The first time I read this book I was a little disappointed. I love Dean Koontz but I hate how he recycles his characters by taking the same traits, abilities, disabilities, etc. and simply renames them or changes their location in subsequent stories. I put the book away for a while and reread it some months later and I liked it a lot better the second time around. For me, it did not have a deep meaning although I can see how some readers really felt touched by it.