chilling prophecy about five critical points in a
young man’s life.
Many of Koontz’s themes and plots are familiar
ones, but he almost always manages to find a new
way to look at old situations. He is capable of creat-
ing very memorable characters, although he does
not consistently do so. Koontz was a productive
short story writer early in his career, but he has con-
centrated primarily on novels for the past several
years. Strange Highways(1995) is his only signifi-
cant collection. His best horror stories are “Down
in the Darkness” (1987) and “Trapped” (1989). Al-
though he is often compared to Stephen KING, pri-
marily because of the sheer volume of his work
and his frequent appearance on the best-seller lists,
the two writers have always been very different in
their choices of subject matter. Koontz’s emphasis
has shifted more than once during his career, and
it is never certain what direction his next book
will take.
Kotzwinkle, William(1938– )
Although he first began writing in 1969 and pub-
lished several children’s books, some of which are
vaguely fantasy, William Kotzwinkle’s first signifi-
cant genre novel was The Leopard’s Tooth(1976),
also for young readers, although a fairly sophisti-
cated story about a boy who accompanies an an-
thropological expedition to India and who
becomes involved with some ancient magic prop-
agated by a local sorcerer. More significant is Doc-
tor Rat(1976), a savage satire narrated by one of
the experimental rats in a laboratory, which won
the World Fantasy Award. The title character ini-
tially acts as an apologist for the cruelties prac-
ticed on the animals by the researchers while
having a variety of low-key adventures and even-
tually changing his attitude. The author’s indict-
ment of experimental practices is at times bitter,
and the expressed hope that humanity will even-
tually learn the error of its ways is cast into doubt
by the ending, in which the rebellious animals are
all destroyed.
Fata Morgana (1977), probably Kotzwinkle’s
best fantasy novel, is set in 19th-century France
and involves the interaction of a complexly de-
scribed police officer with a mysterious figure who
is subsequently revealed to be a wizard who sub-
jects the police officer to a series of increasingly
strange conjurations. The Ants Who Took away
Time(1978) is a children’s fantasy in which ants
disassemble time, resulting in much confusion. A
mysterious shadow appears in a department store
to help restore the spirit of the holidays in the
amusing Christmas at Fontaine’s (1982). Great
World Circus(1983) describes the appearance of an
enigmatic female who appears to exist indepen-
dently of the flow of time.
The Exile(1987) swaps the personalities of a
contemporary actor with a German criminal dur-
ing World War II. The latter is captured and tor-
tured after being caught helping a Jewish girl avoid
capture by the authorities. There is authentic
voodoo in The Midnight Examiner(1989) and a
bear that impersonates a human being in The Bear
Went over the Mountain(1996). Kotzwinkle’s later
novels have not been as substantial as his earlier
work. Two of his collections contain primarily fan-
tasy stories, Hearts of Wood and Other Timeless Tales
(1986) and The Hot Jazz Trio(1989). He has also
done movie novelizations.Krinard, Susan(1958– )
It has only been comparatively recently that fan-
tastic themes have become popular with romance
novelists. Although light elements of magic ap-
peared from time to time, it was not until time
travel romances—in which a character is magically
or inexplicably transported to another era, either
physically or by displacing the personality of an-
other—began to proliferate that romance writers
and publishers began to experiment with other-
world settings, witch craft, and supernatural be-
ings. The sudden popularity of horror fiction that
started in the 1970s, particularly vampire stories,
was followed by a rash of supernatural romances.
Susan Krinard’s first three novels all appeared
in 1996. Prince of Wolveschronicles the efforts by a
young woman to visit the scene of her parents’ ac-
cidental death, during the course of which she dis-
covers a race of werewolves living hidden in the
area and falls in love with one of their kind. Prince
of Dreamsis a modified vampire novel. This time
the female protagonist learns of the existence of aKrinard, Susan 197