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