Darkfall

Jan 24, 2008 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of Koontz’s earliest novels that was originally titled “The Pit” by his persona Owen West, has been retitled “Darkfall” and is now published along with other Koontz titles. I picked up this paperback after reading and enjoying Koontz’s “Odd Thomas” series. The writing of “Darkfall” is just as dark and evil as I had expected.

Koontz’s use of imagery throughout the novel is outstanding. I was able to (unwillingly) step into the novel and be part of the action. I truly felt as if I was traveling...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Jane Stewart rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-suspense-thriller

3 ½ stars. Above average entertainment for fearing and fleeing demonic creatures. Not much character development.

Black magic voodoo sorcerer conjures demonic creatures to kill humans. His initial victims are connected to a mafia/mob family. Jack is a homicide detective on the case. The sorcerer is now targeting Jack’s children. The last third or so is running, escaping, and fighting the creatures and the sorcerer.

I was annoyed with Jack’s partner Rebecca. She was negative about everything, not o...more

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Jul 18, 2012 D. A. rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 19, 2010 Johnny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. New York City. Several members of a mafia family are found dead, some of them in locked rooms. Their bodies are riddled with bite marks. Jack Dawson and Rebecca Chandler are on the case, which leads to a black voodoo priest. Meanwhile, Jack’s children are being terrorized by the same creatures responsible for the murders.

The main characters are a male and female cop duo. Their story is intertwined by that of Jack’s kids. At one point, they meet up and together they reach the finale. Koontz doesn...more New York City. Several members of a mafia family are found dead, some of them in locked rooms. Their bodies are riddled with bite marks. Jack Dawson and Rebecca Chandler are on the case, which leads to a black voodoo priest. Meanwhile, Jack’s children are being terrorized by the same creatures responsible for the murders.

The main characters are a male and female cop duo. Their story is intertwined by that of Jack’s kids. At one point, they meet up and together they reach the finale. Koontz doesn’t limit this story to that of a police thriller with a supernatural edge; he included romance as well as humor to deliver what we all have come to recognize as a complete Koontz package. The characters are more than action heroes set on capturing the bad guys; they have a life next to the general plotline and that’s exactly what makes us root for them.

The villain of the piece is introduced very early on. Jack and Rebecca already know of his existence and are just trying to link the murders to him and his practices. That’s already a big part of the mystery gone. All that remains is the exact nature of the voodoo applied. For me, this takes away some of the suspense. From the beginning, we know it’s about voodoo. Had this been omitted, made part of the mystery only to be discovered halfway through, it would have given the book an extra edge.

While the inclusion of the kids gives Jack and Rebecca an extra emotional motive, they also lighten the tone of the novel. You can only have so much happen to kids until it becomes unacceptable to readers. Just look at the heavy reactions to “Night Chills”. The story told from their point of view reads as a creepy young adult novel; horror and scare tactics are included, like in “The Voice of the Night”, albeit a little less mature.

On the other hand, the switch in point of view is well done. At least here we know we’re following different characters, which wasn’t the case with “Phantoms” where the only noticeable difference in the writing was the use of other names. Of course, the much smaller cast makes it easier, as well.
“Darkness Comes”, or “Darkfall” as it is titled in the US, and especially the supernatural or occult elements it contains, always remind me of other Koontz novels like “Dragon Tears” and “Ticktock”, two books that are already very similar to begin with. As he did with the ending of “Phantoms”, Koontz starts to include religion as a very important theme. He even goes as far as to suggest heaven and hell both exist in otherdimensional forms, a theory he returns to in “From the Corner of His Eye” and which he also touches in “Seize the Night”.
(less)

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Oct 01, 2012 Leonca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

This was my fifth exposure to Koontz’s vast collection, and also the earliest written. Out of the five stories I found the least amount of emotional connection to this batch of characters, but it was still enjoyably creepy.

The ending felt a little rushed compared to the other books (Midnight, Watchers, By the Light of the Moon, Odd Thomas). I found the creepiest parts centered in the beginning and the middle, where it is building up to what the threat could be but not letting you see it yet. The...more

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May 12, 2009 Jessica rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found this book at Goodwill and thought it sounded like a great thriller. Then I got to the first scene with Jack and Rebecca and right then and there it started getting the same feeling that Phantoms gave me. Things just ended to damn conveniently for the characters. I mean, Jack can fight demons from hell summoned by voodoo because he's basically a nice guy? Really? I've only read 3 of Dean Koontz's books, but already, I'm not a fan. The Taking is an incredible book and I loved every second...more

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Apr 05, 2010 Maciek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, horror, own-in-hardcover, own-in-paperback, read-in-2010, reviewed

Darkness comes/Darkfall - 1984. This is propably the most "Mastertonian" book written by Koontz, as it deals with voodoo.
Baba Lavelle is a newcomer in town, and he's planning to take over the drug business. However, he's not your average thug - he's a Bocor, which basically means he can conjure the most wicked demons and send them after his enemies.

Koontz's use of visual imagery is outstanding. That's one of the fact I miss in his recent works. The demons, the chases are all beautifuly rendered....more

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Jun 03, 2012 Heather Boustead rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: action-adventure, crime, audiobook, horror, romance, thriller, suspense

Darkfall
By Dean Koontz

Homicide detective Jack Dawson has been thrown into the middle of a battle between a mafia family and the man who seeks revenge for the death of his brother, this is no ordinary war between factions the man who wants revenge is a Bocor a man who specializes in the the dark side of voodoo. If Jack Dawson does not stop he risks the life of his children and the woman he loves but if he does stop he will never be able to live with himself.

I know that this novel is supposed to...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-works

It is difficult for me to rate this one. I never cared for stories that get "too" strange. This one went to the extreme. However, since that is a preference, I'll set it aside for now.

What I felt should have been done much different was the start of the book. It begins when the two first murders have already been found and investigated. Where it starts a few different aspects of the story are revealed immediately. This made it so that reading the scenes about the investigations felt pointless wh...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Coffee Bean rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: supernatural

The book freely and openly canvasses on the powers and demerits of Voodoo, and if you are someone who scoffs at anything supernatural and of the dark cults like Voodoo, it would pay to keep away from this book. That stated, one should also admit that the book does cover deeper viewpoints on life and soul – the privileges one gets in leading a righteous life and the perils one faces in possessing any of the dark vices, such as greed, hatred, fear, and so on.
The lives of NY cop Jack Dawson, his p...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Jeb rated it 3 of 5 stars

This seems to be a pretty typical Koontz book. His chase and discovery descriptions are probably the best I've read of any author. He completely draws you in to the story line of horror discover:
The template is pretty straightforward:
1. seeing the gruesome facts,
2. applying conventional explanations
3. discarding the conventional explanations,
4. accepting the supernatural,
5. discovering the nature of the supernatural,
6. supernatural discover that it's now being hunted,
7. short meeting of goo...more

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Jul 29, 2010 Graceann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Koontz fans, horror fans

Shelves: suspense

This 1984 effort, released as Darkfall in the US, went beyond what I was expecting from Koontz - he shot right past suspense and into horror territory.

The novel begins with every little kid's nightmare; the monster under the bed. Penny Dawson doesn't want to tell any of the grown-ups what she's heard scrabbling away in her room, because she doesn't want them to think she's crazy. Meanwhile, her Dad is trying to solve a very strange series of "locked room mysteries."

Bringing the two threads tog...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Delicious Strawberry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dean-koontz

I'll admit - this was actually the first DK book I ever read. When I was young, I got a whole bunch of paperbacks as a hand me down. That pile wasn't sorted out despite my age - thank goodness for that. I doubt my parents would have wanted me reading this when I was ten. It's a very good book, and as I have come to read and enjoy his other books, this one stands out as one of his best (along with Lightning and False Memory)

A vendetta is simple enough - but throw in a Voodoo practitioner and some...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Suby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dean koontz makes an attempt to study the obscure religion of Voodoo and tries to imagine the concept of different dimentions in which Heaven, Hell and Earth exist. He even manages to describe some of the denizens of Hell to the best of his imagination.
This book is not for the weak hearted. The fast narrative includes some really good attempts at frightening the hell out of the readers. The suspense is superb.
All said, I learned something about Voodoo from this book. The learning from a fictio...more

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Apr 27, 2011 A.N. Vidrine rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 05, 2010 Patrick Gibson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-of-it

There was a time when I thought Dean Koontz wrote circles around Stephen King. He wasn’t famous. He had a cult following and he made you feel like you just discovered someone cool. He was the anti-King you could keep to yourself or share with a selected few. Koontz, of course, went the way of all flesh and began cranking them out and repeating himself. Fame? Well, if ‘Family Guy’ rips on you, fame has become your enemy. I haven’t read a Koontz novel since Odd Thomas became a regular character. T...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Jt Koch rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-class

I loved the beginning of this book! Exciting, Suspenseful, and more. Even the prologue, which i normally find dull in the majority of the books I read, left me waiting for more. When the "creatures" which caused the multiple murders in the book were discovered and described, it slowed down the quick- action pace of the subchapter, what would have been less than a minute in reality, took serval pages to describe a few demonic creatures confronting our protagonist, Jack. For the ending, it was dec...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio

Realizing now that this is a 25yr old novel makes a lot of sense. I knew that it was "Old Koontz" not only because of the desperate searches for pay phones but by Koontz's writing style.

A more modern Koontz these days has a bit more humor, some rare deformation or disease and there's usually an annoyingly genius kid or an even more genius dog. Here in Darkfall there was so little character development that it couldnt be Recent Koontz.

Knowing this solidifies my 3-star rating. This crime novel t...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thrillers-susp, own-book-form

Darkfall, as an early Koontz novel, is chocked full of horror, straight arrow chills, and all the things that make us look under the bed at night. The theme itself (demonic creatures?) drew me immediately and I stuck to these pages like dirt on a bar of used soap.

The plot itself isn’t overly complicated but it’s laid out in a way that allows it to come off as a semi-mystery wannabe. The ending isn’t shocking once it’s unraveled, but there’s no way in hell I could have guessed it the first few ch...more Darkfall, as an early Koontz novel, is chocked full of horror, straight arrow chills, and all the things that make us look under the bed at night. The theme itself (demonic creatures?) drew me immediately and I stuck to these pages like dirt on a bar of used soap.

The plot itself isn’t overly complicated but it’s laid out in a way that allows it to come off as a semi-mystery wannabe. The ending isn’t shocking once it’s unraveled, but there’s no way in hell I could have guessed it the first few chapters of this page-turner. From beginning to end, I was enchanted by strong characterization, creepy deaths, an odd sort of confusion, and interest to learn more. And interest, my dear readers, is the key to making a good book. Koontz has prevailed once again.

Every writer pays some sort of attention to atmosphere (although not all are impressive in their efforts), yet sometimes you don’t have to have it deep, dark, and brooding to make it work in horror. Here Koontz doesn’t spend too much time waving his magic wand to make things black and gritty; instead, his focus seems to be more on the characters. Because of this, while there are creepy moments, it doesn’t have that still sort of fear induced from other novels like his, such as "Phantoms."

The main characters are two cops, an interesting pair who are just now bringing their relationship up to ‘another level’. Jack is the main lead of the bunch, being the male partner falling in love with his female counterpart, the distant and somewhat cold seeming Rebecca with a haunting secret of her own. He is also the father of two adorable children, Penny and Davey, who bring their own sense of charm to the novel. The main villain is convincingly scripted, with a creepy personality that brings forth interesting (while morbid) antics.

The pace is swift and strong. From the beginning murder to the final chapter. There is one issue I had with this, though, and that was the ending. Too abrupt and cut off. A lot of steam building up for the final boil over...while it happens so quickly that if you blinked, you missed it.

Koontz’s style in this one is simple and yet well written. The words all flow together well, the characters are deep, the plot is follow-able and avoids confusion, and the tension/suspense strummed tightly enough.

While Darkfall delivers on many levels, it fails on a small few - one of the main issues being the ending, and the other being a somewhat light use of atmosphere when it could have been used to greater advantage. In the end though, any weakness is melted away by the strength of the book’s heat. Darkfall is a gripping, thought provoking, and moving read packed full of real people, creepy scenarios, and vivid details.(less)

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Nov 28, 2010 Becky rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned, 2010, horror, multi-dimensional, mystery-and-thrillers, religion-related, reviewed, challenge-1010

2.5 Stars
Starting this book I actually had pretty high hopes for it. A voodoo priest comes to New York for revenge and calls upon dark spirits and forces of evil to do his bidding... and all over town, people are found dead and mutilated. It starts out with some pretty creepy scenes, and the action doesn't really let up after that. If I was just judging this book on concept, action, and pace, it would be a 4 star book at least. But unfortunately, this is Dean Koontz, who manages to take a good c...more 2.5 Stars
Starting this book I actually had pretty high hopes for it. A voodoo priest comes to New York for revenge and calls upon dark spirits and forces of evil to do his bidding... and all over town, people are found dead and mutilated. It starts out with some pretty creepy scenes, and the action doesn't really let up after that. If I was just judging this book on concept, action, and pace, it would be a 4 star book at least. But unfortunately, this is Dean Koontz, who manages to take a good concept and Koontzify quite a lot of it into mind-numbing near unreadability.

By this I mean that I had some rather large issues with this book. First, Koontz shows once again that he is not a character writer. He's got two types of female characters that he just switches up between books. There's the Ball Buster Bitch and there's the Miss Independent Victim (That Needs To Love Again). Well wouldn't you know that Ol' Dean mixed it up here and gave us a 3rd type?? The BBB/Ms.IndyVictim/MamaBear! Yep. That Dean's just full of surprises!

Next, about midway through, this already disbelief-suspended plot got all lost on its way home. The evil voodoo dude forgot who he was pissed at in the first place, and switched targets and priorities and busted out all of the big guns for someone who was simply a sideline irritation to begin with... and not only this, but he created himself a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the sideline irritation becomes a major problem by boasting and taunting the NYPD. If he'd just gone about his business, he could have concluded it and been on his merry way without any issues at all. I guess that this is supposed to teach us that pride cometh before the fall, but really, all it taught me is that if I'm going to do some bad stuff, I should probably just keep a low profile about it and NOT tip off the cops to details of how to take me down. Y'know... Just sayin'. But again, this is a Koontz book - the tension and danger is more important than making actual sense.

Finally, there are authors out there who have brilliant observations on life and love and all that it entails, and communicate this wonderfully to the page in a way that provides the reader with interesting insight to their observations in a beautiful and honest way without insulting or condescending or preaching to the reader, or engaging their gag reflex. Then there are authors who are very bad at doing this, but are deluded into thinking that they are not, and write passages like this:

"...Love is the only thing that endures. Mountains are torn down, built up, torn down again over millions and millions of years. Seas dry up. Deserts give way to new seas. Time crumbles every building man erects. Great ideas are proven wrong and collapse as surely as castles and temples. But love is a force, and energy, a power. At the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card, I think love is like a ray of sunlight, traveling for all eternity through space, deeper and deeper into infinity; like that ray of light, it never ceases to exist."

(This is only part of a 3-page-or-so long emotionally motivational semi-monologue, skipped almost in its entirety by me because I couldn't stop rolling my eyes long enough to focus on the page.)

I did like the concept of Voodoo here, and how it is malleable to those who use it based on their intentions. It's like life in general this way - we each get one, and how we use it is up to us. I liked the resolution for the same reason. I liked the action and pace and the assassins (which I thought were cool). It's too bad that the issues I had were so large. This isn't a bad read if you're looking for something quick paced and interesting -- just don't be too picky about characterization or a logical plot. ;)(less)

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Dec 19, 2009 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-book-form, thrillers-susp

Darkfall, as an early Koontz novel, is chocked full of horror, straight arrow chills, and all the things that make us look under the bed at night. The theme itself (demonic creatures?) drew me immediately and I stuck to these pages like dirt on a bar of used soap.

The plot itself isn’t overly complicated but it’s laid out in a way that allows it to come off as a semi-mystery wannabe. The ending isn’t shocking once it’s unraveled, but there’s no way in hell I could have guessed it the first few ch...more Darkfall, as an early Koontz novel, is chocked full of horror, straight arrow chills, and all the things that make us look under the bed at night. The theme itself (demonic creatures?) drew me immediately and I stuck to these pages like dirt on a bar of used soap.

The plot itself isn’t overly complicated but it’s laid out in a way that allows it to come off as a semi-mystery wannabe. The ending isn’t shocking once it’s unraveled, but there’s no way in hell I could have guessed it the first few chapters of this page-turner. From beginning to end, I was enchanted by strong characterization, creepy deaths, an odd sort of confusion, and interest to learn more. And interest, my dear readers, is the key to making a good book. Koontz has prevailed once again.

Every writer pays some sort of attention to atmosphere (although not all are impressive in their efforts), yet sometimes you don’t have to have it deep, dark, and brooding to make it work in horror. Here Koontz doesn’t spend too much time waving his magic wand to make things black and gritty; instead, his focus seems to be more on the characters. Because of this, while there are creepy moments, it doesn’t have that still sort of fear induced from other novels like his, such as "Phantoms."

The main characters are two cops, an interesting pair who are just now bringing their relationship up to ‘another level’. Jack is the main lead of the bunch, being the male partner falling in love with his female counterpart, the distant and somewhat cold seeming Rebecca with a haunting secret of her own. He is also the father of two adorable children, Penny and Davey, who bring their own sense of charm to the novel. The main villain is convincingly scripted, with a creepy personality that brings forth interesting (while morbid) antics.

The pace is swift and strong. From the beginning murder to the final chapter. There is one issue I had with this, though, and that was the ending. Too abrupt and cut off. A lot of steam building up for the final boil over...while it happens so quickly that if you blinked, you missed it.

Koontz’s style in this one is simple and yet well written. The words all flow together well, the characters are deep, the plot is follow-able and avoids confusion, and the tension/suspense strummed tightly enough.

While Darkfall delivers on many levels, it fails on a small few - one of the main issues being the ending, and the other being a somewhat light use of atmosphere when it could have been used to greater advantage. In the end though, any weakness is melted away by the strength of the book’s heat. Darkfall is a gripping, thought provoking, and moving read packed full of real people, creepy scenarios, and vivid details.(less)

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Aug 19, 2009 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, audiobooks, dean-koontz, 20th-century-fiction

I read this as a teenager and, from memory alone, initially ranked it four stars. Very recently I revisited Darkfall as an audiobook and had to revamp my rating to three stars. Great beasties, excellent climactic sequence, the most interesting character is an 11-year old girl, which probably explains why teenaged me liked the book better than adult me. My big beef this time was the adult female character. Koontz tries so hard not to make her a mewling, helpless female (yay!) that he actually mak...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to give this 3 1/2 starts. It was a difficult to put down story of the gruesome killings of a crime family in New York. The investigating detective feels there is a voodoo connection. At the same time, the detective's children are being harassed by unseen forces. This book reminded me of a Stephen King novel where you can't put it down even though it creeps you out. I would have rated this higher except the ending is just too abrupt and a little too pat for my taste.

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Jan 29, 2012 Umut Babilon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Actually, why I like reading Koontz is, his style is not so similar with Stephen King (I love King, by the way), another style which is interesting that he got. On the other hand, in Darkfall, I really thought that I had been reading Stephen King. Maybe it's because of the "vodoo" which is the main subject in many actions in the book.
I have to say that, even Darkfall feels like you are reading Stephen King, it's good book. You should check if you have not read it yet.

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Dec 10, 2012 StrangeBedfellows rated it 3 of 5 stars

Of all the Koontz books I've ever read, this one has always remained my favorite. Perhaps because the whole voodoo-demon concept made for a spooky, thrilling tale. Perhaps because Jack was such a likable character. In any case, I've read this several times -- which is well outside the norm with this author. One gripe I do have, though, is the characterizations of Jack's two kids. I found their points of view too childish, unrealistically so.

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Sep 30, 2012 Barbara Andrews rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The characters were very well developed. The book had my attention from the beginning with the initial murders that seemed to be the work of a true psychopath. Slowly Koontz opens the door to the supernatural and thus opens the...... I enjoyed this book and would compare it to King. There is great use of tension and suspense. This book will make you keep your vents clean. Once you read it you will understand that comment. I highly recommend Darkfall.

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May 02, 2009 Margo Kelly rated it 1 of 5 stars

Oh, I am so sad to say, I couldn't finish this Koontz book. I have finished not only most of his books but also, most of all books I start. However, about half way through, and two weeks of reading, I realized I just wasn't enjoying this book.

This was one of his earlier books (from the 1980's) published under another name.

It just had too many evil rats formed by evil voodoo, and I realized, I don't want to read this - ick. Plus, the language was bad too.

I'm disappointed.

Now I need to read a book...more

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Jan 13, 2009 Super rated it 3 of 5 stars

This will be my 10th Dean Koontz book. Just downloaded the ebook (January 5th 2009) after reading many recommendations on this site, and am looking forward to beginning this one right after breakfast tomorrow! I know it's an older Koontz work, but I'm anticiapting a great read none the less. :)

Update: Finished the book on 1-13-09 while on a break at work. Was a good read as expected from Koontz, and while not my favorite from Dean, sure kept me reading until the last page! :)

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Aug 12, 2011 Quintin Merwe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another page-turner! Very good story line and kept me riveted until the end. I have to say that the end was a bit 'unfinished' even though it seemed to have dragged on and on. I can't really put my finger on why the ending wasn't as good as I think it should have been.
There were also a few parts I thought were a bit cliche and predictable, but overall a very good read that I would definitely recommend to my friends.

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Apr 13, 2008 Brett rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Darkfall by Dean Koontz. I had no idea what this book was about when I started it, and declined to read the synopsis so I could have the "joy" of nosing the plot out for myself. Well, I'll spoil it for you: it's about a voodoo practitioner that opens the gates of hell a bit and lets out some weird stuff that terrorizes the family of a policeman that is trying to catch said voodoo practitioner for his connection to some murders. Now, this sounds like exactly that kind of thing that I might get so...more

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