This series astonished me back into reading. When I was much younger I was most peculiar, so I spent my days doing whatever it is that comes to mind: pounding gumamela flowers in my backyard to make bubbles, peering down this most curious hole in the ground (turned out to be our pozo negro, ick!), learning how to ride a bike (bruises and all), reading the telephone directory upside down, and more. When there is that much to do in 1998, how can I find the time to sit down and just be interested in stories? Even my mother got me busy doing cross stitching.But then as it was a year of doing what I want to do, when I saw Fear Nothing from across the room, I just had to have it. Coincidentally it was also my mother who brought this home for me from their office library, hoping to keep me still, for once. And wow. Just like that, I was back to reading, and reading and reading and reading.After all these years it's still one of my favourite books, that I looked everywhere for my own copy. Finally found one this year, and I am just over the moon. I've read better books of course, other more amazing stories that just simply leave me with no words. But this one. Ah, this one. You know the feeling you get when your body finally finds the right chair to sit on? This book is my whole damn couch. Thank you, Dean.

Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this lifeand they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next.I love this book. I really do. Im not certain why, really. Dean Koontz is a schmaltzy writer. He overuses analogies and some of them are rather bizarre. Many of his books have similar details bad ass chicks, unlikely heroes, a golden retriever or two. They start to blur together after a while. But when I was in middle school and high school, I read every single thing Koontz had published. This book (and its sequel, Seize the Night) always seemed to stand out. I reread it every few years, and Ive also listened to the audiobook a few times. This time was the audiobook, mostly at the gym. Its just a good, solid story with a very likable lead (and a black lab).Fear Nothing is about a 28 year old man named Chris Snow. I am now 28. I think I read this book for the first time when I was 12. I feel old. Chris suffers from a condition called xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) that prevents his cells from being able to repair themselves after exposure to light. As a result, he has lived his life in a dimly lit house during the day. At night, he explores the small town of Midnight Bay, where he lives.This novel begins in the evening, as Chris gets a phone call that his father has passed away from cancer. A fluke event at the hospital leads Chris to see someone do something strange with his fathers remains. He investigates, and stumbles upon a mystery that affects his whole town. I dont want to spoil anything, but Ill say one thing: genetically modified monkeys. Yeah, thats right.The events of the novel take place primarily over a 24 hour period, as Chris explores his town and visits friends and enemies, trying to find the truth about his fathers death. I think one of the things I loved so much about this novel was the romantic idea of having a whole town to yourself in the dark; just you, your dog and your bicycle.Fear Nothing ends abruptly, with few questions answered. Koontz published a sequel, Seize the Night, the following year. Supposedly hes working on a third. 13 year old me cant wait.

Christopher Snow lives in the sleepy little town of Moonlight Bay. He has a rare disease called XP which prevents him from getting any sunlight or being in bright light at all. His body doesnt repair ultra-violet damage the way most bodies do. Therefore Christopher is resigned to live his life by the night and he knows just about every inch of Moonlight Bay.His girlfriend Sasha and his boyhood friend Bobby are his closest companions and they both love him dearly and would do anything for him.He lives with his dog, Orson, who almost seems to be able to understand what youre saying and respond.On this night, Christopher Snows father, who is afflicted with cancer, dies. Chris makes a rare venture out into the world of light to go to the hospital to see his father one last time before he dies. After hes gone and the body is taken to be cremated, Chris remembers his father wants to be cremated with a picture of Chriss mother who died two years ago in a car accident. He rushes down to the basement to catch up with the men who took the body, but instead he finds an odd scene. A man in a van brought another body of a dead hitchhiker to be swapped out with Chriss dad. Apparently someone wants to do more tests on Chriss father.This is the beginning of a strange night full of events for Chris Snow which leads him to discover a frightening military experiment has been going on in Moonlight Bay for years. Its the end of the world as we know it and its too late to stop whats already happened.Whats worse, Chriss mother was involved in the whole thing and as it turns out, she may have been murdered or killed herself.Chris tries to find the truth in amid all the lies and secrets. He risks his life and his friends lives in this pursuit.The frightening experiment involves gene splicing which will allow superior intelligence. It has been tested on a variety of animals and in the first batch, although they exhibited superior intelligence, they also exhibited massive violence and hatred.This book reminded me too much of Watchers and it even refers to The Francis Project that was behind all the happenings in Watchers. The difference is that this book didnt have any of the heart that Watchers had. It was well written and suspenseful, but in the end, I didnt really care about any of the characters. Orson didnt win me over as much as Einstein. And the violent creatures resulting in the experiment didnt have the heart that The Outsider was known to have.Overall, this was a big let down. Theres another book with the same characters, but they didnt win me over enough to want to read more about them.

Koontz Group Read September 2017Second read - 2017 These are the Items not listed in my first read.- Chris Snow born with "XP" - Xeroderma Pigmentosum - skin cancer when exposed to bright lights. During day, Chris always wears sunglasses, as light can make him "blind". ("Wikipedia" lists - 1 person per 250,000 in USA has XP.) - This allows him go to Kirk's Funeral Home at night & prove his father's body was swapped at Mercy Hospital. They would not let him enter to see the body, they said cremation started. Chris' XP let's him escape a chase in the night.- Fort Wyver uses world-wide "Resus" monkeys ("Wikipedia") used for experiments to chase kill him. Chris escapes & finds pile of skulls at Kirk's bottom of a hill, killed by them.first read - 2015"Fear Nothing" is (Moonlight 1) like "Seize the Night" (Moonlight 2) an exciting chase book with Chris Snow as the main character. In this book, his dad's dead body (Steven Snow) was to be creamated and is instead swapped with a dead hitchhiker by Kirk's Funeral Home for the "closed" Fort Wyvern's experiments. Bobby Halloway (best friend), Sasha Cohan (girlfriend) and Olsen (his dog) are being chased by several after their discovery. Simple chase theme on who will get hurt/killed first.

I picked up this book at the airport when I came dangerously close to finishing my current book (The Unthiknable Thoughts of Jacob Green) before my 4 hour flight back to Chicago from LA. It was the best choice they had. I anticipate a mediocre reaction to this book. I like Koontz, but a lot of his books seem to be too similar for me.---Despite not being a big fan of the 'formula novel' - you know, all those books that authors constantly crank out and end up on the top of the NYT bestseller's list - I have to say that I enjoyed this book. I haven't really happened upon an engrossing read yet this year, but this book turned out to be one that had me longing to pick it up again. As with other Koontz novels, this book was a psychological thriller with a supernatural twist. Although engaging, I'm looking forward to reading something a bit 'meatier' from a more obscure author.