Phantoms (novel)
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| Phantoms | |
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 Cover of Phantoms |
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| Author(s) | Dean Koontz |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Thriller, Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Berkley Publishing |
| Publication date | March 1983 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp |
| ISBN | 0-425-18110-3 |
| OCLC Number | 48925027 |
| LC Classification | CPB Box no. 1919 vol. 16 |
Phantoms is a novel written by best-selling author Dean Koontz, first published in 1983.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Jenny and Lisa Paige, two sisters, return to Jenny's hometown of Snowfield, California, a small ski resort village nestled in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains where Jenny works as a doctor, and finds no one alive. The few bodies they find are either mutilated, or reveal some strange form of death. Finally, after growing more alarmed by the town's mysterious and alarming situation Jenny manages to call police in a neighboring town to come help.
Together, the girls and the police are able to request help from the military Biological Investigations Unit. The police managed to find only one clue as to what was causing the town's disappearances and deaths. A victim of whatever was trying to kill him managed to write the name Timothy Flyte, on a mirror moments before he was killed. Flyte is a British academic and author of a book, The Ancient Enemy. His book catalogs and describes various mass vanishings of people in different parts of the world over the centuries.
It is discovered that the town was built over the hibernating place of this creature, an amoeboid shapeshifter. The Ancient Enemy rarely feeds, but when it does, the effects are devastating. It was theorized that the Enemy either caused or aided in the extinction of the dinosaurs, as well as many of the great mysterious mass vanishings: Mayan civilization, Roanoke, ghost ships, etc.
The creature consumes other life forms to increase its mass and is able to perfectly mimic other creatures. It can create small "probes" or "phantoms" imitating consumed life forms to go forth and hunt more prey, obeying the orders of its "hive mind;" in addition the creature absorbs the mental capacity of those it consumes.
Its only vital organ is a nucleus located in the center of its main body. The creature's cells are similar in molecular structure to fossil fuels; upon discovering this the scientists use oil-eating bacteria to destroy the Enemy's core or brain. (The genetically-modified bacteria are the real-life creations of Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty)
[edit] The Ancient Enemy
The creature's abilities and form greatly resemble John Carpenter's version of the "Thing" from The Thing, the movie monster The Blob, the creature in the short story "Slime" by Joseph Payne Brennan, the monstrous It from the novel of the same name by Stephen King and the "shoggoths" envisioned in the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Its shape shifting and probing abilities also resemble those of the planetary creature in Stanislaw Lem's Solaris.
The Snowfield survivors discover that the creature consumes other life forms as sustenance, and is able to perfectly mimic any creature it consumes. It can create small "probes" or "phantoms," imitating consumed life forms, to go forth and hunt more prey, obeying the orders of its "hive mind." In addition, the creature absorbs the mental capacity and memories of those it consumes, so its mind grows more powerful, intelligent and self-aware over time. (In fact, the creature initiates contact with the survivors and personally requests Flyte to come to Snowfield, referring to him as its "biographer.") Besides being able to mimic real animals and people, the creature can also form phantoms based on mental images from its victims; it takes sadistic delight in creating phantoms in the shape of religious demons and monsters to terrorize its victims before killing. The creature also apparently emits subtle psychic vibrations that its prey can sense. It is unknown if this is part of its biology or just another way of tormenting its victims.
The shapeshifting Ancient Enemy can contort its body into the smallest of spaces (through keyholes, air ducts, etc.), which is how it managed to kill and eat people who locked themselves inside rooms and cars. It also possesses extremely keen sensory organs and extremely fast speed, which explains why even the animals around Snowfield didn't escape its predation. Conventional weapons and firearms cause no damage to its gelatinous body. It feeds by completely enveloping its victims (hence the universal bruising seen earlier) and then secreting a digestive enzyme, thus leaving no biotic traces of its victims. Toward the end of the novel the monster declares that it considers all other life forms, including humans, to be intellectually "inferior" to itself, nothing more than cattle to be consumed when it is hungry. It keeps Flyte and a few others alive as "pets" for its own amusement.
The creature discloses to Flyte and the other survivors that it has come to think of itself as Satan, due to thoughts acquired from the minds of past humans it consumed (notably a devil worshiper). The absorption of these thoughts changed the creature over time from merely predatory to overtly sadistic; it engages in a number of intentional, non-predatory evils, including torture, psychological warfare, blasphemy, profanity, bigotry, attempted rape, and overall cruelty.
Ultimately, the Ancient Enemy's arrogance and human-derived ego prove to be its downfall. It "donates" a sample of its own tissue to the survivors and allows them to study it, confident that nothing they discover can be used against it. The characters not only discover what they need to kill the creature, but they also play its own ego against it to stall for time. The survivors use this time to acquire the weapons they need. In the end, the Ancient Enemy dies feeling the same fear and despair its victims experienced.
It is implied in the story that there may be more of these creatures scattered throughout the world.
[edit] Film adaptation
Phantoms was adapted into a movie in 1998 starring Peter O'Toole, Rose McGowan, Liev Schreiber, Ben Affleck, and Joanna Going. It was directed by Joe Chappelle, produced by Neo Art & Logic, and released by Dimension Films. It was filmed in Colorado. The film is referenced heavily in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, including once by Affleck himself.
