Watchers

I am almost 78 years old, with Alzheimer's, and rereading a book as good as this just makes my day! I read many of Koontz's books, but when he started the Odd Thomas series, things just started going bad. The books got darker and darker, the villains became more and more vicious and amoral and I just stopped, for the same reason I don't read Stephen King or watch horror movies. There is just too much real horror in the world for me to bathe in it.

Watchers by Dean Koontz is one of my all time favorite books. I have read this story so many times over the last 30 years or so, that I have lost count of the number of times I have read it. Each time I read it, I enjoy it all over again! I bought three copies of the paperback to make sure I always had it to read. Over time I gave away two of my beloved copies to friends. When I saw the opportunity to acquire the E-book copy, I bought it immediately. What can I say about this amazing story? Extraordinary story! Unbelievable frightening plot! Your heart will be pounding as you read from one frightening event to the next! Can the hero and heroine and the star of the book, a beautiful, intelligent dog, survive an unbelievable terrifying alien enemy and a nasty, cruel human enemy! All I can say is you must read this book! It is one of the very best ever written by Dean Koontz - if not his best in my opinion. One additional note. This book has had THREE movies made with this story as the basis of the movies. The first one filmed, has the star as a teenager (when in the book the male here is an adult in his 30s) with of course a teenage female friend and the dog. I strongly suggest you read the book! The movie does not do the book justice AT ALL and certainly doesn't include the story as it is written! What is worse, the next two remakes of this amazing story got so far from the book's story that the makers should be ashamed naming those two films after this great book. SO, if you see any movie called "Watchers" with a credit to the author Dean Koontz, be aware the films do NOT reflect the true story in the book!

I mean, what's not to love about a super smart dog...or any dog, for that matter. Even found myself feeling bad for The Outsider once I read his backstory. But all the OTHER backstories, that ran on FOREVER AND EVER...made me want to pull my hair out. That and the fact that every time the story was about to get interesting again, the momentum came to a screeching halt because the author had to throw in the landscape, the decor of EVERY ROOM, what everyone had to EAT (at every meal), what they were wearing, what they dreamed about.....Well, you get the gist. Nothing makes me more frustrated than having to skip pages just to stay with the story.I understand the need for character development. But dang. Wasting 25% of the story on how oppressed Nora (the girlfriend) had been, or how she was coping with her new hairdo and designer dresses, was pure torture.

This book blasphemes the name of my savior and The son of God 37 times. This offends and saddens me. Unfortunately this seems to be a trend in books and movies the past decade or so. I wish Mr. Koontz could do better.

Loved this book when it was written and loved it all over again when I purchased it on my Kindle. Delightfully scary, touching, profound, funny, mesmerizing book whose characters will pull on your heart strings and stay with you forever! Einstein AKA fur face is the best fictional dog I've ever met - he defines "Unforgettable". Everything Koontz says in his afterward is true because I've had the same conversations with my fellow readers about Watchers many of whom are now also planning to go back and revisit. This is Koontz at his best and a classic! And if wishes were horses...there would someday be a sequel!

..the opening of the story was just right, it had a great creepy feel, but I could only make it halfway through the book. I just had to stop, it's just become too silly. At the halfway point, the story has basically turned into a Scooby Doo episode. Scooby & the Gang meet the genetically-altered monster.Even without finishing the book, I can pretty confidently say that I know exactly how the story going to end.

The characters ... and honestly, much of the plot, are the literary equivalent of carnival caricatures. Every feature grossly exaggerated. And just how many times do we have to be reminded that Nora is cripplingly shy and withdrawn (but decades of abuse just melt away in weeks under Travis's tender guidance - gag), or that Cliff is a stereotypical bullnecked sheriff, or Vincent is a psychopath? Yet every time those characters come up, you'll be beat over the head with it.The author has no ability to show you anything, the narrator tells you everything in excruciating detail - and with some fetish for botany apparently, as every tree or flower in view is named and described. You'll learn to skim by paragraphs and pages at a time to find content that moves the story forward. I don't necessarily mind verbose narrators, but Mr Koontz doesn't have the knack. It's just dry description, or internal dialog. And the low reading level adds to the tedium.And then some of the stuff is just stupid. Mr Koontz apparently has no idea what the NSA actually does. Or how security works - you can't lock someone up for innocently figuring out some national security secret that they've never been sworn to protect, as Lem keeps suggesting. Nora and Travis take weeks to figure out how to have this brilliant dog answer yes/no questions.I gave up about halfway through, and I rarely give up on a book. But when you're just flipping through pages, what's the point? I'm glad I got this on an Amazon promotion and only paid $1.99 for it.

After reading an incredibly poor thriller novel from an upcoming author (won't name it) I needed to get the bad taste out of my mouth. I never read a Dean Koontz novel but knew he was meant to be pretty good at what he does. I bought this book totally on a whim, didn't even read the description or know a thing about it. Just picked at random.I think not knowing what the book was about made me love it even more. Everything, about this book is beautifully masterful and I can see why this is his most celebrated work. It's an enthralling and meticulously paced story with well-developed characters brimming with life, moving and engrossing prose, and a heart-thumping climax that had me SWEATING in the bed. Some part of this book even made me tearful, I had completely reached a state of hypnosis whereby the words on the pages melted away and I was no longer reading a novel, but in the world of WATCHERS.The plot is so well handled from the perspective of multiple characters. At first, you have no clue where it's going for the first quarter (even more exciting when you know nothing about the plot!) and it all melds together so well and congruently. All in all, this is an excellent story of love, adventure, and Labradors.

Dean Koontz has not just written another excellent novel. In my opinion he has outdone himself with Watchers.Will he ever be able to outstrip or even match what I think is his best ever work? We will have to wait and see.If you have never read any of his books I seriously urge you to read Watchers. Be prepared for long sessions of reading as I do not think you will find it easy to stop reading.I never give 5 stars hut just had to with this book.Enjoy........

If you've ever had a dog in your family you will be able to relate to furface, yes the main character is a dog.....a good dog at that. but where there is good there also has to be bad, which takes the form of...…. well something else. The watchers is a book with a difference, I could explain what it's about but I wouldn't be able to do it justice, lets just say it's about companionship and the unknown, a dog that is cleverer than a 'clever dog'. The Watchers is very suspenseful and keeps you guessing, I love the way friends come together but at the same time you know something is out there, something that is looking for something….something that is close to you.

I have read D KOONTZ books for many years now, in fact I suppose decades really.WATCHERS has to be one of the best.If you love dogs and Koontz certainly does, especially a retriever, read onHyper intelligent after genetic engineering, I actually had one, bar the engineering.Compulsory bad guys covering up corrupt / warped government secret agencies.It's all there.I read an awful lot and books that keep going, where you have to finish a paragraph / page chapter simply to keep going are becoming less common.This Book is an exception, A read for all ages that will keep the pages turning.I have read it in paperback, hardback, on the Kindle and listened on audio cd.If you read this book once YOU WILL READ IT AGAIN

What a great book. An oldy but a goody. Reading it in 2020 in no way detracted from the enjoyment of it... just gave it a retro feel. Mr Koontz and his love of golden retrievers sits very well with my love of Labradors. I adore a dog as a main character and this book will appeal to anyone who's ever enjoyed a close bond with a dog as it allows us to entertain the idea of a deeper level of communication with the most loyal creatures on earth. There's also a healthy dose of pure gory horror and dastardly baddies commiting beastly crimes. And running through it is a sweet love story . Everything I needed to make me happy