False Memory - Hardcover

Koontz, Dean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 055310666X ISBN 13: 9780553106664

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1999

Synopsis

While struggling to help an agoraphobic friend cope, Martie Rhodes, a young video game designer, suddenly falls prey to her own traumatic autophobia, a fear of herself, and when her husband tries to uncover the roots of her problem, he comes face to face with an enigmatic therapist and his own bizarre nightmare.

About this title

Review:

Not a continuation of the "Moonlight Bay" series (Seize the Night and Fear Nothing) as many fans were expecting, False Memory is nonetheless just as powerful and compulsive as anything he has written before.

Martie Rhodes is a successful young computer games designer with a loving husband, Dusty, and a seemingly normal life. Her best friend, Susan, however, suffers from agoraphobia, (fear of open spaces), and relies on Martie to get to her weekly therapy sessions. Suddenly and inexplicably, Martie herself begins exhibiting worrying signs of a mental disorder, fearing herself capable of inflicting great harm on her loved ones. At the same time, Dusty's brother Skeet also succumbs to irrational mental behaviour and tries to throw himself from a roof. It soon becomes clear that the four are involved in something much more than a sinister coincidence.

Koontz's great skill, as he demonstrates so well in this novel, is creating believable characters and thrusting them into seemingly impossible but--for the period of the story--completely plausible situations. The plot is as carefully layered as the most intricate orchestral compositions and Koontz conducts the proceedings with almost unbearable tension. One of his greatest abilities as a writer, however, is tapping into the dark paranoia of society. Living in an age where we are becoming increasingly desensitised to death and violence, Martie's fear of herself, known as autophobia, seems a terrifying warning that soon the only thing we will have left to fear is ourselves.

Deeper meanings aside, this is easily one of his best thrillers. The prose moves at a breakneck speed and the denouement will leave you with a pounding heart and chill down your spine. Koontz delivers exciting, boundary breaking fiction better than anyone else in the game and False Memory (though at times shocking and disturbing), is a perfect example of a master author in top form. --Jonathan Weir

Review:

`Not just a master of our darkest dreams but also a literary juggler` (The Times)

PRAISE FOR FALSE MEMORY

`Koontz redefines suspense` (The Times)

'A very readable, fairly ingenious and completely preposterous story' Mail On Sunday

`Koontz`s style bleaches out clichés while showing a genius for detail` (Publishers Weekly)

'A compulsive nail-biter of a thriller-cum-love story that will satisfy Koontz's legion of fans' Caravan Magazine

GENERAL
`Not just a master of our darkest dreams but also a literary juggler` The Times

`Koontz`s art is making the reader believe the impossible... sit back and enjoy it` (Sunday Telegraph)

`A master of the thriller genre` (Washington Post)

`Koontz redefines suspense` The Times

`He combines rich, evocative prose, some of the warmest - and also some of the most despicable - characters to be found in fiction, technical speculations that seem to come directly from today`s headlines and a sense of on-the-edge-of-the-seat pacing to create thrillers that are not just convincing, but thought-provoking as well` (Mystery Scene)

`Koontz`s style bleaches out clichés while showing a genius for detail` Publishers Weekly

`A moral fable for the turn of the millennium, an engagingly written, hugely entertaining parable for our times` (The Times)

`Koontz`s art is making the reader believe the impossible... sit back and enjoy it` Sunday Telegraph

`A master of the thriller genre` Washington Post

`Fast and furious... like a hospital trolley on a toboggan run` (Mail on Sunday)

`He combines rich, evocative prose, some of the warmest - and also some of the most despicable - characters to be found in fiction, technical speculations that seem to come directly from today`s headlines and a sense of on-the-edge-of-the-seat pacing to create thrillers that are not just convincing, but thought-provoking as well` Mystery Scene

`Koontz presents a unique fictional world well-grounded in convincing detail. Readers will be riveted to the narrative. Koontz`s familiar theme of life`s victims surviving the odds emerges here as forcefully as it does in SOLE SURVIVOR and INTENSITY, but Snow`s physical limitations give it a more dangerous and intriguing edge` (Publishers Weekly)

`A moral fable for the turn of the millennium, an engagingly written, hugely entertaining parable for our times` The Times

Praise for FEAR NOTHING

`Fast and furious... like a hospital trolley on a toboggan run` Mail on Sunday

`Koontz presents a unique fictional world well-grounded in convincing detail. Readers will be riveted to the narrative. Koontz`s familiar theme of life`s victims surviving the odds emerges here as forcefully as it does in SOLE SURVIVOR and INTENSITY, but Snow`s physical limitations give it a more dangerous and intriguing edge` Publishers Weekly

`Plausibly chilling... Koontz at his best` Express on Sunday

`Koontz is working right where popular culture swells into something larger, just as it did for Homer, Shakespeare and Dickens. He`s got the gift` The Weekend Australian

`Koontz can really spook, and his dialogue and pacing rival the best` New York Post

Praise for SOLE SURVIVOR

`Masterfully styled, serious entertainment. These are Koontz`s great years` Kirkus Reviews

`Koontz has bridged the commercial gap between the occultism of Stephen King and the scientism of Michael Crichton` Publishers Weekly

`This is a book to keep you awake reading long into the night, but for once not afraid to turn out the light... Nice one, Mr Koontz` The Times

`A fast-paced read` Mail on Sunday

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 055310666X
• ISBN 13: 9780553106664
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 627