Fiction

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein - Book Three: Dead and Alive by Dean Koontz
Chapters 57 - 72 [the end]

Dead and Alive -- and, by extension, the whole of the Dean Koontz's Frankenstein trilogy (probably) -- reaches its conclusion. And it seems somewhat rushed, as if Koontz got fed up with his creation and its multitudinous plot threads so just brought about the quickest ending he felt he could get away with once he crossed the 300-page mark. It's not wholly flawed -- in fact, much of it is very good -- it's just incredibly brief compared to the long, winding, frequent-aside-taking style of the rest of the novel (and series).

My final impression is that Koontz should have either condensed the whole trilogy into a reasonable-length, reasonably-plotted storyline (i.e. lose the asides and the waffle), or expanded all his various ideas into proper, fully-developed motifs and arcs, rather than discarding each after their one over-written scene. As it stands, the novel has its moments, but doesn't live up to their full potential.

Koontz also concludes the novel (and, probably, the series) with both a cliffhanger and a fully-resolved-sounding final chapter. Will there be more or won't there? Maybe he just wants the option. Maybe he's planning a sequel trilogy -- these three make such a connected trilogy that a lone fourth book would seem odd. I suppose those of us who've enjoyed the series to date (more or less) will have to wait and see...

Edit: After some moderately thorough web-searching, I found just one tiny article that confirms the series will continue and it shall indeed be a new trilogy. (Even the series' official website implies Dead and Alive is the final end and makes no mention of books four to six. To be fair however, the news story is only dated today.)

The most relevant details: "The first new volume, Lost Souls, will be published in May 2010 and begins a new story cycle that will continue with the two subsequent books, to be released in May 2011 and May 2012... Lost Souls will pick up where Dead and Alive left off, with the setting moving to the American West and a new villain arriving on the scene."