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SCI FI From mysterious creatures to interestingly named characters it’s all a link-up to a plot that does not unravel till the very end. JOHANNA BOZUWA

Title: Breathless

Author: Dean Koontz

Publisher: Hachette

Price: £ 6.99

Dean Koontz attempts to fuse the genres of thriller and science fiction in his novel, Breathless. The story is told through many different characters, all somehow impacted by new creatures mysteriously appearing on Earth.The book opens with Grady Adams, an ex-army sniper, walking in the Colorado woods with his wolfhound, Merlin, when he feels something inexplicable happen. Minutes later, he comes across two animals unlike anything he had seen before. These two curious creatures follow him and take upresidence in his house.

No clue

When he calls his veterinary friend, Camille, she is similarly astonished, and sends the photos to two colleagues, not understanding the gravity of her decision. Soon, Homeland Security has taken over Grady’s house to contain the threat of these new and extremely intelligent beings.Throughout the book there are many subplots twisted into the book other than that of Grady and Camille, including a serial rapist/killer and another aspiring one, a man with a self-mutilated face, and a lawyer. Not until the very end of the book do you find how these characters are linked, and yet the link is hazy and seemingly insignificant.

There is one interesting point in the book when a mathematician-philosopher, Lamar, negates the theory of evolution with regard to his mathematical discoveries and the sighting of these animals. Yet, his alternate answer is more Biblical than anything else— in other words nothing new. In his version, these new species just appear in a zap out of nothingness into being.The only thing that keeps you turning the pages are Puzzle and Riddle— the two mysterious creatures. In a book that could be very suspenseful and imaginative, Koontz fails to give the reader a captivating story.

Johanna is entering her second year studying Environmental Policy at Barnard College, part of Columbia University.

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