Brother Odd

Dean Koontz is one of my all-time favorite authors. He writes stories that have plenty of creepy moments, while at the same time mixing in a laugh-out-loud sense of humor. His books are an easy read, which at times can be a breath of fresh air.

Brother Odd is the third and latest book in the Odd Thomas series. The main character, Odd Thomas, is a young man with a sixth sense. What he lacks in personal ambition, he makes up for with his visions of the lingering dead, whose spirits have yet to move on from this world to the next for whatever reasons. What’s interesting about this, is he can in some ways interact with these spirits, but they can’t talk. Because of these visions, he can sometimes sense when death and violence are just over the horizon. It’s up to him to figure out as best he can what that impending doom is, and find a way to stop it.

In this book, Odd is spending time in a monastery to try and get away from this sixth sense, and hopefully find rest and refuge. The monastery is connected to a school and home for disabled children. After some time has passed, a missing monk who turns up dead reveals a horror which is based in mad scientific experiments. The odd one along with several friends he’s made at the monastery must fight to save the children from this evil presence.

Wow! Six months flies by! I say that like there’s actually someone reading this, haha. Anyway, if you used to read this site, and you’re still subscribed to the feed, here’s a new review. Oh, and Happy New Year!

Taking a Break….

I’m currently taking a little break from reading fiction. I have several projects going at the moment. If you’re interested in keeping up with what I’m up to, just visit my primary site, Antbag.com. I will get back to reading soon.

Gone For Good

This is another excellent book from Harlan Coben. This is the second book I’ve read by this author, and I would say he’s becoming one of my favorites. He has such a great style, it just reels you in.

The story is about Will Klein, who grows up looking up to his older brother as a hero figure. About the time Will is entering adulthood, his former high school sweetheart is brutally murdered, and the prime suspect is Will’s older brother, Ken Klein. Ken vanishes when this happens. Although the authorities consider Ken the murderer, some of his blood was found at the murder scene and the Klein family believes he’s dead.

Fast forward eleven years…….Will finds proof that his brother is in fact alive. He follows every lead he can to find out the truth. In the process he learns many good and not-so-good things about his brother and himself as he peels away the layers of hidden truth.

This was one of those books that was a pretty fast read, yet it was still pretty deep. I may just hold onto this one and read it again in the future.

Separation of Power – Vince Flynn

Finally, I finished this book. It didn’t take so long because it wasn’t good, but because I just got busy with “stuff”. Rather than sitting down for several hours at a time to read, I opted to read a chapter or two when it was convenient. The result was reading the same book for the past three weeks or so. Now, as for the book…..

This is Vince Flynn’s fourth book, the third one featuring special operative, Mitch Rapp. The story picks up where The Third Option left off. That’s great for a big fan of this series such as myself. However, if you picked this book up as a stand alone book, I think you would get confused pretty quick. There are a lot of references to the past books, that I’m not sure how you could understand if you haven’t read the past books, despite the short explanations provided.

In this book, Mitch continues to explore who tried to kill him during the last book. During this, he also gets involved in another mission, despite the fact he has “retired”. I got a little confused at one point. It seemed the book was headed in one direction for a couple hundred pages, then completely shifted directions. Fortunately, by the end of the book, it all comes together into a great ending.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but when I read a novel, especially this “series”, I tend to form an image in my mind of what the characters look like. Do you do that? For many of them, I visualize a celebrity playing the part in a movie, other characters I can’t help but see them as someone I know in my own life. I was thinking about this while reading this book, and I kept seeing former senator, Fred Thompson, as the Senator Hank Clark character. There are others as well, but I won’t bore you with that.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of Vince Flynn and you’ve read the first three books in his series, this is a MUST READ. If not, pick up Term Limits, and start there.

Small Update

I’m still reading Separation of Power. I’ve had a lot going on over the last couple of weeks, that has kept me from reading as much. I’ve started the book a couple of weeks ago, and I’m only half way through it right now. I plan to finish it up right away, and I’ve got a few others planned:

• The Lions Game by Nelson DeMille – this is the follow-up to Plum Island
• Gone For Good by Harlan Coben – looking forward to this as well

Anyway, I didn’t want anyone to think I had abandoned my site!