Dean Koontz's Frankenstein
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Dean Koontz's Frankenstein is the collective title of a trilogy of novels co-written by Dean Koontz. Though technically of the mystery or thriller genres, the novels also feature the trappings of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Three volumes so far have been or are about to be published: Prodigal Son, co-written with Kevin J. Anderson, was published in 2004; City of Night, co-written with Ed Gorman, was published in 2005; and Dead and Alive, written without a co-writer, scheduled to be released in 2009 according to Koontz.
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[edit] Plot summary
The series is a supposedly a modern updating of the mythology of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, although the similarities are mainly superficial. Set in present day New Orleans, the series follows the activities of Victor Frankenstein, now known as Helios, as he continues to create new life forms for his own purposes. Opposed to his activities are a pair of homicide detectives and Frankenstein's original monster, now known as Deucalion.
While the original Monster was made with parts from dead humans, Victor Frankenstein is now using modern technology to create more creatures, particularly synthetic biology. The new race he is making is constructed and designed from the bottom-up, and can be seen as bio androids, artificial humans made of flesh. Their knowledge and behavior is even based on programs downloaded directly into their brain, which appears to be an advanced wetware computer.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Carson O'Connor
One of the primary characters of the series, Carson is a tough and occasionally brutal detective whose best friend is a fellow officer, Michael Maddison. She is the caretaker of her autistic brother, Arnie, whose condition is a more significant part of the story. Carson has a penchant for brute force and firepower, and is the one that Deucalion comes to for aid.
She and Michael Maddison provide the humor of the story. While Carson acts as the "straight man" of the duo, Michael often plays the role of her foil, his flippant personality bouncing off her very serious one.
Carson has feelings for her partner, Michael, although she hides it because she does not want their personal lives interfering with their professional lives. That, and she doesn't think that the middle of an apocalypse is the perfect time to talk about love.
Her father was killed on the job and it has been hinted by conversations between her and her partner that it was covered up.
[edit] Michael Maddison
Carson's partner and fellow homicide detective, Michael has a habit of making wry observations about any situation: at one point, Carson considers the possibility of the Apocalypse coming because 'he [Michael] had been struck speechless twice in one hour.'
Michael is the more imaginative of the two; he adjusts rather quickly to Deucalion's revelation, with very little evidence, that Victor is plotting to overthrow the Old Race (the term Victor Helios has applied to all humans who have not been produced in his laboratory). His adjustment may stem more from his love of Carson then actual belief.
Michael pines for a less-professional relationship with Carson. This is very similar to the (initial) relationship between the two police partners in Koontz's Darkfall.
[edit] Victor "Helios" Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein, having applied his own research to extending his own mortality, is now known to the world as Victor Helios. To the public, Helios is a philanthropic millionaire and a beneficiary to mankind. In reality, he has experienced much in two hundred years since he created a man from fragments of the corpses of criminals. However, in secret, Helios has become obsessed with overthrowing true humans, which he refers to as "the Old Race," and replacing them with his superior creations. After the failure of his first rebellious monster, he put himself through extensive bodily modifications to extend his life span and increase his physical power (the details are unknown, but it is hinted he used a method similar to that which created the monster, possibly replacing organs from healthy victims over the years). This process has left his physical form scarred and deformed. Helios has acquired wealth and power from selling his knowledge to, among others, Hitler, Stalin, and the People's Republic of China. He respected Hitler and was greatly grieved at the end of World War II. He performed the life-extending surgery for Stalin, which went wrong and led to the dictator's insanity and assassination by fearful underlings. In modern times, Helios has learned to create genetically-engineered beings, called the New Race, devoid of morality, feelings, and pain, unable to deny his command or attack him. He believes he has given them a perfect existence, but the horror of their protracted but meaningless lives has left many suicidal; a genetically-imprinted proscription prevents them from killing themselves or venting their rage by hurting or killing others. Helios desires to remake the world in the image of Huxley's Brave New World. Additionally, he is a sexual sadist and a militant atheist.
He is naturally extremely arrogant, which has resulted in a degree of carelessness and inability to realize his own failures. For this reason in the second book the programing to prevent killing of humans is breaking, and two of his creations have experienced severe mutations.
[edit] Deucalion
Helios's first disastrous creation and monster. Unlike his other creations, the hulking and highly intelligent Deucalion (a name he gives himself later) believes that the singular nature of his genesis -- animation via a lightning bolt -- gave him a soul in addition to life. Another interesting byproduct is Deucalion's innate understanding of "the quantum nature of the universe," which allows him to teleport vast distances instantly and make objects (thus far only coins) disappear and reappear at will. In Koontz's continuity, when the monster attempted to attack Frankenstein, the doctor activated a small bomb he had implanted inside his creation's head as insurance against treachery; though Deucalion was not killed, half of his face was badly deformed and heavily scarred. After the events in Mary Shelley's book, he fled to America and gradually became the man he is today, hiding in carnival sideshows and eventually leaving for a Tibetan monastery to find peace. He remained there for several years, befriending a number of the monks, one of whom attempted to reduce the severity of the artificial man's scars by concealing them with intricate tattoos. After learning of an old friend's discovery, Deucalion returns to New Orleans, where he eventually recruits assistance from Carson and, through her, Maddison.
The character shares his name with Deucalion, a figure from Greek mythology, who was the son of Prometheus (Shelley's subtitle for her novel was "The Modern Prometheus"). Deucalion chose the name for precisely this reason. Deucalion is also the Greek mythological equivalent of Noah, and re-started the human race after the flood. This, perhaps, is analogous to the monster Deucalion being the first of a "new race."
Deucalion's disappearing coin trick also appeared in Koontz's From the Corner of His Eye.
Deucalion seems, like his other fictional counter-parts, has a dark and murderous past. An example of this is the fact that he murdered Helios's first wife, Elizabeth, when Helios was still Frankenstein (Not Helios's New Race wives Erikas 1-5.) He desires redemption and believes it is his destiny/duty to kill his creator. The irony of this is that he, like the others of his "race", cannot kill Helios personally. When confronted by his creator in the second book he expresses fear, when it would have been easy to kill him. This may hint that either Deucalion knows that there are other restrictions beyond a mere bomb in him that keeping from killing Helios, or Deucalion merely fears that there are. It is also possible that this fear is itself a restriction.
[edit] Erika(s) IV-V
The synthetic wife Helios created for two reasons: publicly, she serves to keep Victor from having to deal with the attentions of Old Race women who would try to 'land' him as part of their own quest for status and power; privately, she exists for little more than Helios' sexual gratification. Designed to be completely devoted to him, his misogyny has resulted in brutal 'terminations' of the past four Erikas for failures ranging from outright rebellion to slurping soup. A sexual sadist, he deliberately designs the Erika models with specific 'defects' (such as the 'vulnerabilities' of shame, pain and strangulation), and he takes great pleasure in beating them during sex. Erika IV read extensively, leading her to question her husband. As a result, she was recruited by Karloff, an experimental disembodied head that could psychically control an unattached hand from afar, to kill Helios. When she revealed she couldn't kill him, Karloff fell into despair and requested death, so she turned off his life support. Later she confronted her husband, causing him to beat and strangle her. She stated that she forgave him for killing her but not for making her. As a result of her book-inspired independence, Erika V is forbidden to read, but her thoughts are filled with literary allusions that frequently and inexplicably spring to her mind.
[edit] Jonathan Harker
A renegade member of the New Race. In an effort to find what enabled humans to feel happiness, he became a serial killer and desecrated his victims' corpses in a futile effort to find a happiness 'gland' or other physical organ. A doctor altered his body by putting a squirming mass into his body, according to Deucalion's dream in the opener of the first book. This mass grew in him throughout the first book until he fell off a building. A smaller, yet mature version of him burst forth from his torso and escaped. In the second book, it appears to Erika V. (Note the name is a reference to the character in Dracula)
[edit] Werner
A member of the New Race. Helios experimented with grafting cockroach DNA onto the basic New Race genome, intending to build Werner's physical resilience and various other 'improvements'. Werner, the security chief at the Hands of Mercy, was "such a solid block of muscle that even a concrete floor ought to have sagged under him. His only imperfection was the uncontrollable snot that would come every once in a while. The mucous membranes in his sinuses produced mucus at a prodigious rate. On those occasions, Werner often went through three boxes of Kleenex per hour." While searching Randal Six's room after Randal's escape, he started to mutate at a nearly-explosive rate with no catalyst that Helios could discern. He experienced many physical changes, making him an even bigger setback in Victor's future plans. By the end of City of Night the reader is led to believe that he was released by a system malfunction.
[edit] The Troll
Possibly the offspring of Harker, the troll has metamorphosed into a form free from Helios's control. It supposedly hides in sewers, and eventually shows itself to Erika during book two.
[edit] Jelly Biggs
The "Fat Man" of a circus freak-show, and one of Deucalion's few friends. He lives in the Luxe Theatre with the monster, reading mystery novels and helping keep the operation running.
[edit] Randal Six
A New Man created to be autistic so Helios could conduct experiments on the syndrome (seeking, in ascending order of interest to Helios: a cure, possible productive applications for autistic behavior, and a means whereby the syndrome could be inflicted upon individuals of significant importance to members of the Old Race as a form of controlling them when replacement with New Race duplicates was not the best course of action). Cursed with a wide variety of mental illnesses including OCD and agoraphobia, Randal Six escapes his cell to seek out Arnie, whom he saw in a news clipping, apparently very happy. Randal Six determines that the young boy holds the key to happiness, something missing from the lives of all the New Race. Upon reaching the home of Carson and Arnie, Randal attacks Carson's roommate and tries to take the house for himself. He later died when Carson shot him.
[edit] Adaptations
The series has been adapted a couple of times, firstly in treatment for a TV movie and then in a comic series.
[edit] TV movie
The concept for the series was adapted from a treatment written by Koontz and Anderson for the 2004 TV movie, Frankenstein, which was produced for the USA Network. Koontz withdrew from the project over creative differences with the network, and the production continued in a different direction with similar characters and a modified plot.
[edit] Comics
The series is also being adapted into comic books published by Dabel Brothers Productions.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Dean Koontz: Bringing Frankenstein: Prodigal Son to Comics, Newsarama, June 10, 2008
