The
Vision was published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons as a hardcover
in 1977. The edition that caught my eye was the original Bantam paperback
edition published in 1978. The cover art actually caught my eye twice in very
slight variations. The first was the Bantam edition (a few years ago), and the second was a
Golden Apple edition (a few weeks ago). The Golden Apple edition was published in 1984. The artwork is the same, but the layout is different. Both feature a mildly creepy pencil drawing on a white background. The artist: Unknown.
The Bantam edition includes reflective red eyes on the
bat.
The Golden Apple edition:
The opening paragraphs:
“‘Gloves
of blood.’
“The
woman raised her hands and stared at them, stared through them.
“Her
voice was soft but tense. ‘Blood on his hands.’ Her own hands were clean and
pale.”
The Vision was advertised as a horror novel, but it is more of a genre bender; much like Mr. Koontz’s later work in the 1980s, but not quite at that same exceptional level. Mr. Koontz said his intention with The Vision was to write it “as if Dashiell Hammett had set out to write a horror novel.” It was published just three years before Dean Koontz’s breakout novel Whispers.
The Vision was advertised as a horror novel, but it is more of a genre bender; much like Mr. Koontz’s later work in the 1980s, but not quite at that same exceptional level. Mr. Koontz said his intention with The Vision was to write it “as if Dashiell Hammett had set out to write a horror novel.” It was published just three years before Dean Koontz’s breakout novel Whispers.
[This is the seventeenth in a series of posts featuring the cover art and miscellany of books I find at thrift stores and used bookshops. It is reserved for books I purchase as much for the cover art as the story or author.]
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