Seize the Night (Hardcover)

Five-year-old Jimmy Wing is missing and Snow and his friends are concerned, especially Snow, because Jimmy's mother is a friend and a former lover. Soon they learn that Jimmy isn't the only missing child in Moonlight Bay and the clues seem to lead to Fort Wyvern, the base where a series of secret experiments years earlier left behind an assorted mix of genetic mutations - super-smart rhesus monkeys, snakes, coyotes and the occasional human, the occasional very strange human. And, of course, Orson, the intelligent pouch, is a result of those same experiments.

Snow's deceased mother had a lot to do with these experiments, which started out to be a search for a cure for genetic disorders, but Fort Wyvern is a military base, after all. Is it any wonder that the experiments turned to the dark side, any wonder that the super secret types would want to use genetics to turn out the perfect soldier.

In no time at all Snow and his pals are up against mutant creatures of several stripes, creatures that will give you the chilly whillies. But our gang of good guys fights on and perseveres to the end. However you won't have to fight on or persevere through this book that is so good that it seemed to be over before I started. Dean Koontz sure knows how to draw you into a story, how to tingle the imagination, chill the spine, speed up the pulse. Don't pass this one by.

I read "Fear Nothing" and "Seize the Night" back to back. While "Fear Nothing" was the superior book in the Chris Snow series, "Seize the Night" is still a very worthy sequel. The story looks more into the mystery of Moonlight Bay, and it also offers creatures that are new and even more terrifying than the originals. The story was put on a much grander scale, because Chris attempts to rescue the missing children. In "Fear Nothing" the whole story revolved around Chris only helping himself. The characters are still top notch. In "Seize the Night", we get to take a deeper look into Bobby's past and see another side of him. He still has the great dialogue of a laid back surfer. I like Sasha better in this story, because Koontz gives her more of a role in helping Chris. The most surprising character however is Roosevelt. While he was in the first story, we learned nothing about him. He is the story's Dr. Doolittle, because he has the ability to communicate with animals. This also helps to give Chris's dog Orson more of a role in the story. The last thing that is great about both of the Chris Snow books is that they are in a first person narrative coming from Chris. It gives the story a more personal feel. "Seize the Night" does have its flaws however. At times I felt like I was reading a recycled version of "Fear Nothing". Koontz spends time repeating information about characters and events that happened in the first book. The sequel's job is to expand on issues from the first book, not repeat them.

"Seize the Night" has very few flaws, and is almost as good as "Fear Nothing". The mystery of Moonlight Bay is expanded upon, new and scarier creatures are added to the story, and Koontz's character development of all the characters was amazing. The good news is that the ending was left open for another sequel. Hopefully Dean Koontz will choose to make the Chris Snow saga into a trilogy!!