Watchers (novel)

Watchers is a 1987 suspense novel by American author, Dean Koontz. Along with Strangers, Lightning, and Midnight, Watchers is credited with establishing Koontz's status as a best-selling author.

Plot summary

The story begins in Orange, California. Travis Cornell, a former Delta Force operative, feels that his life has become pointless, and is exploring a canyon near his home when he encounters two genetically engineered creatures that have escaped from a top-secret government lab. One, a golden retriever with enhanced intelligence, befriends Travis; the other, a creature known as the Outsider, appears to be trying to kill the dog. After eluding the Outsider, Travis takes the dog home. On discovering the dog's exceptional intelligence, he names him Einstein.

Later, he and Einstein find and rescue Nora Devon in a park, who was being pestered by a sexually offensive man, Arthur Streck. Together they form a trio.

Travis, Nora, and Einstein are soon on the run not only from the Outsider, but from federal agents, determined to track down the lab escapees, and Vince Nasco, a ruthless professional assassin, hired by Soviets to kill several human targets to cover up the conspiracy of the two genetically engineered creatures. He wants the dog to trade for a great sum of cash, alone, without any knowledge from the Soviets or others.

Watcher (Highlander)

Watchers is a secret organization that watches the Immortals in Highlander: The Series and all subsequent related series and movies.

They were introduced in the season 1 finale as a cliffhanger for the subsequent season. Since then, they became an integral part of the series and Duncan MacLeod's adventures.

Appearances

In "The Watchers", Joe Dawson explains the purpose of the Watchers to Duncan MacLeod: "For as long as your kind's been around, we've been watching ... We observe, we record, but we never interfere... Too much of man's history has been lost. When you get through all of life's crap, the only thing that matters is the truth. We want the truth about Immortals to survive, not a bunch of old wives' tales... If we had revealed your secret in more superstitious times, you can imagine the witch hunts... And today... You'd probably end up on page three in one of those supermarket rags next to the two-headed monkey and I'd've been in a straight jacket."

The Watchers is a secret society of mortal humans that observes the lives of the Immortals without revealing themselves. While the Watchers seem to have the resources to function independently, there are Watchers like Joe Dawson who run their own businesses to provide a cover as well as income. Each Immortal is assigned a Watcher whose sole job is to monitor and record daily activities. The network of Watchers generally keeps careful tabs on subjects and tracks even the casual movements of the Immortals. Most Immortals are unaware of the Watchers. The organization was created by Ammaletu, the Akkadian, after he saw Gilgamesh coming back to life. In early episodes all Watchers wore a medallion of the symbol of their organization. In later episodes, each Watcher has the symbol tattooed on the inner wrist.

Watchers (film)

Watchers is a 1988 horror film starring Corey Haim, Michael Ironside, Barbara Williams and Lala Sloatman. It is loosely based on the novel Watchers by Dean R. Koontz.

The film was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. There have been three sequels released Watchers II, Watchers 3 and Watchers Reborn.

Plot

An explosion occurs in a classified research laboratory, causing an intense fire. A mutated monster known as the OXCOM (Outside Experimental Combat Mammal) escapes and chases a golden retriever in the same lab through the surrounding woods. The dog outruns it and hides in a barn. In the barn, Travis Cornell (Corey Haim) is with his girlfriend Tracey (Lala Sloatman). Thinking it is her father, Travis leaves. Tracey discovers the beast and screams, summoning her father who is attacked. Meanwhile, Travis finds the dog in the back of his car and a military/police force is sweeping the area for the escapees. Travis starts to realize the dog is extraordinary and decides to keep it. Meanwhile, an NSO agent named Johnson (Michael Ironside) is dispatched by the corporation to retrieve the animals.

Watcher (comics)

The Watchers are a race of fictional extraterrestrials appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the first Watcher - named Uatu - appears in Fantastic Four #13 (April 1963).

Fictional history

The Watchers are one of the oldest species in the universe and are committed to observing and compiling knowledge on all aspects of the universe. This policy of total non-interference came into existence due to a former, well-meant attempt by the Watchers to bestow advanced knowledge on the Prosilicans, who used the nuclear technology gained to create weapons and destroy themselves. When the Watchers returned to Prosilicus, the survivors blamed them for causing the catastrophe by giving the Prosilicans nuclear technology before they were ready for it. The Watchers then took a vow never to interfere with other civilizations.

Novel

A novel is a long narrative, normally in prose, which describes fictional characters and events, usually in the form of a sequential story.

The genre has also been described as possessing "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years". This view sees the novel's origins in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, early modern romance, and the tradition of the novella. The latter, an Italian word used to describe short stories, supplied the present generic English term in the 18th century. Ian Watt, however, in The Rise of the Novel (1957) suggests that the novel first came into being in the early 18th century,

Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, is frequently cited as the first significant European novelist of the modern era; the first part of Don Quixote was published in 1605.

The romance is a closely related long prose narrative. Walter Scott defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society". However, many romances, including the historical romances of Scott,Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, are also frequently called novels, and Scott describes romance as a "kindred term". Romance, as defined here, should not be confused with the genre fiction love romance or romance novel. Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo."

Moon of Israel (novel)

Moon of Israel is a novel by Rider Haggard, first published in 1918 by John Murray. The novel narrates the events of the Biblical Exodus from Egypt told from the perspective of a scribe named Ana.

Haggard dedicated his novel to Sir Gaston Maspero, a distinguished Egyptologist and director of Cairo Museum.

Adaptation

His novel was the basis of a script by Ladislaus Vajda, for film-director Michael Curtiz in his 1924 Austrian epic known as Die Sklavenkönigin, or "Queen of the Slaves".

References

External links

Novel (disambiguation)

A novel is a long prose narrative.

Novel may also refer to:

See also