Odd Apocalypse: An Odd Thomas Novel, Book 5

Mysteries of Tesla inventions and the probability of time travel. What happens to people when given the opportunity of eternal youth?

Those fans of Dean Koontz, including me, will feel comfortable as the Koontz style fits like an old glove, and Odd Thomas, Dean's alter ego, seems like an old friend - He who is moral to a fault (believing, however, that pumping a couple of rounds into an evil person is OK), seldom uses bad language (except a few damns), makes the worlds fluffiest pancakes, and sees dead people. This episode, in a continuing series, follows the previous caper at Magic Beach, begins with a ghost lady on a ghost horse, and takes us to a mansion where a wicked 1920s movie producer has discovered the secret of eternal life using a time machine (stranger than the one in Lightning) invented by Nikola Tesla. Odd is staying there as a guest with his pregnant friend, whom we last saw at Magic Beach, and whom was the cause of the invitation - for reasons not yet explained. In exploring the mansion, Odd finds a basement full of corpse evidence that the movie producer has become a serial killer to combat his boredom at being confined to the electric field ringed mansion property in order to prolong his life - the girls are supplied by his loyal helpers who can leave the property and come back. Odd's main job there is to save a young boy, who also has eternal life as long as he stays there, and is the cruel producer's son, whose mother is the ghost on the horse, and one of the dead bodies in the basement. Alfred Hitchcock appears and just kind of hangs around, enjoying the proceedings, as monster creatures from an earlier (or later) time arrive and complicate things by trying to kill Odd and and everyone else. Finally, Odd finds out how the time machine works, with the help of a transiently appearing Tesla, and shuts it off, causing all the bad guys to disappear, and he, his pregnant friend, and the boy all escape - with the approval of Alfred Hitchcock. To us fans of Dean Koontz, this is kind of par for the course - not his best book, nor his worse. - many John D. MacDonald type humorous quips, and lots of the standard Koontz (slightly right wing) philosophy - with a few lines lifted from the Bible: e.g. "The human heart is a great deceiver, deceitful above all things". The ending leaves loose ends (a still pregnant lady) leading, no doubt, into the next in the Odd series, which I will probably read too. Oh yes, there was a Golden Retriever, but only in a bit part. No apocalypse happened - thankfully.

The Odd Thomas books have proven to be a hit or miss series in my opinion. Some are consistently exciting and interesting while others have long boring and repetitive stretches that I have had to skim just to finish the book. Odd Apocalypse is one of those books I had to skim long portions of. The first half of the book was so boring and uneventful that I actually put the book down and expected I would never finish it, something I have never done before. However, after several weeks had passed and after reading several other books, I decided to give Apocalypse another chance. I’m really glad I did: the second half of the book be turned out to be one of the most imaginative and exciting of all of the Odd Thomas books, with incredible scientific inventions causing astonishing events and truly terrifying villains. Too explain any further would spoil the thrill of discovering these events for yourself. So, ultimately, I highly recommend the book but be prepared for a boring slog for the first portion of the book.

As other reviewers here have analyzed and critiqued the storyline much better than I could, I will not add a summary of the storyline, except to say that it was very dark. I generally like some darkness in books and movies, but I didn't enjoy the BDSM aspects of this book (which is strange since I liked the Mord Sith in the Sword of Truth series.)I have enjoyed the Odd Thomas series very much and was excited to get this book. I read it very quickly and wanted to like it, but I didn't. It was entertaining and imaginative; however, it felt ... forced? There were too many unrelated jokes, too much flowery prose, and too many pop culture references that gave it a forced feeling, as though there was some quota on forced jokes, pop references, and flowery prose that must be inserted in the book whether they added to the story or not. I also felt there was too much repetitive explaining of Odd throughout the book. Since the book is in a series, it's not a stand-alone. We know Odd is a fry cook; we already know Odd's abilities and what he's been through. A little refresher is fine, but it continued through the entire book. In such a short book, all of this added together felt like filler lessening the actual progression of the greater storyline of the entire series.I chuckled out loud at first at the jokes."Anyway, the dead can be 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."However, they were thrown in too often and everywhere which gave them a forced feel. They became rather irritating for some reason.As to the pop culture references, I didn't feel they were artfully inserted, but rather thrown in too much."Women don't find me as appealing as they do, say, that singer Justin Bieber. But I take comfort from the fact that Justin Bieber wouldn't know how to escape from a walk-in freezer after being chained there by a couple of huge guys in porkpie hats."He mentions Tom Cruise and many others several times. I generally like some pop references if used in the story skillfully and meaningfully like Stephen King uses them at times, but they again somehow felt forced in this story.Then there is the out of place flowery prose everywhere. I like flowery prose when used appropriately, but its use in this book seemed excessive and out of place. 3/4 of the way through the book, I found my self turning pages after not reading but a few lines and skipping the prose to get to the actual story -- which is highly uncharacteristic of me. Also, I tend to expect more wordy prose in long epic books than in such short ones as this.I also got a feeling in this book that it's not as much about the writing of a fantastic story as it is about leading the reader on for financial reasons. It felt like some publisher was planning many more short Odd Thomas books, so each book would reveal less of the truth behind Annamaria as to get people to buy the next book even if the books were not as good. There was too much "filler" in the book and not enough that actually contributed to the greater storyline of the entire series. It's starting to feel too commercial. I don't remember having these same feelings while reading the previous books. The first book is my favorite still.If you love the Odd Thomas series, I suggest reading this book for that sake alone. As I stated, it is somewhat entertaining and did keep me on the edge of my seat at times. Hopefully the next book in the series will be better, although I'm not sure I'll buy it. I may just check it out of the library or borrow it from a friend who buys it. I was disappointed in this book to that great of an extent.Edit: I explained this review and my thoughts to my sister, and I think she summed it all up by saying, "It's when an older person tries too hard to sound cool to draw in the younger generation, it tends to fall flat and sound forced." P.S. We are the older generation. She reminded me that when Stephen King uses pop culture references and humor, it's about things that he and our generation can relate to, so it works for us.

Have always massively enjoyed Odd Thomas books, and one of the strengths of the series is how varied the scrapes he gets himself into are. The first book had so many wild supernatural ideas but still managed to somehow feel grounded, and setting up that balance early on means there really isn't any situation or adventure that Odd can't fit into. That said, the occasional dips into science fiction that the series takes can still throw me a little. Hard to explain but for some reason the sci-fi elements just feel more out there than the crazy supernatural events.That doesn't jar for long though, and it is (as always), great to stumble through another adventure with Odd. I found the pacing and structure meant the first half didn't particularly grip - there's a lot of Odd wandering about rather aimlessly chatting to the various characters and getting the lay of the land - but once things escalate they do so with a page-turning intensity (and quite a visceral gut-punch) that I probably haven't felt to this degree since the first book.It's hard to see how any Odd Thomas book can ever match the emotional arc of the original novel, but in terms of thrills and spills this shows the series is still going strong.

I have read all of the Odd stories up to and including this one and I am now finding they have become staler as the series goes on. What I mean by that is the stories have lost that quirky appeal and have become a little formulaic. This is only to be expected after 5 or 6 books in a series. If you are new to Odd, then I think you will enjoy this a lot. If you have read other Odd books, well this one is okay.

the series of Odd Thomas are one of the best that Koontz has written, there is no doubt about it.the setting and start is known: Odd arrives at a new place where he feels that bad things are about to happen but this time Koontz also creates some scary and mysterious characters, some monsters and beasts spooking around. what all is about is revealed bit by bit, the story always keeps a good pace and is very thrillingI don't want to spoil the content too much but in the end it has to do with control of time and sort of a time machinehow this matches? just read!

Truly awful, self indulgent and poorly written claptrap by what used to be one of my favourite authors. There are so many problems with this book I don't know where to begin, but my main issue is that having enjoyed the premise of the earlier Odd Thomas books (basically an "I see dead people" character living in an otherwise normal world with one or two quirks), its got further away from that into fantastical monsters, time travel, alternate dimensions such that I no longer enjoy it.Furthermore, the writing has declined in quality and is full of superfluous padding as if Koontz was contracted to write a book and didn't know how to fill it. Situations that should be resolved quickly take ages to finish and this robs the moment of any dramatic tension. For example, in one awful scene, Odd Thomas is taking refuge in an oak tree from mysterious beasts trying to get him. Nothing happens essentially but the whole episode takes around thirty pages due to drivel like this;"there was a reasonably good chance that these beasts were not climbers. Mountain Lions can climb, but coyotes can't. Bears can climb, but wolves can't. Squirrels are great at it, rabbits embarrass themselves trying."I could go on quoting paragraph after paragraph of this fatuous and embarassing prose but trust me, the book is filled with it.I appreciate that Odd Thomas has always been about his thoughts and feelings as he goes about his adventures but this for me will definitely be the last money I will hand over for this series.Awful.

I think this may be my second favourite after the original first book. Really gripping and interesting. Still waiting for the apocalypse...