TITLE: Watchers
AUTHOR: Dean Koontz
GENRE: Sci-Fi/Horror
PUBLISHED: 1987
RATING:★ ★ ★ ★ ★
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon
MOBILISM LINK: Mobilism
Description: A disenfranchised ex-Special Ops soldier meets a timid, artistically talented and lovely spinster. A hit man is hired to kill the scientists in charge of an intensely secret genetic alteration experiment. The laboratory that the scientists worked in have two of the subjects break out – one is a loveable golden retriever, the other is a monster so alien and inhuman that its captors refer to it as It.
Review: Travis Cornell is an ex-Special Forces military guy. He’s lost everyone he’s ever loved and is convinced that secretly he is under a curse that prevents him from ever overcoming his loneliness. Then he meets a special golden retriever that he names Einstein.
Nora Devon has been raised by an old and reclusive aunt, who has taught her to think of herself as a quiet mouse, ugly and essentially without worth. Einstein notices her being terrorized by a psychopathic rapist and rescues her. Nora finds her way through a world that’s sparkling and new to her with Travis by her side. (After being set up in a really cute way by Einstein.)
A cold-blooded and batshit insane hit man puts the pieces of the genetically altered puzzle together and tries to track Einstein down. At the same time, the Outsider – a genetically modified animal supersoldier that is so alien he cannot be thought by any term than “Other” tries to track Einstein down to destroy him, linked to him by loathing and some sort of sixth sense.
Nora and Travis go on the run from the government and to ground to prepare for the Outsider’s coming. There’s a sense of frantic desperation to this story that becomes more and more fast paced as they have to evade so many traps and pitfalls. They do it without a single thought to protect their charge.
”That damn dog,” Cliff said as he fell into step at Lem’s side on the dock, “sure inspires one hell of a lot of loyalty.”
I fell in love with Watchers as a sick kid who was scrounging for something to read. I think everyone loves the idea of a smart dog that could communicate with them, and I was no different. (I will not confirm or deny that after reading this I spent some time nose to nose with my family’s dog trying to convince her that it was okay to talk to me…)
As an adult, there’s a simplicity and truth to the story. At its soft underbelly it’s really about standing up for what you believe in, and doing what’s right even if it costs you everything. There’s also a message in there about taking ethical responsibility when you develop the science that makes it possible for you to play god. Above all, it’s a scorchingly paced and well written story that will make you smile and will make you find sympathy for certain characters.
Somehow, in the very idea of a dog’s personality and human intelligence combined in a single creature, one had a hope of a species at once as gifted as humankind but more noble and worthy. And what fantasy of adults was more common than that, one day, another intelligent species would be found to share the vast cold universe and by sharing it, would at last provide some relief from our race’s unspeakable loneliness and sense of quiet desperation?
At the end, I cried for a character you'd never think worthy of tears. Let me know by PM (or spoiler-coded replies) if you felt the same way. That sympathy and above all understanding of so very many characters was what elevated what could be just another pulp horror/sci fi novel to one that is eternally beloved of Koontz fans.
In his afterword, Koontz himself says:
"If I am fortunate enough to live to such an advanced age that my wardrobe consists entirely of bathrobes, loose jumpsuits, bunny slippers and adult diapers, and if I am also fortunate enough to be writing novels in that twilight of my life, I know that I can expect to receive mail from readers that says, in essence 'I love your new book, but that story you wrote when you were just a puppy, Watchers, is still the best thing you’ve ever done.'"
I’m likely to be that fan. I highly recommend this book to anyone, with caveats of violence and some sexual content.
