Stand Alone Novels 2008-2020: Relentless (Group Read - March 2012)

[Jaice]

Maciek wrote: "Is there any data to prove that ? I've never heard about such theory.
Personally, I wouldn't buy a book marketed as thriller or horror with a smiling dog on the cover - much too abstract for me."

I doubt there is specifically about book covers. I was speaking from personal experience. It is well-known that many, if not most, people of Western cultures like dogs, which would theoretically influence their buying habits. The genre the book is marketed in was never brought into the discussion and it is pretty clear that Koontz does not fit well into a single genre.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "
I like the book critic idea for the cover. The subtitle should be "Attack of the Enema." :-D "

That would surely sell more copies :-) I'd buy a copy with that picture and subtitle!

[Tom]

Jason "It is well-known that many, if not most, people of Western cultures like dogs..."

I think all cultures like them.
They make especially good BB-Q

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Tom wrote: "Jason "It is well-known that many, if not most, people of Western cultures like dogs..."

I think all cultures like them.
They make especially good BB-Q"

Tom, have you been reading the following book?

[Jaice]

Tom wrote: "I think all cultures like them.
They make especially good BB-Q"

I meant form emotional attachments with them. :-P

[Tom]

Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "Tom wrote: "I think all cultures like them.
They make especially good BB-Q"

I meant form emotional attachments with them. :-P"

I know Jason :)
surely, you know I jest?
and Dustin, haven't read that. Is it a satire?

[Maciek]

Tom wrote: "Jason "It is well-known that many, if not most, people of Western cultures like dogs..."

I think all cultures like them.
They make especially good BB-Q"

It reminded me of an anecdote my friend told me. His parents went to China on a trip, and took their dog with them. Time passes by, and our couple roams the streets with the faithful dog by their side. They eventually got hungry, and spotted a nice little restaurant. They decided to go in and grab some snack, and were suprised by the courtesy of the doorman, who took the dog from them. and led it to the backyard. Their knowledge of the Chinese language was rather limited, but they understood that the pup is taken to join the pets of other guests, since animals weren't allowed inside.
They spotted a table, sat down, and checked the menus. When the waiter arrived, they ordered an expensive but tasty looking dish - the waiter took their order and disappeared. The dish took its time, but eventually the plates arrived and they both dug in.
They were surprised by the delicious quality of the meat, the brilliant mixture of sauces, the salad...
Satisfied, they paid, got up, and went to the doorman to pick up their pup...only to discover that there was more to the course that they thought.

[Jaice]

Tom wrote: "I know Jason :) surely, you know I jest?..."

Yes, of course, hence the sticking out of tongue. ;-)

[Jaice]

Maciek wrote: "It reminded me of an anecdote my friend told me...."

That is actually a popular urban myth in America. I'm surprised it made it clear to Poland. My girlfriend was born and has lived in China her entire life. She has told me that they sell living dogs at street markets for the purpose of food, but dogs have become so common as pets in China that your story has little chance of ever happening. Maybe 20-50 years ago it could have though.

[Maciek]

I always thought of it as an ancecdote and not a factual story, though who knows. The world is a wild place.
Besides, to every urban myth there's always a sliver of truth:)

[Jaice]

Maciek wrote: "I always thought of it as an ancecdote and not a factual story, though who knows."

Anecdotes are supposed to be factual--usually a personal/biographical account of some occurrence.

[Maciek]

Right, but 99% of all anecdotes are just retellings of fictional tales or jokes - my point was that I never took it seriously :)

[Jaice]

Maciek wrote: "my point was that I never took it seriously :)"

That's good. You had an antidote for that anecdote. ;-)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Tom wrote: "Dustin, haven't read that. Is it a satire?
"
I tried to read "Eating Animals" but I gave up. I did read a section about why we eat beef and chicken but not dogs and it pointed out how many dogs are put to sleep each year and how that meat is just wasted etc. I don't read a lot of non-fiction but the book seemed to be an honest look at "Eating Animals".

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Relentless will be featured as a March 2012 Group Read along with Mr. Murder. Please consider joining us in reading one or both of these great titles :-)

[Tracy]

Has there ever been a tie before?

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Tracy wrote: "Has there ever been a tie before?"

Yes. In November 2010 both The Face and Darkfall were featured. This is the second time :-)

[Paul]

just started this one this afternoon

I read this about a year ago, and can't really remember what happens, it is slowly coming back to me as I go through it

My copy doesn't seem to have either of the covers mentioned earlier, its a whitish cover, looking up into tree branches with a bird flying overhead (UK edition HB)

oops, misread earlier, yes the cover was mentioned for this edition

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

:-) A very nice cover:


I just have the boring white and red cover - blah :-(

[Zeta05]

Penny has given me a new favoriet curse word - Waxx. This has to be one of the meanest villains I've read in a long time; I love it. Started this on 3/1 and got through about 50 pages. I was not able to pick it up again until last night and devoured almost 100 pages. Now I'm here at work this morning with the book hidden on a shelf under my desk trying to sneak reading a page or two at a time.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Relentless is so much fun. I love it! Excited to read it again very soon.

[Federico]

I didn't like Relentless very much. There are many elements that are really far-fetched for me: the villains and their ultimate goal, and what the kid does during the story (that I don't want to spoil). Cubby and his wife were like a cheap imitation of the couple from Life Expectancy and I didn't find them as funny as those characters.
I guess Dean was in a bad mood when he wrote this and very angry towards some critics, because he even bashes Wikipedia.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

You mean you didn't think that the Boom family was dynamite explosively awesome like I did? I love Relentless so much I can't contain myself when thinking about this great work of fiction literature.

[Federico]

That's exactly what I mean. It felt like a copy of the couple in Life Expectancy and their humour was not as effective as theirs.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Life Expectancy ranks #1 as my Favorite Dean Koontz book. Relentless ranks #3. I love them both so very much :-)

[Tina]

starting relentless tomorrow, cant wait first time reading it. I love when authors write about their craft in fiction. Makes the book exciting to me

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Oh my! You are in for a wild ride T!!!!!

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Relentless is the book that inspired me to join goodreads in 2009. I loved the book so much that I needed a place to talk about this amazing work.

It will be a while before I get to Relentless because I actually own Relentless in both printed and audiobook, but I have borrowed From the Corner of His Eye and Mr. Murder audiobooks from the library and only have them for a limited time - so relentless will be the last in line of a great March Madness trio.

[Marina]

It was an exciting read, but I found it too disturbing. Probably his darkest work since DRotH, although with more humor sprinkled in.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

I like disturbing. Which may be why I like Hideaway also :-)

[Marina]

I liked Hideaway a lot, and yes it was disturbing to a point but it didn't hit me the way this one did. There are some plot lines I just can't deal with (view spoiler)[ like killing/torturing kids (hide spoiler)]

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

then you better not read John Saul :-) the type of plot lines you can't deal with are all he writes about.

[Marina]

Dustin Crazy little brown owl wrote: "then you better not read John Saul :-) the type of plot lines you can't deal with are all he writes about."

NOW you tell me. I wish I could un-read the one book of his I did try. Good writing, but... not for me.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

which book did you read?

[Marina]

Don't remember the name. It had to do with baby sacrifices and a lot of it was pieces of dairies from different women through time.

[Marina]

Found it! The Right Hand of Evil.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

I read that one :-)
come join the small John Saul Group that I moderate & you can get horrified all over again:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/3...

[Marina]

I get horrified plenty just looking at my bank account, thank you very much:)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Okay :-) You're Welcome Very Much.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

is an Awesome book - I try to read it every year or two :-)

[Tina]

I love relentless, It's up there as one of my favorites. I'm almost done, can't stop reading it I'm hoping Milo saves his parents and himself because even as a above average 6 year old I think he can with his intelligence alone, gotta love him

[Tracy]

T wrote: "I love relentless, It's up there as one of my favorites. I'm almost done, can't stop reading it I'm hoping Milo saves his parents and himself because even as a above average 6 year old I think he c..."

It's one of my favorites to T and it's really great on audiobook. The humor comes out a lot.

[Melissa]

This is a great book. I admit I really wanted to read it once I read on the group it featured a teleporting dog! Book wasn't as dark as it could have been so it was a nice change from his usual. I would put the bow-tie wearing critic and the dog on the cover.

[Linda]

I listened to the audio on this one, I loved it....

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Just finishing Relentless for the 3rd time and I still have a lot of fun with this story. I am thinking I need to get shirts like Milo with words on them. Milo says the words are like names and there is a them of names in this book - with Cubby giving us background on everyone's name throughout the story. This is just a fun book :-)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Please help me list all the words Milo had on his shirts and then we will have to put them in the order they appeared :-)

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Courage
Persist

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

Here on the brink of World War Waxx, Milo perched on a dinette chair, elevated by a thick foam pillow because he was diminutive for his age. Blue block letters on his white T-shirt spelled COURAGE.
-Relentless, Chapter One

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl, Colorful Colorado]

The descriptions are so good of the t-shirts :-) we could totally get these custom made just like Milo.