Phantoms (novel)

Phantoms
First edition
AuthorDean Koontz
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction, weird, horror
PublisherPutnam
Publication date
March 1983
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover, paperback)
Pages352
ISBN0-399-12655-4
OCLC48925027
LC ClassCPB Box no. 1919 vol. 16

Phantoms is a horror novel by American writer Dean Koontz, first published in 1983. The story is a version of the now-debunked urban legend involving a village mysteriously vanishing at Angikuni Lake.

The novel includes many literary tips of the hat to the work of H. P. Lovecraft; the novel suggests the 'Ancient Enemy' is Lovecraft's god Nyarlathotep, also known as the 'Crawling Chaos', and the air force specialist in potential contact with non-human intelligence is named 'Captain Arkham' (cf. Lovecraft's invention Arkham). Most of these Lovecraftian references were excised from the 1998 film version of Koontz's novel.