It’s Dean Koontz… what more do you need to know?
An action-packed thriller with a slice of SciFi through it. All togehter nice winterfood 🙂

I can always count on a Dean Koontz book to open some new doors in the scifi genre and make me think "what if", just like Jeffy and Amity do when they discover a new, frightening reality. The story line is built in layers, moving from the everyday to a weird encounter with a neighbor to an encounter with a black box unit of the government. Their lives take a huge leap into the unknown and take us along with them.
Dean Koontz' book Odd Thomas is one of my very favorites. The Jane Hawk series was brilliant. It seems as if Koontz can do no wrong.

WoW Here is an author that I have been a fan since I was a teenager So many decades ago. Elsewhere by
Dean Koontz was a fantastic tense, compelling thriller that kept me turning the pages. I was gripped from the very beginning till the end. It was a great read for a long haul flight especially as it took my mind off flying. tense, compelling thriller that kept me turning the pages.

My first book, that I have read by this author, absolutely brilliant! Highly recommended, and I will definitely read others written by this author!

Jeff Coltrane is raising his daughter Amity alone ever since his wife Michelle left 7 years ago. They both have a happy life but they have always wondered what happened. One day their spooky but kindly friend Ed asks Jeff to take care of the 'key to everything' but with the warning that he should keep it safe and never use it. Not long after sinister federal agents come knocking...

Now I'm not a big Sci fi reader however when I find one that hooks me it is a delight. If I'm bamboozled by too much science it puts me off as I don't want to spend all my time figuring things out instead of focusing on the actual story. With this book Koontz struck the perfect balance of Sci fi and drama. This meant I was fully invested in Jeff and Amity's story rather than my mind being 'elsewhere' Everything was well explained and I could follow what was going on at all times. The chapters were super short and snappy which meant I seemed to whizz through the book in supersonic time and had to remind myself not to read past the allotted section. The characters were well fleshed out which enabled me to really love the protagonists and really hate the truly deranged federal agent Falkirk. I found the ending was a bit of an anti climax especially after the nail biting lead up but the rest was so good I will forgive it.

I usually like Dean Koontz books but this one was a letdown. It moved too quickly and didn't provide the reader with enough descriptive prose to get into it.

I have been a hige fan of Koontz since I was allowed to read grown up books in the early 90s and was super excited to read this.

However, I was disappointed. This has such a good premise... multiple universes, multiple versions of characters, romance, family, bad guys, good guys.... part science fiction, part supernatural. However, I found the whole story really drawn out and I spent most of the book just trying to find the will to get through it.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

A tense, compelling thriller that kept me turning the pages. Recommended! Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC

I am a fan of Dean Koontz but I just couldn't get on with this book unfortunately. I found it really slow going and didn't finish it.

Not one of Koontz’ best books in my opinion, quite slow paced and slightly confusing at times, the characters just didn’t grip me.
However it was well written and the overall idea intriguing,
I guess it was a little too Sci-Fi for me with all the dimension hopping.

Parallel universes, special agents, robots and other delights brought this book up to the usual brilliance of Dean Koontz. Although big slower than his others and an easy read it was an enjoyable one,

This one started a bit slow for me, but I've read one other Koontz book which I enjoyed enough to exercise a little patience with this one. The premise sounded too good to give up easily. I was soon rewarded with some intense action and got completely caught up in the story.

Jeff Coltrane is raising his daughter, Amity, on his own after his wife abandoned the family to pursue her music career. A strange, itinerant friend entrusts a gadget to him that he calls The Key to Everything. Some people who might be government are after the thing and following the friend. He warns Jeff not to use it. When it gets accidentally activated, Jeff and Amity discover a world of alternative universes.

Some of these places aren't nice at all and can be downright dangerous, but even after a bad first experience, the temptation to find a reality where Amity's mother didn't leave or is on her own proves too much.

This story had me riveted but sometimes I had to stop reading because of the stress. I also wanted to slap Jeff occasionally for not thinking ahead or taking too long to start charging up the device at times when they needed a quick exit. Amity was far more sensible and handled herself well in tight situations. I know a little girl like her.

If you like Horror that will have you stressed to the max, this is for you. There were times when it was too much for me.

This book may have started slow for me, but I still took a great deal of pleasure in reading it.

The main characters are Jeffy and his daughter Amity and the biggest issue I had with the book was the 'voice' of Amity, which made me think that this was a child's book to start with. Later I understood it to be the character's voice, with each having a different style and got used to it, but still it irritated me. Never mind though, the story was original and interesting so I got over it.

Ed is a local vagrant, one who keeps himself tidy, who likes to visit on Jeffy and Amity's porch. One day as they return home Ed is waiting for them on the porch. That is the start of their adventure, despite Ed's warnings.

"Snatching the box off his lap and holding it against his chest, Ed declared, “No, no. You must do nothing with it! Nothing! You must not open it. Never!”."

I’ve been reading Koontz for twenty-odd years, on and off. I stopped reading him for a while but have started to get back into his work over the past couple of years. I really enjoyed Elsewhere. The multiverse and ideas of parallel words is something I’ve come across over and over in fiction and I find the idea fascinating. I like how Koontz deals with it here. Elsewhere is exactly what I’d expect from Koontz, characters who tick all the boxes for decent human beings, sinister figures skulking in the shadows and crazy ass-ness on a grand scale.

I haven’t read one of Koontz books for a while so was particularly looking forward to diving in to this one, which is essentially about travel to parallel universes.
Protagonists Jeffy and his 11 year old daughter Amity live in California where their wife & mother disappeared 7 years ago. Ed, A now homeless, scientist friend with dementia, leaves Jeffy with the key to everything and asks him to keep it for a year. If he doesn’t return he instructs Jeffy to encase it in cement and drop it into very deep sea waters. He warns ‘Don’t use it or you will see indescribable horrors.’ And ‘They will never stop looking for it.’ Unsure if this is one of Ed’s delusions, he accepts the key with a degree of perplexity.
When the security forces that are chasing the scientist and his last device arrive at Jeffy and Amity’s house, it forces them to use the machine and jump to another universe, which is totalitarian and scary as hell.
Father & daughter have a very close bond and are both likeable characters. Amity has probably matured as a result of the loss of her mother. Nevertheless I struggled with the degree of articulation, improvisation and worldliness she portrayed that did not feel realistic for her age.
The book does jump between narrators, giving you an insight into one another’s perspectives. It keeps a complicated concept quite straight forward, so was easy to follow. There is tension and distorted oppression, but perhaps not horror. It runs at a nice quick pace, short chapters and keeps you guessing where they made up next and what danger this will bring. A parallel world chase ensues, with tensions and unknowns. The end does wrap up quickly and the key baddie seems to have a loose reason for turning on Jeffy & Amity that should have been fleshed out far better. Not a bad, fast, escapist read, but not to the great standard Koontz can write.

A thoughtful look at how modern technology can enhance or ruin lives. How does today’s decision affect tomorrow and should we attempt to change the consequences of our decisions. It’s been a long time since I read a Dean Koontz book but with this one the master storyteller seems to be back at his best.

I’ll be honest, I battle with books about time travel and multiple realities, but at the same time I am ironically drawn to them and generally tend to enjoy them if the author can do a good enough job of drawing me into the impossible. In Dean Koontz’s ‘Elsewhere’ I can attest to enjoying his portrayal of parallel universes. The narrative is simple, fast paced, and entertaining.

Let’s face it, the plot is a little absurd, with the characters actually continually compare their unfolding reality to fantasy novels (and perhaps these tongue in cheek references become a little too frequent). But it is well written, the characters are great, and the pages practically turn themselves.

“People in stories were always preparing themselves for the worst, which rarely happened”

The relationship between Jeffy and Amity is really amazing. And in particular the portrayal of Amity’s wise for her age character is fun, tough, but most of all endearing (Duke’s use of kickass is pretty fitting).

“Our burdens made our spirits stronger and therefore were blessings”

At its core, this is fun enjoyable read. Maybe not quite enough for die hard Dean Koontz fans, but it does the trick.

Seven years after the death of his wife Michelle, Jeff Coltrane and his daughter Amity live a quiet life in Suavidad Beach in Southern California. All that changes after a visit from a friend called Ed, who has a request to look after a small box which can’t be opened. Temptation soon gets the better of Jeff and he and his daughter open the box where they find the ‘key to everything’, a device that can transport you to other worlds. Before they know it their lives change forever when Snowball, their pet mouse, walks across the device.

Dean Koontz has the most incredible imagination and Elsewhere is a perfect example. With Jeff and Amity he has created two wonderful characters who will take the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions, with their desire to find a lost love and the need to escape the people hunting them.
This really is a great story which I highly recommend.

It’s been ages since I picked up this author as I’m not the biggest horror fan these days - which I do associate Dean with, but I do enjoy them every now and again. I’ve read quite a lot of his books, so I knew that I was going to enjoy this one.

I wouldn’t describe it as a horror in the conventional sense (well, I always think of horror as blood/death and that’s not of course always the case - that’s narrow minded of me).

It’s a parallel world story - and an excellent one too. The story revolves around a homeless bum, a father and daughter, whose wife walked out on them when the daughter was small.

The bum hands over a box and tells him never to open it....well, you know what happens!

I devoured this book - I enjoyed the characters, the plot was excellent, and it just kept me hooked - I literally read it in a day which is not usual for me at all.

An excellent read!

My thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction

This heartwarming Sci Fi tale set between multiple universes is a good read. The characters are well written and the story line very different from the normal baddie v goodie. Recommended.