The Eyes of Darkness- Dean Koontz | A Book Review
The year 2020 has been the worst year for us as the whole world is in lockdown mode due to the Coronavirus pandemic and people are getting bored by staying at home. During this time, the best thing one can do to pass this time is, take a cup of coffee and devour into the world of books. In my case, I read a book that has created a buzz on social media during this Coronavirus pandemic- The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz. Published in 1981, the book is eerily similar to the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Although, the mention of the bio-weapon was merely a coincidence; it was enough to engage me in reading the book. However, after reading the novel, it made me disappointed as it failed to meet my expectations.
Here is a quick rundown of the book-
The book revolves around Tina Evans, who wants to solve the mystery behind her son’s death Danny. Although Danny died about a year ago in an accident during their Boy Scout tour, Tina always feels that her son is still alive. Her suspicion grows even stronger when a terrestrial force tries to communicate by stating, “not dead.” As a result, Tina with her boyfriend Elliot Stryker who also happens to be a lawyer; tries to exhume the body of Danny to prove their misconceptions. The book takes a crucial turn when the pre-supposed death of Danny is linked with the government conspiracy. Then, both of the protagonists with the help of Danny’s telekinesis power find out that, the whole project was a part of the secret experiment which was funded by the government. This confidential research lab was established to create a biochemical weapon that can be used in other countries. This is where the Wuhan-400 super-virus is created and Danny is used as a guinea pig for their experiments. The scientific experiments could not kill Danny and moreover, he gained physic powers through these experiments which helped him to contact his mother. Finally, Danny kills the key scientist during their final escape.
My Review:
The whole book pivots sharply from supernatural horror to spy-like science fiction. The narrative has unnecessary details which make the reading sometimes monotonous. I feel the author tried to accumulate every genre in this book; thus, it utterly makes the book fall flat on its face. Though the buildup of the novel was appreciative yet I feel, the climax had been written redundantly. In my opinion, the author sealed the fate of the antagonist in a single paragraph, which was a bit tough to swallow. Moreover, if Danny in this book can crash helicopters and make guns not work with his telekinesis power, I am sure he could escape from the research facility without his mom’s (Tina) help. Whenever I thought of this thing, it made me super puzzled.
Now comes the question, do Coronavirus and Wuhan-400 have any similarities? According to the author, the human-made biological weapon Wuhan-400 created in this book coincidentally originates from Wuhan, China; however, there is no connection between the lethality rate of Coronavirus (2% according to WHO) and Wuhan-400 (100% according to the author). Apart from the super-virus origination place, the readers cannot find any correlation with what is happening during this global pandemic in 2020. Moreover, the effect of this biological weapon Wuhan-400 was mentioned during the climax of the book, which only consisted of two paragraphs. If you were to find similarities between Coronavirus and Wuhan-400 based on these two paragraphs, then it will be like finding water sources in a barren desert.
According to my opinion, it was a good read but I will not recommend you reading this book. If you have read this review, then you pretty much know enough about the book.
