Odd Interlude; Odd Apocalypse, by Dean Koontz
From Magic Beach, Odd and Annamaria stop in the small town of Hamony Corners. What follows is a story that is closely connected to the Moonlight Bay books and makes my skin crawl.
So last year I tried to read John Dies at the End and couldn't because of bugs and mind control elements.
Odd Interlude has both of these in icky detail, and the only reason I made it through it the first time, years ago, is because it's a short story and I was stubbornly determined to read all the books in this series. It also made me roll my eyes because the addition of sentient computer that doesn't spend most of its time talking to a toaster, is just cheesy.
The whole of the town is under the intermittent mind control of a scientist that escaped Moonlight Bay. He occupies each person's mind in turn and holds the whole town hostige because he can also force groups of them to act against their will and kill or maime those that resist.
Odd is somehow immune to this entity and he, a little girl and the watered down Hal are the only ones that can save the people of Harmony Corners.
Annamaria spends the story peacefully locked in a motel room.
It's not a bad story, just freaks me out and it's a little boring because the action is a little subdued through most of it.
I will say I don't think I had the right reaction to Odd being immune to the mind powers.
Whatever it is that allows for Odd to do all that he does makes his mind impenetrable. An benefit of his special ability.
However, I watched Futurama long before I read Dean Knootz and all I can think about is Fry being immune to the flying brains making everyone stupid because his brain is cobbled together out of the brainwave equivalent of carpet remnants.
After Harmony Corners Annamaria somehow talks a rich finance guy , Noah Wolflaw, into letting she and Odd stay at his estate - a beautiful but unsettling place - called Roseland.
Odd sees the ghost of a blonde woman and her Friesen horse. The spirit seems to be worried for her child that is at Roseland. A child that Odd has not seen and no one on the -strangely small - staff have mentioned.
The staff and Wolflaw are hostile to Odd and even Wolflaw is confused as to why he let Annamaria talk him into having guests. Through wondering around the estate Odd discovers all sorts of weirdness and must battle foes, to save the innocent.
This one... okay... um...
There are violent caveman like mutant pigs that shift in and out of Roseland from a future where nuclear wars and nanoswarms have been problems.
Which is the most unhinged sentence I have written in a while, and I've been reading Discworld, which is deliberately ridiculous.
Turns out that Roseland is a sort of time bubble. Created by Nikola Tesla, who was not meaning to make a place where Animal Farm could meet Lex Luthor in his mad scientist phase.
Wolflaw and staff are actually a group of friends who have been immortal since the early 1900's. They started out sick and twisted and have gotten worse over time.
Odd must bring justice to the ghost woman, bring the eternal people down, and save the child
While dodging the pig people who have axes and a thirst for blood.
The child, Timothy - is kinda immortal but also kinda dead and had been 9 years old for 80 or so years. And it would take way too long to make that make sense. As well as being kinda immortal and kinda dead, he's also kinda annoying.
Annamaria is out there outsmarting pigs and using her inscrutable way to confuse the Roselanders along with Odd, every step of the way.
She spends the whole book locked in her guest rooms. Odd checks on her a couple of times, she talks in circles and sends him out to risk his life and get his ass kicked.
This book is bonkers, makes absolutely no sense in the theme of the series and brings in Tim who will end up doing less than Annamaria.
However, in comparison to the last two books in the series, it's at least entertaining.
Odd, spends most of his time alone which leaves him to muse on the absurd. He let's himself be more of a smartass which is always fun. He also has a couple of run ins with a character named Kenny who is such an unlikely and surprisingly likeable ally that he is my favorite part of the whole thing.
Off the rails and on fire, the Odd Apocalypse train may be, but it's a hell of a show.
