The Taking by Dean Koontz
Dean Koontz. The Taking. New York. Bantam Books: 2004.
Reason, Type and Setting
I chose to read this book because my mom had read it, and it looked pretty interesting, so I decided to give it a try. It’s an apocalyptic horror novel that takes place in a small town located in the mountains outside of San Bernadino.
Dean Koontz. The Taking. New York. Bantam Books: 2004.
Reason, Type and Setting
I chose to read this book because my mom had read it, and it looked pretty interesting, so I decided to give it a try. It’s an apocalyptic horror novel that takes place in a small town located in the mountains outside of San Bernadino.
Plot
The story follows a married couple of Molly and Neil Sloan. Molly awakens one night to notice a strange occurrence in the rain outside. She finds coyotes on her porch and walks outside. She is confused as to why the animals would try to take comfort there. She then notices the strange smell coming from the glowing rain. She realizes it smells like semen. Her husband wakes up from a nightmare and senses a presence above their house. They are compelled to head into town where they meet with fellow town members at the local bar. They notice that dense a fog has materialized. They hear that entire world is under this same threat, which they understand to be alien by now. The town members divide themselves up into several groups based on their views and intentions. They find a strange, alien fungus in the bathroom; they also find that certain people are beginning to act very strange, as if they have been influenced by the aliens. As an object is flying overhead, an inanimate object (a doll) is brought to life. The objects that are above have the ability to look inside a person and make them feel completely exposed. They then meet a dog named Virgil that can somehow communicate with Molly telepathically and leads them to find children in distress. They save the children and learn that the adults are disappearing from either floating into the sky happily or being dragged into the ground in agony. The dead also began to come to life. But in the end they are able to save the children with many other couples who saved children and were led by physic animals.
Character
Molly Sloan is the main character of this novel, who happens to be an author herself. She is fairly attractive and around thirty years old with long, dark hair. Her husband, Neil and she are a loveable couple who happen to be put into this apocalyptic situation. They are able to find comfort through each other and that is very important to Molly. Molly is very intelligent and strong willed. However, she too has her troubles. When she was around six years old, her mentally unstable father came into her classroom and killed the teacher and several of her classmates. He was imprisoned, but during the time of the novel, he recently escaped in order to find Molly. When he does confront her, she realizes that he is different than before, even more sinister. He tells her about how he killed a small boy and gets sexually excited when he thinks about this. Among all this turmoil, Molly stays pure and does all that she can to help others.
The story follows a married couple of Molly and Neil Sloan. Molly awakens one night to notice a strange occurrence in the rain outside. She finds coyotes on her porch and walks outside. She is confused as to why the animals would try to take comfort there. She then notices the strange smell coming from the glowing rain. She realizes it smells like semen. Her husband wakes up from a nightmare and senses a presence above their house. They are compelled to head into town where they meet with fellow town members at the local bar. They notice that dense a fog has materialized. They hear that entire world is under this same threat, which they understand to be alien by now. The town members divide themselves up into several groups based on their views and intentions. They find a strange, alien fungus in the bathroom; they also find that certain people are beginning to act very strange, as if they have been influenced by the aliens. As an object is flying overhead, an inanimate object (a doll) is brought to life. The objects that are above have the ability to look inside a person and make them feel completely exposed. They then meet a dog named Virgil that can somehow communicate with Molly telepathically and leads them to find children in distress. They save the children and learn that the adults are disappearing from either floating into the sky happily or being dragged into the ground in agony. The dead also began to come to life. But in the end they are able to save the children with many other couples who saved children and were led by physic animals.
Character
Molly Sloan is the main character of this novel, who happens to be an author herself. She is fairly attractive and around thirty years old with long, dark hair. Her husband, Neil and she are a loveable couple who happen to be put into this apocalyptic situation. They are able to find comfort through each other and that is very important to Molly. Molly is very intelligent and strong willed. However, she too has her troubles. When she was around six years old, her mentally unstable father came into her classroom and killed the teacher and several of her classmates. He was imprisoned, but during the time of the novel, he recently escaped in order to find Molly. When he does confront her, she realizes that he is different than before, even more sinister. He tells her about how he killed a small boy and gets sexually excited when he thinks about this. Among all this turmoil, Molly stays pure and does all that she can to help others.
Evaluation
I had a good time reading this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it because of its horror and suspense aspects, as well as the deeper, more philosophical themes throughout the story. It was very interesting in the sense that it was a page true page turner, with each page bringing new strange horrors or revelations and it also gave strong messages of hope mixed with religious values. I feel that it was extremely strange to be mix these two seemingly opposite genres into one book. This concoction didn’t go extremely smooth because it seemed a bit forced, but the author did a relatively job doing this. It made many points about life, but the true intention of the novel was sort of a modern adaptation of Noah’s Ark, in which the adult humans are taken to either heaven or hell and the children are gathered to start over. The aliens basically represent true evil. Although I am not Christian I can see how there are important values gathered from these stories and I gained a better understanding of these values and where they stem from by looking at this modern adaptation. I would possibly recommend this book to someone who is interested in thrilling, suspense novels, and enjoys being entertained, but is not bothered by cheesy aspects. Although this is decent novel, it falls short in many ways and is not anything extraordinary.
This book seems extremely farfetched and fictional, but it does include the beliefs of several religions, in which many people believe strongly in. The whole concept of the apocalypse and judgment day in which the good people are saved and the bad ones are taken down to hell. The only kinds of things that I can relate to this book are also fictional (such as “The Day the Earth Stood Still”). Many people also believe that the end of the world is supposed to be coming to an end in 2012. This book gives a pretty good depiction of what could possibly happen in this situation and how people would react. It’s not really an important book for anyone to read, but could provide someone with an interesting perspective mixed with some great horror and fiction.
I would compare myself to the character of Neil for a number of reasons. First of all because I am a strong willed person, and feel that I would act similarly in this kind of situation. I would do all that I can to protect the ones that I love and try to help out other people as well. I wouldn’t be afraid to fight of the aliens, but at the same time I would be smart about it and focus on survival rather than getting revenge on the aliens.
Author, Context and Trivia
Although I had attempted reading a book by Dean Koontz in the past, this was the first one that I got really into. Even though it wasn’t the very best book that I have read, and didn’t have the strongest, most meaningful message, I was truly entertained by this story. If you can look past the cheesiness, and think about this book with an open mind, you’ll definitely have a great time reading his work. The other Dean Koontz book that I read was called “Velocity”, but I lost interest before I really got into it. I know Dean Koontz has written many books and TV show scripts, but I haven’t really heard of any in particular. I also know that he has been considered a huge Stephen King knockoff (but not as good). I have seen several movies based on Stephen King books, and really enjoyed them. I like some aspects of Dean Koontz’s work, but feel that it could have been done better. Maybe Stephen King will be what I am looking for, so I will check out some of his work in the future. Overall, this book was a great read, and has given me some deeper understanding into the perspectives expressed in this book.
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