Intensity | 
| Author: Dean Koontz
Creator: Kate Burton
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $42.00
Buy New: $8.37
You Save: $33.63 (80%)
New (6) Used (23) from $6.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  475 reviews
Sales Rank: 409050
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 12
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 6.3 x 4.2 x 2.7
ISBN: 0679449167
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
UPC: 090129449163
EAN: 9780679449164
ASIN: 0679449167
Publication Date: January 13, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 7/08. IN ORIGINAL WRAPS
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Amazon.com
A young woman staying as a guest in a Napa Valley farmhouse becomes trapped in a fight for survival with a self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer", and races to warn his next intended victim. Unrelentingly terrifying, this book lives up to its name.
Product Description
12 cassettes / 12 hours
Read by Kate Burton
Unabridged
Chyna Shepherd is a twenty-six-year-old woman whose deeply troubled childhood taught her the hard rules of survival, and whose adult life has been an unrelenting struggle for self-respect and safety. Now rare trust has blossomed for Chyna into friendship with the woman whose family home she is visiting for the weekend: a farm in the Napa Valley surrounded by vineyards and hills, which Chyna can see from the guest-room window where she sits at one o'clock in the morning, fully dressed, unable to sleep. Suspicions she learned in childhood still make her uneasy in unfamiliar houses--even this one, where her closest friend is sound asleep down the hall. And in this case her most disturbing instincts prove reliable. A man has entered the house, a man who lives for one purpose: to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse, or limits--to live with intensity.
His name is Edgler Foreman Vess. He likes to make words with the letters from his name--GOD, DEMON, SAVE, RAGE, ANGER, FEAR, FOREVER, are just a few of them--and then makes sentences with the words. One of his favorites, GOD FEARS ME, is sometimes the last thing he whispers to his victims. Edgler Vess is a self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer": On this night, his adventure--murdering everyone in the house--becomes Chyna's long nightmare.
Trapped in Vess's deadly orbit, Chyna thinks only of getting out alive. But when she inadvertently learns the identity of Vess's intended next victim, waiting for him far from Napa Valley, Chyna is gripped with concern for this other person, who is as innocent as Chyna, and as endangered. Driven now by a sense of responsibility for another, by a purpose and meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna rises to unexpected heights of courage and daring--her only hope as the threat of Edgler Foreman Vess closes in and grows more horrifying moment by moment.
Intensity unfolds over the course of just twenty-four hours, but within that brief time frame, Dean Koontz gives us what is perhaps his most inventive, emotionally intricate, and terrifyingly suspenseful novel yet.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 470 more reviews...
 OK -- with problems August 22, 2008
This was my first Koontz book and I listened to it on CD, so the narration may be playing a role in some of my negative opinions. Her voice was phony and grating when she spoke as Vess. I pictured her putting her index finger under her nose like a fake mustache for more "effect". Anyway, my comments.
The story was good enough to keep my going, but as many others have said, I think he spent far too much time on irrelevant details, such as the much talked about escape scene. Chyna's mother and lover were a little too thin and Vess became that way after the first few chapters. We knew who he was and what kept him going ("intensity"). Got it. And yeah, there were some bits of fate or luck that some considered unbelievable, but that adds to the suspense (e.g. narrow escapes in the house, etc). In my opinion, there wasn't anything that was over the top in that regard. Overall, the pacing was the biggest problem with the story.
I may be in the minority here, but I also had a problem with style. Misplaced and overused adverbs (how many things were done "ferociously"?), fancy words ("behemoth" was used to death), over the top metaphors, and descriptions of mechanical devices that seemed to have been pulled straight from technical manuals. Seriously, has anyone ever uttered the words "engaged my safety harness", let alone three or four times in a 24-hour period? What's wrong with "fastened my seat belt"? Or simply turning off a light instead of "extinguishing" it?
And the description of the door hinge was way too technical, as was the compare and contrast between a revolver and semi-automatic pistol and their respective ammunition capacities, which Chyna performed in her mind as bullets whizzed past her head. At times I was convinced he was trying to impress with his deep knowledge of a subject and it felt clumsy. There were many more instances of this that escape me now, but you'll know what I'm talking about when you read it.
Anyway, I'll try more Koontz books in the future, but I was somewhat disappointed in this one.
 Top Notch July 25, 2008
False Memory WAS my top Koontz book but Intensity takes the cake. There are twists and turns during the whole book and no fluff at all. It keeps you guessing up until the very end!
It's a must add to your list!
This Could be a Good Movie July 18, 2008
This is the 3rd Koontz book I read, and it was pretty good. The heroine of the story was excellent and compelling. I despised the villain, which is the goal of the author, so he succeeded. This book could easily be a movie (if it isn't yet).
Classic extreme horror brought to life May 14, 2008
Six Chilling Nightmares I love horror if it is believable. Intensity is everything you want for an entertaining evening during a snow storm and stormy nights. The beginning was well played and in proper text with the book and the ending was a shocker. A great book to read that is easy to understand with a plot that you might never forget. This story is close to the truth representing murder itself, with spine chilling moments that persuade you to stop reading to think for a minute. I loved this book and it deserves six stars. What more can you ask for in a chilling horror book? It has everything you need for a night alone next to a roaring fire or perhaps a nice corner in the basement. I love comedy horror but this book had no room for humor and the horror throughout the book was intense.
Just Review the Book!! May 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Why do people feel the need to summerize or rewrite all the books on here?? A review is simply an avenue for people to say what they thought of the book, whether they enjoyed it or not and possibly help someone else decide if its worth reading. I can get the summery of the book in product description, I dont need you for that. What's wrong with you people???
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