FEAR NOTHING

Reviewed By Robert Thompson 1/27/98

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FEAR NOTHING is Dean Koontz' newest book and probably his best in the last couple of years in my humble opinion.

Reminiscent of WATCHERS, (the book that made me a "dyed-in-the-wool" Dean Koontz fan), genetically altered animals is the plot vehicle for this story too.

Cristopher Snow is kind of an All-American boy- Nice guy, Fun, Fit, a Best Selling Author and a Surfer of great wave riding skill. He has achieved this status almost miraculously, as he is also afflicted with a genetic disorder known as xeroderma pigmentosum which makes him severely sensitive to light. To stay alive, he has to stay completely out of sunlight, and even electric light will cause him pain and damage. This affliction makes him rather an unlikely action hero.

Chris lives in Moonlight Bay, California, where if he isn't night surfing with his best friend Bobby, a professional surf dude, he roams the streets at night with his Black Labrador buddy Orson. Mornings he usually spends with his lady friend Sasha, a night shift DJ at the local radio station. Other than his affliction and schedule, his life has been fairly normal until his father dies.

As the mortuary van is about to depart with his fathers remains, Chris accidentally overhears the driver and mortuary owner, and a stranger discussing disposing of the body in a way that very definitely was not in the contract. This leads Christopher and Orson (and a little later Sasha & Bobby) into uncovering a macabre, widespread conspiracy that will eventually change life "as-we-know-it" if not destroy it completely.

There is some rather intense violence in the story, and a fair amount of really in-you-face scary stuff, but as usual for Koontz' tales, the real horror is somewhat more subtle, and is mixed with a ray of hope.