Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, and Brother Odd
During my reading of the truly great City on Fire, I have started doing something I usually never do: reading short, easy books as a break. This says something interesting about City on Fire, that I will attempt to figure out and get to that in that review, nonetheless, what it means for the present is that I suddenly revisited the early books of Koontz's Odd Thomas series. I am not sure why these choices, because of all the books I could re-read -- and Lord knows there are many -- these theoretically would have been close to last, but hey, they are easy, were available for immediate digital download from the library, and apparently are the antidote to City on Fire overload.
My first go-around with Odd Thomas was on audiobook and I dimly remember enjoying emmensly the narrative work of David Allen Baker -- enough that somehow, even though I listened to this some 10 years ago (!), I still could hear him voicing the eponymous Odd. I think Baker probably increased the worth of the novel, and must have done for Forever Odd, since I had remembered this somehwat fondly, but on the actual re-read, thought was pretty stupid. Though comparing our initial foray into the world of Odd Thomas to books two (Forever Odd) and three (Brother Odd) in the series, it does seem like a Pulitizer winner.
But that is actually pretty harsh, since my largest complaints for Forever Odd and Brother Odd are not the charming title character or his, dare I say it, odd life, but the plots that verge on ridiculous – Forever Odd – and unrealistic and rather stupid in Brother Odd (spoiler alert, not that you don't see this coming: rogue brilliant physicist builds intense laboratory in a monestary and turns out to be a mad scientist being chased down by NSA operative posing as monestary guest). The writing is not terrible, certainly no worse than most Koontz books, which given the self-publishing movement does make you consider that he does have talent, and his characterization is suitably endearing. Yet, that it turned out I remembered diddly about the plot of Forever Odd and didn't even remember that I listened to Brother Odd, so this must say something about the decreasing impact of the series...on me at least.
Yet Odd Thomas has some real appeal as long as you enter the town of Pico Mundo and the characters that populate it with a generous spirit and don't expect too much. The concept, a young man who can see, and help, ghosts is engaging. There are some funny turns of phrase and additions of “characters” like Terrible Chester, while not groundbreaking, are...cute. And certain moments, like when Odd must assure his landlady she is not invisible, border on touching. There is a good story here, but you do need to swallow a lot and a man who sees spirits is really the least of it. Some characters are so sterotypical you are glad that they are never presented in more than a two-dimentional way. Take for example Little Ozzie, a 400-pound wealthy author who mentors Odd. Little Ozzie is erudite in the most cookie-cutter fashion possible; with his attention to the finer things and obscure quotes, he comes off like a pale imitation of Nero Wolfe. But now that I think about it, I think in some respects this is what Koontz may be going for. He doesn't seem overly concerned with going deep and really developing anything truly unique and in this way Odd Thomas is, albeit enteratining, junk food. Koontz reinforces this with the keep-it-light presentation that allows Koontz to not only side-step character development and realism, but allows him to glide over topics like serial murder, mass shootings, and child neglect. As Odd reminds us, several times, the point of the book is not to dwell on the negative, which ultimately necessites not really dwelling on anything at all.
The comic tone is most effective in Odd Thomas since the same “jokes” are recycled ad nauseum in the latter two books and thus lose their chuckle-value. (Though since Brother Odd did deal with monks and nuns, there were a few novel giggles here). Even the ghost of Elvis becomes annoying by book three and honestly, if I hear about the English kid one more time...I think that for me was actually the larger problem in the series thus far: Koontz dedicates way too much time bringing later readers up-to-date on Odd's earlier activities. I did not measure, so I do not know, whether it is true that one-third of each of the later books is dedicated to telling the reader about stuff that happened in Odd Thomas (including back-stories alluded to in Odd Thomas that appear identically referenced, and no more explained in Forever and Brother Odd) or whether these were directly lifted from Odd Thomas, though they read like it, but that this interpretation is still made is not a ringing endorsement for a successful series.
But here is my problem, which makes me not know how I would ultimately like to review these books, I want to read the next one. I care somewhat about Odd and I think I can't stop being optimistic that Koontz will adandon the self-plagarism in favor of acknowledging that people who are reading the series have actually read the earlier books and turn out some light suspense/mystery. Even if the plots are goofy and the surface skin deep.
Odd Thomas: 3.8/5
Forever Odd: 3/5
Brother Odd: 3/5
