Odd Hours

Odd Hours
by Dean Koontz

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Book Summary Information

Author: Dean Koontz
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-20
ISBN: 0553807056
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Bantam
Product features:

Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas
supernatural
Pico Mundo
dead

Book Reviews of Odd Hours

Book Review: Disappointing installment, but a very interesting social phenomena
Summary: 3 Stars

I'm writing this review in the hope that it will add something to the commentary here. I will admit to having anticipated the release of this book with much interest. When the day arrived (May 20, 2008) when it was offered for sale I bought a copy. Over the ten days since, I have noted that this fourth book is being promoted in a much broader way than the previous books. I've seen "Odd Hours" offered for sale at almost every retailer I've visited (including two grocery stores), I've received a few e-mails from book vendors that promoted this book above all else that became available that week, I've seen a video production starring "Odd" and promoting his new story run continuously on the TV sets at the Target store, and I've watched a local "newscast" that covered the release of the book in local stores. Wow! That Dean guy has some savvy marketing folks on his side...and he has created a break-out character in the genre that has somehow "spoken to" a legion of fans. This is quite an accomplishment for any writer, even for one of the best-selling authors of the recent decade. So, I guess you could say that I'm interested in both the "Odd Phenomena" as I call it and in the books themselves. I'm a professional writer (not of fiction) so I have enjoyed Mr. Koontz's "Odd" books on another level: I have read them as good genre fiction and as very good examples of an author having created a very sellable character based on an established formula and writing style.

That said, I will confess that I have enjoyed each one of the four "Odd Thomas" books. However, this fourth installment (ironically the most hyped) was, sadly, the weakest, at least in my estimation. To explain that last remark, I would like to comment on each of the earlier installments first.

The original "Odd Thomas" book was a stellar achievement. Here we have a great premise that is very interestingly spun into a heroic character for our times (even though the "I see dead people" talent is not an original concept of Koontz's). When "Odd" speaks, of course, it is Mr. Koontz that is doing the speaking and I've learned a great deal through the four installments about this author's philosophy of good and evil, the choices that we make, and the root meaning of our lives. Along the way, we get a great story filled with many memorable characters that are fully fleshed out and who get to interact in exciting and emotionally affecting situations. I was stunned, really, by how good the first novel is...it really is such a great achievement that almost anything that came after it would be anticlimactic, at least in some way. My rating of "Odd Thomas" is "A+".

The first sequel (the second book, "Forever Odd") was a disappointment after the first but that was to be expected. In my estimation, the author spent much more time on the first book than its sequel, likely because the sequel was pushed to market by his publisher (I may be completely wrong about that; I just present this "explanation" as one that fits my need to explain why this second book was so inferior to the first). Here's what's different: there is less story, less is at stake, there are more long, pointless passages that explain the details of a journey but which are not that interesting in themselves (e.g., the long slog through the underground waterway), there are less "supernatural" events, and less time is spent with or in developing the other characters. Yes, Odd does prevail at the end but this reader was left with the hope that the third installment (which I had already purchased) would be better (and it was). In comparison to the first book, the situations, the stakes, and the characters were rather poorly conceived. Notice that I just wrote "in comparison to the first book" because all by itself this second novel was pretty good; it just wasn't in the same league as the first. My rating here is a "B".

The third book, "Brother Odd," returns some of the glory of the first novel to its pages. The new characters are realized better and the situation is more interesting and more carefully explained than in the second book. Perhaps the author (or his editors) felt that more effort on the third would lead to a fourth (and perhaps that's what happened). There are more supernatural elements in this installment (a wise move by the author) and there is a better sense of risk (all the kids and the religious community) and the challenges to Odd are both more intricate and more interesting in comparison to those in "Forever Odd." However, the ultimate pay-off (i.e., the power behind the evil) is both too odd (forgive the pun) and too reminiscent of the classic sci-fi movie, "Forbidden Planet." When I finished reading this third book I thought, "Well, this one was better than the last but not nearly up to the first one." I wasn't worried by the switch from Elvis to Sinatra (I liked how Elvis' story was wrapped up) and I was touched by fact that the dog, Boo, was revealed as ghost (a small surprise in spite of the hint in the dog's name--Boo). I like the thought of dog-spirits helping our main man and, consequently, the thought that my lost canine companions might be close at hand when I need them to be near me. I even liked the final set-up leading to the next book (i.e., the hints that Odd would be drawn to the sea to solve some new mystery). All in all, my rating here is a "B+".

And now for the fourth book, "Odd Hours." <SPOILERS are ahead.> I have admitted to anticipating the book and buying it immediately when it was released. I even started reading it within an hour of buying it. But, by the time I was through the first third of the book I was becoming disappointed. By the time I was through two-thirds of the book I was sure about my feelings of disappointment. By the time I finished it, I was sort of in shock...here is probably the weakest shadow of the first novel yet. Here's what this story lacks: it lacks much sense of danger or mystery and it lacks any compelling new characters (the new ones are so vaguely drawn that I even briefly thought Mr. Koontz was trying to "tell me something" about the nature of good and evil by drawing his characters so flatly). I felt sort of cheated by the fact that the first third of the book is nothing but a romp through the underside of a pier while Odd tries to elude a big-man killer type (what's scary about that...knowing that Odd will prevail easily, even without the help of Boo?). The long sequence involving Odd's interrogation by the chief of police is interesting on one level but also weirdly vague and pointless. Is the chief possessed or what? And what is the meaning of the coyotes? What purpose, besides being just a set-up for a fifth book--because she is not in any way related to this story--does the Annmarie character serve and what is that odd promise of Odd's to die for her? I suppose that Koontz is trying to leap-frog this current installment by introducing a key character to a fifth novel. If so, I have to admit here that one thing I really despise about Hollywood's current trend in movie making is that that no new ideas are sought, only old ones that can lead to sequels that hopefully can ring more money out of the old idea at the expense of integral individual stories. [I track this trend back to the success of "The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy. I will point out that by the end of three Christmas seasons the world was immersed in the multi-phased story spread out over years. However, the fact is, all three movies were originally filmed at once because it was assumed that the failure of the first would mean there'd be no money to produce the other two and thus the whole story could not be told. But, the "Ring" novels were all one long story from the very beginning, not a series of sequels to an original story.] My point here is that Koontz litters his books with not-at-all-veiled references to things in modern culture that he regards with some distain (and usually I agree with his estimations). In this fourth "Odd" book, I felt more than a bit used by the author in the sense that he had succumbed to pressure to make his book a "stepping stone" to another story, not a great story in and of itself (like the first one was). I suppose it is inevitable that there would be some commercial influence going on here, and very likely there is an "Odd" movie in the works (a "graphic novel"--a cartoon book or movie storyboard--is actually being published next month). OK. End of my rambling. My generous rating of this one, a "C+".

If there's anyone who's still reading this review, please hear this: I like "Odd Thomas" and I like the fact that his stories are going on, that he's not a one- or a two-hit-wonder. But, I would also appreciate the author more if he'd put some more care into future installments. He might just learn a thing or two by re-reading his first "Odd" adventure.

Please leave me a comment here if you liked, or didn't like, this review. Thanks!

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Summary of Odd Hours

Only a handful of fictional characters are recognized by first name alone. Dean Koontz?s Odd Thomas is one of those rare literary heroes who have come alive in readers? imaginations as he explores the greatest mysteries of this world and the next with his inimitable wit, heart, and quiet gallantry. Now Koontz follows Odd as he is irresistibly drawn onward to a destiny he cannot imagine and to undreamed of places where the perils he will face and the stakes for which he fights will eclipse all that he has known.

The legend began in the obscure little town of Pico Mundo. A fry cook named Odd was rumored to have the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead. Through tragedy and triumph, exhilaration and heartbreak, word of Odd Thomas?s gifts filtered far beyond Pico Mundo, attracting unforgettable new friends?and enemies of implacable evil. With great gifts comes the responsibility to meet great challenges. But no mere human being was ever meant to face the darkness that now stalks the world?not even one as oddly special as Odd Thomas.

After grappling with the very essence of reality itself, after finding the veil that separates him from his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, tantalizingly thin yet impenetrable, Odd longed only to return to a life of quiet anonymity with his two otherworldly sidekicks?his dog Boo and a new companion, one of the few who might rival his old pal Elvis. But a true hero, however humble, must persevere. Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems. Now the forces arrayed against him have both official sanction and an infinitely more sinister authority?and in this dark night of the soul dawn will come only after the most shattering revelations of all.

Burnishing Dean Koontz?s stature as a master of suspense and one of our most innovative and gifted storytellers, Odd Hours illuminates a legacy of mystery and hope that will shine on long after the final page.

Amazon Exclusive Essay: Destiny and Odd Hours

Odd Thomas came to me as a gift, the entire first chapter of his first book having poured out of me as I was in the middle of writing The Face. I wrote it by hand, though I never work that way, and I never hesitated to think what should come next. He was fully-realized in my mind from the moment I began to write in that lined legal tablet. With other stories and characters, I can identify the source of the inspiration, but not with Oddie and his books. He just suddenly was. When I write about him, his narrative voice is so clear to me that I almost hear him in my head.

For those among you who long have thought that I should be institutionalized, just relax: I said I almost hear him.

Many times over the years, I said I would never write an open-ended series. Then along came Oddie, and he proved me wrong. Or so I thought. As I wrote the first chapter of Odd Hours, the fourth featuring my fry-cook hero, I realized that this was not an open-ended series, after all, but that it would conclude with six or seven novels. I now think seven.

I suddenly saw the end point of his journey, the arc of it to the final book, and I was stunned. Beginning with this fourth story, the stakes were being raised dramatically; Oddie was going to face far more physical and moral danger than previously; and he was going to mature toward the fulfillment of a destiny that I had not seen coming until that moment.

Initially, I tried to argue myself out of the direction that Odd Hours was taking. I didn't believe that the first three books had put down a sufficient foundation to support the formidable architecture that I saw rising from it in the next three or four novels.

When I began to reread the first three books, however, I quickly discovered that I had unconsciously paved the road that the series was now taking. I had thought I was writing a series with an overall theme about the power and beauty of humility. Indeed I was, but it was also something more than that; and Oddie's ultimate destiny will not be merely purification to a state of absolute humility, but will be that and something else I find quite wonderful.

What lies ahead will be a challenge to write--or perhaps not. The character of Odd Thomas was a gift to me, and now I see that the entire architecture of a seven-book series was another gift that came to me complete on the same day Oddie arrived, although I needed time to recognize it.

This world is a place of wonder, and life is a mysterious enterprise; but nothing in all my years has been more mysterious than Odd Thomas's origins and my compulsion to write about him.

-- Dean Koontz

United States Books

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