In Dean Koontz’s novel, Seize The Night – a Christopher Snow Adventure – Snow suffers from an inherited genetic disorder known as Xeroderma pigmentation, XP. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation, sunshine, incandescent and fluorescent light could cause skin and eye cancer. Thus, he is a nocturnal creature, and I thought that this was a fascinating premise for a character, which reminded me of the vampire craze and chronicles that have inundated literary circles, bookstores, book clubs, and movies. When five-year old Jimmy Wing, as well as Aaron and Anson Stewart, and Wendy Dulcinea, disappear from their homes in Moonlight Bay, Snow goes out into the night in search for them. Of course, he doesn’t go alone. He enlists the aid of Orson, his dog whom he named after Orson Wells, Sasha Goodall, his fiancée and deejay at Kbay Radio, Bobby Halloway, his best friend for the past seventeen years, Doggie Sassman, a tattooed Harley Davidson fanatic, Roosevelt Frost, a friend of Sasha’s, and Frost’s cat, Munjojerrie, who like Orson possess human-level intelligence, and has the ability to track and find lost people and objects like a bloodhound. “The cat knows things,” said Roosevelt. This motley crew and their witty banter create a rather entertaining, enlightening, and satisfying read. You’ll find the text filled with preternatural phenomena, especially when Snow and his motley crew endeavor to embark on a midnight excursion into Fort Wyvern, an old, abandoned military base, where scientists had once pursued mysterious, top-secret work in underground laboratories, where a retrovirus – created by Snow’s mother, Wisteria Jane Snow - threatened to infect the community at large – the scientists, the military population at the base, and the folks in town – forcing the government to wisely shut down the operation and laboratory experiments. However, as in most cases in real life, the government acted too slowly. Hence, Snow and his defenders of mankind find themselves confronted with preternatural phenomena, with flocks of birds, rhesus monkeys and coyotes that appear to have been infected with the retrovirus, as their strange and unnatural behavior become evident.Moreover, Koontz ventures into areas of science and pseudoscience when he writes about genetic mutation, altered species, space travel, parallel universe, retrovirus, and times machines. He skillfully creates images of past and future events, and then conflates them in a visual montage with the present, creating flickering images that might either be projected on a screen, in your mind, or flashed within a kaleidoscope or lantern or zoetrope. And, perhaps, nothing could be scarier than the idea of the residents of Moonlight Bay “becoming.” Meaning those who are exposed to the retrovirus might eventually turn into something that is almost indescribable, although, Koontz suggests that whatever it is, it is certainly a scary, alien-like creature. Under a collapsing, imploding structure, in a subterranean basement, Snow and his crew finally locate the children and confront John Joseph Randolph, also known as Doctor Randolph Josephson, in a nail-biting, time-is-running-out-to-save-the-children conclusion. You’ll find the read to be more than a little satisfying and entertaining. I highly recommend this book.
I reviewed the first book in this series (which will hopefully be a trilogy soon if Dean Koontz gets off his ass and delivers) a couple months ago, and I just finished the second (also on audiobook). They make good audiobooks -- lots of tense action, plus Koontz's rather flowery descriptions and occasionally ridiculous analogies are best enjoyed when spoken aloud (the man is the master of cheesy writing, but I love him anyway).So if you haven't read Fear Nothing, this book might not make much sense. I definitely recommend reading them in order. Seize the Night takes place about a month later, and once again, spans about a two-day period in Moonlight Bay. Most of the action takes place at night, in deference to our hero -- Chris Snow -- and his genetic disorder, xeroderma pigmentosum, which makes him incredibly sensitive to daylight. This time, Chris, Bobby and Sasha have gone back into Ft. Wyvern to rescue some kidnapped children, who may or may not have been taken by a "becoming" serial killer. Also, there's time travel. Kind of. See, you gotta read the first one.It's a fun book, one that I sincerely think would make a fantastic action movie. Also, the dog get kidnapped, too, but he's ok in the end. I promise.
What do You think about Seize The Night (1998)?
The book Seize the Night by Dean Koontz is an action packed thriller. tHave you ever wondered how the world would be different if you lived during the night instead of day? For Chris Snow, the main character, this is a reality. Chris has a disease in the pigment of his skin (Xeroderma Pigmentosum). That restricts him from sunlight, forcing him to live in the night. In the book Seize the Night by Dean Koontz Cris Snow must go on a crazy adventure to find the missing Jimmy Wing. The book starts off with Chris biking with his dog Orson to his friend Lilly’s house. Where he finds out her son Jimmy is missing. Chris sets out to find little Jimmy for his best friend Lilly, but the kidnapper has hidden Jimmy and other children someplace in Fort Wyvern, the huge abandoned military base by their house. When Chris and Orson are walking in to the base, Koontz very clearly tells us about the base. “As I followed my dog into the forbidden zone the ragged edge of one of the cut fence links snapped my cap and pulled it from my head. I found it in a strange concrete chamber 3 stories underground, deep in the abandoned warrens of Fort Wyvern.” (Koontz 23). I would recommend this book to any person that is looking for a solid sci-fi thriller for their next book. I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. I gave it 4 stars because I thought it was really different in all of the crazy things the author threw into the book. I did not give it a perfect 5 stars because I thought it was a little dragged on eventually. If you’re looking for a thrilling page turner then Seize the Night by Dean Koontz could be the book you're looking for.
—Carter Eckes
We may never fully understand of what ones capable of even after knowing their motive. Dean Koontz's Seize the Night is the sequel to a Christopher Snow adventure, Fear Nothing. The author has written books containing many suspenseful moments as well as incorporating horror into them. The protagonist in this book, Christopher Snow, has always loved an adventure but it takes a turn when his ex-girlfriends 5-year old son Jimmy goes missing. As he sets off to find him, as he promised, he encounters
—Celeste Cornejo
This is one of Dean's earlier books and is a mixture of horror/sci-fi and crime. The central character, Christopher Snow, has an aversion to light due to a rare genetic disorder so lives his life largely nocturnally. It is during one of these excursions that he finds a friend searching for her missing son. Getting on the trail of the kidnapper, Chris and his super-intelligent dog track him to an abandoned military base where strange experiments were alleged to have taken place. His attempts to rescue the child are discouraged by the 'not-very-helpful' local police so he and a band of friends decide to take matters into their own hands and are faced with dire consequences. An unusual tale, unfortunately didn't realise until it was too late that this was in fact the second in the Moonlight Bay trilogy - however, this didn't really detract from the enjoyment and any 'links' to the first book were explained adequately. Have to get the third one though ('Sole Survivor')!! 8/10.
—Kim
