Three confrontations with the forces of evil

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	• Three Complete Novels (The Servants of Twilight / Darkfall / Phantoms) Dean R. Koontz Wings, 1991 - 752 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Three Complete Novels

This made a wonderful gift and it was given to a true fan of Dean Koontz...

Three confrontations with the forces of evil

This omnibus edition contains nothing apart from the text of the three books; no foreword, no afterword - not even the individual afterwords that Koontz has taken to including with re-issued editions of his older books.

This is a pity, because DARKFALL and SERVANTS were both written under pseudonyms, and Koontz' revised editions often include the story of the original author's tragic end. (There are at least five versions of the fate of "Leigh Nichols", including a tragic limbo accident.)

The individual books in this omnibus share a few characteristics apart from being written around the same time. All three with what might be termed the forces of Satan, though the situation is (of course) more complicated than that at times. Once the action gets rolling, each story occupies a very short timeframe: about 25 hours for DARKFALL, a few days for most of PHANTOMS, and similarly for THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT. Each has a kind of epilogue after the main event to give a little closure (although in DARKFALL's case it's quite short, not even a separate chapter).

THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT was first published in somewhat different form as TWILIGHT under the byline "Leigh Nichols" in 1984. The title role is a well-meaning religious sect, determined to destroy the anti-Christ. But "the anti-Christ", in this case, is a six-year-old boy, a sweet kid being brought up by his single-parent mom. Joey at first seems to be a random selection on the part of the Servants' leader.

When the Servants begin stalking Christine and her son, she hires a private investigator, Charlie Harrison, since everyone has to sleep sometime. Most of the remainder of the book is an extended chase scene, although the object is to flee rather than to catch anyone. Several of Koontz' other books have this kind of structure; SERVANTS falls into the earlier versions' simpler pattern, in which relatively isolated bad guys (rather than vast conspiracies) are chasing the good guys. Like many of Koontz' protagonists, the leads (Charlie and Christine) have troubled family backgrounds like that of the author. The main villain is schizophrenic.

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DARKFALL was first published under the byline "Owen West" in 1984, prior to THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT. Like several of Koontz' earlier works, DARKFALL wasn't published under Koontz' preferred title (DARKNESS COMES, in this instance, although the story has also been known as THE PIT, which lent itself to some unfortunate jokes at the author's expense).

As in THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT, one of the protagonists of DARKFALL is a single parent, in this case Jack, a straight-arrow cop who is just beginning to take an interest in romance again after losing his wife to cancer. There are some similarities to the dynamic in DRAGON TEARS; Jack's partner is a very tough woman who had a rough childhood, and she's the "bad cop" of their good cop/bad cop act. (Unfortunately, it's *not* a deliberate act by the characters; like Connie in DRAGON TEARS, Rebecca really *does* lack political savvy in dealing with people.)

As in DRAGON TEARS, the partners have run into some odd phenomena on the day the story takes place, which can't be explained by any normal events. In DARKFALL, the partners are investigating a series of brutal murders in which the victims are all involved in organized crime, but the weird phenomena don't tally with a normal gang war or even a revenge killing. But the head of the family arranged for the murder of an investigative reporter some time back, whose brother turns out to be a voodoo priest from the islands...

Of the three stories in this omnibus, organized religion comes off best in DARKFALL. It happens to be the light side of voodoo that gets star treatment, though - does that matter? :) Jack and Rebecca get professional help, as it were, from a local voodoo practitioner; he comes up with an interesting philosophical defence of his religion.

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PHANTOMS, the last story in the book, was actually published first, in 1983. Although Koontz had written several books in the interim, this was the first book under his own name since WHISPERS, and he was trying deliberately to write a very different book.

PHANTOMS was meant to be an over-the-top horror story, with a full-blown monster *but* with a scientific explanation for everything that takes place. Small town? Check. Everybody missing except a handful of main characters? Check. Gory? You bet. If you read this one alone on a dark night, don't come crying to me if you can't sleep. You've been warned.

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For more detailed discussion of the contents of this book, I recommend consulting reviews for the three individual books.

Content warnings: Like a number of Koontz' books, these contain a few explicit sex scenes and quite a lot of violence. Organized religion gets somewhat unusual treatment.

But these are Koontz books. Bad things happen, some people are rotten, and organizations may fail to protect people properly, but individual good guys can manage to come through horrific episodes without being turned into monsters, even if they may suffer greatly in the process.

Comfort books. The first two rate about 4 stars, but PHANTOMS brings down the average.

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Beautiful Combo

This book is probably one of the best I ever had because the novels compiled are all very thrilling and fun to read. I have read it twice and there is nothing else to do than to admire the way Dean R. Koontz writes. If you want to read something out of the ordinary, a bit on the supernatural side, along with a lot of action and twists, this is the one you need.

Three terrific books

Wow, Phantoms, Darkfall, and The Servants Of Twilight all in one! I've read 23 Dean Koontz book so far and I can tell you that these are all five star books.

PHANTOMS is about a deserted town in the mountains where a woman and her teenage sister arrive to find most of the residents either missing or brutally murdered-even in locked rooms.

DARKFALL is about a man named Baba Lavelle out for revenge who is using voodoo to terrorize a man named Jack Dawson by sending goblin-like creatures after his two children. It's pretty intense with the things crawling through the air ducts and chasing after the family relentlessly.

THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT is about a cult lead by a crazy old woman named Grace Spivey who is convinced that a six year old boy named Joey is the anti-christ. The family and the private eye struggling to protect them are terrorized and sent on the run, and their lives will never be the same. But wherever they go, Grave and her followers always find them....

You really can't go wrong with this set. I suggest you buy this collection, and then read:

Intensity
Watchers
Whispers
Hideaway
False Memory
Twilight Eyes

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Excellent Book!

This book was awesome. It kept me engaged for several weeks, which is saying alot for a huge reader like I am.

Usually I find a book, a good 300 pages, at least, and I clobber it. It it is any good (I give it 100 pages to be good, or I am done) I will devour it, in a couple of days time. It is is *fairly* good but not too good, it might take me a couple of weeks as I will be doing something other than reading it when I have my late night reading time. For a really good book, though, it might take me a couple of nights to read it. For this book, since it contained 3 novels, it took me a couple of weeks. Honestly I was glad, because that was a couple of weeks where I didn't have to think about my next reading fix!!!!

Buy it... you will not be disappointed!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

For the first time ever, three bestselling Dean Koontz novels?The Servants of Twilight, Darkfall, Phantoms?are available in hardcover and complete in this single volume. Koontz's novels are spine-chilling and terrifying stories about ordinary people caught in nightmarish situations. Although Dean Koontz writes about the "dark side," the endings to his fast-paced, stay-up-all-night reads always show the forces of good prevailing. But it's what happens between the covers of the book and in the imaginations of the readers that has earned Dean Koontz his position at the top of bestseller lists across the country. When you begin a Dean Koontz novel, you're never sure where he's going to take you...
The Servants of Twilight
A mother and son are approached by an old lady in a southern California parking lot. It's a chance encounter that erupts into a nightmare of terror as a mother strives to protect her only child when he is threatened again and again...
Darkfall
In a city, paralyzed by a blizzard, something watches, something stalks, and the clock is ticking...A fast-paced twisting story with one of the most frightening chase scenes ever.
Phantom
The found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, three hundred fifty missing. But the terror had only begun in a tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California.

These three masterful novels of suspense are guaranteed to keep you reading until you turn the last page. There's no going back once you begin a Dean Koontz novel...

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