When we all lived in the forest
  • Home
  • Fantasy Reading
  • Science Fiction Reading
  • Publications
  • Amusements
  • Moth Books

#46: Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz

9/10/2015

0 Comments

 
Have never read Dean Koontz, as popular as he is.  Have also never heard of this "Odd Thomas" series, which features a very young and itinerant fry cook who see ghosts and has a mishmash of other psychic powers. There are several of these Odd Thomas books, and I accidentally ordered one toward the end rather than the first one.  It worked out.  It was a super cool book and, of course, odd.

I think Charlaine Harris stole the format of this series for her Sookie storyline, but I doubt she got anywhere near what made this book so much fun and near impossible to put down: Odd Thomas's observations and reveries about everything that happens around him.  The odd (so odd, the way Odd has conversations with people that never quite intersect what they say in return, the way Odd  really is so alone with only his thoughts) story serves as a plate for the main course: what is running through Odd's mind.      

Some bites of what is in there:

"Every talent is unearned, however, and with it comes a solemn obligation to use it as fully and as wisely as possible.  If I didn't believe in the miraculous nature of talent and in the sacred duty of the recipient, by now I would have gone so insane that I'd qualify for numerous high government positions."

"Anyway, the dead can be even more frustrating to deal with than are many of the living, which is astonishing when you consider that it's the living who run the Department of Motor Vehicles." 

"But you can't  stand an idea up against a wall and shoot it."


Thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable.  Terrifically written.  His first name is really Odd, too.  I don't know about Dean Koontz's other stories, but I think I would really enjoy reading more Odd Thomas stories.  

Lessons for Writers: In reality, we ourselves keep a running commentary of what is happening around us.  Perhaps this reaction and involvement with the story by a character is too often forgotten in writing.  We remember to write down reactions only in the most rudimentary way, but not the way we really think about things.  It's magical almost.  And odd!

And lest we forget, Dean Koontz owns airport books sales.  
0 Comments

    Page

    In 2011, I began reading a list of 100 Great Fantasy Novels. I am listing them on this page.

    Me
    ​
    Hi!  I am Nye Joell Hardy.  
    I write science fiction and fantasy.  The science fiction makes my head happy.  The fantasy makes my heart happy.  Although I sell all these things, none are making me rich.  But I'm happy, damn it.  

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    Categories

    All
    Atlantis
    Buddhist
    Charles John Cutliffe Wright Hyne
    Christopher Priest
    Cthulhu
    Dean Koontz
    Diana Wynn Jones
    Dylan Thomas
    Emma Bull
    Fantasy
    Forgotten Books
    Gene Wolfe
    Hindu
    Howl's Moving Castle
    H.P. Lovecraft
    Jan Lars Jensen
    John Crowley
    Lovecraft
    N.K. Jemisin
    Odd Apocalypse
    Odd Thomas
    Oree
    Pterodactyl
    Roger Zelazny
    Rudyard Kipling
    Shere Khan
    Shiny
    Shiva 3000
    Stephen King
    The Broken Kingsoms
    The Dark Tower
    The Drawing Of The Three
    The Gunslinger
    The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
    The Jungle Book
    The Lost Continent
    The Waste Lands
    T.S. Eliot
    Viriconium
    Wales
    Welsh
    Writing
    Writing Lessons

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly