Odd Hours
One of the first Dean Koontz books I ever read was Odd Thomas, and I could barely put it down. The person of Odd Thomas read to me as if he was a person, not a character, constructed out of someone’s mind.
His words were soft and sympathetic, with the humbled tone and blunt honesty that would become this series trademarks. Some say that an author’s goal is to bring characters to life, but Odd Thomas did not need to be brought to life, he was already alive. Koontz himself has even stated that Odd is the only character of his that was not pieced together from various sources, but instead came to him fully formed. More than that, this series of books (or manuscripts, as Odd himself likes to refer to them), seemed to me, to be a journey of some sort, from where to where I could not say. But indeed, does that not sound like life?
Odd Hours is the fourth book in this series, and is a bit of a throwback to the second book in the series, Forever Odd, with its emphasis on action, away from the personal ruminations of Odd. When I finished my first run through of the book, it made me feel a bit hollow, like I had somehow misplaced a third of the book. While this originally left me fairly disappointed, after reading through a second time, and with a bit more deliberate pace, focusing on how this manuscript fits into the overarching narrative of Odd and his journey through life. This book begins the the second (and most likely final) phase of Odd’s life. The first two books represent the beginning stages, placing Odd in the circumstances to prepare him for an oncoming crisis that extends beyond anything covered in any of Odd’s manuscripts. The previous manuscript and this combine to form a sort of transitional stage, providing various support structures around which he can face this oncoming threat.
Clues as to what this threat will be come fairly early on and are interspersed throughout the manuscript, some more subtle that others, but to any who have read the Moonlight Bay trilogy, the entire book is littered with references and events placing Odd Thomas firmly within the universe. I almost leapt from my seat and yelped triumphantly at all of the implications. I won’t reveal all for those who have not read them, but trust me when I say this, the trouble Odd Thomas has been in will pale to the probably threats he will face in the coming manuscripts.
The prose is Dean Koontz at his subtle finest, creating the fog that Magic Beach is enveloped in with deliberate choice, created more in absence than in presence, in omission than in description. Which, after having read the book through a second time, strikes me as a very deliberate choice given the place this manuscript has in the series. The characters that are presence are not very well developed. Not thin mind you, even the villains, but mere not fully fleshed out. This continues the trope of fogginess evident in the plot of the book, the setting, the characters, all of it. This is the end is where I think a lot of complaints will come from, and I tend to be more sympathetic to them. I was hoping for more, but after careful consideration, I can’t really see this manuscript accomplishing the same role in the series with anything added. This purpose that comes with this fogginess makes it a bit more palatable, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I was just a little disappointed with this entrance.
In sum, this is an excellent transitional book, placing Odd Thomas firmly outside of his comfort zone and into a very fascinating universe, one fill with both wonder and danger, of kind strangers and hostile threats vague in distance but frighteningly real in consequence. I cannot wait for Odd’s next tale, and how he explores the new universe where he has been placed.
8.0/10.0
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