The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz (2016-05-05) Paperback – May 5, 2016

This book was very good and illuminated a very real possibility of experimenting on people and their ability to overcome deadly diseases

The Eyes of Darkness (TEOD) is a revamped version of a much earlier book by Koontz, writing under the pseudonym Leigh Nichols, from 1981. I was still in high school and had never heard of the book, nor Leigh Nichols, nor Dean Koontz. It was 1987 when I discovered Watchers and scrambled to find anything he had written previously. Like many others, I also became a fan. According to TEOD's afterward, this is the last of five books he has reissued (writing under the Nichols' name) that has been updated and slightly edited to be more relevant in the 21st century.TEOD is an utter treat. While a few areas stumbled here and there, the narrative, protagonists, antagonists, the minor characters, settings, dialogue, were all interesting without being overly wordy. This was the Koontz I remembered from 1987 onward. Not the current dreck he seems to spit out about twice a year. I found paragraphs in TEOD that ranged from 2 sentences to a whole page, with descriptions of everything from the cold, short winter days to the smells of a small-town diner to the evergreens on a snow-capped mountaintop. You actually felt like you stepped into the world his imagination had created for you.And while TEOD's plot involved a cold war-era meme reminiscent of the '70s and passed on into the early '80s, he was able to update the book to make it seem more relevant for today's times. You could feel the mother's anguish, confusion, and eventual anger: She was the Ripley from Aliens before we had a Ripley from Aliens.But don't let the cold-war sub-plot put you off. Koontz ties up that theme where it's within one's reach of believability. Just imagine the feeling you get when you watch a 007 movie from the early '80s and giggle over how silly those plots were (compared to the recent Bond films with Daniel Craig). TEOD might give you that feeling of déjà vu, sans the chuckling.Even though I know how his other book, Strangers, ends as well as the underlying plot, reading TEOD made me want to go out and find a used version of that book, or maybe Lightning, or The Bad Place. That's the other déjà vu you get. Wow, what a great writer Koontz was. The last book I read by him before TEOD was What the Night Knows: A Novel. Though not reviewed yet by me, I'd give that one 2.5 stars. It's probably one of the few books in the last decade that I enjoyed, until it went off the rails and into the supernatural. The closest Koontz comes to the supernatural are his Odd Thomas books, a blatant knockoff of The Sixth Sense (Collector's Edition Series), in my humble opinion.I also just finished another re-issue of an earlier book, The Voice of the Night, he wrote under another pen name in 1979 that was pure simplicity and sheer joy. Like TEOD, there was no preaching, no wearing one's faith on one's sleeve, no pandering to the reader, no silly dialogue just for the sake of having dialogue. Everything had a purpose, every sentence had a meaning, every character relatable, and when not, their actions understandable.I give TEOD 4.5 stars but Amazon doesn't do half stars for some reason. I highly recommend this book. It's a classic Koontz thriller and you won't be disappointed.

I couldn't put this down.... Loved the "Gu. Shoe "guy with his girl . Page turned and exciting enough that I stayed up too late to finish it. Can't wait to read the others without your own name.Thanks Dean Koontz for another great rszf.

I love this book I hope Danny story continues. Because he has a lot more stories to tell. Great job.

This is one of his older books that he wrote as Leigh Nichols, and you can tell the time period when it was written. Despite that, it's still a good read, even if the ending is a little flat.

Tina lost her son Danny a little over a year ago and got divorced not long before that. She is slowly coming to terms with her loss while she works as a show producer at a Vegas hotel. Her big production Magyck! Is about to debut. However recently she has been plagued by nightmares about Danny being buried alive or trapped and an evil presence nearby. She decides to clear out Danny's room and on his board sees the phrase not dead not dead. Other weird things also begin to happen. At the preview of her show she also meets a lawyer and there is clearly an attraction between them....Between the two of them, they will discover what is haunting her....Considering this novel was originally written in the '80s, the denouement is almost prophetic to our times (or at least the conspiracy theories of our times).....An entertaining, gripping, suspenseful novel originally published under the Leigh Nichols pseudonym where 'evil' is defeated by a mother's love.

Have read a lot of Mr. Koontz's books and found this one a real page-turner. The characters are well described, and the dialog and writing are also good. I would have given this a 5-star rating except I found the ending a bit frustrating. Lots of questions went unanswered for me, anyway. An Epilogue would have been appropriate telling what happened to the three main characters. Recommend this, however, for a good read!

The Eyes Of Darkness by Dean Koontz was a fascinating,addictive read. I had occasional chills through the second third of the book, but long lasting chills throughout the last third of the book. Read it if you dare!