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A review by raemelle
Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz
3.0
It’s almost impressive how completely similar the bulk of Koontz’s books are to each other. I won’t even bother listing all of the similarities because at this point I know I’ve listed them in other reviews, and they haven’t changed. And it’s kind of disturbing how much satisfaction Koontz appears to get in describing the evermore disturbing, twisted habits of his books’ supernaturally omnipotent psychopaths. Like, at what point does it stop being a titillating detail and start being a creepy way of living vicariously through your demented characters? These characters are designed purely for shock value, and to justify rule breaking and gun violence. It’s cliche.
One extra pet peeve I feel like expressing, however:
It feels like gun nuts have to come up with these wildly fantastic scenarios to justify having guns in real life. Even though the stuff in the stories is much less likely to happen in the real world than an accidental shooting of an innocent bystander. I guess that at least in this book the characters are cops and are expected to have guns.
Which leads me to another point of contention:
Too many people think they are inside their own action stories. They think they are the heroes, and that as such they are exempt from the rules. We see hundreds of stories, movies, books, where the hero must defy the law to save the day, and in those books they are justified. But then the idiots who exist in real life learn from fictional hero examples and believe that they are also justified in “bending” the rules. These people become cops who think it’s okay to totally rely on their (actually flawed) instincts. These cops hurt the innocent, they deal out punishments that don’t fit the crime, they commit police brutality. They celebrate their special status as not just enforcers, but interpreters of the law. They continue to behave this way, and every time they bend the rules it gets easier and easier. They begin to justify their actions and their emotions by claiming a self-determined concept of “right.” I’m not saying stories like this cause bad cops, but I think that they insert a false definition of justice into the society that absorbs this implicit, romanticized view of law enforcement.
And so much whining about the 90s! Koontz really must miss the good ol’ days when violence didn’t exist. /sarcasm
One extra pet peeve I feel like expressing, however:
It feels like gun nuts have to come up with these wildly fantastic scenarios to justify having guns in real life. Even though the stuff in the stories is much less likely to happen in the real world than an accidental shooting of an innocent bystander. I guess that at least in this book the characters are cops and are expected to have guns.
Which leads me to another point of contention:
Too many people think they are inside their own action stories. They think they are the heroes, and that as such they are exempt from the rules. We see hundreds of stories, movies, books, where the hero must defy the law to save the day, and in those books they are justified. But then the idiots who exist in real life learn from fictional hero examples and believe that they are also justified in “bending” the rules. These people become cops who think it’s okay to totally rely on their (actually flawed) instincts. These cops hurt the innocent, they deal out punishments that don’t fit the crime, they commit police brutality. They celebrate their special status as not just enforcers, but interpreters of the law. They continue to behave this way, and every time they bend the rules it gets easier and easier. They begin to justify their actions and their emotions by claiming a self-determined concept of “right.” I’m not saying stories like this cause bad cops, but I think that they insert a false definition of justice into the society that absorbs this implicit, romanticized view of law enforcement.
And so much whining about the 90s! Koontz really must miss the good ol’ days when violence didn’t exist. /sarcasm