Fear Nothing, by Dean R. Koontz

Reviewed by: The Blind Monkey

So, I finally got around to reading Fear Nothing (the prequel to Dean Koontz’s Seize the Night ). And ever since, I?ve been having this recurring dream. But I get ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.

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I get to sleep and at some point the scene begins to play out. It?s nighttime ? it?s always at night — and I?m at a house. We’re crouched in the yard and on the roof, keeping a lookout: Slappy, the Goose, and me. I am in the backyard preparing with Slappy, because we know they are coming.

We are as prepared as possible, but we never know they are coming until we hear the explosions.

Far away they start, but we know what they mean. It sets off a strange hissing sound that comes out of the ground around us in the backyard. We know from the last time that there will be less than a few seconds now until the sprinklers pop up about 10 inches above the ground shooting a strange reddish brown ooze in a slick parallel line with the ground. If you get hit with this stuff, it?s all over. It will burn the skin right from your body. I’ve seen it happen.

I press my body as tightly down into the soft green earth, relieved that thesickly mixture has shot in another direction. But even as a watch it I know not to let my guard down. The worst is yet to come. And this is good, because as soon as the last of it burns into the grass, the rusty cannons move on to their next weapon.

Small reflective plates fold out mechanically like a tiny reflecting satellite dish and reposition in response to the detection of motion. And then, in the most brilliant display of flight, small seekers come spiraling towards the slightest movement. I feel the first one brush past my body, following a lightning-quick path up my legs past my back and ever so slightly blowing my hair as I hug the earth.Shhhhhhup.

It?s by. I flip to my back? another?s coming. Shhhhhhuup. And another goes by. This time it passes so close over my face that the reflection off its shiny metal surface blinds me for just a moment. I know I have to disable it somehow or I won?tget back inside before the soldiers come.

With the next shot I am given an paralyzing opportunity.The dish positions 90 degrees away and seeks out Slappy, who has panicked and tried to run. It finds him in an instant and blows him to bits (sorry, Slap). I move just fast enough to get behind the dish as it begins to turn back to me. When it shoots again, I catch the tiny seeker and point it back where it came in one fluid motion as I hurl myself in the opposite direction. With quick, devastating explosion, it has engulfed itself, taking with it my shoe, and I am safe.

But not for long, and I rush back inside to join the Goose.

We know the soldiers are coming now and quickly choose our weapons and prepare to hide. Big dumb apes they are. Not human, but some hybrid horror of evolution, combining man andsimian beast.They are carrying weapons that shoot those same shiny cylinders.But these are not seekers. Simply projectiles that follow the direction of the sender like a long deadly bullet.

We are hiding.If they think that no one is in the house they will move on to the next, destroying everything in their path.Goose and Ihide in the lower level of a long closet of shelves that connects two rooms. He covers hisbody with pillows and I cower towards his feet and cover myself with an old comforter. They?ve entered the house now andwe see and hear huge furry legs and paw-like feet plodding about the room searching for us. Suddenly there is a loud crack of something crashing to the ground.

And I am awake. Trying to figure out where I am.

But that?s when I realize that the crack was not part of the dream.

It came from within the house.

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Fear Nothing gets FIVE BANANAS for creativity and an ability to kick my imagination into overdrive. But it’s pretty annoying if you’ve already read Seize the Night, and the plot is a little goofy. And besides - I didn’t even tell you anything about it! =)

But trust me it’s a fun read, has lots of monkeys (hence the evil soldiers in my dream), and ends up at a good solid THREE and a HALF BANANAS.

Hardcover- 391 pages (February 1998) Bantam Books; ISBN: 0553106643 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.30 x 9.56 x 6.46