NEW SCIENCE
FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of
Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
Reviewer:
Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258
Blog
Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/
July 14, 2017
Koontz Launches New
Criminal Suspense Series:
Jane Hawk Uncovers Criminal
Nanotech Research Conspiracy
A Review of
Dean Koontz The Silent Corner (Bantam Books, 2017)
434pp $16.75
ISBN: 9780345545592
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
With this book Dean Koontz has indeed
launched a new criminal suspense series starring a new character (Jane Hawk),
but there is nothing new about tough female heroes, and there is nothing new
about secret criminal conspiracies run by super-wealthy super-wicked men
inventing secret super-dangerous weapons.
There also is nothing new about this story’s beginning with a reporting
of many suicides. What IS new about this
story is the WEIRD statements left by the people who have committed these
suicides, and the WEIRD super-advanced nanotechnology employed by these
weapons. This sophisticated nanotech
procedure is very interesting (and stands in sharp contrast to the crude portrayal
of nanotech found in the book Koontz wrote many moons ago (By The Light Of The Moon). I
am hoping that in the future books in this series that Koontz will provide more
details about this new nanotech process.
If so, this story will be able to rank as hard science fiction. I am disappointed with how little Koontz says
about it in this book, and the disproportionate amount of the story devoted to
Hawk’s forays against the bad guys.
Koontz says on his website www.DeanKoontz.com
that “it has what I’d call a scientific premise in the Michael Crichton tradition,
something that is not futuristic but here now in an early form with a terrible
potential.”
Another fascinating element in the story,
which also needs much more elaboration is the psychological effect which the
nanotech procedure has upon the human brain, especially as this pertains to the
question of carefully distinguishing between artificial intelligence and man.
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What is really strange about Koontz’s
story is that its similarity between AI and the human brain is NOT produced by
raising the level of AI to the level of the human brain, but is produced by the
LOWERING of the intelligence of the human brain produced by the effects of the
weird nanotech procedure upon it. You
really need to read the story to see how eerie this is! Humans are seen acting almost like robots as
the result!
As a science fiction fan I wish Koontz
would devote most of the story to the nanotechnology and only a relatively
small amount to the apprehension of the criminals. Well, we shall see whether or not he does
this in the episodes to come. The second
book in the series, The Whispering Room
(which some people are referring to as “Jane Hawk #2) is scheduled for publication in January 2018.
I like the character Jane Hawk – a very
admirable person. But, to be honest, I
prefer Koontz’s special characters such as Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn. They are special creations by Koontz
himself. There have been many characters
in modern literature like Jane Hawk, but none like Odd Thomas and Stormy
Llewellyn!! I also would like to see the
character Edie Fischer again too, and Alfred Hitchcock again coming down from
Heaven!
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