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The Forest of Lost Souls: A Novel
A fearless woman, raised in the forest, fights against a group of powerful men in a novel about good versus evil, the enduring nature of myth, and the power of love by #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.
Raised in the wilderness by her late great-uncle, Vida is a young woman with an almost preternatural affinity for nature, especially for the wolves that also call the forested mountains home. Formed by hard experience, by love and loss, and by the prophecies of a fortune teller, Vida just wants peace. If only nearby Kettleton County didn’t cast such a dark shadow.
It’s where Jose Nochelobo, the love of Vida’s life and a cherished local hero, died in a tragic accident. That’s the official story, but Vida has reasons to doubt it. The truth can’t be contained for long. Nor can the hungry men of power in Kettleton who want something too: that Vida, like Jose, disappear forever. One by one they come for her, prepared to do anything to see their plans through to their evil end. Vida is no less prepared for them.
Vida, the forest, and its formidable wonders are waiting. She will not rest until goodness and order have been restored.
Raised in the wilderness by her late great-uncle, Vida is a young woman with an almost preternatural affinity for nature, especially for the wolves that also call the forested mountains home. Formed by hard experience, by love and loss, and by the prophecies of a fortune teller, Vida just wants peace. If only nearby Kettleton County didn’t cast such a dark shadow.
It’s where Jose Nochelobo, the love of Vida’s life and a cherished local hero, died in a tragic accident. That’s the official story, but Vida has reasons to doubt it. The truth can’t be contained for long. Nor can the hungry men of power in Kettleton who want something too: that Vida, like Jose, disappear forever. One by one they come for her, prepared to do anything to see their plans through to their evil end. Vida is no less prepared for them.
Vida, the forest, and its formidable wonders are waiting. She will not rest until goodness and order have been restored.
393 pages, Hardcover
First published July 16, 2024
6319 people are currently reading
12163 people want to read
About the author
Dean Koontz
988 books39.1k followersAcknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.
Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com
Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna.
Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 930 reviews
October 9, 2024
Greed, conflict, persecution, alliances, betrayals, forgiveness, justice and good touch of the supernatural. These are the components of this book. Was it interesting? I had to force myself to put it down. It seems like the more I reveal of this writing, the more chance I might hit on a spoiler. Read this book with an open mind, enjoy the prose and most of all relax and let the story flow over you.
October 9, 2024
This book is a richly atmospheric and poetic experience. Reminiscent of the Koontz novels I loved as a teenager, yet filled with the wisdom of a more mature storyteller.
At the heart of the story is Vida, a young woman who, for ten years, has labored in isolation after her uncle Ogden’s death at the age of 85. Only 18 when she lost him, she survives in their remote home, living off the land.
On the other side, we have the villain, an obsessive man who consumes 182 pills daily, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and micronutrients, in his obsessive pursuit of immortality.
Murders/mysteries
Small town corruption
Magical realism
Dogs (because of course!)
Slight love story
HEA
There is a hint of a love story, but no on-page romance or real connection.
As the novel ends, it left me reflecting on the weight of truth:
"You see beauty where others never can. You see it with something other than your eyes."Koontz skillfully intertwines the mystical with a sharp critique of modern society, voicing his frustration over how people have become complacent, blindly following like lemmings. The story explores deep-rooted corruption at the highest levels, and how the majority of people remain oblivious to their own suffering.
At the heart of the story is Vida, a young woman who, for ten years, has labored in isolation after her uncle Ogden’s death at the age of 85. Only 18 when she lost him, she survives in their remote home, living off the land.
On the other side, we have the villain, an obsessive man who consumes 182 pills daily, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and micronutrients, in his obsessive pursuit of immortality.
Murders/mysteries
Small town corruption
Magical realism
Dogs (because of course!)
Slight love story
HEA
There is a hint of a love story, but no on-page romance or real connection.
As the novel ends, it left me reflecting on the weight of truth:
“Truth can’t be repressed forever. It’ll come out.”Four stars instead of five because while I absolutely loved the first half, the ending seemed to lose some of its emotional depth and heart.
“But if it does, most people will still believe what isn’t true, because the truth is heavy to carry compared to the lightness of a lie.”
May 31, 2025
This book is about a woman, Vida, who lives out in nature and basically cuts herself off from society. She has recently lost her fiancée by accident. She soon discovers that there is more to his death than an accident.
I liked this book but I was never fully grasped by it. I believe there are several reasons to that. One of them is this novel could not decide what genre it wanted to be. At times it was a thriller while also being a character study book. It also touched up the supernatural and fantasy genre. While a mish mash of genres can work this felt like it was on the outside looking in. I especially felt this way when it used different tropes from these genres. I like these tropes but the use of them here became enigmatic as I found myself wondering why to some of them. We did not get an explanation and we just had to accept them. This happened for the characters. I liked them but I could never become enthralled by them for this reason. I could say the same for the story. I liked it but never fully engrossed. I did like the ending a little more as the first half of the book was a mystery of where we were going with this. I will give a warning to readers who think that Koontz gets wordy with his books. This one takes it up another level. It is like he heard those complaints and decided to give readers something to complain about.
All in all there is nothing really special here. It was an enjoyable read but it comes down to that this was a middle of the road read. I think the problem was that it was all over the place and undecided with its identity. I like the various places it went but I sort of wish it emphasized one of them. I sort of reminds me of today's music. I might hear something and say that is a good song. But that is it. I would never consider the song remarkable or unforgettable. That is how I feel about this novel. I liked it but within a couple of months I will probably forget about it.
I liked this book but I was never fully grasped by it. I believe there are several reasons to that. One of them is this novel could not decide what genre it wanted to be. At times it was a thriller while also being a character study book. It also touched up the supernatural and fantasy genre. While a mish mash of genres can work this felt like it was on the outside looking in. I especially felt this way when it used different tropes from these genres. I like these tropes but the use of them here became enigmatic as I found myself wondering why to some of them. We did not get an explanation and we just had to accept them. This happened for the characters. I liked them but I could never become enthralled by them for this reason. I could say the same for the story. I liked it but never fully engrossed. I did like the ending a little more as the first half of the book was a mystery of where we were going with this. I will give a warning to readers who think that Koontz gets wordy with his books. This one takes it up another level. It is like he heard those complaints and decided to give readers something to complain about.
All in all there is nothing really special here. It was an enjoyable read but it comes down to that this was a middle of the road read. I think the problem was that it was all over the place and undecided with its identity. I like the various places it went but I sort of wish it emphasized one of them. I sort of reminds me of today's music. I might hear something and say that is a good song. But that is it. I would never consider the song remarkable or unforgettable. That is how I feel about this novel. I liked it but within a couple of months I will probably forget about it.
August 8, 2025
The natural world may be full of dangers and violence, but it does not compare to the world of men. Nature has a balance, one unsullied by morality or a lack of one, whereas men have no qualms about destroying the world around them for profit and greed, the very world that they themselves need to survive. Men are contradictory that way.
Vida does not live in the world of men. She is of the world of men, of course, but she has foresworn the petty hatreds and mindless, wanton violence of humanity. She has tried to live a life in balance with the natural world around her, and, for the most part, she has succeeded.
Then, one day, the man she loves and plans to marry is taken from her, violently, by the scheming and profit-driven motives of evil men. And, she learns, they plan on taking much more, as their plans involve the destruction of one of the last beautiful places on Earth. This, she can not allow.
Thus begins the fantastic new novel by Dean Koontz, "The Forest of Lost Souls", a contemporary western with flourishes of magic realism and dark fantasy, as well as the horror that Koontz fans come to expect.
The horror in this novel is not a supernatural horror. It is the horror of the evils of the modern world: rampant technological growth, environmental destruction, unchecked capitalism, the blatant apathy of society in the face of evil. It is the horror of watching---and doing nothing---as the natural world slips away at the steady encroachment of more shopping plazas, oil pipelines, strip-mining, deforestation, urbanization, overpopulation.
Koontz has written one of the most intense and suspenseful western action thrillers I have read in a while, and he has created a heroine for the ages in Vida.
Vida does not live in the world of men. She is of the world of men, of course, but she has foresworn the petty hatreds and mindless, wanton violence of humanity. She has tried to live a life in balance with the natural world around her, and, for the most part, she has succeeded.
Then, one day, the man she loves and plans to marry is taken from her, violently, by the scheming and profit-driven motives of evil men. And, she learns, they plan on taking much more, as their plans involve the destruction of one of the last beautiful places on Earth. This, she can not allow.
Thus begins the fantastic new novel by Dean Koontz, "The Forest of Lost Souls", a contemporary western with flourishes of magic realism and dark fantasy, as well as the horror that Koontz fans come to expect.
The horror in this novel is not a supernatural horror. It is the horror of the evils of the modern world: rampant technological growth, environmental destruction, unchecked capitalism, the blatant apathy of society in the face of evil. It is the horror of watching---and doing nothing---as the natural world slips away at the steady encroachment of more shopping plazas, oil pipelines, strip-mining, deforestation, urbanization, overpopulation.
Koontz has written one of the most intense and suspenseful western action thrillers I have read in a while, and he has created a heroine for the ages in Vida.
October 6, 2024
Lost In Words
Somewhere in the book is perhaps a good story. BUT it is covered up by page after page of so much unnecessary and boring details. Not a fan of this one.
Somewhere in the book is perhaps a good story. BUT it is covered up by page after page of so much unnecessary and boring details. Not a fan of this one.
October 20, 2024
Dean Koontz has been one of my favorite authors for most of my life. Several of his books hold top 10 books I’ve ever read. Unfortunately, his writing has gone down so far, I have to make myself finish them and it breaks my heart. The characters aren’t engaging. The plot doesn’t hold me. The book is hard to follow and Koontz seems to just use big words because he can.
October 23, 2024
Check out all my reviews at: https://www.avonnalovesgenres.com
THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS by Dean Koontz is a slow burn suspense/thriller featuring a battle between a female champion of the natural world, an oligarch who only loves money, and a cast of characters and animals both spiritual, paranormal, and very human.
Vida has always had an otherworldly connection to the natural world. When a fortune teller comes to Kettleton County, Vida is drawn to her. The prophecies she receives impact and prepare her for a future full of danger and loss, but also love and peace if she survives.
This story has many of Mr. Koontz’s recurring tropes and yet he always finds a new way to pull me in and emotionally connect me to the main protagonist. Vida is a strong young the woman connected her entire life to the natural world, both spiritually and with a shade of the paranormal. Her special gifts are recognized by the fortune teller and are used to protect the world she loves. There are mysterious wolves, an albino mountain lion, a war veteran with search and rescue dogs, and a Native American couple who all help Vida against the invasion of an oligarch and his minions who plan to destroy her beloved mountains.
The writing is full of evocative language not usually found in genre style suspense/thriller novels which had me more involved with the story’s themes rather than just rushing to the crime plot climax, but I was disappointed that after so much imagery and intrigue, the climax seemed a bit rushed.
Overall, Vida is a memorable protagonist, and this story is worth the read.
THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS by Dean Koontz is a slow burn suspense/thriller featuring a battle between a female champion of the natural world, an oligarch who only loves money, and a cast of characters and animals both spiritual, paranormal, and very human.
Vida has always had an otherworldly connection to the natural world. When a fortune teller comes to Kettleton County, Vida is drawn to her. The prophecies she receives impact and prepare her for a future full of danger and loss, but also love and peace if she survives.
This story has many of Mr. Koontz’s recurring tropes and yet he always finds a new way to pull me in and emotionally connect me to the main protagonist. Vida is a strong young the woman connected her entire life to the natural world, both spiritually and with a shade of the paranormal. Her special gifts are recognized by the fortune teller and are used to protect the world she loves. There are mysterious wolves, an albino mountain lion, a war veteran with search and rescue dogs, and a Native American couple who all help Vida against the invasion of an oligarch and his minions who plan to destroy her beloved mountains.
The writing is full of evocative language not usually found in genre style suspense/thriller novels which had me more involved with the story’s themes rather than just rushing to the crime plot climax, but I was disappointed that after so much imagery and intrigue, the climax seemed a bit rushed.
Overall, Vida is a memorable protagonist, and this story is worth the read.
October 20, 2024
The Woman Who Runs with Wolves
After having been orphaned, Vida goes to live with her great uncle in a self-sustaining cabin in the mountains. Vida learns everything she needs to live off of the land and with the land as she grows up. While still very young, she visits a seer who tells her almost nothing and yet everything she needs to survive the coming storm.
Once again, Koontz has written a story that is both terrifying and beautiful. This story is exciting and weaves just enough of a supernatural aura to keep it mysterious and entertaining. I loved it.
After having been orphaned, Vida goes to live with her great uncle in a self-sustaining cabin in the mountains. Vida learns everything she needs to live off of the land and with the land as she grows up. While still very young, she visits a seer who tells her almost nothing and yet everything she needs to survive the coming storm.
Once again, Koontz has written a story that is both terrifying and beautiful. This story is exciting and weaves just enough of a supernatural aura to keep it mysterious and entertaining. I loved it.
September 27, 2024
3 stars. Why the middling review? I loved parts of this book, but overall it was just ok. What did I love? Koontz is at his best when he writes about individuals with god complexes. They are completely arrogant and delusional. The best parts of this novel were when our main character, Vida, matched wits with both Nash the sheriff and Bead the drug kingpin. Great chapters with lots of tension. The weak parts of the book were how the other characters were merely plot devices, with not fully fleshed out characters. Why do we care about Sam? Why do we hate the rich bad guy? Who are the two characters at the end who help Vida and Sam?
I felt Koontz threw a bunch of stuff (characters, events, etc.) without having a fully realized cohesive story.
I felt Koontz threw a bunch of stuff (characters, events, etc.) without having a fully realized cohesive story.
February 13, 2025
I was a little disappointed by this one. If it had been written by someone unfamiliar to me, I probably would have enjoyed it more because I wouldn't have had high expectations. It's a story about a young woman who's been raised by her uncle in a secluded area after the death of her parents. Much is made about how secluded her existence has always been, but she somehow came up with an improbable fiancé who's got a very public lifestyle. He dies giving a speech against tearing down the forest to build a wind farm and a housing development and she learns his death wasn't an accident, so she begins a crusade for justice. There are some parallels and references to Greek, Christian, and Native American mythology and philosophy that get a little muddled and some semi-supernatural events (she hangs out with wolves and knew a fortune-teller who was the Real Thing, for example). It's a pretty good, straight-forward plot, but it moves way too slowly. Koontz's language and descriptions are lovely, but this time it seems that every paragraph is weighted and slowed by too much florid gingerbread. A typical line, from page 254: "This broad swath of open land is prime hunting ground for raptors, and even as the sun ascends into its fullness, what might be a red-tailed hawk appears in the distance, while a larger ferruginous hawk kites overhead in a widening gyre." It's a pretty picture and a nicely constructed line, but once in a while you can just say that Vida looked up that morning and saw a couple of birds. Too much is too much is overload: I would've liked the novel a lot more if it had been twenty-percent shorter.
September 28, 2024
4 1/2 Stars
Dean Koontz has shown in his half-century of writing that he is capable of almost anything. He jokes in a recent on-line interview about his genre-crossing career as well as the image of an eerie albino mountain lion named Azrael who appears in the first chapter of his latest novel, the mystical and suspenseful THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS.
If you are a long-time Koontz reader like I am then you will recognize many of his recurring tropes in this novel like mysterious animals, young people with special gifts who are in peril, and evil government or corporate entities looking to impose their bad karma on the natural world around them. These familiar plot devices are all used very effectively in this story centered on a young woman named Vida who lives off the grid in the mountain cabin where her Uncle raised her. She is at one with the forest and all its inhabitants, but the real world just finds a way of crashing her party and seeking to eliminate what they cannot understand or control.
Uncle Ogden raised her off the grid and taught her how to make life in the forest work. The only real example of the world outside of their private garden of Eden is a library filled with a myriad of books, most of which Vida has read. Vida’s life is not all calmness and serenity for she has known pain and tragedy. First, the untimely loss of her parents and many years later her Uncle Ogden. The biggest blow was the murder of her fiancé, a High School principal named Jose Nochelobo, who was killed by those opposing him as he stood on the steps of the Kettleton town courthouse protesting the billionaire business seeking to come in and destroy their local wilderness in the name of corporate greed and profit.
Kettleton is not a nice place anymore and has been corrupted not only by corporate outsiders but also the criminal underworld that many of its residents are involved in. One of the heads of this criminal syndicate was a really bad man named Belden Bead who somehow disappeared from the world after a run-in with Vida on her property. She defended herself against him and he ended up shooting himself and bleeding out. She took her big digger rig and buried him and his car on her wide expanse of land. Now, some time later, someone else has come to her home from Kettleton seeking revenge and other nefarious designs on Vida.
Deputy Deacon was kin to Belden Bead and knows she had something to do with his disappearance. He blackmails Vida into what he calls submission, whereby she stays alive and he comes by whenever he wants for food, sex, and whatever else he wishes to subject her to all for his silence about what she did. It is one of the highlights of the novel to see her turn the tables on Deacon and ‘disappear’ him as well. However, this time it will come at a high price as there are many others both from the criminal and corporate side of Kettleton who aim to pay her a visit and make her pay once and for all.
Vida is not someone to be trifled with and has a sense of harmony with the flora and fauna in the forest that includes the great wolf named Lupo and his pack. The eventual finale which pits the evil representatives of Kettleton against Vida and a man named Sam, who she was destined to meet as per a visit to a seer when she was young, is tremendously exciting and some of the most suspenseful writing I have ever seen from Dean Koontz.
There are many great messages in THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS and Vida is a character you can really relate to and root for. My favorite line from the novel comes from the mind of Vida and it also provides the impetus for the novel’s title: ‘In her experience, it is civilization, riven by human arrogance and greed and envy, that is, at its worst, a forest of lost souls.’
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
Dean Koontz has shown in his half-century of writing that he is capable of almost anything. He jokes in a recent on-line interview about his genre-crossing career as well as the image of an eerie albino mountain lion named Azrael who appears in the first chapter of his latest novel, the mystical and suspenseful THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS.
If you are a long-time Koontz reader like I am then you will recognize many of his recurring tropes in this novel like mysterious animals, young people with special gifts who are in peril, and evil government or corporate entities looking to impose their bad karma on the natural world around them. These familiar plot devices are all used very effectively in this story centered on a young woman named Vida who lives off the grid in the mountain cabin where her Uncle raised her. She is at one with the forest and all its inhabitants, but the real world just finds a way of crashing her party and seeking to eliminate what they cannot understand or control.
Uncle Ogden raised her off the grid and taught her how to make life in the forest work. The only real example of the world outside of their private garden of Eden is a library filled with a myriad of books, most of which Vida has read. Vida’s life is not all calmness and serenity for she has known pain and tragedy. First, the untimely loss of her parents and many years later her Uncle Ogden. The biggest blow was the murder of her fiancé, a High School principal named Jose Nochelobo, who was killed by those opposing him as he stood on the steps of the Kettleton town courthouse protesting the billionaire business seeking to come in and destroy their local wilderness in the name of corporate greed and profit.
Kettleton is not a nice place anymore and has been corrupted not only by corporate outsiders but also the criminal underworld that many of its residents are involved in. One of the heads of this criminal syndicate was a really bad man named Belden Bead who somehow disappeared from the world after a run-in with Vida on her property. She defended herself against him and he ended up shooting himself and bleeding out. She took her big digger rig and buried him and his car on her wide expanse of land. Now, some time later, someone else has come to her home from Kettleton seeking revenge and other nefarious designs on Vida.
Deputy Deacon was kin to Belden Bead and knows she had something to do with his disappearance. He blackmails Vida into what he calls submission, whereby she stays alive and he comes by whenever he wants for food, sex, and whatever else he wishes to subject her to all for his silence about what she did. It is one of the highlights of the novel to see her turn the tables on Deacon and ‘disappear’ him as well. However, this time it will come at a high price as there are many others both from the criminal and corporate side of Kettleton who aim to pay her a visit and make her pay once and for all.
Vida is not someone to be trifled with and has a sense of harmony with the flora and fauna in the forest that includes the great wolf named Lupo and his pack. The eventual finale which pits the evil representatives of Kettleton against Vida and a man named Sam, who she was destined to meet as per a visit to a seer when she was young, is tremendously exciting and some of the most suspenseful writing I have ever seen from Dean Koontz.
There are many great messages in THE FOREST OF LOST SOULS and Vida is a character you can really relate to and root for. My favorite line from the novel comes from the mind of Vida and it also provides the impetus for the novel’s title: ‘In her experience, it is civilization, riven by human arrogance and greed and envy, that is, at its worst, a forest of lost souls.’
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
August 3, 2025
The foretellings of a mystic and the conflict between greed, power and corruption (evil) and love, nature and truth (good) are the basis of this story of a small town on the brink of massive change. A bit “out there”, but an interesting and entertaining read.
February 12, 2025
I was attracted to this book in the beginning. A life of living off the land, peace and quiet, nature. Sounded like a dream. Then the bad guys arrive. The story just turned corny for me after that. The characters were too cookie-cutter. The good guys were so angelic that they probably were walking on water. The bad guys were too over-the-top evil. So much so that it was just cheesy. Ended up taking away from the story itself.
October 10, 2024
No true substance
This is the second Dean Koontz book that I've scored lowly and I really hate doing it to my childhood favourite author but, apart from his beautifully descriptive narrative, the story has no bones. It flitters between far too many characters that are totally unconnected and the story line is long and tedious. I kept waiting for the sneaky Koontz premise that just hits me and instantly all was wrapped up in a big, red bow but alas no bow appears. Beautifully written nothingness.
This is the second Dean Koontz book that I've scored lowly and I really hate doing it to my childhood favourite author but, apart from his beautifully descriptive narrative, the story has no bones. It flitters between far too many characters that are totally unconnected and the story line is long and tedious. I kept waiting for the sneaky Koontz premise that just hits me and instantly all was wrapped up in a big, red bow but alas no bow appears. Beautifully written nothingness.
April 23, 2025
A story about nature, corruption, power, murder and wisdom. It was a decent enough read but overly wordy for Koontz, and the plot is not that engaging.
October 3, 2024
The Forest of Lost Souls is another excellent Koontz thriller about a seemingly ordinary young woman with an extraordinary connection to the natural world forced into a confrontation against evil. In this case, evil takes the form of a morally corrupt tech billionaire who will stop at nothing (including murder) in his effort to achieve greater power and wealth.
The love of Vida's life (Jose Nochelobo) is a beloved high school teacher and football coach who opposes a company's plans to build a massive project in a natural wilderness near town. When she discovers that his tragic death was anything but the accident that it appeared to be, she begins to investigate. But her effort to find the truth draws the ire of the company's owner, an evil tech billionaire who seeks to eliminate her interference.
As a child, Vida was told by a local fortune teller that she was destined to be the defender of the natural world. Although much of what the seer told her made no sense to the young girl, as the predictions begin to become true, she becomes increasingly aware of her growing connection to, and power over, the natural world.
Accompanied by a mysterious pack of wolves and a physically and emotionally scarred Afghanistan war veteran, Vida runs from the increasingly dangerous men and advanced technology sent to kill her. Seeking refuge in the natural environment where her powers give her an advantage, she is forced into a final confrontation to save the wilderness, a sacred Native American burial ground, and the lives of her troop of human and animal compatriots.
Koontz is a master storyteller, and this haunting "supernatural" thriller is filled with many recurring themes from past books. The ultimate triumph of good over evil and the sacrifices that good people must make to defeat the evil in their midst, heroes with exceptional powers that even they don't always understand, the duality of a humanity that can be both stunningly corrupt and yet heroic and courageous.
As always, his writing is fluid and engaging and he has a way of making the reader care about and believe in the characters that he creates no matter how outrageous the plot details. His villains are often absurdly one-dimensional bad guys, but here his desire is to skewer the moral corruption of the "tech bros" and big businesses' obsession with profits over what is morally right. But in this book, as in most of his other stories, he creates an everyday hero that both shows the best of humanity and inspires us as readers to want to be better people.
His plots can be formulaic, but they are unputdownable and consistently thrilling. This isn't the best of his work (the Odd Thomas series gets my vote for his most extraordinary writing), but it is an excellent, compelling, and captivating story. Highly recommended.
The love of Vida's life (Jose Nochelobo) is a beloved high school teacher and football coach who opposes a company's plans to build a massive project in a natural wilderness near town. When she discovers that his tragic death was anything but the accident that it appeared to be, she begins to investigate. But her effort to find the truth draws the ire of the company's owner, an evil tech billionaire who seeks to eliminate her interference.
As a child, Vida was told by a local fortune teller that she was destined to be the defender of the natural world. Although much of what the seer told her made no sense to the young girl, as the predictions begin to become true, she becomes increasingly aware of her growing connection to, and power over, the natural world.
Accompanied by a mysterious pack of wolves and a physically and emotionally scarred Afghanistan war veteran, Vida runs from the increasingly dangerous men and advanced technology sent to kill her. Seeking refuge in the natural environment where her powers give her an advantage, she is forced into a final confrontation to save the wilderness, a sacred Native American burial ground, and the lives of her troop of human and animal compatriots.
Koontz is a master storyteller, and this haunting "supernatural" thriller is filled with many recurring themes from past books. The ultimate triumph of good over evil and the sacrifices that good people must make to defeat the evil in their midst, heroes with exceptional powers that even they don't always understand, the duality of a humanity that can be both stunningly corrupt and yet heroic and courageous.
As always, his writing is fluid and engaging and he has a way of making the reader care about and believe in the characters that he creates no matter how outrageous the plot details. His villains are often absurdly one-dimensional bad guys, but here his desire is to skewer the moral corruption of the "tech bros" and big businesses' obsession with profits over what is morally right. But in this book, as in most of his other stories, he creates an everyday hero that both shows the best of humanity and inspires us as readers to want to be better people.
His plots can be formulaic, but they are unputdownable and consistently thrilling. This isn't the best of his work (the Odd Thomas series gets my vote for his most extraordinary writing), but it is an excellent, compelling, and captivating story. Highly recommended.
October 7, 2024
Hard to read
Why do we need to know every tiny detail of decor or surroundings. Without all that fluff this was probably a 20 page book.
Why do we need to know every tiny detail of decor or surroundings. Without all that fluff this was probably a 20 page book.
February 1, 2025
Long before the internet I bought a Dean Koontz novel and I was immediately hooked. He’s one of the very few authors I still prefer to read in print. Then, I was dependent on fanzines and my local bookstore to see whether there was a new title out. Now, of course, all his work is just at the tip of my fingers. I own more than 50 titles by this great author – and then suddenly, I lost interest when the Odd series began to come out. I don’t know what it is but I just didn’t like those books. And so I lost track of his work until more or less recently. I’ve just finished The Forest of Lost Souls and my oh my, how I enjoyed not only this title, but also the feeling that I may have missed many great books in the meantime so now I have a reason to read reviews of all the titles I do not own – and go out and buy the ones I think I might like. A wonderful prospect!
Two of my absolute favourite titles are Strange Highways and The Bad Place and The Forest of Lost Souls reminded me of those. Don’t ask me why though…
I was immediately immersed in the story and I think the high point for me was the conversation between Vida and one of the men who want her out of their way – only in a more horrifying way than even just to kill her. The conversation takes place during a home-cooked dinner but it sent shivers down my back.
It’s all about the greed of some stupid men and the willpower of a young woman; the story flows very cleverly between past and present. A story that doesn’t fit in one category but even if you never read any Dean Koontz novels, you should try this one.
Two of my absolute favourite titles are Strange Highways and The Bad Place and The Forest of Lost Souls reminded me of those. Don’t ask me why though…
I was immediately immersed in the story and I think the high point for me was the conversation between Vida and one of the men who want her out of their way – only in a more horrifying way than even just to kill her. The conversation takes place during a home-cooked dinner but it sent shivers down my back.
It’s all about the greed of some stupid men and the willpower of a young woman; the story flows very cleverly between past and present. A story that doesn’t fit in one category but even if you never read any Dean Koontz novels, you should try this one.
November 17, 2024
So thoroughly and astonishingly inept, this novel's storytelling and characterization owe far more to Patterson and his legion of hack ghostwriters than to the legacy of its namesake author, whose work (the correlative prose styling of which easily leads me to saddle him alone with the entirety of my critique for this particular novel) I have found by turns impressive (From the Corner of His Eye), entertaining (Cold Fire), middling (The Face/Fear Nothing) and disappointing (Odd Thomas/By the Light of the Moon) over the years but never this properly appalling, signaling a full-throttle regression into inexperienced, sophomoric creative incapacity.
Truth be told, I find common cause with certain salient remarks brought up over the course of the narrative (and a particular point of disagreement where Koontz's curmudgeonly dismissal of modern, online cultural and socio-political content consumption is concerned), one involving the romantically misguided noble savage mythology, another regarding globalist-empowered multinational corporations overseeing genuine environmental degradation by way of so-called "green energy" implements which are little more than a means for the elite to further inflate their wealth and political influence whilst running roughshod over the planet and pruning away the undesirable, unwashed lower classes. The problem lies in Koontz's shocking inability to thread in these arguments subtly, favoring instead blunt-force rhetorical trauma.
More shocking are his characters: Caricatures, rather-- differentiated in cartoonish contrast between protagonist Vida, whose flawless, strong-willed persona is protected by a shallow kinship with nature (less 8 Ball magical realism, more Lucky Charms 8 artificial marshmallows) against a rotating annoyance of unidimensional, unconflicted, mustache-twirling Snidely Whiplashes (the gentle homicide of one in particular being grossly manipulative), grunting bridge trolls and an out-of-control CEO whose last name doubles for a description of his personality, so absurdly and comically villainous he makes Captain Planet's roster of baddies come off as well-rounded antagonists.
Vida's first love being expunged too early in the narrative for us to care (only hearing him "speak" in the penultimate pages where his words are used to fattened, ham-fisted affect), Koontz opts instead to bring a second love into the mix far too late for us to care and whose particular physical imperfection brings a suspension of disbelief which my mind--unfairly or otherwise-- could not cross (particularly given his character's repeated acceptance towards a life of solitude), magnified by a romancing period more truncated than that of Jack and Rose on the Titanic.
It should speak far more than my words can attest that it is fitting I should be unable to recall the names of the only two characters (one a corporate villain redeemed by the other, his small town "anime heroine") worth giving the faintest damn about in the story since apparently Koontz cared about them even less, leaving their story incomplete, hanging out to dry, thoroughly forgotten fewer than fifty pages from the final words of the book-- those only worth mentioning insofar as they commit the ultimate sin of name-dropping the book's title without even the barest decency of rephrasing or rewording.
The relatively brief appearances of "nature" in the form of a couple wolves (one physically extant, the other seemingly spirit though I doubt even Koontz cares to differentiate), who haunt for certain purpose, are akin to the gemstones our protagonist mines early on in the story: Exceedingly rare instances of color and luster amidst a veritable mountain of uninteresting, undeveloped loam.
This is a startlingly, incomprehensibly amateurish novel whose occasionally resplendent prose cannot save it from a much higher frequency of mundane writing, action scenes completely devoid of tension or stakes and abysmal plotting which culminates in a climax more rushed, clunky and messy than the high school linebacker's first time with the head cheerleader. And if that's too crass, I assure you the comparison is nowhere near so offensive as this work of fiction, type-written by a man whose long-standing fans are more than aware is capable of far better in every aspect outlined above.
In short-- do not recommend. For anyone. Ever.
Truth be told, I find common cause with certain salient remarks brought up over the course of the narrative (and a particular point of disagreement where Koontz's curmudgeonly dismissal of modern, online cultural and socio-political content consumption is concerned), one involving the romantically misguided noble savage mythology, another regarding globalist-empowered multinational corporations overseeing genuine environmental degradation by way of so-called "green energy" implements which are little more than a means for the elite to further inflate their wealth and political influence whilst running roughshod over the planet and pruning away the undesirable, unwashed lower classes. The problem lies in Koontz's shocking inability to thread in these arguments subtly, favoring instead blunt-force rhetorical trauma.
More shocking are his characters: Caricatures, rather-- differentiated in cartoonish contrast between protagonist Vida, whose flawless, strong-willed persona is protected by a shallow kinship with nature (less 8 Ball magical realism, more Lucky Charms 8 artificial marshmallows) against a rotating annoyance of unidimensional, unconflicted, mustache-twirling Snidely Whiplashes (the gentle homicide of one in particular being grossly manipulative), grunting bridge trolls and an out-of-control CEO whose last name doubles for a description of his personality, so absurdly and comically villainous he makes Captain Planet's roster of baddies come off as well-rounded antagonists.
Vida's first love being expunged too early in the narrative for us to care (only hearing him "speak" in the penultimate pages where his words are used to fattened, ham-fisted affect), Koontz opts instead to bring a second love into the mix far too late for us to care and whose particular physical imperfection brings a suspension of disbelief which my mind--unfairly or otherwise-- could not cross (particularly given his character's repeated acceptance towards a life of solitude), magnified by a romancing period more truncated than that of Jack and Rose on the Titanic.
It should speak far more than my words can attest that it is fitting I should be unable to recall the names of the only two characters (one a corporate villain redeemed by the other, his small town "anime heroine") worth giving the faintest damn about in the story since apparently Koontz cared about them even less, leaving their story incomplete, hanging out to dry, thoroughly forgotten fewer than fifty pages from the final words of the book-- those only worth mentioning insofar as they commit the ultimate sin of name-dropping the book's title without even the barest decency of rephrasing or rewording.
The relatively brief appearances of "nature" in the form of a couple wolves (one physically extant, the other seemingly spirit though I doubt even Koontz cares to differentiate), who haunt for certain purpose, are akin to the gemstones our protagonist mines early on in the story: Exceedingly rare instances of color and luster amidst a veritable mountain of uninteresting, undeveloped loam.
This is a startlingly, incomprehensibly amateurish novel whose occasionally resplendent prose cannot save it from a much higher frequency of mundane writing, action scenes completely devoid of tension or stakes and abysmal plotting which culminates in a climax more rushed, clunky and messy than the high school linebacker's first time with the head cheerleader. And if that's too crass, I assure you the comparison is nowhere near so offensive as this work of fiction, type-written by a man whose long-standing fans are more than aware is capable of far better in every aspect outlined above.
In short-- do not recommend. For anyone. Ever.
December 25, 2024
I borrowed this book through KU and it came with the accompanying audiobook. Most who know me know that I am not a fan of audiobooks. However, this one was fabulous! Narrated by January LaVoy, the story comes to life. I loved all her unique and distinct voices even when there were 2 men or 2 women having a conversation.
I give the story itself 4 stars. Part of me feels that if I had just read the book, I would have felt a little lost at times. There was a lot of back and forth with the timeline in the beginning until the story coalesced into something more fluid. I enjoyed the mysticism of what was going on with Vida and I have some thoughts on who Lupo the wolf may or may not be. Who knows if I’m right, but it makes sense in my head. There were even quite a few times that made me laugh.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one!
I give the story itself 4 stars. Part of me feels that if I had just read the book, I would have felt a little lost at times. There was a lot of back and forth with the timeline in the beginning until the story coalesced into something more fluid. I enjoyed the mysticism of what was going on with Vida and I have some thoughts on who Lupo the wolf may or may not be. Who knows if I’m right, but it makes sense in my head. There were even quite a few times that made me laugh.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one!
October 13, 2024
As always Dean Koontz does not disappoint.
In this story good triumphs over evil but not before paying a price. A little folk lore and Native American history put together with modern day encroachments that will someday erase that part of history. All from the prospect of a way of life that has been almost forgotten.
In this story good triumphs over evil but not before paying a price. A little folk lore and Native American history put together with modern day encroachments that will someday erase that part of history. All from the prospect of a way of life that has been almost forgotten.
July 1, 2025
Koontz has a knack for creating very colorful 3 dimensional characters in his books both of the protagonist and especially on the antagonist scale and this book is no exception. He creates some solid good ones and the main character is Vida, who lives off in the wilderness and both street and book smart. The story involves nature, mysticism, spirituality, animals, and plenty of death and violence as only the master of suspense knows how to deliver. Koontz creates many guys to hate in this book as well from the psycho billionaire mastermind Boschvark to his legion of evil minions doing his bidding like Belden Bead and Nash Deacon to name two greatly written and described heels.
Koontz does write about a fascinating female side character named Wendy who could probably star in her own book or series down the road.
There is even a Richard Brautigan reference in it on page 342 garnering another star in my rating as Brautigan remains a favorite author of mine.
Koontz does write about a fascinating female side character named Wendy who could probably star in her own book or series down the road.
There is even a Richard Brautigan reference in it on page 342 garnering another star in my rating as Brautigan remains a favorite author of mine.
August 21, 2024
My second Dean Koontz novel.
It is told from a few random POVs, but mainly from Vida, our MC; the story is part fantasy, part thriller, and a bit whoa if you know what I mean.
Vida lives alone, panning for gems, with a fantastic talent for what she does. She lives alone, having lost the uncle she lived with, and has recently lost her fiance, too.
Somehow, she becomes embroiled in finding out what happened to her fiance, pulling herself into danger and all manner of situations.
There's murder, horrific male characters who don't think much of women, wolves and a white lion...
As with the first, it took me a while to get into this, but the well-written, evocative language, rather than the storyline, gets my rating.
It is told from a few random POVs, but mainly from Vida, our MC; the story is part fantasy, part thriller, and a bit whoa if you know what I mean.
Vida lives alone, panning for gems, with a fantastic talent for what she does. She lives alone, having lost the uncle she lived with, and has recently lost her fiance, too.
Somehow, she becomes embroiled in finding out what happened to her fiance, pulling herself into danger and all manner of situations.
There's murder, horrific male characters who don't think much of women, wolves and a white lion...
As with the first, it took me a while to get into this, but the well-written, evocative language, rather than the storyline, gets my rating.
September 29, 2024
Is this a fever dream?
Oh man, I almost did not finish (DNF) this book as I found it painfully slow and awkward to start. It felt disjointed and frenetic in its storytelling but around 40% it picked up considerably. By 55% completion I was hooked. There are a lot of important social issues buried in here, as is usually the case with Dean Koontz works.
The Forest of Lost Souls delves into mythology, AI, capitalism, environmentalism, green energy, and your usual human paradigms like greed and crime. This story wasn’t what I was expecting at all, but I’m glad I stuck with it. I definitely feel like I’ll be thinking about its deeper meanings for days to come.
Was it my favorite? No. I’ll still call it a worthy read though.
Oh man, I almost did not finish (DNF) this book as I found it painfully slow and awkward to start. It felt disjointed and frenetic in its storytelling but around 40% it picked up considerably. By 55% completion I was hooked. There are a lot of important social issues buried in here, as is usually the case with Dean Koontz works.
The Forest of Lost Souls delves into mythology, AI, capitalism, environmentalism, green energy, and your usual human paradigms like greed and crime. This story wasn’t what I was expecting at all, but I’m glad I stuck with it. I definitely feel like I’ll be thinking about its deeper meanings for days to come.
Was it my favorite? No. I’ll still call it a worthy read though.
November 18, 2024
Excellent book. Just finished it and I stayed awake to finish it. Highly recommended for anyone who likes Dean and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel like he's getting his style back that he lost for the past several books. At least I felt like he did
September 26, 2024
Dean Koontz never disappoints!
March 30, 2025
It’s been awhile since I’ve read a Dean Koontz book. The main character Vida lives in a remote area near a small western town. Her finance is murdered by a multi billionaire out to develop a wind farm in a nearby area.
The storyline had a lot of twists and turns as Vida outsmarts all the criminals sent to kill her. I enjoyed the suspense and supernatural parts of the book.
The storyline had a lot of twists and turns as Vida outsmarts all the criminals sent to kill her. I enjoyed the suspense and supernatural parts of the book.
April 3, 2025
The Forest of Lost Souls was my first experience with Dean's writing, and while it was an enjoyable read, it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me.
I found that the author's personal views subtly influenced the story, which, for me, detracted from the overall experience. With that being said, it is still a solid book. The writing is sharp, and Dean does an excellent job of creating a dark psychological thriller. It just wasn’t quite the standout I was hoping for.
I found that the author's personal views subtly influenced the story, which, for me, detracted from the overall experience. With that being said, it is still a solid book. The writing is sharp, and Dean does an excellent job of creating a dark psychological thriller. It just wasn’t quite the standout I was hoping for.
July 28, 2025
Nice reaf
T?his is a different type of story than he usually writes and it's a nice change. Very good story and im glad tistened best narrator I've herd thus far!
T?his is a different type of story than he usually writes and it's a nice change. Very good story and im glad tistened best narrator I've herd thus far!
December 31, 2024
The Forest of Lost Souls is an impressive presentation. The first thing that stands out is the gold embossed wolf imprinted on both front and back cover. Inside the cover are appealing forest images and each of the three sections is adorned with artwork.
Short chapters introducing an intelligent, clever main character. I absolutely loved the first section - 5 stars for the amazing quality. I didn't love the second and third sections so much. I loved the connection to nature represented in the novel, but didn't love the wind turbine controversy.
Related Works: Mongrels, The Silent Corner, The House at the End of the World, Moby-Dick or, The Whale, Wuthering Heights, The Seven Storey Mountain
Favorite Passages:
ONE - THE PAST IN THE PRESENT
The Watcher in the Woods
She has long been of the land. She's been formed by the truths of the wilderness, by the wonder and the myths that nature inspires, by hard experience, by love and loss, by the prophecy of a traveling seer in a white robe and yellow sneakers.
The Earth Provides
Here where the trees relent, sun and shade contest throughout the day, and false Solomon's seal flourishes knee-high. Early sprays of white flowers, like clustered kernels of freshly popped corn, are bursting through densely layered light-green leaves.
______
Along the far flank of this gently sloped expanse of sediment, tangerine-scented sweet flag brandishes tall, swordlike leaves in the breeze, and the land steps down to a new riverbank beyond which cold, rushing currents speak in a double tongue of spirited splashing and sinister susurration.
Goodbye and Hello
Our memories from early childhood are far from indelible, they fade until, by our late teens, if not before, they are like yellowed photographs from a previous century.
_______
Through thirteen years of primeval nights, as owls make their queries and wolves celebrate the moon, she sleeps here; sometimes lulled by the rataplan of rain on the roof, sometimes by a soughing wind that ferries snow across the mountains, she sleeps; in quiet weather and in storms, she sleeps encompassed by the amazing people who live within the pages of the books that are shelved on every wall of the room. When she dreams of those storied souls, she feels watched over by the kindest of them, and she does not fear those who are unkind because this is her uncle's house into which the wicked dare not venture out of their chapters.
The Box
Nevertheless, rich years of love, laughter, compassion, and kindness can imbue a home with a strange aura of life all its own, a resonant echo that speaks not to the fear but to the heart. There are special places and objects to which those who have a sensitive spirit might be drawn.
The First Grave
On this Monday in May, as the sun slips from sight, the western mountains are crowned with carnelian red. The darkling eastern sky is sapphire blue and diamonded.
Nature's Bounty
She crosses the meadow to the northern flank of the forest and enters the trees. The low bruu-ooo of rock doves gives way to the humming whistle of their wings as flocks take off at her approach, effortlessly threading their way through the maze of boughs and branches, through layered shadows and intrusions of sunlight.
He Knows Not Who She Is
Hope is armor against despair, and as her uncle taught her, patience is a polish that keeps that armor bright. We can't know the ultimate why of anything, although if we train ourselves to read the intricate fabric that time weaves, we see a pattern certain to console and inspire.
Wolves
His eyes seem to offer not only depths to be explored, but also realms other than the kingdom of wolves in which he is a prince.
______
. . . the lord of the wolves keeps his nose close to the ground, like a myopic scholar with face pressed near the faded pages of an ancient volume, the better to study an account of a lost moment in history.
The Undertaker's Daughter
"You think everything's fine, moving along nice and comfortable, then something happens and you see the truth, and you don't even recognize where you are."
______
The past and future are gathered in this moment, the past to be explained, the future to form out of that explanation.
______
"The wound." Those two words have a taste like when she has sucked on a paper cut.
News of the Dead
Reflected in the face shield of the helmet, the last crimson light in the sky masks this woman's face and confers on her a new and less lovely identity, as though she isn't just mortician but instead some blood-smeared Presence that has come from the far shore of a river where gondolas carry passengers in only one direction and gondoliers like her pole their way back to this world alone.
The Box and The Atlas
Dignity is a consequence of perseverance, persistence, endurance.
The Fortuneteller
She drives a battered white Volkswagen bus on each side of which are painted the same words in elegant calligraphy: Look with kindness on those who suffer, who struggle against difficulties, who drink unceasingly the bitterness of this life.
She pounds two tall iron stakes into the front yard and strings between them a sapphire-blue cloth banner decorated with crescent moons and silver stars, bearing seven intriguing words in coppery script: The truth and the future revealed here.
______
"Past, present, and future are one. To know the first two is to know the third."
Love Note
On this eventful Wednesday, perhaps forty minutes of light remains before the white shoals of high clouds will be alchemized into bright coral reefs and then washed into night. Returning to the house, she pauses to watch a golden eagle - identifiable by a seven-foot wingspan, feather patterns, and golden nape - as the bird glides effortlessly above the meadow, a beautiful and graceful presence even as it is a terror to every creature that it hunts.
What She Values Least
"Past, present, and future are one. To know what's coming is to know what has been."
Dog Collar
If amusement lies behind his venomous smile, it's the amusement of a cobra. His eyes bring to mind Poe's raven, for they have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming.
The Venerable Bead
Deception can't change the color of a deceiver's eyes. However, as her uncle told her twelve years earlier, she sees with something other than ordinary vision.
_______
"Someone has lied to you, sold you coal and called it gold."
What the Seer Sees
"Past, present, and future exist all at once, but that's too much for mankind to handle, too confusing. We need them to flow one into the other in an orderly fashion. So we perceive time as we need to perceive it to cope. Or the perception of time is a crutch we've been given, whichever you prefer to believe. And so - clocks."
"Maybe I'll understand when I'm like a hundred," Vida says.
"Long before then, dear. Myths, as I was saying, were lessons by which we learned how to think about the world we can see and the world we can't. For countless centuries, it wasn't the truth of the myths that mattered, but the new ways of thinking that they subtly taught us. Over millennia, myths evolved to lead us ever so slowly to a deeper understanding of the world and our place in it, the reason for our being, slow enough for us to handle it all."
"Like taking baby steps."
"Exactly. We took baby steps as a species until eventually we arrived at the revelation, the truths, on which our civilization is built. But all the myths that instructed us are still relevant, in part because they made us what we are, and in part because we still need stories to teach us how to live, as we keep forgetting."
Submission
Nature herself is as hard as she is beautiful, red of tooth and claw.
My Heart is Ready
She showers as night wanes, falls into bed at first light, and dreams of gemstones scattered among skeletons.
What He Values Least
You can't be a hero if you run away from either the enemy or the truth of yourself.
TWO - THE HUNT
Preparations
The world is strange beyond knowing, and life is a journey through wonders, toward mystery.
_______
Soon, a vivid image arises in her mind's eye - herself sprawled dead in a forest glade where blue wildflowers nod in a breeze.
The Box
. . . she's aware that life is a layered tapestry, with recondite meaning below the surface. Mundane and mystical threads are equally strong and essential to the integrity of the fabric.
A Night Watch of Wolves
At all times, the forest is simultaneously dreamlike and real. In daylight, it is a wondrous exhibition of green architecture, as pleasing as anything in a sleeper's best illusions. At night, Vida has often thought of it as a shadowy stage where moonlight pools like mist in places and starlight drips and magical beings - sprites, fairies, elves - seem to hide everywhere behind masks of leaves and cone-laden boughs, waiting to step forward and perform in an amusing midsummer night's dream. Now, however, this realm has no qualities fit for a tale by a master of light fantasy, but is instead eerie, alien, as if another universe wheeled through Vida's, the particles of the other, with no catastrophic collision, but leaving behind strange matter and unknowable presences.
What Was and What Can Be
"Before you is your past and future, standing under the moon. Be not so foolish as to cling to what was, rather than embrace what can be."
Sticky Widgets
A flock of yellow-breasted western tanagers wings through a shaft of light, the soft whistles of their flight calls like the musical conversation of elves in this Gothic forest.
______
As she runs through the forest at a pace she had not achieved before, sprinting like a deer, never putting a foot wrong, with no weakness of muscle or bone, she is breathing no harder than if she were resting in a chair on her porch, and her heart is not laboring. She wonders if she might be losing her mind, but her new agility and stamina, along with her instinctive awareness of where she is in this wilderness and where she must go, seem to be evidence not of disorder but of stability, not of insanity but of a primal wisdom.
Three for Breakfast
"Life passes like a shadow. Eighteen years is the same as an hour ago."
Azrael or Rhadamanthus
Three hundred pounds of muscle. A mouthful of stilettoes. Claws that can strike to the bone. She's white with pale-yellow eyes, but she isn't an apparition. Ears pricked forward, nostrils flared, she seeks sounds and scents for which a ghost has no need in order to conduct a haunting. She stands in the doorway, observing the kitchen and its two occupants, not with what seems like predatory intent, but with solemn curiosity.
_______
The behavior of the mountain lion is so strange that Regis is beginning to feel, if not safe, at least not in immediate peril in its presence. That is the upside of this odd moment. The downside is that he's beginning to wonder if Wendy is in fact the wise and true and always reliable anime heroine that he wants her to be, or if she is instead so far down the river of eccentricity from him that they will never be in the same boat together.
Without A Moon or Wolves
"When I see you, I see kindness."
THREE - THE FUTURE IN THE PAST
The Men Who Evaporated
She opens the door and steps onto the porch as they approach along the walkway that's flanked on both sides by red begonias. The one in the lead wears a gray suit, white shirt, and black tie; he's about five feet eight, so fresh-faced that he might be a Mormon youth come to share the promise of his church, except for a smile that curls into a smirk at the right corner of his mouth. Whatever knife he carries, it's sure to be sharp enough to gut a crocodile.
Come Nightfall
"There is a poem about AI, by Richard Brautigan - "
"I know it. 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.'"
She's surprised and pleased that he's familiar with the poem, but more important is what he thinks of it.
"The premise is bad science fiction," he says, "Machines might be graceful if by 'grace' we mean elegance and beauty in manner or motion. But they can never be loving."
Boschvark Forever
"How Cheyenne are they?" Boschvark asks.
Yataghan looks puzzled. "How Cheyenne?"
"How much do they believe in the old ways? How much do they know about the past? Are they at all committed to the Cheyenne nation or are they just Tontos? Can they be bought? Who can't be bought? Anyone can be bought. Do they want a casino?"
Everybody Dies
Ranks of conifers soldier on through the centuries, down the slopes in a perpetual green march, to the Grand Plateau, where for whatever reason they have, with rare exception, failed to conquer the three thousand acres of flat territory. Beyond the plateau, when the land slopes down once more, trees rise in phalanxes, their roots wound so securely through the soil and rocks that they can withstand even the winds of winter that shriek through the pass with greater force than in any other season.
Hunting hawks glide on the spring thermals high above. Here below, the soft soil offers small creatures easy burrowing, and tall grass - brown from winter but fast greening - provides cover to them. For now, the plateau is full of busy life, a thriving ecosystem that needs no justification but that should be celebrated in vivid myths, as the upland meadows of southern England and the animals thereof were celebrated in Watership Down and as another landscape entirely was mythologized in The Wind in the Windows.
_______
She reminds herself that what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
_______
There is strength in solidarity, but also in suffering and in struggle and in hope.
_______
Some successful shots with a crossbow can fairly be attributed to skill alone. Some owe more to luck. Some can be accounted as the result of skill and luck in rare combination. In this case, however, skill and luck seem to have been assisted by a mysterious power deserving of a humble thank-you, and Vida speaks those two words.
Short chapters introducing an intelligent, clever main character. I absolutely loved the first section - 5 stars for the amazing quality. I didn't love the second and third sections so much. I loved the connection to nature represented in the novel, but didn't love the wind turbine controversy.
Related Works: Mongrels, The Silent Corner, The House at the End of the World, Moby-Dick or, The Whale, Wuthering Heights, The Seven Storey Mountain
Favorite Passages:
ONE - THE PAST IN THE PRESENT
The Watcher in the Woods
She has long been of the land. She's been formed by the truths of the wilderness, by the wonder and the myths that nature inspires, by hard experience, by love and loss, by the prophecy of a traveling seer in a white robe and yellow sneakers.
The Earth Provides
Here where the trees relent, sun and shade contest throughout the day, and false Solomon's seal flourishes knee-high. Early sprays of white flowers, like clustered kernels of freshly popped corn, are bursting through densely layered light-green leaves.
______
Along the far flank of this gently sloped expanse of sediment, tangerine-scented sweet flag brandishes tall, swordlike leaves in the breeze, and the land steps down to a new riverbank beyond which cold, rushing currents speak in a double tongue of spirited splashing and sinister susurration.
Goodbye and Hello
Our memories from early childhood are far from indelible, they fade until, by our late teens, if not before, they are like yellowed photographs from a previous century.
_______
Through thirteen years of primeval nights, as owls make their queries and wolves celebrate the moon, she sleeps here; sometimes lulled by the rataplan of rain on the roof, sometimes by a soughing wind that ferries snow across the mountains, she sleeps; in quiet weather and in storms, she sleeps encompassed by the amazing people who live within the pages of the books that are shelved on every wall of the room. When she dreams of those storied souls, she feels watched over by the kindest of them, and she does not fear those who are unkind because this is her uncle's house into which the wicked dare not venture out of their chapters.
The Box
Nevertheless, rich years of love, laughter, compassion, and kindness can imbue a home with a strange aura of life all its own, a resonant echo that speaks not to the fear but to the heart. There are special places and objects to which those who have a sensitive spirit might be drawn.
The First Grave
On this Monday in May, as the sun slips from sight, the western mountains are crowned with carnelian red. The darkling eastern sky is sapphire blue and diamonded.
Nature's Bounty
She crosses the meadow to the northern flank of the forest and enters the trees. The low bruu-ooo of rock doves gives way to the humming whistle of their wings as flocks take off at her approach, effortlessly threading their way through the maze of boughs and branches, through layered shadows and intrusions of sunlight.
He Knows Not Who She Is
Hope is armor against despair, and as her uncle taught her, patience is a polish that keeps that armor bright. We can't know the ultimate why of anything, although if we train ourselves to read the intricate fabric that time weaves, we see a pattern certain to console and inspire.
Wolves
His eyes seem to offer not only depths to be explored, but also realms other than the kingdom of wolves in which he is a prince.
______
. . . the lord of the wolves keeps his nose close to the ground, like a myopic scholar with face pressed near the faded pages of an ancient volume, the better to study an account of a lost moment in history.
The Undertaker's Daughter
"You think everything's fine, moving along nice and comfortable, then something happens and you see the truth, and you don't even recognize where you are."
______
The past and future are gathered in this moment, the past to be explained, the future to form out of that explanation.
______
"The wound." Those two words have a taste like when she has sucked on a paper cut.
News of the Dead
Reflected in the face shield of the helmet, the last crimson light in the sky masks this woman's face and confers on her a new and less lovely identity, as though she isn't just mortician but instead some blood-smeared Presence that has come from the far shore of a river where gondolas carry passengers in only one direction and gondoliers like her pole their way back to this world alone.
The Box and The Atlas
Dignity is a consequence of perseverance, persistence, endurance.
The Fortuneteller
She drives a battered white Volkswagen bus on each side of which are painted the same words in elegant calligraphy: Look with kindness on those who suffer, who struggle against difficulties, who drink unceasingly the bitterness of this life.
She pounds two tall iron stakes into the front yard and strings between them a sapphire-blue cloth banner decorated with crescent moons and silver stars, bearing seven intriguing words in coppery script: The truth and the future revealed here.
______
"Past, present, and future are one. To know the first two is to know the third."
Love Note
On this eventful Wednesday, perhaps forty minutes of light remains before the white shoals of high clouds will be alchemized into bright coral reefs and then washed into night. Returning to the house, she pauses to watch a golden eagle - identifiable by a seven-foot wingspan, feather patterns, and golden nape - as the bird glides effortlessly above the meadow, a beautiful and graceful presence even as it is a terror to every creature that it hunts.
What She Values Least
"Past, present, and future are one. To know what's coming is to know what has been."
Dog Collar
If amusement lies behind his venomous smile, it's the amusement of a cobra. His eyes bring to mind Poe's raven, for they have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming.
The Venerable Bead
Deception can't change the color of a deceiver's eyes. However, as her uncle told her twelve years earlier, she sees with something other than ordinary vision.
_______
"Someone has lied to you, sold you coal and called it gold."
What the Seer Sees
"Past, present, and future exist all at once, but that's too much for mankind to handle, too confusing. We need them to flow one into the other in an orderly fashion. So we perceive time as we need to perceive it to cope. Or the perception of time is a crutch we've been given, whichever you prefer to believe. And so - clocks."
"Maybe I'll understand when I'm like a hundred," Vida says.
"Long before then, dear. Myths, as I was saying, were lessons by which we learned how to think about the world we can see and the world we can't. For countless centuries, it wasn't the truth of the myths that mattered, but the new ways of thinking that they subtly taught us. Over millennia, myths evolved to lead us ever so slowly to a deeper understanding of the world and our place in it, the reason for our being, slow enough for us to handle it all."
"Like taking baby steps."
"Exactly. We took baby steps as a species until eventually we arrived at the revelation, the truths, on which our civilization is built. But all the myths that instructed us are still relevant, in part because they made us what we are, and in part because we still need stories to teach us how to live, as we keep forgetting."
Submission
Nature herself is as hard as she is beautiful, red of tooth and claw.
My Heart is Ready
She showers as night wanes, falls into bed at first light, and dreams of gemstones scattered among skeletons.
What He Values Least
You can't be a hero if you run away from either the enemy or the truth of yourself.
TWO - THE HUNT
Preparations
The world is strange beyond knowing, and life is a journey through wonders, toward mystery.
_______
Soon, a vivid image arises in her mind's eye - herself sprawled dead in a forest glade where blue wildflowers nod in a breeze.
The Box
. . . she's aware that life is a layered tapestry, with recondite meaning below the surface. Mundane and mystical threads are equally strong and essential to the integrity of the fabric.
A Night Watch of Wolves
At all times, the forest is simultaneously dreamlike and real. In daylight, it is a wondrous exhibition of green architecture, as pleasing as anything in a sleeper's best illusions. At night, Vida has often thought of it as a shadowy stage where moonlight pools like mist in places and starlight drips and magical beings - sprites, fairies, elves - seem to hide everywhere behind masks of leaves and cone-laden boughs, waiting to step forward and perform in an amusing midsummer night's dream. Now, however, this realm has no qualities fit for a tale by a master of light fantasy, but is instead eerie, alien, as if another universe wheeled through Vida's, the particles of the other, with no catastrophic collision, but leaving behind strange matter and unknowable presences.
What Was and What Can Be
"Before you is your past and future, standing under the moon. Be not so foolish as to cling to what was, rather than embrace what can be."
Sticky Widgets
A flock of yellow-breasted western tanagers wings through a shaft of light, the soft whistles of their flight calls like the musical conversation of elves in this Gothic forest.
______
As she runs through the forest at a pace she had not achieved before, sprinting like a deer, never putting a foot wrong, with no weakness of muscle or bone, she is breathing no harder than if she were resting in a chair on her porch, and her heart is not laboring. She wonders if she might be losing her mind, but her new agility and stamina, along with her instinctive awareness of where she is in this wilderness and where she must go, seem to be evidence not of disorder but of stability, not of insanity but of a primal wisdom.
Three for Breakfast
"Life passes like a shadow. Eighteen years is the same as an hour ago."
Azrael or Rhadamanthus
Three hundred pounds of muscle. A mouthful of stilettoes. Claws that can strike to the bone. She's white with pale-yellow eyes, but she isn't an apparition. Ears pricked forward, nostrils flared, she seeks sounds and scents for which a ghost has no need in order to conduct a haunting. She stands in the doorway, observing the kitchen and its two occupants, not with what seems like predatory intent, but with solemn curiosity.
_______
The behavior of the mountain lion is so strange that Regis is beginning to feel, if not safe, at least not in immediate peril in its presence. That is the upside of this odd moment. The downside is that he's beginning to wonder if Wendy is in fact the wise and true and always reliable anime heroine that he wants her to be, or if she is instead so far down the river of eccentricity from him that they will never be in the same boat together.
Without A Moon or Wolves
"When I see you, I see kindness."
THREE - THE FUTURE IN THE PAST
The Men Who Evaporated
She opens the door and steps onto the porch as they approach along the walkway that's flanked on both sides by red begonias. The one in the lead wears a gray suit, white shirt, and black tie; he's about five feet eight, so fresh-faced that he might be a Mormon youth come to share the promise of his church, except for a smile that curls into a smirk at the right corner of his mouth. Whatever knife he carries, it's sure to be sharp enough to gut a crocodile.
Come Nightfall
"There is a poem about AI, by Richard Brautigan - "
"I know it. 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.'"
She's surprised and pleased that he's familiar with the poem, but more important is what he thinks of it.
"The premise is bad science fiction," he says, "Machines might be graceful if by 'grace' we mean elegance and beauty in manner or motion. But they can never be loving."
Boschvark Forever
"How Cheyenne are they?" Boschvark asks.
Yataghan looks puzzled. "How Cheyenne?"
"How much do they believe in the old ways? How much do they know about the past? Are they at all committed to the Cheyenne nation or are they just Tontos? Can they be bought? Who can't be bought? Anyone can be bought. Do they want a casino?"
Everybody Dies
Ranks of conifers soldier on through the centuries, down the slopes in a perpetual green march, to the Grand Plateau, where for whatever reason they have, with rare exception, failed to conquer the three thousand acres of flat territory. Beyond the plateau, when the land slopes down once more, trees rise in phalanxes, their roots wound so securely through the soil and rocks that they can withstand even the winds of winter that shriek through the pass with greater force than in any other season.
Hunting hawks glide on the spring thermals high above. Here below, the soft soil offers small creatures easy burrowing, and tall grass - brown from winter but fast greening - provides cover to them. For now, the plateau is full of busy life, a thriving ecosystem that needs no justification but that should be celebrated in vivid myths, as the upland meadows of southern England and the animals thereof were celebrated in Watership Down and as another landscape entirely was mythologized in The Wind in the Windows.
_______
She reminds herself that what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
_______
There is strength in solidarity, but also in suffering and in struggle and in hope.
_______
Some successful shots with a crossbow can fairly be attributed to skill alone. Some owe more to luck. Some can be accounted as the result of skill and luck in rare combination. In this case, however, skill and luck seem to have been assisted by a mysterious power deserving of a humble thank-you, and Vida speaks those two words.
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