Odd Hours
by Dean Koontz
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Book Reviews of Odd Hours
Book Review: Hours of Disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
I would have given this one NO stars if possible. I've been reading Koontz since the 1980's, and enjoying his stories the whole way.... but this is seriously the first time I've thought of just throwing out a book of his.
Poor plot, no character development, and loose ends everywhere. Everyone in the book has the same witty dry sense of humor as Odd, which becomes very annoying and frankly undermines the uniqueness of its existence in Odd. Potentially interesting people enter the storyline, only to be abruptly dropped from it without a further thought or development. Potentially interesting plot lines get thrown in, only to be swept away and left behind as the pages drone on and on. Dangerous and potentially interesting scenarios begin to develop, only to be solved by an anticlimactic "pop pop" of a gun to the head or chest of an enemy... or the scenarios just simply are left unsolved.
What happened to the paranormal basis on which Odd Thomas was built? With the exception of Polterfrank and Boo, the odd "feeling" Odd gets from time to time, and some weird face-thing that grabs a ghost through a bathroom mirror (what the heck was that supposed to be all about anyway??), there's nothing paranormally in sync with previous Odd Thomas novels or style in this book. Just a guy who finds the nukes, kills a few bad guys without incident, and saves the day. That and a bunch of boring, ineffective, nonsensical stuff to fill the pages make for a book to say "Ho hum and big whoop" to.
No doubt Koontz left so many loose ends to lure Odd fans to buy the next book.... but honestly this 4th book was such a disappointment that I'm not sure I care to discover the answers.
Book Review: Even Odd could not see the dead spirit of this novel
Summary: 1 Stars
First up let me say I've read many of Dean's books and find him to be a wonderful author most of the time. Indeed Odd Thomas and Forever Odd are two of my favorite books and Odd himself one of my favorite characters.
I was excited when I discovered another Odd installment was on the way and now greatly disappointed with the end result. This story was either put together in a hurry to satisfy the publisher or Dean has lost the magic touch and maybe Odd should of gone on to join Stormy at the end of Brother Odd (another novel that was far less impressive than the first two installments)
The pointer to Sole Survivor's little girl from the plane crash, the mystery train and Wyvern from Seize the night are nice little touches for Dean's constant readers out there.
This story moves so slowly it is painful, indeed at times I had to go back and read parts again to remember what was actually going on in between the somewhat bizarre events (I'm talking bizarre even for Odd) and the overwhelming amount of description of locations because I thought I'd missed something that would help make sense of the ramblings from chapter to chapter.
And sadly after 25 chapters I just could not take it anymore and gave up, maybe eventually I'll go back and see how it ends, but even a huge explosion of cardiac pumping proportions could not give this story the life and sense of direction it so badly needs.
I can only live in hope he turns it around for the next one or quietly leaves it alone rather than drag this much beloved character through the death pains of a story that is even more ridiculous than Brother Odd and more exciting a pace than this snail.
Book Review: Odd Deserves A Better Book
Summary: 1 Stars
If I could speak to Dean Koontz, I would tell him, "Don't write more Odd Thomas books just because you can. You have created a wonderful and endearing character, and you are not doing him justice in your sequels, especially this one."
*possible spoilers below*
It would be difficult to give details of the plot in this review, because Koontz gives so few of them in the book. There is a hairbrained scheme, which appears to be cooked up by the village idiots, with some unnamed villain as the real mastermind, but we never get more than hints at what is really going on. You know Koontz has run out of ideas when Odd has to solve every problem by gunning down the bad guys. This is not the Odd we have come to know and love.
Many sections of the book are slow and laborious reading. At one point I actually yelled aloud, "Get off the pier already!" In other places, situations arise that the reader feels will have deep significance, and then the situation just ends, with no apparent purpose, except to fill up the pages.
I did enjoy one thing about this book - Hutch, the retired actor who has hired Odd as his live-in caretaker. His conversations with Odd were the one bright spot for me.
When I read Odd Thomas for the first time, I couldn't wait to read more. But when I closed this one, I was disappointed and felt that maybe Odd had worn out his welcome. I am not looking forward to a 5th book. Now I believe Koontz is just trying to sell books by putting the name "Odd" in the title.
Please, Dean Koontz, don't do it. Your character deserves better than what you are giving him.
Book Review: A nice continuation with some small yet interesting links to another series
Summary: 4 Stars
I got lucky shopping for groceries Saturday evening. No, not that way you filthy animal. On my way to the checkout lane I decided to check the book aisle and lo and behold they had put Odd Hours on the shelf a few days early at a 40% discount. I got home and jumped right into the book, finishing it the next evening around 10 PM.
My thoughts? It was very good. It took a much different direction than I had expected at the end of the last book. The nature of the threat Odd faced this time was of a greater magnitude than previously seen but the way he addresses his circumstances and challenges was as artful and delightful as ever. His 4 and 2 legged companions played active roles in the story which were welcome and I learned some facts about the Chairman of the Board I was sadly ignorant of. I'm a huge fan of American culture and I'm grateful to Dean for filling in a few areas of ignorance surrounding two of the greats of the last century through this series.
I did have a few area of concerns. There is a mystery woman who is a little too mysterious. She makes the ladies with the dogs in the Repairman Jack books seem like media whores by comparison. I'm also curious why Odd didn't contact his Russian friend from Brother Odd. It seems he would have been of great help almost immediately. I did like the Wyvern and Mystery Train references though. Hopefully Odd will make it to Moonlight Bay soon.
I give it 4.25 because of the mystery woman and Odd's failure to take advantage of the resources available to him. Still a recommended purchase for a relaxing read or a gift for a friend.
Book Review: Not bad
Summary: 4 Stars
One of the most charming things about the Odd Thomas series is Odd's interactions with the people around him, whether they're living or dead, dangerous or silly, or in the case of Hutch, nostalgically bittersweet. While this book briefly brushes with some characters that have colorful potential, their page time is frustratingly limited and Odd is left to his own devices for most of the novel, or maybe it just seems that way because none of the characters linger for any real amount of time. It's full of the pretty reflections that have come to characterize these books in my mind but the plot did not seem as entirely inspired as the previous episodes. Nukes make for a hair-raising experience I'm sure, but the inventiveness of the other novels lay chiefly in their supernatural elements. They had a positive element of suspense, of actual fright, because Odd seemed to be battling things beyond human in addition to whatever mortal terrors he confronted. Although solidly touching on Odd's uncanny perceptions, Odd Hours doesn't lend itself to the spooky quite so much.
Don't get me wrong: it's still good. I suppose I got a little excited at the beginning with the references to Mystery Train and Wyvern and was thrilled at the prospect of two of Mr Koontz's series colliding (read the Christopher Snow books if you haven't already), and was admittedly a little disappointed when nothing came of it--yet. I'm still holding out for hope that things may come to that, and there's still a lot of things to be tied up.
A good read, as always, but I think that I loved Odd Thomas and Brother Odd more.