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Still the most terrifying book I've ever read :D This is one of my top four favorite Koontz books and I've read it many times. This is a book that makes me want to hide under something since is seriously insufficient. It's the kind of book that makes me wan to read it out of the corner of my eye (which doesn't actually work) and jump right out of my skin at the slightest noise. Surprisingly, it didn't make me totally paranoid about the basement.

I had a friend with a phobia of spores and I told her to make sure to never read this book because there are some seriously spine-chilling spores of an infinite variety. It's creepy as hell.

The protagonist in this one is a woman named Molly, who like many of Koontz's protagonists, was a part of terrible events as a child. Because of these events Molly has a great deal of hope and in difficult circumstances this hope is the most essential part of who Molly is. As the world is reverse terraformed for the invaders and alien species are introduced, especially the many variety of spores, it's only the hopeful who have a chance of surviving.

Also like many of Koontz's later books, mysterious dogs, and eventually cats, play an integral part in the story. It's also one of the books that shows his Jesuit beliefs the most strongly. Sometimes this bothers me but in this case it didn't. T.S. Eliot is also very frequently quoted. Koontz often quotes Eliot but in this case the quotes are a part of the story.

After I finished this I found myself pondering how I even survived my first read of this book without having a heart attack. Now I know what's coming, which basically makes the terror slightly more diluted but longer lasting, but back then I didn't have that advantage! And it's a freaking terrifying book!