Puss Reboots: Blog: May 2009: Life Expectancy

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Reviews:
Alphabet Rescue by Audrey Wood
The Avenger of Love by Jack Skillingstead
Blaze by Stephen King
The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman
The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch
The Eighth Day of the Week by Marek Hlasko
The Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh
Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki
Father Malachy's Miracle by Bruce Marshall
Free to Be... You and Me by Marlo Thomas
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Harold's Fairy Tale by Crockett Johnson
Hunger by Elise Blackwell
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz
Look at Me by Anita Brookner
Lost by Gregory Maguire
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Randy Udall
Poor Poor Ophelia by Carolyn Weston
Recovering Charles by Jason F. Wright
The Ride by Tom Brandner
Shadow-Below by Robert Reed
The Sneakiest Pirates by Dalton James
Sorcerers of Majipoor by Robert Silverberg
The Spiral Briar by Sean McMullen
The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist
Through Endangered Eyes by Rachel Allen Dillon
Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans
The Tribes of Bela by Albert E. Cowdrey
The Valley of the Giants by Peter B. Kyne
"A Wild and Wicked Youth" by Ellen Kushner
Without Sin by J. Thomas
Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth

Ulysses:
Episode 10: The Wandering Rocks: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Episode 11: Sirens: Our Man in Havana
Episode 12: The Cyclops: Pick-a-Little Episode 13: Nausicaä: Petting in the Park
Episode 14: Oxen in the Sun: The Critic in the Cabernet

Miscellaneous:
Susan Vreeland

Previous month

Life Expectancy: 05/03/09

Jimmy Tock is born on the day of his grandfather's death. Before dying grandpa Tock made predictions about five dates in Jimmy's future. Jimmy's life is forever shaped by those predictions and Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz tracks how they play out.

Jimmy Tock the first person narrator is a chatty fellow. If he were real, he'd be one of those annoying sorts who loves to hear himself talk. Combine his "humorous" asides with the fact that the prophecies all involve a clown seeking revenge and the book flounders.

So maybe Life Expectancy has a twist at the end. No, not really. Any time you have simultaneous births at the start of a story it's only for one reason. And yeah, Koontz goes for the cliché.

While I've never considered myself a Dean Koontz fan, I have enjoyed the books I've read. I can't say that any longer.