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The Taking
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The Taking (2004) (edit title/settings)

by Dean Koontz (Author) (edit contributors)

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In one of the most dazzling books of his celebrated career, Dean Koontz delivers a masterwork of page-turning suspense that surpasses even his own inimitable reputation as a chronicler of our worst fears—and best dreams.
In "The Taking" he tells the story of a community cut off from a... read more

Summary edit see section history

In the midst of an oddly sudden rainstorm, author Molly Sloan awakens in the middle of the night. Unable to return to sleep, she leaves her husband Neil slumbering in bed and goes downstairs to work on a manuscript in progress.

Dark shapes huddle on her porch - coyotes from the nearby... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

In the midst of an oddly sudden rainstorm, author Molly Sloan awakens in the middle of the night. Unable to return to sleep, she leaves her husband Neil slumbering in bed and goes downstairs to work on a manuscript in progress.

Dark shapes huddle on her porch - coyotes from the nearby forest. She wonders what could have frightened such animals into leaving the sanctuary of the deep woods to brave the proximity of human beings. Disturbed, she steps outside, to stand among the wild beasts, and is frightened herself - not by the animals, but by the strange, silvery rain that has an odd scent.

She and her husband flee their isolated home, gathering with the residents of the nearby small mountain town. A thick, ominous fog obscures everything, reducing trees and buildings to looming shadows. Word reaches them that the eerie weather conditions they face have been encountered by everyone else around the planet as well. Then all communication is cut off.

Unfamiliar noises are heard and strange lights are seen. Peculiar fungi appear in the restroom of a local tavern, and a frightening fungus grows upon trees, lawns, houses, and people alike. From time to time, huge objects drift above the terrified populace, and people feel as if they are known, completely, by whatever or whoever occupies these aerial craft - if the silent, drifting objects are crafts of some kind.

Molly and Neil, accompanied a stray dog named Virgil, set off on a mission to rescue the town’s children, many of whom are trapped in their homes. Meanwhile friends and neighbors, split into warring factions, struggle against the mysterious threat that has seized their town. Oddly, Virgil seems to be able to supernaturally sense when and where certain children are endangered. It is revealted, later, that other animals are also leading rescue efforts to save other children.

As they search for answers, the townspeople conclude that they are under siege by extraterrestrial invaders who have come as an advance party to reverse-terraform the Earth so that its altered atmosphere will support their alien physiological needs, although, in doing so, they will poison the planet for its human residents, who must die so that the invaders may live.

Their belief is plausible. There is only one thing wrong with it. It’s not true. Instead, something much worse is happening, both to them and to the rest of the world.

While the identity or the origin of the invaders is never explicitly explained, at the end of the book Molly postulates that the invaders are actually demons that have come to Earth from Hell. Their motives, therefore, would be to simply destroy and kill. To explain their technology, she guesses that "Hell," as humans know it, is not exactly a place for the damned, but is an alternate dimension, accessible through a black hole. Death, she imagines, provides this black hole transportation for the soul

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Blizzards, floods, volcanos, hurricanes, earthquakes: They fascinate because they nakedly reveal that Mother Nature, afflicted with bipolar disorder, is as likely to snuff us as she is to succor us.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • The dance of life occurred not yesterday or tomorrow, but only here at the still point that was the present. This truth is simple, self-evident, but difficult to accept, for we sentimentalize the past and wallow in it, while we endure the moment and in every waking hour dream of the future.
    Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers
  • Although the human heart is selfish and arrogant, so many struggle against their selfishness and learn humility; because of them, as long as there is life, there is hope that beauty lost can be rediscovered, that what has been reviled can be redeemed.
    Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
  • sterility, which is order bled of purpose, and celebrated power, which is meaning stripped of grace.
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
  • for hollow men, the world will end not with a bang but a whimper.”
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • “‘Between the conception and the creation.’” She continued: “‘Between the emotion and the response.’” “‘Falls the Shadow,’”
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • that every moment of every day, depending on the faith we embrace, each of us continues to live either by the merciful sufferance of God or at the whim of blind chance and indifferent nature.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • Mother Nature, afflicted with bipolar disorder, is as likely to snuff us as she is to succor us. An alternately nurturing and destructive parent is the stuff of gripping drama.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • Eliot’s verse: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • She gripped his hand, shivering with fear and inexpressibly grateful that fate had combed her and him from the tangle of humanity, and that love had braided them together in marriage.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • Yet, as was her nature, she still had hope. Her heart clenched like a fist around a nugget of hope; and if not as much as a nugget, then at least a pebble; and if not a pebble, a grain. But around a single grain of sand, an oyster builds a pearl.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
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First Sentence edit see section history

A FEW MINUTES PAST ONE O'CLOCK in the morning , a hard rain fell without warning.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Dean Koontz (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Ari Meyers (Reader) - reader of unabridged audio cassette edition from Random House

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Bantam
Country: USA
Publication Date: May 25, 2004
ISBN: 055380250X
Page Count: 352

Classification edit see section history

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
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