The novel is pure Koontz: a pure hero, a beautiful heroine with a heart of gold, and a more than lovable dog — all caught up in an impossible adventure as they try to get away from the forces aligned against them, with subplots from their past gradually becoming visible as explanations of how they came to wind up in this situation.This book is unusual for Koontz in that this time there is nothing supernatural occurring in it, but there is the usual amount of tense drama as the protagonist finds himself fleeing from people who are so well outfitted and organized that he might well think they have supernatural powers. The protagonist here is one Spencer Grant, whose face was so disfigured by a tragedy in his childhood that he shuns the company of other people. The night before this book starts, he had stopped in at a bar in Santa Monica and had extensive discussion with one of the waitresses, which had affected him deeply. As the book opens, he searches out that same bar once more, wishing to see her again, and learns that she did not come to work that night. Since he had been so intrigued by her the night before, he had followed her home to find out where she lived, and he now sets out to go back there, in case some accident has befallen her. Immediately after he gets there, he is caught up in an invasion as heavily armed men from an unknown group attack the building with stun grenades and automatic weapons. He manages to escape, but now he is the target of their pursuit, which in short order forces him to leave his home and his way of life behind, always staying only steps ahead of the forces trying to hunt him down.This is yet another proof that my daughter was wrong when she told me Goodreads would stop me from reading books a second time. I really enjoyed this book, but somewhere a little ways after page 200 I said to myself: “And now they’re going to go out into the desert,” and I knew I had read this book before. Since I had no idea what the ending was, however, I happily continued reading all the way through to the end. Upon reflection, I realized I read this book eight years ago, because I remembered having a discussion about it with my beloved sister-in-law at that time, and it is frightening to think that I could forget it so completely. I have now identified about half a dozen such novels that I have enjoyed very much the first time but then forgotten so completely that I could enjoy them all over again; maybe I just ought to put those books on a shelf and keep reading them over and over, so that I wouldn’t have to bother with all the other books in the world?Purists will say that this is also another violation of my ranking rule, which goes on a great bell curve, so that almost all the books I enjoy reading fall within the category of three stars, with four stars reserved for those books which everyone ought to read and five stars reserved for the books that I think everyone must read. I think I can defend that ranking, however. When I first read this book, despite my enjoyment of the story, I was a bit put off by the dark view that the author presents of our government – at the suggestion that there could be elements of the federal government that would do such dark things as the federal forces in this novel do; in fact, that was much of the subject of the aforementioned discussions with my beloved sister-in-law. Eight years later, however, having been exposed to what the NSA and the FBI have been up to lately, this novel almost reads more like a news account than fiction. And the reason I rank it above the norm is that the author’s commentaries, as expressed in the dialogue between his characters, are things that we all should take into consideration. In fact, I probably should give it five stars for that reason alone.
Dark Rivers of the Heart is a monumental test of human endurance. It gets so boring by the halfway point that any sane reader would drink liquid cyanide before bringing themselves to finish this book. At first it seems interesting. Agency and high tech stuff, what could go wrong? Everything. I wouldn't be surprised if the editor face rolled the keyboard somewhere near page 562. The combination of this book’s terrible quality and it being a required reading, with deadlines, creates a nightmare for the English student. It causes one to reconsider their faith in God, as how could He have let this tragedy happen to you? Throughout the book, the protagonist talks to his dog as a way to clear his thoughts. It is obvious that he considers the pet to be his intellectual superior. The same seems to apply to the author. He had enough creative ideas for perhaps 75 pages, but decided that he wanted to make a 600 page book, and so resorted to filling the remaining 525 pages with both human and canine diarrhea. The characters are one-dimensional robots that have no reason to act the way they do, although some invisible deity forces their actions in order to make a story. It simply doesn't make sense to go up against a powerful and evil organisation just because you want to help a random girl you talked to one night at a bar. You might say that since it’s a techno thriller, the reader should be more lenient towards subhuman characters. That could be so, if the technology was any good. Unfortunately, the technology presented in the book is deserving of aleph-two facepalms. Nobody’s impressed with 5 KB of memory, Koontz, so please stop bragging about it in the book. Although such things seem minor at the beginning of the book, when Koontz invests most of his 75 pages of creative material, they become the sole focus of the book when the book progresses and the author runs out of plot. The junk food I ate while procrastinating reading this book filled dark rivers in my heart. I expect Koontz to pay for my heart surgery 60 years down the road.
What do You think about Dark Rivers Of The Heart (2000)?
I read this book several times as a teenager and it remains one of my favorite Koontz books. Tons of adventure, suspense, unexpected plot twists and two protagonists I really liked...and some antagonists who were entertainingly malicious.The romance angle seems a bit unrealistic by today's standards, but it is admittedly realistic when it comes to the loneliness that so many people feel, going through their everyday lives, searching for someone to share it all with. That's a recurring theme in a lot of Dean Koontz's books, especially those written in the 1980s. And at the time, it struck a deep chord with me, too.It's interesting to think that some of the high technology mentioned in this story must have seemed like science fiction when the book first came out...though it is mundane and commonplace today, and in many cases, even dated.This was an entertaining read and one that I go back to, again and again. Out of all of Dean Koontz's work, this is one of the best.
—Jesse
Dark Rivers of the Heart (1994)There's really not much that could be said about "Dark Rivers" that hasn't been said. It doesn't really break any new background; if you've read Koontz before you won't be surprised by anything.The protagonist, Spencer Grant (who of course has a haunted past) travels with his dog Rocky (who has good reasons not to dwell on the past too) in search of a woman, Valerie, whom he fell in love with...after chatting with her for 20 minutes in a bar. Spencer arrives at the Red Door, the place where he met her, but she's not there so he goes to break into her house. Of course Valerie has mysterious past too, because at her place some kind of SWAT team surprises Spencer and he has to go on the run.The first biggest problem with "Dark Rivers" is that it's very dated. Koontz spends a lot of time describing the wonderful new technology - Spencer is astonished when Valerie's computer has 10 gigabytes of disk space - but for the modern reader it's ultimately boring. Page after page is spent on descriptions of laptops, hacking, computer access all cutting edge circa 1993.The second biggest problem is Koontz's concern with the Asset Forfeiture laws. He devotes a whole sub-plot which takes quite a lot of space to talk how the US Government can steal property from an individual with absolute impunity. All of this horror (exagerated or not) was made obsolete in 2000 by the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act. Besides, with the privacy of American citizens being threatened by the Patriot Act...Asset Forfeiture doesn't look that big of a deal.The third biggest problem, which might be the biggest of them all, is the helplessly bad ending which Koontz yet again pulled straight out from his butt. I've read much about how this book was "Dark" and the ending "bleak", bbut it turned out not to be the case. Koontz did write some fun chase scenes here but totally screwed the final confrontation, making it anticlimatic, lazy and idiotic."Dark Rivers" is quite long, but for most it's fast paced and enjoyable, if you can turn off your brain and pretend not to notice the bad dialogue and usual Koontz cliches.
—Maciek
Another great book by Dean Koontz. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The books are great, the humor is welcome, and they usually keep me reading until late into the night.Publisher's SummarySpencer Grant had no idea what drew him to the bar with the red door. He thought he would just sit down, have a slow beer or two, and talk to a stranger. He couldn't know that it would lead to a narrow escape from a bungalow targeted by a SWAT team. Or that it would leave him a wanted man.Now he is on the run from mysterious and ruthless men. He is in love with a woman he knows next to nothing about. And he is hiding from a past he can't fully remember. On his trail is a shadowy security agency that answers to no one, including the U.S. government, and a man who considers himself a compassionate Angel of Death. But worst of all, Spencer Grant is on a collision course with inner demons he thought he'd buried years ago - inner demons that could destroy him if his enemies don't first.
—Matt Barker
