Book Review: Forever Odd

Forever Odd, by Dean Koontz

Source: Amazon.com

From the book’s cover:

I see dead people. But then, by God, I do something about it. Odd Thomas never asked for his special ability. He’s just an ordinary guy trying to live a quiet life in the small desert town of Pico Mundo. Yet he feels an obligation to do right by his otherworldly confidants, and that’s why he’s won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death. But when a childhood friend disappears, Odd discovers something worse than a dead body and embarks on a heart-stopping battle of will and wits with an enemy of exceptional cunning. In the hours to come there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope.

You’re invited on an unforgettable journey through a world of terror and transcendence to wonders beyond imagining. And you can have no better guide than Odd Thomas.

The Review:

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that the first Odd Thomas book will be the only one of which I have more nice things to say than criticisms. Having glanced through Amazon.com's reviews just before writing this sentence, it looks like I'm not the only one. Some people seem to really like Koontz's style and content. Others appear to very much not like it. As for myself, I am on the fence. I like that the Odd Thomas books have a not-so-subtle under-current of religion and faith running through them. This is one area in which King, whose material is somewhat similar, is clearly not invested (though it would be easy to call King a horror writer and Koontz a thriller writer). Much of King's content seems to be agnostic at best, whereas Koontz has, in these books at least, kept a steady flow of religious and spiritual material (as in Holy Spirit, and not ghosts and such spirit). That has its charms.

On the other hand, Koontz seems to be pumping the stuff out so fast that he doesn't craft his works as well as... well, King (I mentioned this in my review of Odd Thomas too). I claim that he pumps out his work fast because I always seem to see something new on the shelf from him when I am in a book store. Admittedly, it has been awhile since I was actually inside a bookstore, but the sheer volume of his writings and the pace he keeps makes me wonder. Yes, I do admire anyone who can write that much and still live a decent life. On the other hand, I think his writing would be a bit more solid and a little less potboiler if he took more time on each piece. Just my clearly amateurish viewpoint here, for what that is worth.

The author, Dean Koontz / Source: WBSM.com

Forever Odd's opening has tension, but not as much as the beginning of the first novel in the series. And the scenes underground in the flood run-off channels, which seem to serve an alternate purpose other than flood control (pull tab in case of nuclear war, that is), are vaguely menacing and suitably spooky. The dead body of the "snake" man seemed a bit cliche to me. You did this in the last book, Koontz, with the "fungus man." Sure, it comes a bit faster, and may turn out differently, but the sudden appearance of a corpse of someone we've been following is a bit too convenient to be believed when used twice in a row.

The factoid about Elvis and his having an older identical twin brother who died at birth was interesting. And the brief overview of Elvis as a person also made me slightly more interested in the King Of Rock And Roll. I've never been an Elvis fan of any great degree, but his personal history sounds a bit more intriguing now that I am in possession of these small details. Then again, Elvis as a character in the book is still a bit of a stretch. Maybe I was just poisoned by Brother Odd, having accidentally read it first (but I'll try not to ruin what happens, for those of you who care).

The imagery of the underground drainage tunnels was nice mental eye candy, despite the novel's flaws.  Here is an image of a massive tunnel in Glasgow, used for run-off.  This scene doesn't quite fit the one painted by Koontz, but at least it is similar in scope and feel. / Source: TheConstructionIndex.co.uk

Koontz also reviews the past exploits of his characters a bit too much. I know he's trying to get people up to speed, but I find too much fill-in from previous parts of a book series to be annoying. Maybe it is because I read things, like series, in such quick succession. This book was obviously meant to be read when the next one came out in a few months time. I don't know. But I'm not crazy about his recap style. Too clunky for my taste. I just finished your last book, and here you are, recapping away? Hmmmm.

[Now having completed most of the book] Koontz seems to have a flair for interesting locales. The flood control underground setting is followed by a really inventive use of an earthquake-damaged and then burned up Indian casino. The place makes a nice setting for the latter half of the book. The descriptions of the environs alone kept me engaged, and thankfully the book draws away from its weaker beginning here. Plus we meet Dohtura (sp?) who easily qualifies as a really crazy/bad villainess. Koontz really does psycho-crazy well here. She's almost worth the price of admission. There are some pretty disturbing scenes which come from this character's presence in the story. This reminds me of Odd Thomas (the novel), which did similar things, and did them well

But then things go downhill. After Dohtura gets mauled to death by the mountain lion (Dues Ex Machina anyone?), Odd is chased through the hotel by the psycho chick's last loyal henchman. They get caught in a drainage culvert during a flash flood (due to the storm outside), and swept into the sluice gate for the underground reservoir which is the stygian abyss at the end of the flood control tunnels our hero traversed earlier in the story. Koontz tries to get his audience excited here, but fails to reach the same interest level that his first novel evoked. The struggle for survival on the bars of the gate, and the eventual death of the badguy and Odd's temporary condition as a disembodied spirit are interesting, if only in an academic sort of way. But the lack of an explanation for Odd's method of escape - he shows up in a local restaurant with no memory of how he got there, except for the events he witnessed while disembodied, which are conveniently corroborated by those he visited in spirit form - and then the lack of corpses for both of Dohtura's henchmen, is all a bit thin.

Another Google Image look-up, just to set the mood.  This abandoned casino is located at Bokor Hill Station, an abandoned French settlement in southern Cambodia.  If the place was in a desert landscape, and a but more massive in scale, it might better evoke what Koontz had in mind.  Of course, there are actual unfinished casinos in Nevada that might be a bit closer, but none of the images I saw fit the description Koontz gives.  As noted in the last image caption, it is the scene settings from Forever Odd that really sells the story, and not the plot itself, in my opinion. / Source: TripWow.TripAdvisor.com

Also, the book could have ended on an interesting note if it had not included the very final chapter, which sets up Odd to go to the monastery that I discovered him in when I picked up the third book of the series, inadvertently thinking it the first of the novel group. Some of the voodoo stuff Dohtura had been referencing during her rants in the casino are explained, and they do leave a touch of a shiver on the reader's spine. But then Koontz ruins it by tying the whole package up nice and neat.

In the end, I didn't hate this book. I just didn't find it as satisfying as some others I have read. Koontz has given us brain candy, without much filling to tide the reader over. There are aspersions to finery, but they just don't hold the whole thing together. For instance, at the book's outset, when discussing the need to tell the friend with brittle bones that his father was murdered and the ramifications of Odd's inability to save people from horrible trouble (this fact was held back to the end of the book), the local police chief makes a penetrating statement: "You can't fix a broken thing by breaking another part of it." That's an interesting thought. But then Odd makes, around this same time, some other deep philosophical ranting that left me pretty much blank. Some of Koontz's proses just makes so little emotional or intellectual impact to me, as a reader. It's meant to be deep, but given the circumstances, it feels like moralizing for moralizing's sake from the author, and falls a bit flat. I point to my above example: on the one hand we had a nice little nugget of wisdom, and on the other, some pointless monologue-ish sermon that breaks the spell of disbelief for the reader. That's my take on it.

So in conclusion, Forever Odd was not worth a high place in my reading que. It passed time, and was tepidly exciting in places, but I must be too cynical or too jaded to appreciate it fully, I suppose. If what I have written about it sounds interesting to you, by all means, give it a look. But if you read the first book in the series and were hoping for something that good as a follow-up, let me assure you that you're barking up the wrong tree here.

Learn more about Forever Odd, by Dean Koontz, on Amazon.com


The parting comment:

Source: terrytribune.com

I prefer odd ducks myself.  This one is certainly odder than most.  What will a duck do with money, anyway?