Phantoms
Dean Koontz


CLOSER... They found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred and fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowden, California.
AND CLOSER... At first they thought it was the work of a maniac. Or terrorists. Or toxic contamination. Or a bizarre new disease.
AND CLOSER... But then they found the truth. And they saw it in the flesh. And it was worse than anything any of them had ever imagined.

While Phantoms also comes in a convenient movie form, I would recommend reading the novel before seeing the movie. Not only is the novel far superior, but there are minor differences and, well, it's always best to read the novel first.

Phantoms deviates from the traditional Dean Koontz formula of people on the run - probably because this was one of his earlier novels. And for one of the earlier ones, it is quite impressive. Even if it was one of the newer ones, it would still be rather impressive.

A doctor and her sister come back to a small sleepy town only to find it abandoned. Either every single citizen is dead (and freshly so) or gone. The police move in, but aren't much of a help when they find out that the reason behind this is a creature so old that it thinks itself to be Satan.

Their main hope comes in the form of a writer who has written a book on this creature - and has intrigued the creature to the point where he is offered free passage so that he may write more about this thing.

It's ancient, it's evil, and it's amazingly intelligent. It also is amorphous and seemingly cannot be killed. It can take any form it wishes and its touch burns with acid.

So, how will the doctor, her sister, and the police make it out alive? That is the meat of this novel and it's rather impressive meat to be certain.

I would highly recommend this book both to Koontz fans and to those who have never read his works.

My rating: Five out of five snails.