Read Watchers Online

Authors: Dean Koontz

Watchers (67 page)

BOOK: Watchers
8.03Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
I believe that we carry within us a divinely inspired moral imperative to love, and I explore that imperative in all of my books. In
Watchers
, this issue is central to the story, and I even post signs announcing the theme, such as those embodied in the epigraphs that are used at the start of part two. (“Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves”—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. And “Greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends”—The Gospel According to Saint John.) We have within us the ability to change for the better and to find dignity as individuals rather than as drones in one mass movement or another. We have the ability to love, the need to be loved, and the willingness to put our own lives on the line to protect those we love, and it is in these aspects of ourselves that we can glimpse the face of God; and through the exercise of these qualities, we come closest to a Godlike state.
With that said, my greatest hope is not that you find the themes of this novel worth analyzing, but that you find this to be a rip-roaring, rattling-good story. I hope it keeps you so far out on the edge of your chair that you have butt bruises from repeatedly falling to the floor. I hope it makes you laugh and cry. A novel can have multiple, intricately woven levels of theme and symbol, but it fails if it is not first a wonderful
tale
.
When I’m ancient, if you come to one of my book signings—and see me sitting there in a pink terry-cloth bathrobe or in a jumpsuit embroidered with scenes from the life of Moe Howard of the Three Stooges—I’ll be happy to hear any kind words you whisper into my ear trumpet, even if it is only to say that my finest hour was with
Watchers
, this tale of a hero with a tail of his own. If Big Foot is in line near you, however, I would also ask that you do me the service of determining that he’s in a good mood and has already eaten lunch.
BOOK: Watchers
8.03Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Follow the Elephant by Beryl Young
The Scarlet Wench by Marni Graff
Arctic Thunder by Robert Feagan
Vanished Smile by R.A. Scotti
Thing to Love by Geoffrey Household
White Girl Bleed a Lot by Colin Flaherty
Emergence by Adrienne Gordon