Written by Dean Koontz
SUMMARY:
Released through Random House Publishing Group, this 350-page fourth installment in Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein saga was released in 2010. In the two years since the seemingly immortal Victor Helios’ (aka Dr. Victor Frankenstein) death, five survivors of his diabolical wrath have scattered and moved on with their own lives.
Deucalion (aka Frankenstein’s Monster) is hiding in a secluded California monastery where his intuition ominously senses that his insidious creator is somehow still alive. Ex-New Orleans police detective partners Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison have since married and are raising an infant daughter in San Francisco. Unable to completely settle down, the duo partakes in dangerous assignments working in tandem as private investigators.
Lastly, Victor’s last cloned wife, Erika Five, has assumed a new surname and has quietly relocated to rural Rainbow Falls, Montana, where she is eccentric Jocko’s surrogate mother. Her financial means stems from a hidden cache of money and jewels that she stole from Victor before fleeing New Orleans.
Meanwhile, the unsuspecting residents of Rainbow Falls are being systematically abducted, assimilated, and replaced by identical cyborg replicas intent on ultimately destroying the human race in favor of their own kind. These helpless small-town victims, upon becoming expendable fodder, will face horrific fates from the ‘Builders’ in this cult dubbed ‘The Community.’
Too few locals are able to elude these monstrous killers: among these ‘fugitives’ are jail escapees Mr. Lyss and mentally challenged ‘Nummy, along with hospital patient Bryce Walker. Unaware of the cult’s insidious scheme, Erika is mortified to observe that a fellow town motorist is Victor himself – somehow alive and intact (now referring to himself as ‘Victor Immaculate’). She soon realizes that one of Victor’s vile contingency plans has been initiated.
At Erika’s conscientious behest, Deucalion, along with Carson and Michael, descends upon Rainbow Falls to find and destroy this new Victor. Yet, as even more of the townspeople are captured and replaced, Victor’s five enemies find that there may be no escape this time being both vastly outnumbered and outgunned. More so, the town’s own bewildered resistance may come too little too late.
Notes: This title’s other formats are paperback, audiobook, and digitally. The novel’s immediate sequel, Dead Town, was released in 2011.
REVIEW:
Including some sporadically icky details, this next horror-fantasy thriller in the Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein franchise is likely for the established fanbase only. While Koontz’s experienced writing style is easy to grasp, one may be skeptical of how necessary this contrived sequel is … when it amounts to ‘Frankenstein’s Monster Vs. The Body Snatchers, Part I.’
Readers might like Carson and Michael’s hard-nosed yet now-married repartee, as well as the presence of Deucalion and Erika. Unfortunately, other characters definitely diminish one’s reading enjoyment. Let’s just say a little ‘Jocko’ goes a long way, and really the less said the better about the majority of Mr. Nyss & Nummy’s scenes – especially, in the town jail’s basement. As for other Rainbow Falls stock characters, Koontz’s writing conveys many of them with just enough depth, but their general expendability prevents readers from connecting with them.
A fresh relocation in scenery to Montana and briefly San Francisco from New Orleans, if anything, is welcome progress. Still, this asset doesn’t mask how the new storyline’s collection of tropes becomes too derivative of other ‘body snatcher’ genre capers. Hence, readers are expected to rely upon the franchise’s core characters to escape the sci-fi/horror cliché-fest substituting for Koontz’s lack of originality.
As a supplemental observation, growing suspicions of Koontz’s leisurely pace are confirmed at the novel’s end. It’s then no surprise that Lost Souls is merely the first installment of this ‘stay tuned’ storyline, as opposed to acknowledging this helpful tidbit on the front cover. Given a likelihood of skipping scenes (as the short chapters rotate among characters), Dean Koontz’s lukewarm Frankenstein, Book 4: Lost Souls is probably best perused as a library rental option first.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
There is a list of selected Koontz novels and an ultra-brief author biographical paragraph.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 4½ Stars
