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| Odd Hours (Unabridged) | 
 enlarge | Author: Dean Koontz
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $44.95
Buy New: $23.60
You Save: $21.35 (47%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  171 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B0019ZWMCO
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| Customer Reviews:
 A nice continuation with some small yet interesting links to another series May 21, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
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.
 Disappointing installment, but a very interesting social phenomena May 30, 2008
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
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." 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!
 VERY VERY Disappointed May 31, 2008
10 out of 16 found this review helpful
This story was very short--which would be ok if it was a good story. But it wasn't. I'm a big Dean Koontz fan and I love the "Odd" saga. I pre-ordered this book on Amazon and eagerly anticipated its arrival in my mailbox. Half-way through the book though, I had that sinking feeling that I was going to be disappointed. And I was!! Oh Dean--what happened?! (Spoiler alert!!) What was the point of the coyotes? The whole Annamaria character was nothing more than a setup for the next sequel. She could have been left out entirely without impacting the plot. I look forward to a much better book next time.
 Bigger Bones for a Growing Dog May 24, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Just as big dogs need big bones, a hero of Odd Thomas's caliber requires bigger and bigger challenges. Odd Hours (the fourth in a planned series of seven) answers the call, thrusting our increasingly formidable young hero into a plot worthy of a Bond flick.
Odd has taken up residence in the small seaside town of Magic Beach, serving as personal chef to octogenarian Hutch, a once-famous movie star whose eccentricity is a good match for Odd's oddness. But when Odd begins having nightmares in which the sea turns red, he suspects he's been drawn to this town to interdict another horrible threat. Odd's fears are soon confirmed, when he and Annamaria, a mysteriously charismatic pregnant woman he has recently befriended, are accosted by a trio of thugs whom Odd's clairvoyant powers reveal to be associated with the red-tide threat.
Promising, quite impulsively, to serve as Annamaria's protector and even to die for her if necessary, Odd roams the fog enshrouded beach town in a desperate attempt to thwart the pending bloodshed, discovering that our entire nation's future hangs in the balance. (The lack of hard evidence and Odd's realization that the harbor police are implicated in the plot provide a just-good-enough rationale for Odd to fly solo.) Based on Annamaria's enigmatic ramblings and a series of happenings that are undefined even in Odd's supernatural playbook, it appears that an even more epic struggle between good and evil is also afoot, a set-up for the remaining three installments in the series.
Lest this all seem too heavy and humorless for an Odd Thomas book, I assure you that there are still plenty of lighthearted moments. Frank Sinatra's spirit plays a prominent role, and Koontz is able to work in his love of canines, Shakespeare and philosophy along the way. While some readers may feel shortchanged by Koontz's sequestration of Annamaria during most of the story and by the multitude of unanswered questions, these hooks will keep readers coming back for more. I'm looking forward to seeing where Koontz goes next in the series, crossing my fingers that someone in Hollywood is savvy enough to turn this into a movie or television franchise.
Odd Letdown June 17, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Some series get better as you go along. The original Odd Thomas was an awesome book, while the first sequel Forever Odd was a total disappointment. But unfortunately, like Pirates of the Carribean 3: it CAN and DOES get worse after a horrible sequel.
Odd's quest in this iteration is to keep the bad guys from smuggling nukes into the U.S. Seriously. I guess if you're all out of ideas, then let's try terrorism and see where that takes us.
First off, there are no surprises in this book at all - the whole thing plays out straightforwardly like an action movie, so don't expect horror/suspense. Odd simply follows his psychic intuition everywhere. He hides; he listens in on bad guys; he shoots them when necessary. Never before has such an interesting character bored me to death this bad.
Odd's trademark supernatural power - SEEING DEAD PEOPLE - has always been my favorite part of the Odd Thomas series. Besides for him seeing Frank Sinatra's ghost, this power only happens one other time, and briefly. The creepy "Bodachs" from all the previous Odd Thomas books - the black spirits drawn to death - never make an appearance in this one.
My biggest problem with Odd Hours is that there are so many characters that are given backstory and then provide zero impact on the actual plot events. There's the "red-headed bad guy" who we learn has a wife named "Freddy," who is quickly killed off on the next page.
There's one lady named Birdie Hopkins that picks up Odd in her car even though she doesn't know him, and relates this convoluted story about forcing her way into this guy's house who was about to commit suicide, and how he winds up marrying one of her friends. Birdie's only contribution to the events of the book is that she drives Odd to the harbor. Oh, and gives him a gun too, cause she trusts this stranger so much. There's another woman (Blossom Rosedale) who was nearly burned to death by her father, who fills several pages and provides a place for Annamaria to hide out. If you get to know someone in a book or movie, they should serve some purpose and advance the plot.
Then there's the main bad guys (and there are many) that aren't given ANY backstory, and we get no clues to their motivations. Some rich American was supposedly financing the whole operation... but why? One of the terrorists says there's a side-plot to assassinate the president and VP (yes, this is separate from the nuclear holocaust the bad guys are planning to unleash on America). This element was never resolved.
There's never any explanation as to who the Annamaria character really is. She's made to seem of critical importance, and her cryptic answers to questions suggest that later on there will be some payoff... Who is her babydaddy? Why no last name? Who is her benefactor that makes it possible to live without working?
A priest shoots his wife of 18 years with no more explanation than "she was going to take a cut of my payout." I can suspend my disbelief in regards to the supernatural powers, but you have to give some justification for the preposterous behavior.
Then there are all the events that make no sense and are never elaborated on. A pack of coyotes shows up twice to threaten Odd, only to slink off after being forcefully told to go away. Another time, Odd becomes fascinated with a sewer storm drain for reasons locked up in Dean Koontz's mind. Still another time, there's a moving porch swing without a person on it that has some significance that's only obvious to the author. These should serve some purpose, right? What was the point to all this?
There were so many questions left unanswered, that it makes this book profoundly unsatisfying. If you're looking for an entertaining piece of fiction, you will need to find it elsewhere. I would honestly consider myself a fan of Dean Koontz. Right up until I read Odd Hours.
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