyes and badly beaten -- he knows something's terribly wrong. What follows is a fast-paced nighttime adventure that introduces the reader to Orson, Snow's very intelligent dog (more intelligent than we think, due to some 'enhancement' done at a supposedly closed military base); Bobby, his 'surfer dude' friend who is so laid back that it takes the "monkeys of the apocalypse" to worry him; and Sasha, Snow's girlfriend who is more than she seems, especially when the aforementioned monkeys attack Bobby's beachfront house at the end of the novel. The only criticism I have is that Koontz makes no mention of the previous events of his central coast community -- some reference to the other biological experiments of "Midnight" would have been nice. "Fear Nothing" does not go into the depth of the genetic research that "Midnight" does, but makes up for it with a protagonist who is funny, intelligent, poetic, and very human. My suggestion for reading this novel is to do what I did: read "Fear Nothing", then go straight into "Seize the Night", which takes place only a month after the events in "Fear Nothing" conclude. The stories make more sense, and frankly, could have been combined into one novel.

I was a big fan of Dean Koontz throughout most of my teen years up till now. I first picked up a book of his when I was suspended from school for a few days and I finished that book within that time frame. The book I picked up was Dark Rivers of the Heart and it was a gripping book full of suspense and anxiety. From then on, I had read every single one of his books, loving most of them. His novels just were better suited for me, unlike Stephen Kings erratic pace and massive storyline crossovers, Dean Koontz novels followed a straight line, most of the time anyway.
I was waiting patiently when I heard about Fear Nothing coming out on paperback. I bought it the day it came out and read it in 3 days. The story was just awesome and the characters were easy to like and love. As any Dean Koontz fan knows, he loves dogs and they often become a bigger character then most people would expect. Orson, the black lab in Fear Nothing was probably the main character behind only Chris Snow. Chris's medical condition was also a unique one to me, I had never heard of it before this book (well Michael Jackson doesn't count) and it added another form of desperation for the heroes of this saga.
Another interesting thing about this book was that it was the beginning of the Apocalypse. The enemy was an unseen one, the worst kind that you could imagine. A threat of nuclear bombs and meteors are always going to be there, but what about something that changed you from within and you didn't even know it? It was a scary thought to behold and Koontz mastered the compulsive anxiety of the characters.
The pace is good, the story is good, the characters are good, and it even has a part II called Seize the Night. This is still one of my personal favorites and it is a compelling read. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do, it's a great book.
5 out of 5.