Slow to start, ending wrapped up much too fast. There were some strange characters that I am not sure were needed or maybe I don't see how they fit in the series yet. I recall the first two books being much better. ( )

3rd book in the series and much much better than the 2nd one. This time the mutant New Race gets even crazier as well as some new villians both to Victor and Deucalion. Loved Jocko and I'm glad he'll be back in the 4th book. All in all a great read and I couldn't stop reading it because I had to know how it would end! Eek a clone!! ( )

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Title: Dead and Alive
Series: Frankenstein #3
Author: Dean Koontz
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 372
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Victor Helios' empire is crumbling. His new humans are all going insane, or changing in unexpected and uncontrolled ways. Murderous rampages, multiple genetic reorganizations, it is not good news for Victor. Then he gets a call from Wife #4, who he killed. Only she's not dead, but alive and well in the dump and the creature that brought her back to life wants to confront Victor and destroy him.

The two cops, buddies slash romance partners, whose names I can't even remember, are in touch with Deucalion and just drive around until it is time to meet up at the Dump. They have a “spiritual” moment, witness the end of the Victor and then get married, have a baby and start their own detective agency.

Deucalion steps through shadows, gets in touch with the freed new humans at the Dump and witnesses the end of Victor.

Victor denies that anything bad is happening, allows himself to be captured by the freed new humans and then dies. This sends a signal to some satellites in the sky which transmits a code and all the new humans, including the Dump Monster, die. Even though the coded deathkey didn't work when Victor spoke it earlier.

My Thoughts:

This was a mess of a story. Everything was so rushed and completely unbelievable. That is coming from within a story about Frankenstein for goodness sake. And don't give me crap about “Frankenstein's Monster”. Koontz might sidestep it by calling him Deucalion, but since the series title is Frankenstein, yeah, I rest my case.

These books started out interesting, with Victor Helios being one bad ass badguy. The newhumans were real threats and things looked grim at the best. But Victor pretty much going insane and believing his own reality instead of what was actually going on really wrecked the whole villain vibe. I am hesitant to assign a motive to Koontz but I wonder if he was simply trying to show how pride can blind and ultimately destroy even the most brilliant being? I know that Koontz is Catholic and the parallels with Satan are unmistakable, but am I reading my own ideas into this? I simply don't know.

Cop1 and Cop2 have guns, guns and guns and super ammo and only get to fight against two insane newhumans. Both of whom are naked. Cop2, the male, makes a big deal about the newhuman woman being naked. It didn't quite get into slimeball territory but it definitely didn't fit with “The End of Humanity as We Know It”. If you're running for your life, are you really going to notice how tight some woman's butt is? Especially when that woman is covered in blood, running faster than your car and trying to kill you with her barehands? If so, you really, really, really need to check your priorities.

There are 2 more books in this series and I do plan on reading them. I just hope they are standalones so that Koontz can pace himself a little better. As a trilogy I wouldn't recommend this series but I'll wait until the final book to see if this book was just the weak link or indicative of the overall direction.

★★☆☆½ ( )

Modern day, New Orleans... two men emerge with new identities -- but old habits are hard to break. Once again, the doctor has begun his sinister experiments of creating life. Two detectives, Carson O'Connor and Michael Maddison, are investigating a serial killer and are thrust into the middle of an enigma that began over two hundred years prior. This case may well be the end of humanity as we know it.

The two detectives, however, receive aid from the most unlikely of sources -- a heavily tattooed man named, Deucalion. The killer is targeting those who have the human traits he lacks...and this is a pattern Deucalion has seen before. Deucalion, was Dr Frankenstein's first attempt at creating the perfect human. Now, a breed of super humans roam the streets of New Orleans. These killers are stronger, faster, smarter, and able to regenerate themselves -- and Victor Helios is no longer able to control them.

This series is just not Dean Koontz. It lacks all the imagination of any of his previous novels. Actually it's worse than the first two in this series. I didn't like those so why I read this one is any one's guess.

Sorry Dean. 2 stars. Just go back to writing what you are so good at. ( )

What a tremendous disappointment!

I've become more and more disillusioned with Dean Koontz's work. He often starts with an intriguing idea and then fails in the execution.

I moderately enjoyed the first two books in the series. Frankenstein's monster lives, develops a conscience, and is out to save the world. What's not to like?

This book builds up a huge expectation for a grand finale. And utterly, completely FLOPS. No big finish. No heroes. No satisfying integration of a bunch of tank grown monsters into human society. A weird and totally unnecessary and unbelievable supernatural garbage monster that telepathically fixes stuff.

AND no big ending.

Overall rating for the series? PHHHHFFFFTTTTTT! ( )