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Phantoms
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Phantoms (1983) (edit title/settings)

by Dean Koontz (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

A tale of an abandoned town and the unimaginable truth behind its silence... Now with a new afterword, Dean Koontz explains the impact Phantoms had on his career.

Summary edit see section history

Jennifer and Lisa Paige, who have recently lost their mother, return to Snowfield to find the town empty of life. Like the crew onboard the Mary Celeste, the townspeople seem to have simply vanished where they stood. Vehicles are running, tables are set, food still cooking on the stove. In... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Jennifer and Lisa Paige, who have recently lost their mother, return to Snowfield to find the town empty of life. Like the crew onboard the Mary Celeste, the townspeople seem to have simply vanished where they stood. Vehicles are running, tables are set, food still cooking on the stove. In some cases, bodies are left behind, hideously bruised and bloated.

As a doctor and the older, wiser sister, Jennifer begins to assume that they're dealing with an outbreak. However, all signs lead them away from that conclusion as the mystery deepens. Is it an experiment gone wrong? A murderer on the loose? Why did one of the victims write "The Ancient Enemy" on a mirror in a locked room?

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here! Dean Koontz will not only tell you this tale...but he sings it to you in a lullabye. As our survivors in Snowfield come to the realization of what they're dealing with, as the reader begins to understand the horrifying true nature of the limits of our understanding, the pages will fly through your fingers.

On the empty streets of Snowfield tonight, mankind will come face to face with the evil born of his own heart.

Characters edit see section history

  • Dr. Jennifer Paige: Doctor for Snowfield.
  • Lisa Paige: Jenny's younger sister.
  • Bryce Hammond: policeman
  • Talbert Whitmen: policeman
  • Fletcher Kale: convicted murderer.
  • Jenny: Doctor living in Snowfield who has a sister named Lisa.
  • Galen Copperfield: The emotionally detached General of the CBW unit that comes in to investigate the possibility of chemical/biological warfare is involved in the disappearance of the people in Snowfield. Jenny ecstatically viewed him as the saving cavalry, until her first meeting with him.
  • Dr. Timothy Flyte: Author of the book "The Ancient Enemy." He has predicted the mass killings from past events in history.
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “...perhaps the evil in human beings isn't a reflection of the Devil; perhaps the Devil is only a reflection of the savagery and brutality of our own kind. Maybe what we've done is...create the Devil in our own image.”
    Jenny
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • If the shape-changer was the Satan of mythology, perhaps the evil in human beings isn’t a reflection of the Devil; perhaps the Devil is only a reflection of the savagery and brutality of our own kind. Maybe what we’ve done is ... create the Devil in our own image.”
    Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers
  • Scientists are educated to believe that all new knowledge comes in tiny increments, grains of sand piled one on another. Indeed, that is how most knowledge is gained. Therefore, they are never prepared for those visionaries who arrive at new insights which, overnight, utterly transform an entire field of inquiry.
    Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers
  • When they expressed concern for anyone but themselves, you could detect a bell-clear ring of insincerity. They were not burdened by remorse, morality, love, or empathy. Often, they led lives of acceptable destruction, ruining and embittering those who loved them, shattering the lives of friends who believed them and relied on them, betraying trusts, but never quite crossing the line into outright criminal behavior.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • there was nothing to fear but Fear Itself and that Fear Itself was like the boogeyman, just a shadow, not worth fearing at all.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • Phantoms! Whenever I think I fully understand mankind’s purpose on earth, just when I foolishly imagine that I have seized upon the meaning of life... suddenly I see phantoms dancing in the shadows, mysterious phantoms performing a gavotte that says, as pointedly as words, “What you know is nothing, little man; what you have to learn, immense.”
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • AMLUTIAS, ALFINA, EPYN, FUARD, BELIAL, OM-GORMA, NEBIROS, BAAL, ELIGOR,
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • There’s no use wasting energy being afraid of devils, demons, and things that go bump in the night ... because, ultimately, we’ll never encounter anything more terrifying than the monsters among us. Hell is where we make it.”
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • Evil is not an abstract concept. It lives. It has a form. It stalks. It is too real.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • There are silences and silences. No one of them is quite like another. There is the silence of death, found in tombs and deserted graveyards and in the cold-storage room in a city morgue and in hospital rooms on occasion; it is a flawless silence, not merely a hush but a void.
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • There are silences and silences. No one of them is like another. There is the silence of grief in velvet-draped rooms of a plushly carpeted funeral parlor, which is far different from the bleak and terrible silence of grief in a widower’s lonely bedroom.
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Show all 11 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

The scream was distant and brief.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part One: Victims
1. The Town Jail
2. Coming Home
3. The Dead Woman
4. The House Next Door
5. Three Bullets
6. Novelties and Notions
7. The County Sheriff
8. Barricades
9. A Call fro Help
10. Sisters and Cops
11. Exploring
12. Battleground
13. Suddenly
14. Containment
15. The Thing at the Window
16. Out of the Dark
17. The Hour Before Midnight
18. London, England
19. The Dead of Night
20. Bodysnatchers

Part Two: Phantoms
21. The Big Story
22. Morning in Snowfield
23. The Crisis Team
24. Cold Terror
25. Questions
26. London, England
27. Escape
28. Body Count
29. On the Run
30. Some Answers More Questions
31. Computer Games
32. Destiny
33. Phantoms
34. Saying Goodbye
35. Pandemonium
36. Face to Face
37. Ego
38. A Fighting Chance
39. The Apparition
40. Biological Warfare
41. Lucifer
42. The Other Side of Hell
43. Apostles
44. Victory?
45. Good and Evil

A Note to the Reader

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Dean Koontz (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Putnam
Country: USA
Publication Date: March 1983
ISBN: 0399126554
Page Count: 352

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3561.O55 P5 1983
  • Dewey: 813/.54 19

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Involves extensive use of language and disturbing violence.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

  • Phantoms (IMDb): Phantoms was adapted into a movie in 1998 starring Peter O'Toole, Rose McGowan, Liev Schreiber, Ben Affleck, and Joanna Going. It was directed by Joe Chappelle, produced by Neo Art & Logic, and released by Dimension Films. It was filmed in Colorado. The film is referenced heavily (and highly) in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, including once by Affleck himself.

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