SBD--a series going off the rails?

So I just finished listening to the fourth Odd Thomas book by Dean Koontz. I like Odd. He occasionally goes off on tiresome riffs about good and evil and it's all so very clear-cut in his world. He's no liberal, I can tell you that. And so people are clearly in one camp or another. But with his sense of humor and self-deprecation, it's almost impossible not to like that character. Even when he goes on and on about how horrible we all are today and how we didn't used to be so bad ....., nosirree. And sounds like an old coot who's forgotten about Nazis and the existence of slavery and other oppressions our forefathers invented.

It was annoying when all the monks and nuns were uniformly saintly (in Brother Odd). But now I think the religious stuff going to get worse.

Do I borrow the next book when I can see what's coming? I think I see it's as clear as the evil that lurks in any character who has yellow eyes. (if he's got yellow eyes, he's a bad 'un. Or if he's got bad teeth. Bad teeth, yellow eyes and that's it. You're Satanic.)


Potential spoiler
because, damn, I'm just guessing, okay?



In this book there's a woman who's preggers, doesn't mention a dad for her baby, who seems almost perfect, Beautiful--but not in a sexual way, nuh uh--and who talks about the world that used to be sin-free. Anyway, she' s no person and basically hits all sorts of points on a Joseph Campbell scale (ever notice how Jesus goes off the scale on the hero meter?**) Anyway.

My guess is it's all going to go second coming of Christ here and this uninteresting (perfection is dull) female is our Mary figure. Not that I have anything against Christianity but I suspect Odd's storyline is going to go too big. I like how personal the books have been. I don't get much out of "BIG SHIT happening here!" stories unless they have real characters. And the people seem to be getting flatter as the stories progress. Or maybe I'm just getting tired of that world? Dunno.

It's funny how when authors go firmly in a particular direction they often lose something essential. Like LKH and Anita Blake. She went for teh sex and ardeur factor and lost the toughness, not to mention the story. I'm afraid if Odd goes for Good vs. Evil, which has been a theme but not EVERYTHING, he'll lose everything that makes the story appealing to me.

________
**goddamn it, all I can find is the Hero's Journey which is everywhere and linked to Star Wars and Hobbits nearly everywhere. I know there's a list of heroic qualities. WHERE IS IT? One of them is mysterious birth, lack of father. It was something like 13 items and woooboy. Jesus fit.

Comments

  1. Anonymous12:02 AM

    Nope, can't help you, all I can find are wikis on monomyth and hero's journey, etc. But I know what you're talking about.

    So, what's good about the series? Sounds pretty damned annoying to moi.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I listen to the books--we have a great library--and the reader is fantastic. Plus Odd is pretty appealing, usually and the books are in first person. Usually when I get caught in a series, I'll pay up even if I hate the writing, just to find out what happens I don't hate the writing but I think I wouldn't buy the books...I haven't had to.

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  3. Anonymous12:35 PM

    I am mid-Odd Hours, myself, Kate. And I kindof agree with you -- this one isn't as good as the other Odd Thomas books.

    But I, too, like Odd, and I want to read more about him.

    Koontz is one of my favourites, actually, though I'm more of a fan of his earlier books. The more recent ones seem to be fraught with this meandering introspection that makes me want to skim text. But give me his older ones like Watchers and Lightning (my absolute fave), and I can't put them down, even though I've read some of the older ones SO many times.

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  4. Could this be it?
    http://www.hoocher.com/theepichero.htm

    There's also this one:
    http://ias.berkeley.edu/orias/hero/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Why yes, it would be. All HAIL ELS THE LIBRARIAN!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The first link, I mean--and the more Jungian interpretation.

    ReplyDelete

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