I got nothing much to say besides what a letdown this was. I think that Koontz could have done a better job with this collection if he slowly revealed things about Nameless or showed prior flashes or even explained how he was clairvoyant and had the ability to just say what time he wanted to wake up and woke up. Instead the final reveal was a letdown because you could guess at a good 75 percent of what was coming. 

"Memories of Tomorrow" has Nameless once again involved with hunting a man who has murdered his wife and others and kidnapped his stepson. Nameless sets out to save the child. He is also still dealing with memories of someone that he knows had to be important to him and worried that an event he keeps seeing again and again is in the future. 

Nameless and his whole mission reveal was disappointing. There is some blather about Mexican gangs stealing from pipelines and terrorists and I was just straight baffled. And people going around babbling about Nameless being brave...there's only been one story I think that one had to worry if he was going to get killed, most of this was him just sitting and watching criminals turn on each other and throwing a lot of tip money at people. I still want to understand why he needed to run around with $30,000 when most of his "missions" were at best a day. Also Koontz's gun worship will always be a bit much in his books and this collection as a whole was no better. 

The writing was choppy and the flow was too. We get a third party to tell Nameless about his past and that was that. I think there were some good ideas here but Koontz dragged things out too long. 

The ending I think was supposed to evoke feelings of appreciating what is right in front of you, but instead I am ready to move on to my next read and forget about this collection. I do have to say the covers really were good and some of the illustrations in the stories were great. 

"In the Heart of the Fire"-3 stars

"Photographing the Dead"-3 stars

"The Praying Mantis Bride"-4 stars

"Red Rain"-3 stars

"The Mercy of Snakes"-2 stars

"Memories of Tomorrow"-1 star

Spoilers for events from Nameless #1, "In the Heart of the Fire".

Had to go to the gym to workout, which was a welcome break from this series. Honestly this is just boring. At this point what is the purpose of Nameless. The guy barely does anything. He does kill someone in this story, but other than that, why would someone need to have amnesia to do this. His "powers" are not in play in this one either. We hear more about the purple blue eyed woman and I now hate the colors purple and blue. 

"The Mercy of Snakes" has Nameless getting introduced to a man who suspects the doctor at the elderly care facility he stayed at is in cahoots (I like that word) with shiftless heirs and helping to bump people off. There's another problem I now have, why does Nameless need to even go and talk to these freaking people? Just throw cash in the mail. Anyway, Koontz then shifts over to the doctor and nurse and shows how ruthless they are. Of course Ace and associates have special plans for everyone involved.

The writing at this point feels forced. I just didn't care at all what was happening. I really wish that Koontz had thought this through better. We keep hearing the same things over and over. The only things that changes is the people who Nameless and friends have plans to take out. Also Nameless in this one starts some special kind of bullshit (sorry for the swearing) about three sets of people in this world and I am having flashbacks to some of Koontz's more sanctimonious books and my eyes hurt from rolling.

"First are those for whom the words right and wrong have no meaning other than for such as traffic directions:"

 

Uh huh.

 

"Second are those who recognize right and wrong, a natural tao, and who try to live by what is right, as much as they can. These people are aware that real and implacable evil exists in the world; however, as a psychological defense mechanism, many of them grossly underestimate the prevalence of it."

 

You know I get that there's evil in the damn world. So do many people. Turn on the freaking news. Read about what we are doing to kids on the border. Read about hate crimes and how some people go oh well. Ugh. I hate that Koontz acts like he cracked a damn code or something.

'

"Third are those who, busy with their lives, haven’t given much thought to right and wrong. When encountering profound evil, they are not sure what to think about it, and they seek to understand it as a complex phenomenon when in fact it’s simple."

If there's a dog in this damn book I am going to break something.

At this point I can't even say the doctor and nurse in this one are profoundly evil. I am going to save that for the sheriff from story one who murdered whole families in order to rape children. These people just seem greedy for greed's sake.

The flow was off in this one. I just felt like the whole thing was a slog. I wanted it to be over.

The ending of course now has Nameless still super concerned about the three people he keeps seeing. 

Ehh. This was just okay. Overly complicated I thought. 

This one read as filler to me. We have even more repetitiveness regarding Nameless and the woman and two kids he keeps seeing. I hope that the next two do a bit better than this.

"Red Rain" has Nameless in a city that sounds like Chicago. He visits a woman who was left disfigured after someone set a fire that also killed her two children. Nameless asks her does she want the men responsible to die and she decides that she does. He quickly starts setting up all of the men involved.

Nameless is getting boring to me. Yes, I know you like to tip and it gives you pleasure to leave huge tips for people. Here's my question, isn't someone going notice some tall blond guy leaving $300 tips for a glass of wine? Anyway. His somewhat amnesia is becoming a bit boring now too. I wish we got to see more visions of Nameless, but this one there is nothing. So one wonders how he got pulled into this mission and why Ace of Diamonds got so interested. 

Not too much to say about all of the bad guys in this one. They don't read like the prior serial killers. The main guy who loves and also fears fire needed a bit more developing I think. 

The writing was repetitive and I just got bored. We get it, the woman he keeps seeing has purple/blue eyes which doesn't even sound real, but okay. The illustration for this one was pretty boring (just a kerosene can spilled over). The flow was fine though. This story moves really quickly to the somewhat lackluster ending.