Jaws

No.

Dean Koontz routinely writes scenes in the POV of his human sharks, such as the assassin in Watchers or the psychopathic serial killer in Intensity. These scenes scare me way more than Jaws, on the page or the screen. Sharks are just looking for a meal. These guys are...brrrr.

King wrote in Under the Dome some lines see through a dogs brain/eyes.

I guess you can do whatever you want.

Phaeal said:

Dean Koontz routinely writes scenes in the POV of his human sharks, such as the assassin in Watchers or the psychopathic serial killer in Intensity. These scenes scare me way more than Jaws, on the page or the screen. Sharks are just looking for a meal. These guys are...brrrr.

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Dean Koontz is another who has written from a dog's POV. That was pretty funny, actually, if I remember right. Why the heck not? My first thought is "unless it's a robot or something," which of course leaves me thinking..."but why not a robot, could be interesting" and now I have nifty ideas.

Read Phantoms. It's one of the few novels I've ever read that left me shaking by the ending.

Also, read Watchers, Lightning, Midnight, Dark Rivers of the Heart, Strangers, Odd Thomas, Fear Nothing, and The Taking to get a grasp and overview of Koontz's narrative ability. He's got a good grip on his technique and has a way of telling a story that really reels you in, but some of his stories and storylines tend to be a little reminiscent of on another.

Some of his latest novels haven't been perfectly up to snuff, but they've been more in the tribute category than his other works (The Darkest Evening of the Year being one example - still a good book, but you have to read it with an understanding of why it was written).

That'll get you started with Koontz.

Then, go back and read Cell, From A Buick 8, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Pet Sematary, and Salem's Lot by King. Compare and contrast the different styles by the different authors.

You might also want to check out The Wolf's Hour, Swan Song, and A Boy's Life by Robert McCammon.

In each case, compare and contrast the different writing styles and techniques used by each author to get his story and point across.

I could go on, but this list will keep you occupied for awhile, I'm sure.

FOTSGreg, you have excellent taste in authors.

King and Koontz are far and away my favorite authors, and McCammon's 80's stuff puts him in my top ten. Matter of fact, Duma Key is keeping me from working on what I'm writing write now.

I'm on a big kick of those guys right now - in the last couple of months I've read Firestarter, The Dead Zone, Watchers, Boy's Life, The Servants of Twilight, Breathless, Strangers, Dark Rivers of the Heart and Salem's Lot, all of which I had read at least once before (except Breathless, which is new). The book I'm writing is VERY heavily influenced by those guys. I just wish I had a tenth of their style.

Can I add Darkfall to the Koontz list? Y'all have hit all the others I'd recommend, but that's still one of my faves.

Also, the Dark tower series is one of the most awesome things I've ever read. And something really fun is to read Desperation and The Regulators back to back.

I'm not entirely sure, but didn't King also write from the dog's perspective in Cujo?

kaitie said:

Can I add Darkfall to the Koontz list? Y'all have hit all the others I'd recommend, but that's still one of my faves.

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Definitely -- I missed that one on my list of recent re-reads. Unearthly silver-white eyes and gabbling demons, oh my!

Maxinquaye said:

I'm not entirely sure, but didn't King also write from the dog's perspective in Cujo?

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Indeed he did.

kaitie said:

Dean Koontz is another who has written from a dog's POV. That was pretty funny, actually, if I remember right. Why the heck not? My first thought is "unless it's a robot or something," which of course leaves me thinking..."but why not a robot, could be interesting" and now I have nifty ideas.

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You definitely should check out Saberhagen's Berserker series. Killer Robots long before any Terminator movie came out.

jvc said:

No.

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Yep. This.

King and Koontz did it.

Also, fantasy writer RA Salvatore did something like that in his book Exile. The MC was being chased by his father, who'd been resurrected to be this total Vampire-type thing. No emotions of his own, but Salvatore built the tension phenomenally as dear old Dad would appear where the MC was 5 scenes ago, slaughter those he had interacted with... then 4... then 3... then 2... just one scene, every few chapters, getting closer and closer until you knew their engagement was inevitable.

It was just excellently executed.

There's an old short story called "Slime" that's like this. The monster is a carnivorous ooze from the depths of the ocean that accidentally comes onto land and starts eating people. The story is told from the monster's point of view, and it's very well done. (This story might have inspired The Blob and similar stories. Maybe even Dean Koontz's Phantoms, which also has a slime monster.)

i read and really liked jaws. i thought it was a very good novel.

i have seen many books with scenes from the pov of various animals, objects, and several times from the pov of the weather itself.

it can be very interesting if done well.

RikkiKane said:

Wow! I really appreciate this and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I've always wanted to read a novel that scares the shit out of me like Jaws scared the shit out of me. I have read Salem's Lot though, twice in fact. It's really not that good and I couldn't wait for it to end if I'm being honest.

However, that was quite a while ago, and now that I understand literature so much better, perhaps I should read it a third time? I hear the the novel, "The Birthing House (Christopher Ransom)" is extremely creepy and powerful. I think I'll give that a try too.

I think some things will always be better in the form of a book, and some things will always be better on film. Bram Stoker's Dracula is by far the best novel I've read, the film doesn't even come close, and I think it's vice versa when it comes to Jaws.

Yeah, I haven't read that many books, but the books, in my opinion, are not always better than the films. Aliens is another example. I doubt any book could be written about Aliens that would rival the film and I don't think any book could scare me as much as George Romero's movIe - Dawn of the Dead: the greatest horror film ever made IMO.

I hope I am proved wrong though.

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To date, Bram Stoker's Dracula is the only novel successful in giving me nightmares weeks after I read it.

I think it's unfair in many cases to compare movies to books in form of impact. Movies can be made that utilize those things the medium excels at to evoke imagery and reaction that books just don't have. However, books done well, can evoke imagery and reactions that no movie can adequately convey on the screen.

Apples and oranges, I believe.

OK, I have to tell my Jaws story.

When the movie first came out in the 1970's, my sisters talked my mom into taking us to see it. It wasn't my cuppa, but I got to laugh at my mother screaming louder than any of the teenagers in there.

Afterward, my sister decided to read the book. So she's sprawled across my parents' bed reading and I'm in the front room and my mom's in the kitchen. All of a sudden Sis SCREAMS IN HORROR. We go running in and I almost trip over the puppy fleeing from the bedroom.

She's curled up on the far side of the bed, terrified. The book is across the room. There is a yellow trail of piddle out the door and into the hallway.

Sis had just gotten to the point where the shark bites the first girl--and the puppy licked her bare foot.

Thirty years later, we still haven't let her live that down.

Regarding stories written from an animal's point of view:

A Dog's Tale by Mark Twain (hated the ending, though)
Call of the Wild by Jack London

A bit surprised no one has mentioned these classics yet...

DeleyanLee said:

OK, I have to tell my Jaws story.

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Me, too.

I lived in southern California at the time and I had just read the book. If I remember right, this was before the movie came out. In the opening scene, Benchley tells how the girl is treading water, hollering to her drunken friend, and then she feels a tug on her leg. No pain, just a tug. After a few seconds she comes to realize that part of her leg is now gone. And that's when the pain and the terror kick in. And of course, that's also when the shark comes back for seconds.

So I'm out swimming in the ocean. It's daytime, a bit overcast but warm. I'm out beyond where the waves are breaking, treading water, preparing to swim back in. And off to my right I see a large dark shadow hurtling toward me just under the surface. Seconds later something bumps my right leg and then the shadow continues on off to my left.

I'm instantly terrified and pretty certain my leg is gone and I'm looking up at the sky and I'm just treading water, treading water, treading water, hyperventilating like crazy. I figure if I don't see the blood and don't feel for my missing leg, the pain will never come. I start hoping I will bleed out and pass out and die a painless death before I get eaten. I want to look for the shark's return but I can't make myself do it. I just keep looking up at that overcast sky, certain that it's the last thing I'll ever see in my life. I start to feel a little dizzy (no doubt from the panic and the hperventilating) and think I've already lost enough blood that the end is drawing near. Though I'm sure all this took place over a matter of twenty or thirty seconds total, it seemed like an eternity at the time.

And then a black, whiskered face pops up a few feet to my left, chitters, and looks at me. Turns out the critter was a sea otter, not a shark. I looked at the water around me and when I saw no redness, I felt for my legs. They were both there. I started laughing hysterically. I played with that sea otter for another ten minutes or so -- edging my way back to shore -- before he finally moved on.

I haven't gone swimming in the ocean since.

Beth

FOTSGreg said:

Read Phantoms. It's one of the few novels I've ever read that left me shaking by the ending.

Also, read Watchers, Lightning, Midnight, Dark Rivers of the Heart, Strangers, Odd Thomas, Fear Nothing, and The Taking to get a grasp and overview of Koontz's narrative ability. He's got a good grip on his technique and has a way of telling a story that really reels you in, but some of his stories and storylines tend to be a little reminiscent of on another.

Some of his latest novels haven't been perfectly up to snuff, but they've been more in the tribute category than his other works (The Darkest Evening of the Year being one example - still a good book, but you have to read it with an understanding of why it was written).

That'll get you started with Koontz.

Then, go back and read Cell, From A Buick 8, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Pet Sematary, and Salem's Lot by King. Compare and contrast the different styles by the different authors.

You might also want to check out The Wolf's Hour, Swan Song, and A Boy's Life by Robert McCammon.

In each case, compare and contrast the different writing styles and techniques used by each author to get his story and point across.

I could go on, but this list will keep you occupied for awhile, I'm sure.

Click to expand...

Dragon Tears is another great Koontz novel that has sections from the POV of a dog. I love his older stuff. His newer books aren't nearly so good.

Some more: Hard to find, and much underloved classic is Daniel Mannix's The Fox and the Hound - when it was released he earned a lot of well deserved praise for writing from the titular creatures' perspectives, and doing so awesomely. Alas, despite Disney butchering it, has been long out of print.

Felix Salten's Bambi, A Life in the Woods and the follow up Bambi's Children also do this quite well. A more recent one, Wolf a Journey Home by 'Asta Martin is well done, though a somewhat tragic story. She manages to almost completely avoid modifying the wolves behaviors to human preferences, and the early bits when they are relocated are particularly well done, IMHO.