Product Description
Deepest night, Montana. An eerie light proclaims the arrival of a mysterious watcher in the woods. And one solitary man begins a desperate battle against something unknown -- and unknowable.

Broad daylight, Los Angeles. An ordinary morning erupts in cataclysmic violence. A young family is shattered in a heartbeat.

Fate will lead this family to an isolated Montana ranch, but their sanctuary will become their worst nightmare. For there they will face a chillingly ruthless enemy, from which no one -- living or dead -- is safe.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (73)

"Monsters; Earthly & Not So Earthly"
Dean Koontz did a great job of creating fears in my mind throughout this story. These fears came from humanly creatures on earth, in Los Angeles, and from creatures from another place in Montana no less.

I liked the setting of most of the story in Montana, where people are closer to nature. Also where people loved, respected, and prepared for Nature's wrath. I also always enjoy a story where people are able to prepare and defend themselves against threats to their families and to themselves and do not rely on others to protect them.

This story was scary and a real "page turner". I really enjoyed it. Please click if this helped you or no; thanks.

Probably my least favorite Koontz book.
I found the first three-fourths of the book boring and slow moving.I normally love Koontz, but I do not recommend this one.

Slow at times but you could do worse
When I first heard about Winter's Moon I thought it was going to be like Stephen King's Dreamcatcher (I heard that they both had similar career paths and the only other story with aliens in it by King that I have read was Dreamcatcher so I figured that this was his version of it) but its more of a Phantoms clone then anything.

The story is very good with two plots going on at the same time. One of them is about a Police Officer and how he has to deal with almost losing the use of his legs and the other one is about a retired man who is sure that something is happening in the back of his house.

The second story about the man and the thing growing in his backyard was interesting and gripping while the first story I sort of tugged along with. Things could have been taken out of this book (Koontz should have dropped the whole Dog thing unless it was vital to the story) but you could do worse.

A Middle of the Road Offering
"Winter Moon" is and awesome 300 page novel...stretched to 480 pages. While not awful, "Winter Moon" is sooo slowly paced that you will lose interest.

The book is actually 2 (possibly 3) seperate tales..all wrapped in one. The first part of the novel switches back and forth between a Los Angles cop caught in violent shoot-out and a widowed rancher in Montana dealing with some strange things happening in and around his home.

The parts of the story dealing with the cop and his road to recovery simply drag, and read more like a condemnation by Koontz of modern society. While I agree with most of the points he makes....it's still fairly dull. The highlight of the story for me is the portions dealing with the elderly rancher. Strange lights, odd animal activity and other bizarre occurances will keep you turning the pages.

The third and final portion of the book kind of merges these two storylines together. But passages of this final portion (the 2nd half of the book) really drag and story elements get kind of shoehorned in for no good reason. A dog is introduced, but really doesn't add or bring anything to the story (but it's Koontz and a Dog must always play some kind of role), and we meet a new character in the final pages that plays a vital role in the story's outcome which felt almost like a "cheat" on the author's part.

Still, it's not an awful book, and it is a relatively quick read, so if you've got nothing else for the beach you could do a lot worse.

Great Book
I loved this Book, I didn't want to put it down. I am a Dean Koontz fan and I enjoy all his books. ... Read more

Product Description
2010 Lambda Literary Award Finalist.Jonah Murray has known much happiness—a supportive mother, a decent job, and fulfilling hobbies. But after the end of his first great love affair, the rawness of his emotions leads him into a dangerous entanglement.

Spike Peterson—heartbreakingly good-looking, imperturbably self-assured, relentlessly carnal—rekindles Jonah’s longing for companionship. But Spike isn’t the kind to offer companionship. Excitement, yes, but not companionship.

Eliot Moon, a counselor who facilitates a support group for gay men, offers Jonah a more transcendent path to happiness. But Jonah soon discovers that to take Eliot’s way, he will have to make difficult sacrifices. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Could have been a good book
If you enjoy spending your time reading directions on how to drive or walk from point A to point B, you will love this book.
I sometimes felt like I was reviewing Map Quest.

Losing its way...
This was an extremely frustrating book.I purchased it because it was a Lambda finalist.It started very promisingly - the initial introduction of characters was good, there were interesting characters, the writing is good.But it quickly loses its way, with picayune detail overwhelming the story; it feels like there is very little through line to the book.The book needed a good editor to clean it up.If you live in Minneapolis/St. Paul, you will feel lots of recognition with the excruciating detail of which street Jonah turns down, then which street, then which street, etc.But I don't live there, and I am not going to use the book as some sort of map.It just doesn't really matter.
More problematic is the simple fact that the core character is an empty shell.You get the feeling that lots of stuff happens to him, but his interior life is really missing.So when he does X or Y, it is hard to have much reaction to understand if it is "in character" or "out of character."Who knows?There is a lot going on in the book, but there is no real understanding of Jonah's internalization of the events.After a certain amount of to-and-fro, I just didn't care.
Jonah gets mixed up rather early on with a counselor and a group that is not a good idea, and for much of the book I was waiting to see how this would play out.It is the core of the story arc.In the end, it ended with a whimper, rather than a bang, and it was a huge disappointment that the writer did not resolve this in a better way.I was reading this on a Kindle, and starting around the 55% mark, I started telling myself I would only read 10% more and then quit, but I kept going hoping that this would get resolved and the story could move forward.Instead, it gets "resolved" in the last few pages of the book, with an "epilogue" to clean up loose ends in a short and perfunctory way.
I wanted terribly to like this book.It started with great promise, but by the end it felt like a huge disappointment.

.
One of those books that wants to 'love and learn' and if you like that, you would like this. Dean is a good writer and there were a few times when I internally noted that I liked his phrasing but I just couldn't get IN to the story. I'm looking for more honesty in the characters and vulnerability is too easily used as a crutch here.

Dreary and self loathing
I can't get past the long , very tiresome writing...do we need to know every wrong turn Jonah takes the day he gets lost? And worse the self-hatred Jonah indulges in on every page, including the lurid unprotected sex. I got it after chapter one, he's lonely.This novel goes no where after that.

Looking at Humanity
Dean, Matt. "The River in Winter", Queen's English Productions, 2009,

Looking at Humanity

Amos Lassen

Nominated this year for a Lamdba Book Award, Matt Dean's "The River in Winter" is a passionate look at the way we try to find love. We are all seekers, so they say, and our lives are filled with the quest for love, acceptance and identity. Jonah Murray has had a good life and he has been lucky to have a mother who supports him, a good job, and hobbies that keep him busy. However, when his love affair goes sour, he is tender and his emotions take him where he should not go. We are with Jonah as he takes that trip and we read about it in achingly beautiful language.
Too bad Jonah isn't around for me because I fell in love with him. Dean gives us such a real character that you feel he is sitting right beside you as you read his story. I wanted so to protect him and hold him and he seemed to need that so badly.
The river of the title so aptly describes the book. Like a river in a winter is Jonah, winding his way through life and coming upon some very cold spots. Rivers are beautiful to look at but they can be painful to navigate and sometimes they feel as if they are going nowhere. This is Jonah's quest--to travel that river and like Jonah, we never seem to know where we are going. His trip is poignant and at times it makes the reader sit up and think and like Jonah we feel we may never reach our destination no matter what it may be. We get no answers or moralizing, we travel with Jonah and we see what he sees and feel what he feels. Jonah's affair with Spike Peterson may have brought Jonah back to his longing for love but Spike was not for him. Spike served his lustful desires but not Jonah's need for a friend and lover. When Eliot Moon, a counselor of a support group for gay men shows Jonah a different way to achieve what he wants, Jonah realizes that sacrifices will have to be made. How many of us have never been at this point in our lives.
Let Matt Dean take you away with "The River of Winter". Not only will you have a beautiful read but you will probably discover something about yourself.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

So-so
It was an OK read, thanks to the fleshed out characterization and semi-intriguing plot.The only off thing to it was the turn of events near the climax.What is supposed to be a horror yarn becomes an action-adventure novel with grenades and shotguns as center stage. In the end, WINTER SCREAM may not be that scary to begin with but has a narrative strong enough for a quick read visit.-----Martin Boucher

Great, original horror novel!!!
This book was written by Tamara Thorne and it is one of her very best. A small town is slowly being taken over by an ancient evil, which is set free by the unknown. Gory, bloody, fast-moving with great characters, funny at times, this is a great book. Original, scary and very entertaining.

Deliciously chilling!
This is one of the most compelling horror novels I have read.In addition to being wonderfully chilling, it is just plain fun to read!Highly recommended; I'm going to look for more by these authors. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The most original and influential comic mind of our generation gives us a rollicking tour of his expansive imagination. Alongside the hilarity are intimate, revealing, and poignant recollections of childhood's pains and lost love, as well as remarkable illustrations from Winters' accomplished, surreal pen. Line drawings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Eagerly anticipated- utterly disappointed
I have always been a big fan of Jonathan Winters, and it was with some excitement that I ordered this book.Unfortunately , it was one of the few I have ever thrown away.The "stories", as such, are not much more than idle and disconnected ramblings and often if a selection does contain anything to link it, the ending is nonsensical and unsatisfying.The "humor" in the book would only appeal to someone who found illogic a source of mirth.I'm sure if this book had been submitted for sale by an unknown author, it would have gone quickly to the place publishers call the "slush pile."

Don't waste your money on it.

Writing from a comedy genius
This book is a little off of the beaten path, just like Jonathan himself.Very dark, very unusual (and offensive to some) and very laugh out loud funny.If you like high quality humor you need to check this one out.

Disturbing stories that I found difficult to read
Jonathan Winters is a man known for his humor, not his writing of serious stories. From the content of this book, it will do little to improve his standing in the latter. These stories are deeply disturbing, they reminded me of some of the writings of Ray Bradbury, yet they lack his intensity that somehow softens them.
The most disturbing is "A Well-Kept Secret", about a boy raised by his grandfather and who grows up to be a cross-dressing gay man who performs in a Las Vegas show. He invites his grandfather to Vegas and pretends to be Lilly Long, a female friend of the grandson. When his grandfather arrives, he goes through the actions of "seducing" his grandfather, even kissing him passionately. When his robe catches on a piece of furniture and his manhood is revealed, the grandfather dies of a heart attack.
Most of the other stories were in a similar macabre vein, while I sometimes read such stories and enjoy them for their message, it was hard to complete this book. The story "The Last Day the Circus Came to Town" is a flashback to the old days of the traveling circus and the parade they held from the train station to where they were to hold their performances. In this case, the circus train is hit head-on by a fast-moving freight train and most of the performers and animals are killed or taken down. This book is for the very hard-hearted and there is no humor here.

Disappointing Work Of An Otherwise Mad Genius
[...]

What this short volume consists of are notions of stories; a setting, some characters, a dash of conflict -- and then a too-quick dart to the end, often with a nonsensical twist ending thrown in for ... well, I don't know what for. Not effect, because it doesn't have much of an effect other than to make me scratch my head and wonder, "What the --?"

If Winters had taken more time to flesh things out, to expand from where he starts so confidently, these could have been much better. His writing has echoes of Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut, both master craftsmen of short stories, and to take that on a trip through the demented twists and turns that can be found in Winters's performances would have been brilliant. (For example, in one story, a man on his way to a costume party in Beverly Hills dressed as Hitler in a pink Gestapo uniform has his Mercedes break down in the Fairfax district -- a unique premise that has promise. What happens next? Well, he tells us in one sentence what really should have been the rest of the story, the gist of which is that he was beaten up for being dressed like Hitler in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood.)

But I can't review what might have been, only what is, and this is a disappointingcollection of stories that Winters seemed to have lost interest in halfway through the writing of each.

Less Odd than YouMight Think.
These aren't short stories--more like scenarios, or poems in the form of scenarios.Jonathan Winters impersonates children, a baby robin, a migrating duck, a tiger, a lunatic from an asylum on a picnic, a bear cub that becomes a teddy bear, a child going to an asylum, the President of the United States hosting a boring reception, a man attacked by a bear, soldiers, an alcoholic Navaho artist looking to his Medicine Man for a cure, a test pilot, orphans, Santa Claus & a turkey, among others.He has it in for Admiral Byrd--maybe the name, because birds appear often.Each "take" has a twist at the end, more for surprise than irony.His tone is more screwball than bizarre, as if he were trying to bean the reader with a wild pitch.His method is to strew stimulation everywhere, but he also deals with serious subjects--love, war, loss.His mood is plaintive rather than deep, like a kitten crying.He searches for value & finds none except laughter, as if he were Kafka scripting an episode of "The Twilight Zone."If the book gets thin in places, it's because the written word is less effective for a performing artist than the spoken word.Listen to the casette first. ... Read more

Product Description
Deepest night, Montana. An eerie light proclaims the arrival of a mysterious watcher in the woods. And one solitary man begins a desperate battle against something unknown—and unknowable.

Broad daylight, Los Angeles. An ordinary morning erupts in cataclysmic violence. A young family is shattered in a heartbeat.

Fate will lead this family to an isolated Montana ranch, but their sanctuary will become their worst nightmare. For there they will face a chillingly ruthless enemy, from which no one—living or dead—is safe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A SCARY, CREEPY READ...KEEP THE LIGHTS ON!...
This is a highly entertaining, quick read, that is sure to provide some chills. Here, a heroic, Los Angeles Police Department cop, Jack McGarvey, is shot and almost killed in a wild shoot out which sees several civilians killed, as well as his partner, the second partner Jack has lost inside of a year. After a four month convalescence, Jack, his wife Heather, and their son Toby receive an unexpected gift, seemingly from the Gods. Eduardo Hernandez, the father of his former partner of eleven years, died and left Jack a six hundred acre ranch in Montana, as well as a substantial sum of cash. Having decided that enough is enough, Jack and Heather agree to relocate to Montana.

Unbeknownst to Jack, before seventy year old Eduardo Hernandez died, he had been experiencing some mighty strange goings on at the ranch. One night, a bizarre, electronic oscillation pulsed through the bone deep quiet of the Montana air, coming in disturbing waves, accompanied by the sense of an alien presence. An amber radiance resonated through the pine woods surrounding the ranch. Lasting only seven minutes, the phenomena disappeared, only to return a month later in an even more disquieting fashion. Louder, with more rhythmic pounding, it caused the house to vibrate. An undulation of sound lured Eduardo out of his home, where a luminescent amber radiance once again emanated from the woods, calling out to him, the sense of an alien presence overwhelming. It then disappeared, as quickly as it began. A month later, the same thing occured, only this time a two dimensional doorway into infinite blackness appeared, a portal into the unknown. Soon after this portal appeared, the surrounding wildlife began to act strangely. Just what was going on?

Read this book and find out. Just remember...leave the lights on! ... Read more

Product Description
Based on a true story, this book provides hope to a worldthat is all too reluctant to deal with a taboo subject: men who weresexually abused as boys. What begins as a journey of confusion ends inan exceptional healing.

A man whose childhood was ripped away, emerges as a wonderfuladult. Through the full range of emotions–anger, sadness, numbness,Andrew finally finds joy and peace as he pulls his life together. Likea guardian angel, his wife Diana is always there. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Brian Boitano, Christopher Dean, Jayne Torvill, Katarina Witt, Brian Orser, Scott Hamilton, Tiffany Chin, Lloyd Eisler, Yao Bin, Elaine Zayak, Elizabeth Manley, Sergei Ponomarenko, Kira Ivanova, Oleg Kimovich Vasiliev, Elena Valova, Nicky Slater, Rudi Cerne, Robert Mccall, Marina Klimova, Barbara Underhill, Anna Levandi, Norbert Schramm, Natalia Bestemianova, Larisa Selezneva, Paul Martini, Alexander Vladimirovich Fadeyev, Andrei Bukin, Kitty Carruthers, Karen Barber, Sabine Baeß, Lea Ann Miller, Tassilo Thierbach, Oleg Vitalyevich Makarov, Tracy Wilson, Peter Carruthers, Claudia Leistner, Rosalynn Sumners, John Thomas, Catarina Lindgren, Sanda Dubravčić, Kelly Johnson, Heiko Fischer, William Fauver, Grzegorz Filipowski, Laurent Depouilly, Jean-Christophe Simond, Jaimee Eggleton, Elena Vodorezova, Jozef Sabovčík, Luan Bo, Klára Engi, Judy Blumberg, Lyndon Johnston, Gary Beacom, Attila Tóth, Scott Gregory, Falko Kirsten, Vladimir Kotin, Knut Schubert, Xu Zhaoxiao, Michael Seibert, Marina Avstriskaia, Birgit Lorenz, Tobias Schröter, Yuri Kvashnin, Rainer Schönborn, Petra Born, Masaru Ogawa, Tadayuki Takahashi, Noriko Sato, Mark Cockerell, Manuela Ruben, Agnès Gosselin, Katherina Matousek, Masako Kato, Carol Fox, Cameron Medhurst, Richard Dalley, Babette Preußler, Xi Hongyan, Olga Volozhinskaya, Alexander Svinin, Elisa Spitz, Burt Lancon, Kay Thomson, Melinda Kunhegyi, Zhao Xiaolei. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 269. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Christopher Colin Dean, OBE (born 27 July 1958 in Calverton, Nottinghamshire, England) is a famous British figure skater who won a gold medal in ice dancing at the 1984 Winter Olympics with his skating partner Jayne Torvill. They also won a bronze medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Dean grew up in Calverton, Nottinghamshire. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1503115 ... Read more

Product Description
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Anthology Fall-Winter 1980, Volume 4; Editor: George H. Scithers; 290 pages, digest size. Contents: The Thaw, by Tanith Lee; Ker-Plop, by Ted Reynolds (nominated, 1980 Hugo Award); The Bitter End, by Randall Garrett; Bat Durston, Space Marshal, by G. Richard Bozarth; Inevitability Sphere, by Jeff Duntemann; The Woman Who Loved the Centaur Pholus, by Gene Wolfe; Wolkenheim Fairday, by Richard S. McEnroe; As Chemist to Chemist, by Isaac Asimov (aka A Problem of Numbers); A Growing Concern, by Arnie Bateman; The Man with the Eye, by Phyllis Eisenstein; The Tryouts, by Barry B. Longyear; Mandalay, by John M. Ford; Gift of a Useless Man, by Alan Dean Foster; Scrap from the Notebooks of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, by K. W. MacAnn; Written in Sand, by Rob Chilson; On Man's Role in the Galaxy, essay by R. N. Bracewell; The Toroids of Dr. Klonefake, by Martin Gardner; The Scientist As Villain, essay by Isaac Asimov. ... Read more