This is the Dean Koontz I love! I listened to this as an audio book a few years ago and was thrilled to re-experience the story in print. Cold Fire was published in 1991, after The Bad Place and before Koontz starting coming out with 2-3 novels each year. Some issues examined in Cold Fire include: Environmentalism, Religion and Mental Illness. Like many Koontz novels, this work crosses over many genres including: Science Fiction, Mystery, Suspense and Adventure.It appears that Koontz has created a fictional work within his work of fiction: The Black Windmill, reportedly written by Arthur J. Willott. We of course know that Koontz is and expert at creating fictional names and works, claiming they were written by someone else but really the author is Dean R. Koontz. Another example of this is The Book of Counted Sorrows from which the following quote appears twice in Cold Fire to introduce readers to both part one and two of the story: "In the real world as in dreams,nothing is quite what it seems."A windmill is a central focal point of this story and the imagery is wonderful :"Night pressed at the narrow windows, which were almost like castle embrasures in the limestone walls. Rain tapped against the glass. Suddenly, with a creak of unoiled and half-rusted machinery, the four great wooden sails of the mill began to turn outside, faster and faster, cutting like giant scythes through the damp air. The upright shaft, which came out of the ceiling and vanished through a bore in the center of the floor, also began to turn , briefly creating the illusion that the round floor itself were rotating in the manner of a carousel. One level below, the ancient millstones started to roll against each other, producing a soft rumble like distant thunder".Another great imagery example from four pages earlier in the story (this one much shorter): "Night floated down like a great tossed cape of almost weightless black silk".Some of my other favorite quotes:On Religion: "I'm reluctant to believe that some statue of the Holy Mother wept real tears in a church in Cincinnati or Peoria or Teaneck last week after the Wednesday-night bingo games, witnesses only by two teenagers and the parish cleaning lady. And I'm not ready to believe that a shadow resembling Jesus, cast on someone's garage wall by a yellow bug light, is a sign of impending apocalypse. God works in mysterious ways, but not with bug lights and garage walls."On Evil: "There's too much darkness in some people, corruption that could never be cleaned out in five lifetimes of rehabilitation. Evil is real, it walks the earth. Sometimes the devil works by persuasion. Sometimes he just sets loose these sociopaths who don't have a gene for empathy or one for compassion."On Books: " Around her, thousands of times and places, people and worlds, from Mars to Egypt to Yoknapatawpha County, were closed up in the bindings of books like the shine trapped under the tarnished veneer of a brass lamp. She could almost feel them waiting to dazzle with the first turn of a page, come alive with brilliant colors and pungent odors and delicious aromas, with laughter and sobbing and cries and whispers. Books were packaged dreams."And this bit of conversation: " 'When we get where we're going, you won't carve me up with a chainsaw and bury me under the windmill, will you?'Apparently he understood her sense of vulnerability and took no offense, for he said with mock solemnity, 'Oh, no. It's full-up under the mill. I'll have to bury pieces of you all over the farm' ".My only criticism of Cold Fire, is the occasional bits of overdone horror which seem to be tossed in, not necessarily flowing with the story, following are two examples:"Sensing something above her head, Holly looked up. A large web had been spun above the door, across the curve where the wall became the ceiling. A fat spider, it's body as big around as her thumbnail and its spindly legs almost as long as her little finger, greasy as a dollop of wax and dark as a drop of blood, was feeding greedily on the pale quivering body of a snared moth."and"Without warning, a vision burst in Holly's mind with such force and brilliance that the library vanished for a moment and her inner world became the only reality; she saw herself naked and nailed to a wall in an obscene parody of a crucifix, blood streaming from her hands and feet (a voice whispering : die, die, die), and she opened her mouth to scream but, instead of sound, swarms of cockroaches poured out between her lips, and she realized she was already dead (die, die, die), her putrid innards crawling with pests and vermin -"Many Koontz novels have a supernatural element and some, like Cold Fire also have a Science Fiction theme. I'm not a big fan of Science Fiction but have really enjoyed Koontz' trademark genre mix. If you enjoyed or are interested in reading Cold Fire, I would also recommend the following Dean Koontz novels: Lightning, The Bad Place, By The Light of The Moon, and Brother Odd.
I really enjoyed reading this book. There was constant action and mystery. I've always enjoyed Dean Koontz writing and this book reminded me of all the things I loved about him since the first book of his I read. All through out the book I was really rooting for the main character. He's a likeable enough guy. Plus, who wouldn't appreciate a guy who risks his life to save people he's never met before. At first, I thought that the female charachter was annoying. But, in most novels, there has to be some sort of love interest. Love can bring anyone from the brink of insanity back to the real world. Sounds pretty cheesy but it works in this book. Although she seems useless in the beginning, she turns out to be an important person for Mr. Ironheart.Their names are also pretty obvious. "Ironheart" amd "Thorne". They were completely who/what their names made them to be. She was like a thorn in the man with an iron heart's side. It's okay to allow Dean Koontz this since it doesn't detract from the story too much or is even mentioned in the book. They more or less act their names. The journey in this story is great with a lot of action sequences that leave the reader just wanting more and unable to put the book down. Wanting to know who this "Enemy" is made every scene worthwhile. There were no charachters introduced that were not necessary. And the main characters were flushed out enough to actually care about. I liked this book and would recommend it to be read.
What do You think about Cold Fire (2004)?
as usual I like koontz.I put this story down in order to read a few new others to my collection. Once I picked the book back up, immediately I was caught and drawn right back into the story of a man who saves people by intuition and woman reporter who is trying to find the tale. At first I didn't think this story would keep my attention, but because it is a Koontz I thought to try it - not a dissapointment!It became a little mind binding by the end. One moment it is miracles, then it's extraterestrial, then it's super natural... when really its all mental.
—Becky
Narrated by Michael Hanson and Carol Cowan, Cold Fire is approximately fifteen hours of listening. The original novel was published in 1991. When I first heard the stigmata issue, I rolled my eyes and thought I was in for a boring, religious diatribe. Fortunately, my initial fears were unfounded, and I kept listening simply because the story was so intriguing. Koontz is an amazing story teller, and as has been said, story trumps all.The lead character, Jim Ironheart, has a gift; call it clairvoyance. He knows when someone is in danger, and goes to whatever measures are necessary to save lives. Early in the tale a struggling journalist, Holly Thorne, witnesses this mysterious heroism. Holly smells a story that may salvage her career, and before long, the two become lovers. However, the love affair is secondary to the fact that together they journey through the macabre (It’s Dean Koontz, after all.) details of Jim Ironheart’s past to understand his amazing powers. Great plane crash scene.The most wonderful aspect of this story is the audio reading by Carol Cowan. Just terrific. The male voices are read by Michael Hanson, and are nice … but Carol does an incredible job with the voice and thoughts of Holly Thorne. Both readers jockey through dialogue and narrative very smoothly. An enjoyable listen, well worth the credits.
—Samyann
I thought I saw the ending to this one coming from a mile away (and actually groaned aloud like "really, koontz? really?"), but thank God I was Wrong with a capital W. I never really got into Dean Koontz before because I started with a different story of his that I just didn't like. Nothing wrong with his writing,I just didn't like the story. Kind of like I don't do chick flicks (but love romance novels... figure that one out). There's nothing inherently wrong with chick flicks. I just don't ten
—Sarah Rios
