Frankenstein Book Series

Frankenstein: Prodigal Son (Book 1)
Written by: Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson
Published by: Bantam Books
Released: 2005

The first book of Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein trilogy is by far the best in the series. As with most trilogy stories the first book sets the stage, introduces the characters and most of the back story. It also helps that Kevin Anderson who has written many other novels that I like was a co-author on this book, both Dean and Kevin each have their own way of describing a scene and making the reader imagine what is going on, this cannot be said of a lot of other authors of the past 20 years who leave out a lot of detail (in my opinion).

Frankenstein: Prodigal Son takes place in New Orleans, and follows two city cops Detective Carson and Maddison who are working on a serial killer case where someone is going around killing and removing body parts from their victims. As the story progresses a new character meets them named Deucalion who is a huge hulk of a man with one half of his faced tattooed and who claims to be the original Frankenstein monster. His claim gets even more peculiar when he states that the original Dr. Frankenstein is still alive and is creating an army of super soldiers called the New Race. The book has a lot of twists and turns as the detectives not only find out that Deucalion is telling the truth but find out there is more than one surgeon!

This book is very well written and is in my opinion the better of the three. If you like cop drama and paranormal stories this is a really good read, though the rest of the series is a bit of a let down.



Frankenstein: City of Night (Book 2)
Written by: Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman
Published by: Bantam Books
Released: 2005

Book 2 of the Frankenstein series is entitled City of Night. In a change of pace, Kevin Anderson has been replaced by Ed Gorman in the co-authoring department and it really shows.

City of Night has a LOT of potential and story it just can’t live up to the first book in my opinion. We get the conclusion of the surgeon story arc as well as the near death attempts on Carson and Maddison by the New Race. Also told throughout the story is the followings of one of the New Race experiments by Dr. Frankenstein in which he purposely created an autistic new race member who is obsessed with tracking down Detective Carson’s little brother Arnie who also has autism but was seen smiling in a newspaper story. There is even the beginnings of a love affair between our detectives which was vaguely hinted at in the first book.

The most surprising arc of the entire book however is the first confrontation between Frankenstein and Monster in over 200 years, as well as the near total chaos beginning as members of the new race are starting to go haywire. This action book of the series but it kind of jumps from character to character rather quickly with some ideas started only to never be finished. I think a little more detail was needed but as I said in my review of book one, I am a Kevin Anderson fan and enjoy reading his books, so it may just be a biased opinion.

If you’ve read book one and enjoyed it you might as well pick up and read book 2. I wouldn’t bother with book 3 as you will see in my next review.



Frankenstein: Dead and Alive (Book 3)
Written by: Dean Koontz
Published by: Bantam Books
Released: July 28, 2009

I waited 4 years for this?

Dean Koontz had a bit of bad luck. He wrote and had published the first two books of the Frankenstein trilogy in 2005. The second coming out in the beginning of August of 2005, having set his horror story about a new race of creatures destroying man kind in New Orleans was a GREAT idea, not knowing however that at the end of August of 2005 one of the greatest natural disasters to hit the United States (much less New Orleans) was going to happen really put a stopper on him finishing the series. Dean decided to wait on finishing the story until enough time had passed to let the wounds somewhat heal or so the story goes. I personally think he didn’t have a good way to finish the story and if it hadn’t been for fans demanding he finish the books I don’t think he would have. I personally wish he had left it alone because this book is a load of crap.

This is the third and hopefully final chapter of the Frankenstein story. There is no co-author on this one and it really show. The book picks up where it left off in 2005 but the story just does not work. He introduces a lot of third act characters that pretty much take over the story and push the characters we have followed in two previous books to the side. By this time we are all waiting on the final show down between Frankenstein and the monster, or at least Detective Carson and Frankenstein since it was eluded in the ending of the second book that he had something to do with the death of her parents. Nope, none of that shit here, just a new monster made up of free thinking new race members that leave the story just as fast as it came in, a genetic super bug that is trying to kill Victor and the return of Victors first wife who died in the first book.

This book just had the feeling of having not only a Scoobie Doo ending but was just a waste of time not only the time reading the book but the time fans have been going and checking out message boards for the fleeting hopes of reading a rumor that the book was coming out. I’m not sure if Dean was just trying to make a quick buck here or the fan pressuring for him to finish the story made him rush or what but this was the worst book of the series. The climax of the book should always try to be the best of the series. This does not always happen but an attempt should be made, I equate this to if Return of the Jedi ended with Luke taking off Vader’s mask and its Jar Jar Binks inside it is just a big letdown.

If you’ve read the other two books and have nothing better to do, my suggestion is go back and read book 1. If you really want to know what happens to the story read the book maybe if you didn’t wait 4 years for it the story might end better for you.