Strange Highways (Group Read - August 2010)

[Tom]

SPOILER
is a short story collection of mostly early Koontz ("Kittens" was originally published in 1966; the first Dean ever sold commercially, while still in college). Two short novels are included; "Strange Highways" (first published here) and "Chase" (earlier published under his psuedonym, K.R. Dwyer). I like to become as familiar as I can with an author I'm a fan of, and that includes getting to know the author's early work. I like seeing the progression of the author's craft, character and story development.

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

I would like to read this sometime. I got jipped because I listened to an audiobook of Strange Highways and thought "gosh that was a short Dean Koontz book". I didn't realized until someone mentioned Strange Highways in the other Dean Koontz book that it was a collection and the audiobook only contains the title story :-)

I heard "Chase" is similar to "Shattered" is that true?

[Tom]

Dustin wrote: "I heard "Chase" is similar to "Shattered" is that true?..."

I'll let you know as soon as I read it; I know nothing about it yet.

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

:-) Okay, Thanks.

[Jaice]

My aunt read this one and wasn't too impressed with it. She read a me few excerpts from it and, based on those and what she has said about it, I am in no hurry to read it, but will get to it eventually.

[Maciek]

I've read it ages ago, and remember liking the two novellas.
However, the real star here is the short story "Twilight of the Dawn" - about an atheist whose son dies from cancer, and who finds his lack of faith challenged by the tragedy. I remember being very moved by it; I think it's time for a revisit.
I also liked:
"Down in the Darkness" - a story about a couple who buy a new house and discover a mysterious door leading to a strange dark cellar;
"Hardshell" - funny ending,
"Ollie's Hands" - propably the only Koontz text with the so-called "bad" ending;
"Kittens" - the first short story ever sold by Koontz, and purely because of that it's a must read for a fan.

[Jaice]

Maciek wrote: "I've read it ages ago, and remember liking the two novellas.
However, the real star here is the short story "Twilight of the Dawn" - about an atheist whose son dies from cancer, and who finds his l..."

I know one of the short stories it contains is the basis for his novel Tick Tock.

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

Thanks for the info Maciek, I'd like to read this sometime :-)

[Tom]

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

The first three - including the title novella - are pretty typical of earlier Koontz, but different enough to maintain my interest. "Strange Highways" in particular is very heavy on the religious side, complete with the devil incarnate as the antagonist. Protagonists re-consecrate a church and drive him to Hell. Earth opens to a sulphurous fiery pit under an entire town, caused by a subterranean coal mine fire. BTW, such fires really do exist. Some pretty cool time shifts, although IMHO, Koontz gets carried away with it. Protagonist gets like four chances to save the damsel in distress before he finally gets it right.
All in all, [not yet half through:] definitely recommended for any Koontz fans.
!!!SPOILER ALERT ABOVE!!!

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

I remember enjoying the story "Strange Highways", isn't there a character who writes a book in that story also?

[Tom]

SPOILER ALERT

The protagonist started out wanting to be an author. Bad decisions early in his life prevented that - he became a drunk - his brother, the ANtagonist became a financially successful author.
flash forward - er BACK 20 years, to 1975
protag makes the correct choice. He and his future wife (who was killed in the first rendition of his life) find a book he wrote in the 1990s. Keep in mind, this was in 1975 :).
Title of the book? "Strange Highways"

[Tom]

SPOILER
Other shorts in this collection delve into a psychological aspect that we don't often see from Koontz in his more recent work. I like it!
His low regard of government and politicians is quite evident in these tales, as are his attitudes on religion.

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

Yep. That's what I thought I remembered :-) I liked that story (the title story), I'd like to read the others in the book sometime.

[Tom]

SPOILER
Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "I know one of the short stories it contains is the basis for his novel Tick Tock. ..."

If that was the novel that includes genetically enhanced genius rats, the SS & inspiration that's in this collection is "Trapped".
That's another ongoing Koontz theme that I like.

[Tom]

SPOILER
"Hardshell" has elements that Koontz brought back to us in his Frankenstein series. Good guy and bad guy of the same species, masquerading as humans. One is a cop (not at all like Koontz' newest cop character), the other a psychopathic killer. Nice twist at the end which I didn't see coming.

"Bruno" has fantasy & SF elements reminiscent of his very early SF work.No surprise, as it first appeared in 'The Magazine of F & SF' in April, 1971. Cool "probabilities"; what SK and Straub would call "alternate" or "parallel" universes. Probabilities have a Union with each other, to which our Earth is not fit for membership. Seems we have too many of the protagonists' (a private detective) kind

"Kittens" [first in 'The Reflector', Shippensburg, PA in 1966:] is atypical Koontz, which ends on a very dark note. A little girl's kittens were routinely drowned by her preacher/father, who tells her God took them. She found him out . . . she had twin baby sisters . . .
SPOILER ABOVE

[Tom]

SPOILER
In 'Bruno', comic elements include "Smith and Wesson", who are "the hamburger people with golden arches" in one probability, and Disney is an arms manufacturer.

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

Sounds interesting, to say the least :-)

[Maciek]

Tom wrote: ""Hardshell" has elements that Koontz brought back to us in his Frankenstein series. Good guy and bad guy of the same species, masquerading as humans. One is a cop (not at all like Koontz' newest cop character), the other a psychopathic killer. Nice twist at the end which I didn't see coming. "

That was a fun story, but you spoiled it for all people that haven't yet read it. Use "spoiler" marks next time.

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

It didn't seem like a spoiler to me :-) I'm still interested in reading the story.

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

Should my first short story be called "Maciek vs. Tom" or "Tom vs. Maciek" ? ;-)

[Tom]

SPOILER, for some.
"The Night of the Storm" [originally 1974, in _Continuum 1_:]
Harder SF, as much of his earlier work, robots have become the top 'species' on Earth, displacing humans in this somewhat dystopian tale. They have reigned for Centuries, while "myths" of human's presence persist. These humans have taken on mythic proportions; a cross between Sasquatch and werewolves. Contains HALish elements - years before IE became reality, proving once again that SF of today becomes Science of tomorrow.

[Maciek]

Tom wrote: "Maciek wrote: "That was a fun story, but you spoiled it for all people that haven't yet read it. Use "spoiler" marks next time. "

Oh, aren't we witty. I spoiled nothing kind sir. You did.
I didn't mean to attack you - stop taking this personally.

[Maciek]

You revealed the surprise ending of a story and it's not a spoiler ? How can that be ?
Maybe a thinking reader can read a spoiler, instantly forget it, read the story and still be amazed at the surprise ending ? I love that concept but I'm afraid it just isn't possible ;)

[Tom]

Dustin wrote: "Should my first short story be called "Maciek vs. Tom" or "Tom vs. Maciek" ? ;-)"

lol
Dustin, I'm quite sure you'd enjoy most of the stories in this collection.

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

I'm looking forward to it :-) Gotta check if it's available at my library.

[Tom]

Didn't Koontz undergo a sort of religious 'rebirth' in the late 80s? The story "Twilight of the Dawn" originally appeared in 1987, in Night Visions 4. My thoughts on this SS are that it could be a fictionalized and highly dramatic auto biography.

[Jaice]

Dustin wrote: "Should my first short story be called "Maciek vs. Tom" or "Tom vs. Maciek" ? ;-)"

It could be a spoof on Relentless. :-D

[Tom]

The last story in this collection, "Chase", has characters typical of what we've come to love about Koontz. A 'Good Guy' with a questionable History, and a 'Bad Guy' with no redeeming traits.
GG meets girl/falls in love.
BG gets what he deserves.

[Emily]

Kittens is my all time favorite DK story. Does that make me weird? Is it horrible that I kinda saw where the little girl was comming from? Oh well. I LOVE it!

[Jaice]

I just got my copy today. This is the first Koontz non-audiobook I will have read, because there is no audiobook version yet.

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

Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "I just got my copy today. This is the first Koontz non-audiobook I will have read, because there is no audiobook version yet."

When I lived in Utah, I was able to get the title story on audio from the library and I was planning on listening to that again but can't find it in the Colorado library system.

I've only read The Black Pumpkin so far because Tom posted so much about it. Now I guess I'll read Kittens next because Emily regards it so highly :-)

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

The Black Pumpkin kinda reminded me of Tick Tock

[Jaice]

Dustin wrote: "The Black Pumpkin kinda reminded me of Tick Tock"

I'm fairly certain it was the inspiration for Tick Tock.

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

I love short stories because I can actually read them in one sitting even though there isn't much time to get to know the characters.

[Agent 99]

I love the black pumpkin... great short story
Kittens is just seriously disturbing! LOL
But strange Highways and Ollies Hands are probably two of my favorites!

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

I just read Kittens last night and let me tell you that was one of the most disturbing things I've read!!! The religious aspect alone was disturbing and then there were the kittens and the angels!

[Jason]

I've been reading these in order and right now I'm in the middle of The Night of the Storm. I've enjoyed pretty much all of them so far.

Kittens was surprisingly disturbing (in a good way) for how short it was.

I also enjoyed Miss Attila the Hun. Maybe someone can answer this for me. This story is kind of how I imagine Stephenie Meyer's The Host to be. Am I completely off base here? If not, I think I may want to check it out.

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

I'm reading them totally out of order. I read "We Three" or "We are Three" - I can't remember exactly(not to be confused with the Christmas song) last night. This story reminded me of The Bad Place and those siblings but also of The Frankenstein series and the new race.

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

Now I have that Christmas song stuck in my head thanks to that story "We Three Kings of Orient Are...."

[Jaice]

It will be interesting to see how the short stories in this early work have inspired the characters and plots of later works.

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

Jason "plasborgma" wrote: "It will be interesting to see how the short stories in this early work have inspired the characters and plots of later works."


Well so far it's pretty obvious from the stories I've read :-) I started reading Ollie's Hands last night too but then I got too tired and had to sleep.

[Emily]

Jason "Slo" wrote:

I also enjoyed Miss Attila the Hun. Maybe someone can answer this for me. This story is kind of how I imagine Stephenie Meyer's The Host to be. Am I completely off base here? If not, I think I may want to check it out.

Hi Jason, you are completely off base! I really enjoied both storys though, so you may too. The Host was vastly different, but a good read. At first I didn't care to much for it, but I find myself thinking about it often and have come to think that it is a much better book than I first thought!

[Agent 99]

Ugh....Never mind

[Jaice]

Tom wrote: "...Two short novels are included; "Strange Highways" (first published here) and "Chase" (earlier published under his psuedonym, K.R. Dwyer)...."

I just noticed that his pseudonym's initials, KRD, are the reverse of his real initials, DRK!

[Jason]

Thanks for answering my question Emily! Sorry to hear I was so off base there but I still may check out The Host eventually anyway. I've heard from a few people that it's a pretty good read.

[Emily]

Kd wrote: "I love the black pumpkin... great short story
Kittens is just seriously disturbing! LOL
But strange Highways and Ollies Hands are probably two of my favorites!"

I loved kittens and black pumpkin was good too, I guess I like how the characters get a little justice but I felt that ollies hands was just really depressing. I felt ollies isolation and it just made me sad.

[Jason]

Just finished this a few minutes ago. I can honestly say that there wasn't a single story that I didn't enjoy.

One story that kind of caught me off guard was Twilight of the Dawn. That one actually had me crying. I couldn't help but think of my little boy.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Okay, originally I listened to an audio version of this book, which had only the "title-title"...:). So now I have the book from the library and while I don't think each and every story measures up to Strange Highways, which is a favorite "novella"and or story, I still like the book. I plan to try and track it down (locally) and add it to my "home library."

[Susan]

I am almost finished with the first one, Strange Highways, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I haven't yet checked to see when this was originally published. I've read several of his most recent works, but this is my first foray into his early stuff. Really enjoying it. :-)

[Christine]

I liked Strange Highways too. It felt like an episode of The Twilight Zone or Supernatural.