Book Review: Odd Hours October 30, 2008
Posted by lightnessanddark in Darkness, dean koontz, Science Fiction.Tags: brother odd, dean koontz, forever odd, frankenstein 3, odd hours, odd thomas
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Book Review: Odd Hours
Never trust a suspense novelist.
I really didn’t intend to read another Dean Koontz novel so soon after finishing Brother Odd. My plan, as I mentioned in the Brother Odd review (also posted on this site), was to wait until I found Odd Hours in hard cover at one of the local used bookstores, but when I saw Odd Hours at the local library, I couldn’t resist.
Odd Thomas is a highly amusing character, so reading an Odd Thomas novel is always fun. Odd Hours, by Dean Koontz, is no exception. This review cannot be written without including spoilers from the earlier books, so if you haven’t read them, I’ll give warnings before giving away plot points.
First, this is a difficult review to write. While I enjoyed the novel, reading it in less than two weeks; at the end, I felt Koontz held back too many things. I don’t think I can give opinions without discussing a few spoilers from the earlier novels in the series.
First off, Odd Hours fits extremely well with Odd Thomas and Brother Odd, building on the Odd Thomas mythology. (The second book, Forever Odd, still seems to me to be an unrelated manuscript which Koontz adapted as an Odd Thomas novel in order to sell more copies.) Without Odd Thomas as the protagonist, Forever Odd wouldn’t have been a good novel at all. I realize one could make the same argument about all 4 of the current novels; the point is these are character driven novels at heart.
(Spoiler Alert: Skip the next three paragraphs if you haven’t read Odd Thomas and Brother Odd and don’t want the surprises ruined.)
I was anxious to read Odd Hours because in the previous novel, Odd gets a message from his lost love, Stormy, through a brain-damaged little girl in the orphanage. This is their first contact since she left Odd in her apartment in Pico Mundo at the end of the first novel.
The love (and loyalty) Odd has for Stormy is really what makes Odd Thomas such a great character — and the Odd Thomas novels interesting. I began reading Odd Hours with the anticipation of a plotline involving Stormy. I figured Odd would find a way to communicate with her. I am sure eventually that will happen, but I was disappointed when it didn’t happen in Odd Hours.
There are only so many ways this series can end. 1. Odd nobly sacrifices himself to save the day in book seven and is then reunited with Stormy. 2. Odd makes contact with Stormy, and she tells him it’s okay to love another, leaving him free to find another love (Annamaria?) in this life. 3. Odd makes contact with Stormy, and he professes his eternal love for her and refuses to love another, forcing him to continue on the path he’s been on through the last 3 novels. I don’t know if any of these scenarios will be completely satisfying, but I really don’t have any other ideas on where this series is heading. If you have a theory that is different from one of the ones I’ve suggested, please post it as a comment.
Spoiler Safe Zone: Okay, now we’re back to discussing Odd Hours. After the events of Brother Odd, our hero is drawn to the coastal community of Magic Beach, California, where he takes a live-in job as a chef for an ancient (and of course eccentric) movie star. In Brother Odd, Odd escapes to a monastery to get away from the pressures of his gifts, but after realizing there really is no escaping destiny, Odd charges back into the fight – even though he doesn’t have a clue who he’s fighting against or why.
What jumpstarts the fourth book is Odd’s vision of a Red Tide. He doesn’t understand exactly what it means, but he soon realizes that unless he takes action, many lives will be lost, possibly even entire cities.
Odd’s psychic abilities are a little fluky, so Odd often isn’t really sure what he’s doing until the last moment. That’s the way things have been for Odd in all 3 of the previous books, a major part of the novels’ charm, and it is also the way the plot of Odd Hours unfolds. The book has a few twists, and it is full of the Odd Thomas charm. My disappointment with the book is that instead of answering questions from previous volumes, it added several more questions to be addressed in future Odd Thomas novels.
About a month after Odd has settled in to Magic Beach, he takes a walk along the beach and stumbles across a conspiracy with global implications. Along the way, Odd meets up with Annamaria, a young, pregnant girl who he befriends, and even though he doesn’t know her, he feels compelled to offer her his allegiance, vowing to protect her to the death.
This sets up a plot line where Odd fights to save Annamaria, but this plot never materializes in Odd Hours. Odd does what he has to do to stop the Red Tide and save the day for now, but in the end, this book left us with many more questions and no new answers.
Annamaria is added to the Odd Thomas world as a recurring character who knows too much about Odd, and whose significance we, like the Odd One, don’t really understand. Also, though Odd manages to diffuse the imminent threat, there is a larger conspiracy still at work. The conspiracy and Annamaria’s connection to it will presumably be explored in future volumes.
Koontz has given us nothing but more questions. So how do you keep the audience in suspense? Ask Dean Koontz, he is the master. He has me anxiously awaiting the next 3 Dean Koontz novels.
I’m so glad I haven’t read the first two Frankenstein books, yet. I’m not getting those out until I have a copy of the long-awaited third and final volume in my hands.
As for Odd Hours, I definitely recommend it – if you can wait for the answers that don’t come in this book, and you trust Dean Koontz to provide the answers in the end.
8 out of 10
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