filet of sole
i'm on a trip, and when i fly, i usually buy a dean koontz book at the airport to pass the time.
this time i picked up 'sole survivor'
it's a decent read, as far as koontz books go, and i think a few people writing for lost have read it. i'm not talking any rip-off or anything here, nothing like that, but there are definitely a few... similarites? if nothing else it got me thinking that after we finally find out what has really happened to everyone on the island, they could keep the show going, centering on those that are dealing with the death of loved ones that were flying oceanic flight 815.
if you're reading it, or plan on it, you might want to stop here, as i'm about to give most everything away. the book is from '97 though, so this isn't really breaking news.
the story centers on joe carpenter (thinly veiled biblical reference?), a guy who lost his wife and two little girls a year earlier in the crash of flight 353. a woman claiming to be a survivor of the crash contacts him, and all hell breaks loose. the woman that contacts him? an older black woman named rose, who, when she had boarded the flight, 'implied' that she was married to a white man. so, 400 page story short (i don't want this to sound like a 5th grade book report, but it might), rose worked on a secret goverment project, 'project 99'. it was an offshoot of the human genome project, but they were looking for those genes that "seem to be associated with unusual talents. Paranormal talents. telepathy. telekinesis. pyrokinesis. it's a long strange list.", rose explains. they then create children in a lab, and give them names like ATX-12-23 and SSW 59-58. 59-58 is a genius who can remote-view and take over someone's mind. when he does this, it's as if a ghost has entered the room, drafts of cold air, etc. joe picks up on the ghost aspect of it when he comes across a copy of 'turn of the screw', which, he notes, "would be on the short list of the most famous ghost stories ever written.' the orientation film was behind turn of the screw in desmonds bookshelf. 59-58 is also kept in the most imhumane of conditions, and used only when the government needs him to be used. is this what is happening to walt now?
one of the experiments, a girl 'named' CCY 21-21, has the ability to heal. she is asked to cure a geneticist working there of his pancreatic cancer, and she does, but as she is doing so, she also senses something else wrong with him and fixes that as well. koontz explains this a lot better than i could sum up, so here it is.
"...Amos has decided that life is without purpose or meaning, that we have no destiny but the void, that we are only dust in the wind. The darkness in him is blacker than the cancer, and and the girl heals this as well, by the simple expedient of showing Amos the light of God and the strange dimensional lattices of realms beyond our own."
the strange dimensional lattices of realms beyond our own. nice. will aaron have a gift like hers? a few times in the book, by different people, joe is told he has to "lift it up", another desmond reference. there's also an alvar hanso type, a mysterious billionaire who is funding the project.
anyway, it's a good read, and while it doesn't really tie in to the show at all, there are a few similarities that i found striking. and if in rose's flashbacks we learn that she worked on the human genome project, well...
this time i picked up 'sole survivor'
it's a decent read, as far as koontz books go, and i think a few people writing for lost have read it. i'm not talking any rip-off or anything here, nothing like that, but there are definitely a few... similarites? if nothing else it got me thinking that after we finally find out what has really happened to everyone on the island, they could keep the show going, centering on those that are dealing with the death of loved ones that were flying oceanic flight 815.
if you're reading it, or plan on it, you might want to stop here, as i'm about to give most everything away. the book is from '97 though, so this isn't really breaking news.
the story centers on joe carpenter (thinly veiled biblical reference?), a guy who lost his wife and two little girls a year earlier in the crash of flight 353. a woman claiming to be a survivor of the crash contacts him, and all hell breaks loose. the woman that contacts him? an older black woman named rose, who, when she had boarded the flight, 'implied' that she was married to a white man. so, 400 page story short (i don't want this to sound like a 5th grade book report, but it might), rose worked on a secret goverment project, 'project 99'. it was an offshoot of the human genome project, but they were looking for those genes that "seem to be associated with unusual talents. Paranormal talents. telepathy. telekinesis. pyrokinesis. it's a long strange list.", rose explains. they then create children in a lab, and give them names like ATX-12-23 and SSW 59-58. 59-58 is a genius who can remote-view and take over someone's mind. when he does this, it's as if a ghost has entered the room, drafts of cold air, etc. joe picks up on the ghost aspect of it when he comes across a copy of 'turn of the screw', which, he notes, "would be on the short list of the most famous ghost stories ever written.' the orientation film was behind turn of the screw in desmonds bookshelf. 59-58 is also kept in the most imhumane of conditions, and used only when the government needs him to be used. is this what is happening to walt now?
one of the experiments, a girl 'named' CCY 21-21, has the ability to heal. she is asked to cure a geneticist working there of his pancreatic cancer, and she does, but as she is doing so, she also senses something else wrong with him and fixes that as well. koontz explains this a lot better than i could sum up, so here it is.
"...Amos has decided that life is without purpose or meaning, that we have no destiny but the void, that we are only dust in the wind. The darkness in him is blacker than the cancer, and and the girl heals this as well, by the simple expedient of showing Amos the light of God and the strange dimensional lattices of realms beyond our own."
the strange dimensional lattices of realms beyond our own. nice. will aaron have a gift like hers? a few times in the book, by different people, joe is told he has to "lift it up", another desmond reference. there's also an alvar hanso type, a mysterious billionaire who is funding the project.
anyway, it's a good read, and while it doesn't really tie in to the show at all, there are a few similarities that i found striking. and if in rose's flashbacks we learn that she worked on the human genome project, well...
posted by karmacomedian at 6:28 AM
