I think I’m reaching a scientific breakthrough on these books. I liked the first<\/a>, where Odd Thomas interacted with a lot of people. I didn’t like the second<\/a>, where Odd was on his own thinking to himself as much. I liked third<\/a>, where Odd interacts with lots of people, more than I liked the second. Now this one, the fourth, and Odd spends a lot of time wandering in the fog on his own being a bit of an action hero, and…. Well, if you were taking a standardized quiz, you would best fill in the circle for “He didn’t like it much.”<\/p>\n In this book, Odd Thomas is on a seashore town trying to prevent an apocalyptic vision from occurring. It somehow involves a cryptic mother-to-be who seems wiser than her years and seems to know a lot about Odd Thomas. And it involves Odd wandering around in the thick fog of the seaside town trying to dodge corrupt cops and to prevent the aforementioned apocalypse.<\/p>\n And he does, of course, almost as a matter of course. He seems to be in no real jeopardy as the story progresses, even as a woman mystically drawn to people in trouble appears out of the fog to give Odd a gun so he can be an action hero for a bit. Then the book ends as Odd and the cryptic mother-to-be head to parts unknown as he’s pledged to defend her with his life. Because he does. Never mind, I don’t get it either.<\/p>\n I snuck a look at the Wikipedia entry for the series, and I see Koontz plans a couple more books and has a graphic novel or two in the series already as well as a Web series going on. Ah, I see. That would explain a bit of it, then. The plotting and depth of the book sort of match what you would get in a graphic novel, but with more Odd Thomas interior monologue to fill it out. Not quite up to snuff. And this book ends kind of in the middle of a larger story, unlike the others, which detracts from it. I didn’t want to read a comic book without pictures.<\/p>\n I hope the other books in the series pick it back up.<\/p>\n