FALSE MEMORY

　　Book Description　　While struggling to help an agoraphobic friend cope, MartieRhodes, a young video game designer, suddenly falls prey to her owntraumatic autophobia, a fear of herself.　　　　Amazon.com　　Not a continuation of the Moonlight Bay series (Seize the Nightand Fear Nothing) as many fans were expecting, False Memory isnonetheless just as powerful and compulsive as anything Koontz haswritten before.　　　　Martie Rhodes is a successful young computer games designer witha loving husband, Dusty, and a seemingly normal life. Her bestfriend, Susan, however, suffers from agoraphobia, or a fear of openspaces, and relies on Martie to take her to weekly therapysessions. Suddenly and inexplicably, Martie herself beginsexhibiting worrying signs of a mental disorder, fearing herselfcapable of inflicting great harm on her loved ones. At the sametime, Dusty's brother Skeet also succumbs to irrational mentalbehavior and tries to throw himself from a roof. It soon becomesclear that these four characters are involved in something muchmore than a sinister coincidence.　　　　Koontz's great skill, as he demonstrates so well in this novel,is creating believable characters and thrusting them into seeminglyimpossible but--for the period of the story--completely plausiblesituations. The plot is as carefully layered as the most intricateorchestral compositions, and Koontz conducts the proceedings withalmost unbearable tension. One of his greatest abilities as awriter, however, is tapping into the dark paranoia of society. Aswe approach the Millennium, and an age in which we are becomingincreasingly desensitized to death and violence, Martie's fear ofherself, known as autophobia, seems a terrifying warning that soonthe only thing we will have left to fear is ourselves.　　　　Deeper meanings aside, this is easily one of his best thrillers.The prose moves at a breakneck speed, and the denouement will leaveyou with a pounding heart and chills up and down your spine. Koontzdelivers exciting, boundary-breaking fiction better than anyoneelse in the game, and False Memory (though at times shocking anddisturbing) is a perfect example of a master author in topform.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 --Jonathan Weir　　　　From Kirkus Reviews　　Koontz widens his canvas dramatically while dimming the hardbrilliance common to his shorter winners:1995's taut masterpiece,Intensity, and 1998's moon-drenched midsummer nightmare, Seize theNight. This time the author takes up mind control, wiring his taleinto the brainwashing epics The Manchurian Candidate and lastspring's film The Matrix. The laser-beam brightness of his earlierbestsellers fades, however, as he stuffs each scene with drainingchitchat and extra plotting that seldom rings with novelty. Martine``Martie'' Rhodes, a video-game designer, has developed a raremental disorder: autophobia, fear of oneself. Meanwhile, herhusband Dusty's young half-brother, Skeet Caulfield, has decided tojump off the roof of a building the two men are repairingbecauseSkeet has seen the Angel of the next world, who has revealed thatthings are pretty wonderful there, and he wants to come on over.Martie's best friend, real-estate agent Susan Jagger, is newlycoping with agoraphobia, fear of the outdoors. What's more, Susanknows she's being visited and raped at night by her separatedhusband, Eric, although all her doors and windows are locked. Shecan't remember these rapes, but her panties are stained with semen.So when she sets up a camcorder to record her sleeping hours, shegets a huge surprise after viewing the tape. How these mental andphysical events have come aboutditto the psychiatric background ofthe Keanuphobe millionairess who shows up (yes! she fears KeanuReeves)has something to do with the ladies' psychiatrist, Dr. MarkAhriman, the son of a famous dead movie director whose eyes thedoctor keeps in a bottle of formaldehyde and studies, in hopes ofsiphoning off Dad's inspiration. Although the whole story couldhave been told to better effect in 300 pages, Koontz deftlysidesteps clichs of expression while nonetheless applying an airpump to the suspense: an MO that keeps his yearly 17-million booksales afloat.　　　　From Library Journal　　Koontz's latest novel should please his longtime fans butprobably not newcomers. Martie Rhodes takes her best friend, Susan,to therapy sessions twice a week. Susan suffers from agoraphobia, afear of crowds, which leaves her afraid to leave her apartment.Getting Susan to therapy is hard enough, but on this particular dayit gets even harder. Earlier that morning, Martie looked at herselfin the mirror and found she was terrified of her reflection. Shehas developed autophobia, a fear of self. With the vilest villainKoontz has created, the truth behind their phobias will be morehorrible than Susan or Martie can imagine. False Memory could havebeen trimmed by 200 pages and not lost any impact. Still, thecharacters are rich, and the main story is compelling. Though it isnot great Koontz, good Koontz is still better than most and shouldbe added to general fiction collection.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　---Jeff Ayers, SeattleP.L.　　　　Book Dimension　　length: (cm)17.8 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)10.7