The Vision - Dean Koontz

...although I was aware of the fact that it wasn't a great writer, his books seemed a good fun. No more. 'The Vision" proves that Dean Koontz has worse days at times.And it must have been one of those unfortunate spells of worse days when Dean wrote that book. It begins quite promising - a young women who posseses special psychic powers, she is a clairvoyant, is employed by the police to help track down serial killers. Obviously a cliche, but a ...
...story. Then, it gets darker, the woman is forced to face a dangerous enemy, a super psycho probably endowed with the same psychic powers as hers and disturbingly connected to the painful memories of her childhood. At the age of six, she was a victim of a child molester who tortured her, but most of the terrible recollections have been suppressed deeply in her subconscious.

Anyway, it sounds a little bit like I've heard that many times ... more

Having read that book I must say I was a little disappointed. After reading two of Dean Koontz's books I got accustomed to his storytelling skills and although I was aware of the fact that it wasn't a great writer, his books seemed a good fun. No more. 'The Vision" proves that Dean Koontz has worse days at times.And it must have been one of those unfortunate spells of worse days when Dean wrote that book. It begins quite promising - a young women who posseses special psychic powers, she is a clairvoyant, is employed by the police to help track down serial killers. Obviously a cliche, but a cliche on which a skillful writer is able to conceive quite an interesting, appealing and convincing story. Then, it gets darker, the woman is forced to face a dangerous enemy, a super psycho probably endowed with the same psychic powers as hers and disturbingly connected to the painful memories of her childhood. At the age of six, she was a victim of a child molester who tortured her, but most of the terrible recollections have been suppressed deeply in her subconscious.

Anyway, it sounds a little bit like I've heard that many times before, but still an able storyteller can make a good book here. And Koontz usually delivers. But not this time. From the very beginning it is pretty obvious who's the bad guy. Well, if not from the beginning then after a several pages.But that's not all. The fact the Koontz's characters seem quite similar no matter which book you are reading doesn't bother me at all. In the end, thrillers are meant to be that way - the characters are of less importance - the plot - this is what counts. However, they must be believable to certain degree. And in Koontz's case, they usually are. Again, not this time. This time we have the story which doesn't hold together at all, and the female character taken from the third rate romance. Still, if you have a few free hours and nothing better to do, you may find that book a nice time killer, but nothing more. 

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