Dean Koontz - Dead and Alive

Finally after three years of waiting I have wrapped up the Dean Koontz Frankenstein trilogy!

For those who don't know the third book was due to be released a couple of years back but Koontz' writing about the world coming to an end in New Orleans co-incided with Hurricane Katrina. He decided that it would be a little tastelesss to release the conclusive book so it was held back.

For those who don't know the background to the series, Koontz provides his own take on the Frankenstein tale. Victor Helios - aka Frankenstein - is alive and well and busy building a super "New" Race to replace humanity. However his plans go awry as his creations begin to suffer a series of "malfunctions" and he rapidly begins to lose control.

New Orleans is on the brink of collapse and the only thing standing between the pending havoc are two police detectives and Helios' first creation who has come back to extract revenge.

The book itself was very readable and I got through it quite quickly but I felt it lacked some of the intrigue and punch of the first two books. The conclusion wasn't bad but felt a bit disjointed in getting there. I almost got the sense that Koontz had put in too many characters (presumably to emphasise the havoc) and it all fell apart a bit.

I was almost expecting a tale of running gun battles in the street as the Old Race defended themselves against the New Race but it didn't quite build up enough urgency to get to that point.

Title: Dead or Alive - Book 3
Author: Dean Koontz
ISBN: 978-0-00-720311-6

Rated the book a 3 out of 5 but the first two books are essential reading.

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