Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Dead and Alive (Book 3)

Dead and Alive (Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, #3)Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this instalment, Deucalion, Carson, and Madison are steadily moving toward stopping Victor and his bid to take over the world. Victor's problem is that his creations are all turning into Pinky to his Brain. He is so bound by his own arrogance that he is incapable of taking steps to correct the errors. His downfall is inevitable, because he just can't admit that he isn't perfect. With everything going wrong around him, he finds more and more creative reasons why none of this is his fault.

Erika Five (Victor's wife) has become a central figure in this story line. She stumbles upon a secret passage in the library that leads to a private study. In the study is a large, coffin-like glass box with "something" in it. Something that actually speaks to her. When she brings Jocko (Jonathan Harker's child from book 1) to see the secret room. Erika and Jocko have become friends and she wants his opinion about the mysterious box. Jocko is pretty sure that whatever is in the box is bad and they should just leave it alone.

Deucalion visits Victor's Angel of Mercy Hospital and discovers that Victor's creations are imploding much quicker than anticipated. He finds and speaks with Victor's computer operating system, and when he learns that the computer is partly organic he "frees" her from her prison by shutting the system down. The computer is grateful, but she follows her fail-safe instruction by starting the self-destruct count-down. Victor goes back to the Hospital that evening only to find that everything will be destroyed. He grabs his computer back-ups and heads out to his new race factory outside the city. Deucalion, Carson, and Madison are on their way to the factory as well, and the final confrontation will occur there.

I enjoyed this novel very much. I really liked the developing relationship between Carson and Madison, and the one between Jocko and Erika. Watching Victor's plans unravel and his utter confusion about it was fascinating. For me this was a satisfying read, and I recommend it. I'm really looking forward to Book 4: Lost Souls.

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