Frankenstein Book Three dead and alive Dean Knooze

Claudia, Rick and I have been waiting and looking for this final installment in Koontz’s fascinating series.

Victor Helios’ (Victor Frankenstein; over 200 years old) “New Race” creations are beginning to think for themselves and acting contrary to the way they were programmed when they were made. They are still cold blooded killers but they are killing out of control and some are beginning to mutate. At the same time, some of Victor’s “monsters” are questioning their programming. Victor’s wife, “Erica 5” is secretly reading books (forbidden by the creator) and becoming curious about her husband’s activities; she has discovered hidden rooms and has talked to mutants who have given her ideas that may cause Erica 5 to betray Helios.

The “New Race” was organized into specific classes; workers to do the menial tasks (maids, cleaners, those who ran the dump where they buried town people and Victor’s mistakes), replicates, those who were made to replace important people in the community; police chiefs, Mayors, priests, etc., and enforcers and guards who did the killing and dirty work for Victor. All were very strong and possessed great speed and agility. Victor Helios was building new “factories” to mass produce his creations that would eventually kill all humans.


This final book of the series deals more with several of Helio’s creations , particularly, the mutants and follows them as they go on killing sprees and react with others of their kind. Detectives, Carson and Michael continue to work with Victor Frankenstein’s original creation, Deucalion, to find a way to finally stop Helios and destroy the “new race”. There is some dark humor and some very exciting and tense action and one can feel a certain sympathy for the creatures, evil and misguided as they are.

There is an interesting twist and a prologue which may or may not make this the last we hear of the immortal Deucalion and his nemesis Victor Helios.

Frankenstein Book 2 City of Night Dean Koontz

Claudia and Rick have read both books of this reworking of the classic tale by Mary Shelly and “Jill Baby” is deep into the first book. There will be a third volume, there has to be because this one had no ending, it just fades away at what should be a very important stage of the story.

The time is 240 years since Victor Frankenstein who now calls himself Victor Helios created his first “monster”. The creature still lives and calls himself Deucalion (the son of Prometheus). Apparently, Deucalion has learned to control his rage through years of study at a monastery and he has learned that his creator has managed to keep himself alive for over 200 years and has created a special race of non humans to serve him. Deucalion has vowed to kill his maker. Victor Helios is one bad guy!! He has managed to make duplicates of major figures in the city of New Orleans this includes the Mayor, the Police Chief and many others in authority. These non humans are programmed for special duties; they are stronger and faster and eventually, Victor Helios will turn them loose to kill all humans. Frankenstein continues to perform bizarre experiments some of which turn out very badly; he destroys them and buries them in a special dump that is used for both human and non human bodies and is run by disgusting low class non human people who hate humans and savor the opportunity to perform evil deeds and mutilation on the human bodies that are sent to them.
There is a man and woman detective team who know about Frankenstein and are intent on destroying him with the help of Deucalion. The team is followed by an assassination couple who bring very dark humor and brutal conversation to their characters. Frequently, the dialogue in this novel is repugnant especially when it gets into descriptions of killing and burial rituals by the non humans.
Victor is mad; he is looking for perfection but he can not find it in the culture or makeup of the human race. He has made five wives, none of which are good enough for him. It is, not yet, clear how he expects things to be when he has killed off all humans because one of the prime motivations of his non humans is to kill humans and when humans are gone how will the monsters fare?

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Book 1

Frankenstein" Book One; Prodigal Son Dean Koontz

Over two hundred years old, the "monster" created by Frankenstein lives in monastery in the high mountains of Tibet. He calls himself Deucalion after the brother of Prometheus; he has studied extensively and has learned to control his rage. He attributes his long life to "something" in the lightning that brought him to life; he traveled the world as a carnival freak and made one good friend who he told his story to. The man sends him a newspaper article showing the face of Victor Frankenstein, still alive in New Orleans and a letter explaining that strange things are happening in New Orleans and they might be connected to Frankenstein who now, uses another name. Deucalion leaves the monastery.In New Orleans, two homicide detectives, Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison are investigating a serial killer who is removing limbs and internal organs from men and women. So far they are perplexed. Various creepy humans and non humans are introduced as they commit heinous crimes and we find Frankenstein, now Victor Helios, still relatively young, extremely wealthy and doing advanced research. He is growing specially structured "non Human" people who come out of a tube wherein their intelligence and knowledge is directly downloaded to their brain. They are fully developed, much stronger and faster than humans and specifically programed for different tasks. Some of "non humans" have been placed city jobs including the Police Department. They are really pitiful creatures, totally controlled and with enate faults (much to the chagrin of Helios) that surface and cause them to question their existence. Helios has also made a few clones that he has inserted into the Clergy. Victor has some kind of a "Huxley" "Brave New World" idea where he intends to do away with the "imperfect" human race and people the world with his own creations. He will create a class system with "Alphas" at the top; with social graces and keen intellect, "Betas" to keep things running and "Omegas" to do the menial and dirty chores.The story tells the adventures of several of Victors creations including his fourth wife (the previous ones had faults and were destroyed), how Carson and Michael work to solve the crimes and the mystery continuing how they meet Deucalion and and learn his history and how Deucalion decides to help them find and attempt to destroy Victor Helios.This was an interesting and suspenseful novel: a little gore but not too bad, good interplay between the main characters and it wets your appetite for the next volume