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Loading... Odd Hoursby Dean Koontz
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. katemate36 | Jul 10, 2009 |   I have to confess that although I've read other books by Dean Koontz, I had not read any of the Odd series, which revolves around a thoughtful man (named Odd) with paranormal abilities. I believe if I had read the first three books in the series, that I would have loved this book. The man character is a delight, the setting is readily visualized and the action is nonstop. The book is worth reading just for the dialog, both Odd's internal thoughts and his dialog with the cast of characters. The downside of the book is that I feel like I was dropped into the middle of a much longer story. A great deal apparently went on before this book began and the book ends with two of the characters going on the lam. Obviously there will be more books in the series. This title is a must have for library collections with other books in the Odd series. (  )Gexy | Jul 6, 2009 | Let me get this straight from the start: Odd Hours is not a great book. It's not even a great Dean Koontz book (for that, try Strangers, Lightning, Velocity, or The Good Guy). It's formulaic, cosy, and at times - partly through Koontz's attempts to lighten the thriller elements with Odd's quirky outlook and an increasingly hippyish supporting cast - somewhat annoying. And yet, like all Koontz novels (even the aforementioned stinker), it's a supreme page-turner with likable heroes, dastardly villains (terrorists plotting to smuggle nuclear weapons into the US via a small seaside port), and some imaginative set pieces (the highlight this time being a poltergeist Frank Sinatra kicking up a tantrum to save Odd from a psychotic police chief). Read the full review at my blog. ( )rolhirst | Jun 4, 2009 | Odd Thomas sees ghosts, and although they can hear him, they cannot communicate with him other than through gestures. After leaving the seminary, Odd has taken a job in Magic Beach, California as cook for a film star of the 1940s and ‘50s who now writes children’s books. Elvis has gone over to the other side but now Frank Sinatra is hanging out with Odd, as is Odd’s ghost dog Boo. Odd has a recurring apocalyptic dream which disturbs him. On the beach, he sees a young pregnant woman and recognizes her as part of his dream. Odd stops to talk to her, and from that point, everything seems to go wrong. Three brutes try to kill him but Odd manages to get away. He takes refuge in a church only to be betrayed by the pastor, who calls the police. Through wily measures, Odd learns officials of Magic Beach are corrupt and have cleared the way for terrorists to bring nuclear weapons into America. Koontz excels at moving his plots forward at a fast pace, packed with action and suspense. Odd Thomas is an endearing character, a simple man who wants nothing more than to live a simple life which, through his “gift”, is denied him. Although questions are left unanswered, Koontz is certain to clear things up with following books in this series. (  )ctfrench | Jun 3, 2009 | Dean Koontz fourth installment in his Odd Thomas series brings us Odd Hours. Odd Thomas is a simple, ordinary fry cook from a dinky little California town, Pico Mundo. Odd would have preferred to spend his life in a quest to create the perfect omelet and home fries, but he has an extraordinary gift. He communicates with the dead. Odd finds himself in the, well, oddest situations. He is drawn to places and people that need his help, and it almost seems like he has been tasked with keeping the evil that men plot and plan at bay. Having been accompanied by Elvis and a ghostly dog, Boo in the past, now Odd finds himself and Boo with a different companion. With their assistance Odd must come to understand the frightening dream he has been having; a dream of red ebbing tides and horrible light hanging over the sea. It’s hard for me to say what I love the most about the Odd Thomas books. It could be Odds humble and humorous way of dealing with life, his wry delivery when speaking about the strangeness he lives with. It could also be the fascinating characters that fill the pages. Odd always finds the most unique and interesting people. These people are folks we see every day and Odd Thomas discovers their stories. I finish one of these books and find myself looking at the people I see daily and wondering if they have an interesting story too. I find the thoughts of the protagonist particularly refreshing… “….Those who choose to live criminal lives are not the brightest among us. This truth inspires a question: If evil geniuses are so rare, why do so many bad people get away with so many crimes against their fellow citizens and, when they become leaders of nations, against humanity? Edmund Burke provided the answer in 1795: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. I would only add this: It is also essential that good men and women not be educated and propagandized into believing that real evil is a myth and that all malevolent behavior is merely the result of a broken family’s or a failed society’s shortcomings, amenable to cure by counseling and by the application of new economic theory.” I was given a copy of Odd Hours and also had the audio book, so this was a combination of listening and reading. David Aaron Baker read the audio book in an absolutely spectacular performance. Odd Hours could most likely stand alone, but really why would you want to ignore the other three books in the series? The whole series is very good, and Odd Hours is just great! (  )NovelBookworm | Mar 17, 2009 | 1  0.039 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0553807056, Hardcover)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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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This time things are very different for Odd. His character goes through some pretty immense changes in this story. Not only that but this novel is entirely differently paced to the preceding three. Spanning a matter of hours in plot time, looking back, it seems hard to believe that a whole book encompasses less than a day. However, things are not entirely slow going. During the telling of this latest tale, our hero has obviously matured quite a lot since his time with the Brotherhood, and he must face demons this time who are at least in part of his own making.
We are reminded from time to time about the ancient history of Pico Mundo and Stormy Llewellyn, of Ozzie, his author friend and all of his clients at the local grill bar but essentially this book is a leap pad for Odd to change direction in his life, leaving the reader waiting with baited breath for the next instalment, which hopefully isn't too far around the corner. (