False Memory - Dean Koontz > Reviews > Unsettling, powerful, brilliant

Author's product rating:   

Would you listen to it again?	Absolutely
Story	Good
Characters	Outstanding
Listenability	Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?	Excellent

Advantages:	A genuinely compelling novel, even though you know what's going to happen
Disadvantages:	A bit long?

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

A book which delves into the less pleasant aspects of the human psyche, it could easily descend into cliché and be a dismal failure. Instead, the book succeeds brilliantly.

The central character is Dr Mark Ahriman, a genius psychologist whose gift is put to the pursuit of power in self-centred games involving human pawns whose minds he controls with use of characters from a novel and Japanese haikus.

It's a bit creepy really, the way in which mental disorders are intentionally introduced into people. Could it happen in real life? Does it already? Best not think about that.

The good guys being toyed around with are Martie and Dusty Rhodes, whose love affair is deep and touching, and somehow permeates every part of the book. And of course, they win, though not without the odd mishap on the way. That they would was always going to happen, of course, but I greatly enjoyed seeing just how they managed it.

There's no great twist in the tale at the end, (though the way the finale plays out is slightly surprising) but that hardly matters - by then you'll be wondering about the human psyche so much you'll not notice.

Creepy, realistic and deeply engrossing - one of Koontz's finest works.