Simeon is called in to extract information from the mind of their latest creation, another mutant who Simeon refers to as ‘Child’. He can telepathically extract information from the minds of others. He mostly manages to live as his own man, but when they call he is obliged to answer, albeit extremely reluctantly. The main character Simeon Kelly was created artificially in a laboratory as an experiment to aid the military. In my honest opinion this is not one of his best books, but it is one of his earlier ones.įYI this is a 2 minute review. Hopefully I will find a few more examples before they disappear forever. This definitely makes me curious about his other “early” works. Most notably because his writing style has improved, but also possibly because he seems to be more of a spiritual man these days and would not be pleased to share with others the story of a man who fights God. My guess is Koontz doesn’t want to include this story as part of his contemporary collection for a couple reasons. Probably three seasons (30 episodes) would be plenty to tell the whole story. This is the type of story that could find itself these days the subject of a streaming series. In many ways this story, albeit dark, is more creative than a number of other Koontz books. Their psychic battle leads to a transcendence that leads our protagonist to find God (literally). While he has a conscience he meets a boy (made in a similar way) who appears to have none.
Our hero is an artificially-created man with special abilities to read the minds or control others. The main story could really have taken place in contemporary times. This novel didn’t predict COVID! There are no hover cars or massive indoor complexes where people can live their whole lives. Needless to say Koontz didn’t get much about the future right. It is funny to note that the book takes place in the “futuristic” world of 2004. This book was written in the vein of 50s or 60s sci-fi and could have taken place in the same universe of Fahrenheit 451. While the writing was overly wordy (a flaw of Koontz that generally has improved over time), the story itself was quite enjoyable.
I’m a long time reader of Koontz but I can’t say I’ve read any of his earlier works that have since been de-published. I found this novella through a used bookstore.
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