The Taking

by Dean Koontz

2005

Status

Checked out

Publication

Bantam (2005), Edition: Reprint, 448 pages

Description

Molly and Niel Sloan awake to see golden rain falling. In their remote California mountain town, they learn from their television of enormous waterspouts and blizzards around the globe; then, the television ceases, as do all other forms of communication with the outside world. The Sloans are left, together with their neighbors, in the midst of a purple fog, disturbed by a threat they cannot identify or understand. Together they discover that the world is being prepared for beings other than themselves--beings with vast technological powers at their disposal, who will stop at nothing to hunt them down and kill them all.

User reviews

LibraryThing member thouxartxgod
Not one of Koontz's better works. Koontz is very often entertaining but is never amazing, in my opinion, and this is bad even for him. It starts out strong, but gets more implausible and ridiculous as it goes along, and finally, the ending is just trash--complete religious propaganda. It really
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felt like a bait and switch job. And certainly Koontz's utterly uninformed views on global warming and other subjects, which are interjected throughout the book, could (and should) have been left out. I normally get a little bored and annoyed by his completely unsubtle political and opinion commentary, but this book drove me nuts. I would tell all but the most die-hard Koontz fanatics to skip it.
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LibraryThing member RBeffa
I read this in two and a half days, which means I liked it. Koontz is a good storyteller. Some folks dislike his flowery prose, but in general, I actually like it except for the over the top moments, which, well, they happen. Fairly early in the story I think I pretty much had part of this figured
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out, but there is enough interesting stuff to keep you guessing, and some genuinely creepy moments to cause one to make sure the doors are locked. It was a good read.
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LibraryThing member melydia
Um, wow. This was really terrible. I have no idea why I finished it. Basically, there's a bunch of sparkling rain and people start seeing weird stuff in mirrors, and everybody immediately assumes that it signals an alien invasion. They're right, which saves a bunch of time, but I'm still not sure
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how they knew. The prose is a solid shade of purple, people suspiciously quote T.S. Eliot, and dolls get possessed. And because this is a Koontz novel, there are magical dogs, questionable science, preachy theology, and a serial killer. I saw the "twist" ending a mile away, but thought "No, that would be too silly, even for Koontz" - and was of course completely wrong. Clearly nothing is too silly for Koontz. I've liked several of his other books, but this was simply awful.
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LibraryThing member Lotusflowermom
This is one of my favorite Dean Koontz book. I loved it and couldn't put it down.
LibraryThing member MeganAngela
On one of my mother's many bookshelf clean-outs, this book was one of the ones she had that I pulled from the pile because it looked interesting. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. I was not familiar with Dean Koontz other than by name, so I had no pre-conceived notions of what I was getting
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into. All I knew was that the blurb on the book jacket sounded like something right up my alley!

Now, I can tell that Koontz is not the pinnacle of horror writing, so if you are looking for something incredibly deep or cerebral, you won't find it here. However, if you are looking for a horror novel that has its fair share of thrills and chills and you don't mind reading another author's spin on the "alien apocalypse" story, then look no further. I was incredibly impressed by how Koontz effectively unnerved me and I was gripped throughout the entire novel.

I'd recommend this book to other people like myself who like horror, but on a much lighter "beach read" scale.
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LibraryThing member danofthedead33
A different horror to run from on almost every page. This story does not let up from the begging to the end. This book is the embodiment of hell on earth. Ending is way out there, but very satisfying.
LibraryThing member andyray
A singular effort with the author keeping me guessing all the way through the book. It is a tale of the last days with a unique approach by Koontz.
LibraryThing member tkpunk
Apocalypse by aliens. More mid-apocalypse than post, really. Not a classic of western literature. Annoyingly brief speculations about apocalypse/bible/noah type crap...
LibraryThing member astrida22
Even though reviews were mixed, I loved this creepy story!
"Koontz reprises his dogs and aliens theme with a galactic invasion of soul-snatching fungi. The only beings able to discern the aliens' intent are the town's pet dogs."
LibraryThing member kewaynco
This was far from the best Koontz. I may be biased, but I don't like children being endangered to the extent they were in this book.

To me, the book just seemed to be an endless train of high-anxiety events placed end-to-end with no real thought given to a plot. The whole book seemed rushed, right
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to the end - an end that seemed to be thrown in because he couldn't really figure out how to end it.
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LibraryThing member bibliophile26
By no means is Koontz great literature, but I've enjoyed most of his books. This is one of the sci-fi types (as opposed to horror) and concerns alien invasion, all beginning with an odd-smelling rain. The ending pissed me off...very anti-climatic.
LibraryThing member klarsenmd
This is a very entertianing horror story, written in the typical fashion of Dean Koontz. The description and imagery used throughout is excellent and a bit terrifiying. The story centers around an alien invasion, however, unlike the typical little grey men scenario, this one plays out to a very
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interesting ending. Definitley not for the feint of heart, this makes for a good read on a dark rainy night.
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LibraryThing member busyreadin
A rain storm created by otherworldly "beings" tries to bring about the end of the world. As things progress, Molly, a writer and Neil, an ex-priest try to stay alive and save the children who are orphaned.

This wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. And the ending became something of a morality play.
LibraryThing member TheTwoDs
Fast-paced, suspenseful and mysterious, this one kept me up reading all night. The strangeness of the situations adds to the overall unease it provokes.
LibraryThing member dreamyflo
My first time with DK, enjoyable too. Nice cosy start, in a rural home with the rain beating down, set the scene nicely. I soon found myself on a journey with the leading lady with just the right amount of background info, not too heavy and all appropriate to the moment. A fast moving pace set in
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fairly quickly and I relished in what each turn of the page would bring. I found the end came a little abruptly, a good explanation but short, and not nearly enough explanation about the dogs in the final say............all in all a great read and seeking out the next DK already
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LibraryThing member BlondeBibliophile
Hmmm……I liked it. Mostly. I have very bittersweet feelings for Dean Koontz. The first (and sworn to be the last) Koontz book I read was “The Husband”. I can recognize a good story teller; and Koontz is just that. However, his mind-numbing, long-winded descriptions of vegetation makes me
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want to poke myself with sharp instruments just to keep myself awake through the worthless dribble of words. For example,…..”(page 23 from ‘The Taking‘) “The massive pine trunks were columns in a vast nave, and the spreading boughs formed groin vaults and fan vaults high overhead.”
*snoring*
Oh, I’m sorry, I actually fell asleep while typing that. Yuck.
Anyway, my husband loved this book. Therefore, he asked me very nicely to read it. And because I kinda like the hubby, and I will read pretty much anything, I complied.
Alright, it’s a good story. The ending is a little abrupt, but there is a decent description of why everything transpired the way it did throughout the book. I also liked the surprise conclusion, even though Koontz’s play on certain ‘events’ is a little skewed. (That was a little cryptic, but I don’t want to give away any major plot points).
Even though I liked it, I come from it slightly irritated. ‘The Husband’ was good. ‘The Taking’ was good. But, I will NOT read another Koontz book. He absolutely insists on using three paragraphs to describe the way light reflects off a freakin’ dandelion. If he could resist the nasty urge to bore his readers to death, I would read all of his works. He really is talented. But for me, his need for flowery descriptions almost completely ruins the story.
So…it’s a really interesting story. If you don’t mind a long-winded dribble of words, it’s definitely worth reading. If, on the other hand, you hate flowery, mind-numbing descriptions: Beware. Koontz books will have you reaching for those sharp objects I was talking about……..
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LibraryThing member wispywillow
From the very first page, I was a captive of this story. It starts out very, very strongly.

There were a few times later on in the book that I felt its plot weakened a bit, but it picked back up again.
LibraryThing member seldombites
If you can accept or ignore the premise at the end, The Taking is an excellent book. A very clever take on what armageddon could be like, it starts out with a creepy, eerie quality that leaves us a little uncomfortable. After a while, the truly weird terrors begin. In an era where we have been fed
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a steady diet of alien invasion movies, this book seems all too feasible, making it all the more terrifying. In my opinion, this one of Koontz's best works. Not a book to be read at night or during a thunderstorm, The Taking should, nevertheless, be on everyone's reading list.
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LibraryThing member snat
*minor spoilers* Well, I don't want to give too much away as a book such as this relies heavily upon suspense. Simply put, it was okay. The basic premise: it begins raining one night, but this is no ordinary rain--it's one bad mamma-jamma: torrential, luminous, and occurring at precisely the exact
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same time all over the world. Defense satellites are out of commission, strange alien creatures run amok, and people begin to go insane. And that's all before the crap really hits the proverbial fan. Now the other thing about books such as this is that the most obvious explanation for whatever weird ass creepiness is going down is beaten like a dead horse to the point that you know it can't possibly be that explanation. Instead, you have to pay attention to the theory that's being ruled out as a possibility, yet mentioned peripherally and in often subtle ways throughout the book. Therein lies the problem with The Taking--the clues weren't subtle enough and I pretty much had it all figured out from the very first one (seriously, can you mention "Legion" and not be obvious?) I desperately hoped that Koontz was going to throw in a plot twist so craftily, well, crafted before the end that I would have to cede the victory to him ("Well played, Dean," I imagined myself saying by the book's end, "but you shant cozen me next time with your verbal trickery.") Instead, all I can say is, "Better luck next time, and play your cards a little closer to the vest--don't name the freakin' dog Virgil."
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LibraryThing member drebbles
"The Taking" is Dean Koontz's version of the end of the world. It focuses on a young couple, Molly and Neil Sloan, who wake up early one morning to a strange rainfall. Turning on their television, they soon realize that the whole world is under attack and they head into town to find other
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survivors. Along the way they encounter zombies, unnaturally large bugs, other unknown creatures lurking in trees, dolls that self-mutilate, UFO's, and a fungus that threatens to overtake everything. Molly determines that she was left alive to protect the surviving children, so she and Neil, along with the help of a dog that seems almost human, set out to find the children and start a new world, if they survive.

"The Taking" is the written equivalent of a B movie - you know it's really bad, but you can't stop reading it. Koontz focuses on one character - Molly - and consequently the other characters, including Neil, are nonentities and readers don't care what happens to them. It's hard to feel sympathetic for characters that are killed because you know nothing about them. And Molly herself is a one-dimensional character.

The reason the characters are so one-dimensional is Koontz's writing. He spends too much time telling readers what is going on instead of showing them. A perfect example is what happened between Molly and her father when she was eight years old. Instead of bringing readers into the classroom with Molly and her father (which would have been a terrific way to open the book) Koontz tells readers what happened halfway through the book, in alternate paragraphs, as Molly encounters her father as an adult. The scene where Molly and Neil listen to the astronauts being attacked in space should have been especially frightening, the reader should have been able to imagine the horrors along with Molly and Neil but it just didn't work.

Finally, Koontz didn't seem to know how to end the book. The last few pages seem rushed. The aliens simply leave and he glosses over the setting up of a new civilization by having all the corpses mysteriously disappear and mentioning that there was enough canned food to last for years. Conveniently enough, all the survivors were in useful professions - doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, architects, carpenters and mechanics - all chosen for their talent. No policemen or firefighters are mentioned - Koontz seems to have created a perfect world.

The description on the back of the book made the book sound really interesting, but the description was the best part of the book.
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LibraryThing member merryish
Half a star for the brilliant con-artistry that must have been required to get such a ridiculously bad novel published. The prose was horrible - and I say this as a fan of a lot of Koontz's work. I mean, it was really, really bad. Purple doesn't even begin to cover it. It was a rambling, lurid,
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barely coherent mess of a book. I struggled through to the end because I hate to leave a book unfinished, but it took me about three months to read it, where a decent book of similar length will take me a day or two, on average.

And it wasn't just the writing; the storycrafting was also terrible. Aside from being almost unbearably boring, it was also in places incredibly stupid, with poorly thought out events, random consequences, zero-dimensional characters and an ending that was a such a complete rip-off it made me actually resent the author for making me plow through the book to get to it.
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LibraryThing member shellyamendola
This would rank up there as one of his best books. The intensity right from the beginning keeps you on the edge of your seat. The only thing that would frighten you more would be if it had accompanying scary music.
LibraryThing member TinyDancer11
Creeeeepy! Obviously it's a bit similiar to many other stories out there, but still a morally refreshing yet haunting read.
LibraryThing member ChromiumDomium
My first and only Dean Koontz novel. I chose it at random without any preconceived notions about DK and his work. Whilst the start was very atmospheric and had bags of potential, I found myself becoming increasingly bored with it.

I think the reason for my boredom, was its similarity to so many
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other novels of its type. It didn't really bring anything new to the table. I might as well have picked up War of the Worlds.

I like to rotate my authors so as not to become too jaded with one particular writing style or genre, but reading this following from Stephen Kings "Bag of Bones" was such a let down. I'll probably try one or two more of his books as I'm sure I've just been unlucky, but this time I'll try and make my selection a little more carefully.
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LibraryThing member Carl_Alves
Set in a small town in California, Molly Sloan and her husband Neil wake up to strange, downpouring rain that animals are having extreme negative reactions toward, which is part of massive changes taking place in the world. All forms of communications, including the Internet, are down. The novel
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starts off strong, and Koontz keeps a narrow focus, something which he isn't always capable of doing. Molly and Neil investigate what is happening and find out that aliens are taking part in an invasion of the planet, one of my favorite literary topics. Even more disturbing, the aliens are reanimating the dead. The Sloans find themselves in a battle against aliens in their town.

By keeping the focus only on this small town, Koontz is able to personalize his tale as opposed to dealing with a worldwide invasion. In certain ways it is reminiscent of the movie Signs. There is sufficient tension throughout, and the pace is strong. Dean Koontz is often hit or miss, but this one kind of hits the middle. Definitely not the worst that Koontz has written, it's also not up to par with his best novels.

Carl Alves - author of Blood Street
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2004-05

Physical description

448 p.; 4.14 inches

ISBN

0553584502 / 9780553584509

Barcode

1600250

Other editions

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