Seize the Night (Moonlight Bay Series, #2)

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Seize the Night (Moonlight Bay #2)

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 13,533 ratings · 304 reviews

There are no rules in the dark, no place to feel safe, no escape from the shadows. But to save the day, you must...Seize the Night.

At no time does Moonlight Bay look more beautiful than at night. Yet it is precisely then that the secluded little town reveals its menace. Now children are disappearing. From their homes. From the streets. And there's nothing their families ca...more

Paperback, 443 pages

Published December 1st 1999 by Bantam (first published January 1st 1998)

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Dec 15, 2010 ErinBeth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-read, 2010-bought, 1-adult-books

Not my favorite Dean Koontz book; I found myself getting annoyed with all the analyzing the main character does; it seems that every time anything happens, the narrator goes off into another long explanation which is supposed to be him guessing what is going on and philosophizing about what it all means, etc. This is ok at first but after awhile it gets to be way too much.

Also, the characters didn't seem real to me. I like the idea of having characters who do selfless acts for others, etc. But t...more

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Aug 05, 2011 Wendy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read "Seize the Night" before reading "Fear Nothing" simply because I picked it up at Target and didn't realize it was a sequel. I proceeded to read it in one day (staying up into the wee hours) and then spent the next day hunting down "Fear Nothing".

I loved everything about this book. The characters, the setting, the backstory, the dialogue...there was not one thing I would change. I remember sitting there re-reading the scene in the egg room over and over-it was unlike anything I had ever im...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are no rules in the dark, no place to feel safe, no escape from the shadows. But to save the day, you must...Seize the Night.

At no time does Moonlight Bay look more beautiful than at night. Yet it is precisely then that the secluded little town reveals its menace. Now children are disappearing. From their homes. From the streets. And there's nothing their families can do about it. Because in Moonlight Bay, the police work their hardest to conceal crimes and silence victims. No matter what

...more

There are no rules in the dark, no place to feel safe, no escape from the shadows. But to save the day, you must...Seize the Night.

Christopher Snow isn't afraid of the dark. Forced to live in the shadows because of a rare genetic disorder, he knows the night world better than anyone. He believes the lost children are still alive and that their disappearance is connected to the town's most carefully kept, most ominous secret—a secret only he can uncover, a secret that will force him to confront an adversary at one with the most dangerous darkness of all. The darkness inside the human heart.

Amazon.com Review

Chris Snow, the light-phobic, oddball hero of Dean Koontz's Fear Nothing, is once again caught in the middle of something ugly. The children (and pets) of Moonlight Bay, California, are disappearing. The first to go is Jimmy Wing, the son of Snow's former girlfriend, Lilly. Then Snow's own hyper-intelligent dog goes missing. Snow decides that he will find them, but what he uncovers is more than just a simple kidnapping; before he can turn back, he's up against an age-old vendetta, an active time machine, and a genetic experiment gone awry.

Seize the Night offers up the same eclectic mix of characters that appeared in Fear Nothing: boardhead Bobby, disc jockey Sasha, Snow, and all of their friends band together to find the missing kids and figure out why the people of Moonlight Bay are morphing into demonic versions of their former selves. They outsmart corrupt cops, outrun genetically enhanced monkeys, and outlive a time warp with a vengeance--all between nightfall and sunrise, the only time that Snow can be outside.

Though the premise is a little bit hard to believe, and the surf lingo occasionally irritating, Seize the Night is ultimately fun to read. Koontz successfully draws you in and keeps you entertained through an unexpected climax and an enlightening resolution. --Mara Friedman

From Publishers Weekly

No bestselling suspense novelist creates magnetic characters as consistently as Koontz does. In last year's Fear Nothing, this veteran author presented his most memorable figures yet: hero/narrator Christopher Snow, whose genetic affliction forces him to shun light; Chris's sidekick, the ultracool surfing dude Bobby; and ultrasmart dog Orson, a product of scientific experiments gone awry at Fort Wyvern in Chris's coastal California town. In this independent-minded sequel, the second novel of a trilogy, the wonderfully delineated loyalties among these characters and others will win readers' hearts as Koontz plunges his cast into terror. Koontz moves the trilogy's overarching plot in a wholly unexpected direction, pursuing not the experiments that begat Orson but a parallel time-travel/disruption experiment. The gambit feels a bit arbitrary, but it voids the attenuation that plagues many middle volumes. The story begins right after that of Fear Nothing, when Chris learns that children have been abducted to the Fort. Soon Orson is gone as well, but he's replaced smartly by Mungojerrie, the clever cat introduced in volume one. Set mostly at the abandoned Fort, as Chris and company search for the missing kids and dog, the novel proves supernally spooky (and, at times, surprisingly?deliberately?humorous). The suspense soars, culminating in a volcanic if somewhat confusing eruption of action climaxes. A principal villain makes a late appearance, but he's not as menacing as Fear Nothing's fiendish monkey troops, who also show up. Though not as seamlessly constructed as Fear Nothing, this novel stands as vintage Koontz, a rousing crowd-pleaser that recapitulates some of his recurrent themes?the pain of the outsider; the power of love; the threat of scientism?while sturdily continuing a trilogy that's shaping up as his masterwork. Simultaneous BDD audio. (Feb.; on sale 12/29).
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Feb 28, 2010 Matt Barker rated it 4 of 5 stars

An excellent follow-up to Fear Nothing. I liked both of these books very much, but this one was a bit scarier than the first. Definitely recommended!

Publisher's Summary

Moonlight Bay, California: a safe, secluded small town that is at its most picturesque in the gentle nighttimes that inspired its name. But now, somewhere in the night, children are disappearing.

When he sets out to find the missing five-year-old son of a former sweetheart, Christopher Snow believes that the lost children are still...more

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Jan 20, 2009 Stefanie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Review originally and more completely published at http://www0.epinions.com/review/Seize...

In Fear Nothing, Koontz introduced us to Christopher Snow, a 28 year old man who had been born with the bizarre and rare genetic disorder xeroderma pigmentosum (XP). Victims of XP are extremely sensitive to cancers of the skin and eyes, and even momentary exposure to light is cumulative, so eventually could prove fatal. Because of this Chris continually avoids the light of day, and leads the vampire’s life...more Review originally and more completely published at http://www0.epinions.com/review/Seize...

In Fear Nothing, Koontz introduced us to Christopher Snow, a 28 year old man who had been born with the bizarre and rare genetic disorder xeroderma pigmentosum (XP). Victims of XP are extremely sensitive to cancers of the skin and eyes, and even momentary exposure to light is cumulative, so eventually could prove fatal. Because of this Chris continually avoids the light of day, and leads the vampire’s life in the dark of night. The sequel, Seize the Night, takes place just about one month after Fear Nothing left off.

In the opening chapter, Chris and his genetically enhanced canine friend, Orson, (again, I reiterate – I want a dog like Orson!!!) meet with a friend of Chris’s whose son had just been kidnapped. A strange pencil drawing of a crow is the only shred of evidence left behind. Chris promises the mother, Lily Wing, to do what he can to bring her son back. With his small and once peaceful town of Moonlight Bay becoming more and more strange, Chris is afraid to go to the police, not knowing if they are in on the kidnapping. Following Orson’s sense of smell, the trail leads them to the supposed-to-be-abandoned-but-not Fort Wyvern, birthplace of the many strange happenings, including the retrovirus created by Chris’s mother which is causing people to become something other than human. Also housed here is a project known only to Chris as the Mystery Train.

Going down into the three subterranean floors, where Orson can’t follow, Chris meets and tangles with the kidnapper, though he doesn’t see the child. Upon returning to the ground floor, he finds that his friend and brother, Orson, has also been abducted. Searching for Orson, half out of his mind with grief and ominous thoughts, Chris calls on the help of his best friend, the surfing god, Bobby Halloway. While waiting for Bobby in the housing section of Fort Wyvern, Chris encounters a troop of genetically enhanced, evil Rhesus monkeys. (See my end note about this part of the book).

The next night, after apprising Sasha Goodall of the situation, and enlisting the help of an ex football player (now animal communicator), Roosevelt Frost, a genetically enhanced cat named Mungo Jerry, and a Harley riding, waltz dancing, fully tattooed Doogie Sassman, the newly formed group set out to find the abducted, now known to be four children and one canine. Of course the quest begins and ends at Fort Wyvern. Inside the fort, the group is faced directly with the abductor, who is also head of the project Mystery Train. Before they can stop it, the Mystery Train “leaves the station”. Destination: Time travel. Not forwards or backwards, however, but sideways. The group is faced with a building that keeps changing realities and times. Flying gargoyles, red skies, living black trees…

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Dec 31, 2008 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, horror, books-from-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is the sequel to Dean Koontz's Fear Nothing, in which he introduced Christopher Snow, a thirty-year-old who was born with a rare disease that makes sunlight and other forms of light deadly on his skin. So he has grown up in the dark, staying safely shrouded in his house during the day and venturing out every night.

He's joined by his faithful Lab Orson, best buddy Bobby, and main squeeze (and very tough) Sasha.

In Fear Nothing, we learned that Snow's mother was involved with a top-secret mili...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Scott Taylor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Koontz again thrilled me with his ability to set a scene and create a true sense of dread. His gift is in putting his characters in situations where they (and you as the reader) feel helpless in the midst of unsettling and spooky circumstances. In this case, the circumstances all revolve around occult happenings in and around Fort Wyvern, the abandoned military base that the main character, Christopher Snow, frequents.

Aside from that, the book is a solid mystery about the disappearance of sever...more

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Nov 11, 2010 Nicolas Fisher rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When you are about to read a person’s book review the first two things that pop in your mind are did they like the book and do they recommend it, my answer would be yes and probably no. The main character in Seize the Night by Dean Koontz is Christopher Snow. Chris also known as “Snowman” by some of his friends is a very smart, aware, patient, courageous , and surf loving person who illegally carries a gun. He has genetic disorder called Xeroderma pigmentosum where contact with light can cause h...more When you are about to read a person’s book review the first two things that pop in your mind are did they like the book and do they recommend it, my answer would be yes and probably no. The main character in Seize the Night by Dean Koontz is Christopher Snow. Chris also known as “Snowman” by some of his friends is a very smart, aware, patient, courageous , and surf loving person who illegally carries a gun. He has genetic disorder called Xeroderma pigmentosum where contact with light can cause him skin and eye cancer, so he is a person who is always in the shadows and he normally embraces darkness. In this book Chris runs into his friend Lilly who’s five year old son went missing, he tells her he will find her son which leads him to Fort Wyvern which is an old military base. The book is all about finding Lilly’s son and Chris’ dog Orson who he loses at the fort and trying to return.
I do have to admit that this book is very interesting, it kept me very entertained. There was so much detail, it was great! Christopher Snow was described so well that you felt like as if you knew him his whole life. Also you knew his relationships with others very well like his brotherly connection to his dog, his history with his ex Lilly how he calls her badger, how much he loves his girl friend Sasha, or how sarcastic he is with his best friend Bobby. At times reading I felt like I was in his dark and sick mind as it wandered. It was hard not to keep interest in this book there were many things in it like the vivid details of darkness, genetically mutated monkeys and other animals, coyotes, spirits, death, guns, and many other things that kept the book eerie.
You are probably wondering if I liked the book and sounds so interesting why do you not recommend it? My answer to that is not that I don’t recommend it but I probably Don’t, it depends. This book absolutely had me and then around the part when Chris went to Fort Wyvern the second time it lost me. One, the tone kind of changed; In the beginning there was not a lot of dialogue and a lot of description, but then there was a point where it was basically all dialogue. Two, the part of the book where he was back in the fort confused me. There was a lot going on at once, there were way too many characters who got thrown into the mix. The first time at the fort it the amount of characters were simple; main character and his dog looking for a friend’s son and then his best friend was helping when Chris called him. Also to confuse you time paradoxes, which when time gets thrown in to any story I tend to get lost sometimes. There was a book written before this one telling a story about Christopher Snow, I didn’t read it but if you read that first it may help to understand this book and to take your time near the end then I would recommend this book.
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Oct 27, 2010 T. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites, fiction, horror

This series inspired my first *serious* short story back in senior year in high school. I borrowed emotions quite heavily from this book, and my protagonist has some real issues a la Christopher Snow. If you ask me now, of course my story sucks, but I never forgot the euphoria. And a few people liked it, mostly my teacher and my classmates, who might have been coerced into saying something nice because we were just a tiny class of about ten people. So it was more of a support group really. All w...more

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Nov 29, 2009 David H. rated it 3 of 5 stars

FROM THE PUBLISHER
Moonlight Bay, California. A safe, secluded small town that is at its most picturesque in the gentle nighttimes that inspired its name. Now, somewhere in the night, children are disappearing. From their homes. From the streets. The police cannot be trusted to solve the mystery because in Moonlight Bay the police work their hardest to conceal crimes and silence the complainants rather than catch the perpetrators. They were long ago corrupted by a greater authority, hidden behind...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Todd rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: dean-koontz

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Seize the Night is the sequel to Fear Nothing. The characters you loved from the first one are here but in even more detail and narrative. And that's a problem.

The story in this book takes place over an even shorter span than the first one. in this follow up it's months later and things are still strange in Christopher Snow's little sea-side town. People are still becoming. Intelligent and malevolent monkeys roam the town at night, and to make it worse, even hordes of birds are killing themselve...more Seize the Night is the sequel to Fear Nothing. The characters you loved from the first one are here but in even more detail and narrative. And that's a problem.

The story in this book takes place over an even shorter span than the first one. in this follow up it's months later and things are still strange in Christopher Snow's little sea-side town. People are still becoming. Intelligent and malevolent monkeys roam the town at night, and to make it worse, even hordes of birds are killing themselves.

What's happening in this story is two-fold. Firstly the inevitable dark downside of the retrovirus. The gift of intelligence is a curse more than a blessing for most of the animals affected by the experiments at Wyvern. Chris runs across swarming birds, packs of wolves, and more marching to their doom. Not being chased by cursed by spiraling depression.

The other plot is the kidnapping of children. Of course the police aren't going to do much, and honestly, Chris doesn't even wait to see if they will. He immediately suspects it's related to the base in some way. So off into the night he goes, glock and flashlight and faithful dog.

Koontz gives us rich detail, a fantastic first person viewpoint, and lovable characters. The only problem is that he compresses a week worth of story into basically two evenings. Amazing amounts of dialogue, internal monologue and animal communication takes place during that time. This is my biggest complaint. The book seems to take forever to get through those couple of days.

On another note, this becoming issue really could have been left out of this entirely. There is a whole other mystery going on here worthy of a book all by its self. Another strike against a book that still has some really enjoyable writing in it.

All in all, it's not a bad read if you're a Koontz addict and enjoyed the Chris Snow character. Sadly it left me wanting a follow up book with this rather interesting family of characters. Apparently Koontz didn't enjoy these folks enough to follow up. Likely due to lackluster response to this long winded second in the series.

This will appeal to those that like a bit of psychology mixed with their sci-fi.(less)

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Mar 03, 2011 Anthony Policastro rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In Dean Koontz’s novel, Seize The Night – a Christopher Snow Adventure – Snow suffers from an inherited genetic disorder known as Xeroderma pigmentation, XP. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation, sunshine, incandescent and fluorescent light could cause skin and eye cancer. Thus, he is a nocturnal creature, and I thought that this was a fascinating premise for a character, which reminded me of the vampire craze and chronicles that have inundated literary circles, bookstores, book clubs, and movies....more In Dean Koontz’s novel, Seize The Night – a Christopher Snow Adventure – Snow suffers from an inherited genetic disorder known as Xeroderma pigmentation, XP. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation, sunshine, incandescent and fluorescent light could cause skin and eye cancer. Thus, he is a nocturnal creature, and I thought that this was a fascinating premise for a character, which reminded me of the vampire craze and chronicles that have inundated literary circles, bookstores, book clubs, and movies.

When five-year old Jimmy Wing, as well as Aaron and Anson Stewart, and Wendy Dulcinea, disappear from their homes in Moonlight Bay, Snow goes out into the night in search for them. Of course, he doesn’t go alone. He enlists the aid of Orson, his dog whom he named after Orson Wells, Sasha Goodall, his fiancée and deejay at Kbay Radio, Bobby Halloway, his best friend for the past seventeen years, Doggie Sassman, a tattooed Harley Davidson fanatic, Roosevelt Frost, a friend of Sasha’s, and Frost’s cat, Munjojerrie, who like Orson possess human-level intelligence, and has the ability to track and find lost people and objects like a bloodhound. “The cat knows things,” said Roosevelt. This motley crew and their witty banter create a rather entertaining, enlightening, and satisfying read.

You’ll find the text filled with preternatural phenomena, especially when Snow and his motley crew endeavor to embark on a midnight excursion into Fort Wyvern, an old, abandoned military base, where scientists had once pursued mysterious, top-secret work in underground laboratories, where a retrovirus – created by Snow’s mother, Wisteria Jane Snow - threatened to infect the community at large – the scientists, the military population at the base, and the folks in town – forcing the government to wisely shut down the operation and laboratory experiments. However, as in most cases in real life, the government acted too slowly. Hence, Snow and his defenders of mankind find themselves confronted with preternatural phenomena, with flocks of birds, rhesus monkeys and coyotes that appear to have been infected with the retrovirus, as their strange and unnatural behavior become evident.

Moreover, Koontz ventures into areas of science and pseudoscience when he writes about genetic mutation, altered species, space travel, parallel universe, retrovirus, and times machines. He skillfully creates images of past and future events, and then conflates them in a visual montage with the present, creating flickering images that might either be projected on a screen, in your mind, or flashed within a kaleidoscope or lantern or zoetrope. And, perhaps, nothing could be scarier than the idea of the residents of Moonlight Bay “becoming.” Meaning those who are exposed to the retrovirus might eventually turn into something that is almost indescribable, although, Koontz suggests that whatever it is, it is certainly a scary, alien-like creature.

Under a collapsing, imploding structure, in a subterranean basement, Snow and his crew finally locate the children and confront John Joseph Randolph, also known as Doctor Randolph Josephson, in a nail-biting, time-is-running-out-to-save-the-children conclusion. You’ll find the read to be more than a little satisfying and entertaining. I highly recommend this book.

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Dec 01, 2009 Jason Reeser rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes Koontz is a genius. Other times, he comes close. On this book...not so much. He was really reaching here, going all over the place, as if he took a dozen separate ideas he'd once jotted down and mashed them together for a full novel. Now that means there are some great ideas in here, and some not so great. But none of it really fits together well. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that as he was writing this, his interests or focus switched tracks four or five times. It's too bad, and i...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Manda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

2.5 stars really.

The first half of this novel, being full on tense spooky action, was better than the last half, which was full of sci-fi contradictory nonsense.

I like the writing, which is full of verbal sparring and jokes, although the jokes got a bit repetative towards the end. Koontz also has a tendency to explain something more than once, which is annoying, such as when Lily, Chris, Bobby and the girl (name forgotten) talk about Lily's mother-in-law as her mother-in-law repeatedely, when i...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book! I read Fear Nothing and did not expects the weirdness that was to come when I turned the first pages. However with each strange occurrence that occurred in the oddity of Moonlight Bay, I became more obsessed with the story and the characters and before I new it, it was over. Upon learning there was a sequel, I became ecstatic and just as the first novel had, Seize the Night had me spending every waking moment in the paranoid and overly imaginative mind of Chistopher
Snow. Now...more

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May 15, 2012 Kirsty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dean Koontz is a five star writter, no doubt about that when it comes to his stories they are usually top notch and Sieze the night is no exception.

Sieze the night is the sequal to fear nothing, (which i have reviewed somewhere earlier on my blog) This book was even better than fear nothing, because the storyline was fabulous. There is not really a need to read fear nothing first unless you want to as Dean Koontz explains everything that happened in the first book when the reader needs to know p...more

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May 12, 2012 Christopher Hivner rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To be honest, this review is only of the first 78 pages because that's all the farther I could read. I really did not like the style Koontz wrote in for this one. The narration of the main character contained so many one-liners and jokey punctuations of his thoughts that it became annoying. I like humor mixed into the story but this was overwritten. It was like Koontz was working out material for his stand-up act.

A small child is kidnapped in the middle of the night and the main character, havin...more

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Jun 20, 2010 Johnny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The direct sequel to “Fear Nothing” is more of a self-contained story than a further delving into the mysteries surrounding the town of Moonlight Bay.

The most fun in reviewing “Seize the Night” is actually anticipating what might happen next in that elusive third volume of this as yet unfinished trilogy. To me this proves that it is indeed a captivating story with very real characters. But since such a review would be riddled with spoilers, I won’t do that.

One month after the events in “Fear Not...more The direct sequel to “Fear Nothing” is more of a self-contained story than a further delving into the mysteries surrounding the town of Moonlight Bay.

The most fun in reviewing “Seize the Night” is actually anticipating what might happen next in that elusive third volume of this as yet unfinished trilogy. To me this proves that it is indeed a captivating story with very real characters. But since such a review would be riddled with spoilers, I won’t do that.

One month after the events in “Fear Nothing”, Chris Snow finds himself riding his bike through town, pretty much like nothing has happened, when he stumbles onto an old friend whose son has been kidnapped. The whole story revolves around Chris, this time accompanied by Bobby Halloway in a much more active and welcome role, in an attempt to locate the boy and his kidnapper.

We encounter familiar places and familiar faces, but a lot of it is too familiar. The beginning of the novel is kinda slow, which I blame on Chris Snow and his endless monologues: explaining everything in infinity, pretty much recapping “Fear Nothing” in the first 150 pages.

Koontz does build some great tension here and there, but other than those scenes and the amazing finale, once again not all that much happens and it even becomes a bit repetitive with the characters only pretty much going back and forth between Wyvern and their homes.

At least one secret project of Wyvern is – somewhat – explained, though it doesn’t really connect with the big story we learned about at the end of “Fear Nothing”. And when the Mystery Train has left the station, so to speak – and in an all too convenient deus-ex-machina way if I may say so – there’s this big feeling of “what now?” Other than in “Fear Nothing”, Koontz adds here a new element and literally states that something is going down, but of course the book ends before it can be truly investigated.

When it comes to the writing, pretty much all I’ve said about “Fear Nothing” applies here as well. With one difference: the scary and mysterious atmosphere is much more often interrupted by silliness. Since Chris Snow is telling the story after the events from his point of view, he already knows what the outcome is, and while the joking might be in line with the “Seize the Night” philosophy, sometimes it makes it too obvious that things will turn out all right in the end.(less)

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Oct 20, 2011 Lisa Rathbun rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This follow-up to Fear Nothing brought back Chris Snow, who cannot be exposed to light, and his buddies, Bobby the surfer and Orson the intelligent dog, but for me the story moved too slowly. Action would be interrupted by paragraphs of explanation about past actions or character descriptions that slowed the pace of the plot. I think this was especially frustrating to me because when one is in search of an abducted child, pausing to ruminate on Bobby and Chris's childhood adventures seems especi...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, horror, mystery-suspense

I seem to be either really hot or cold with Koontz books. Unfortunately this book was very hard for me to get into. Which is sad, because I loved the first Christopher Snow book, Fear Nothing when i read it several years ago.

Maybe I wasn't in the proper frame of mind when I read this, but there were several aspects to this book that annoyed me. Koontz seemed to have fallen into the Stephen King "let's describe every last detail down to the size of every blade of grass." trap. Plus, the surfer li...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Athena rated it 2 of 5 stars

There was a lot of interesting subject matter in this book; government experiments gone awry, along with genetic engineering, and suicidal wildlife. Because I read "Fear Nothing" I already had a basic idea of the story. Chris Snow returns in the second part of the Moonlight Bays series, still plagued with XP (xerodoma pigmentosum), a rare disease that leaves its victims so sensitive to light that they're forced to live in the darkness. Along with his sidekick Orson, best friend Bobby Halloway, a...more

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Jul 20, 2009 Tara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys a very thought provoking, truly odd story

When I started reading this book I thought it was going to be one that I finished only because I never put down a book once I've started it. The first 100 pages or so were so full of monologue and rambling tangents that I had a hard time getting into the story, or even deciphering what the story was. But then it all started coming together. Very slowly the pace of the story picked up and the rambling tangents (most of them) began to make sense. Turns out they were mostly for character developmen...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Jayne Charles rated it 1 of 5 stars

This was an absolute turkey. I heard it was supposed to be the second of a trilogy - never fancied reading the third (if there ever was one) if this effort was anything to go by. Following on from Fear Nothing (which I thought was quite good) this follows Christopher Snow, XP sufferer and night-time wanderer, trying to solve the mystery of some missing children, along with his laid-back surfer-dude pal who talks and acts as though his batteries are running down. The story descended into such dre...more

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May 10, 2013 John Orman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This suspense novel returns the character Christopher Snow to the Moonlight Bay, CA--a small town where terror visits in the night. Children are disappearing from homes and the street. The police are corrupt and not solving the mystery. Somehow all this is connected to the secret research being conducted at a nearby military base.

But Snow has a genetic disorder that keeps him in the shadows, out of sunlight, and leads him to becoming an expert on everything going on at night. That helps him sol...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Nuno Vargas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-library-physical

I very much wanted to read this book ever since I finished the first volume, Fear Nothing. That was the first Dean Koontz book I read (and, sorry to say so, the best one so far). In this second volume, the plot is interesting but I found that the characteristic Koontz humor was somewhat distracting and removing intensity from the scenes. Or maybe I've been reading too much stuff from the author recently... Anyhow, I'd still recommend this book for those who like the genre, as it shouldn't disapp...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Shawnee Bowlin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Seize the Night was a great book. Full of strange, yet credible possibilities. I say never say never. Koontz was entertaining as usual and kept me turning the pages and hating to put down the book. I'm hoping the ending means there is a 2nd story that will be a take-off of the first? The things he wrote about are scary and yet things I've often wondered, although not exactly in the same colorful way. Some may say his embellishment of an animal's understanding is far-fetched, but they haven't met...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Jorge Gonzalez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

excellent book; great story, great characters, and (as usual) a great dog in the book (lol). the vocab is not challenging, though i did find myself looking up the definitions of a few words. the technical stuff was interesting and plausible. the descriptions overall were good and helped set the mood of scenes and what was to come (i think more-so than in other Koontz novels).

personal note: i fell in love with this book back in high school, and i think, subconciously, i've always compared other d...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Danielle Burt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I actually picked this book up because of the cover. Then I read the first chapter or so because of the plot summary. It was the first Dean Koontz book I've read and it will be the one that all others are compared to. This novel brought me into the world of Koontz's unusual storytelling and twisted characters. The only character that has more room in my heart would be Odd Thomas, but somehow I find these two men very similar. I didn't know that this book had been part of a series, and still to t...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this a long time ago, it was the first book by Dean Koontz that i've read and to be honest, i didn't like it much, this book was a little too "heavy" for me, as some parts were pretty hard to believe or follow, that's pretty much all i do remember, but i later found out that it was the 2nd book of a series called "Christopher Snow \ Moonlight bay series", i was kind of upset not to have read the 1st one before "Fear Nothing" , i am currently looking for that book and see if i'll edit this...more

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May 10, 2013 Delaney Roberts rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Last year my family, along with a few good friends and neighbors, rented a lake house for a week. The house and lake were really nice, but one of my favorite things was the bookshelf I found upstairs. It was stocked with books by James Patterson, and the author of Da Vinci Code whose name I forgot, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz. This particular book caught my eye, and I tore through it in the first few days we were at the lake. I really enjoyed it, and now it brings back fond memories of a week...more

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About Dean Koontz

Acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.

Dean R. Koontz has also published under the na...more

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Quotes from Seize the Night

“If we were always conscious of the fact that people precious to us are frighteningly mortal, hanging not even by a thread, but by a wisp of gossamer, perhaps we would be kinder to them and more grateful for the love and friendship they give to us.” — 125 people liked it

“Her beauty is not just—or even primarily—physical. In her face, I see her wisdom, her compassion, her courage, her eternal glory. This other beauty, this spiritual beauty—which is the deepest truth of her—sustains me in times of fear and despair, as other truths might sustain a priest enduring martyrdom at the hands of a tyrant. I see nothing blasphemous in equating her grace with the mercy of God, for the one is a reflection of the other. The selfless love that we give to others to the point of being willing to sacrifice our lives for them, is all the proof I need that human beings are not mere animals of self-interest; we carry within us a divine spark, and if we chose to recognize it, our lives have dignity, meaning, hope. In her it is spark is bright, a light that heals rather than wounds me.” — 65 people liked it

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Seize the Night (Moonlight Bay #2)

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