Melisa

I've been waiting for the next Odd Thomas novel but wasn't very impressed with this one. It isn't awful but it isn't great, either. It isn't equal to its predecessors. You are plopped into the story with little explanation, a few "odd" things happen, then it ends with almost no explanation. And much of what Odd does seems out of character for him.

I'd say it is mildly interesting just because Odd is an interesting person and the narrator does a great job. But it isn't what I was expecting, after the previous Odd Thomas books.

I can't give a real review of the whole book, because I couldn't get past the anti-Chritian rants in chapter two. I'm just leaving this as a heads up for others who don't like that kind of thing in their reading material.

It isn't a Discworld novel and it doesn't have much of that trademark Pratchett humor that we love so much, but the characters and the story are still definitely Pratchett. I did miss the laugh-out-loud moments that I usually enjoy with a Pratchett novel, but still I enjoyed the book. Briggs did an excellent job of narrating, as usual.

Creepy enough to give you the shivers without ever being gross, like the best kind of campfire tale. I enjoyed the characters and the story. The narration was excellent.

Creepy without being gory or actually scary, kind of like the old Twilight Zone shows. I consider this a good thing. This one is not as good as The Cypress House or The Ridge, but worth a listen. The narration is excellent.

This starts out fine but the closer you get to finding out what really happened, the more ridiculous it gets. No one is stupid enough to believe what the women in this book apparently believed. No one. I usually like the Inspector Wexford books but this one was a waste of a credit. I only gave it 2 stars because the narrator was good. It is rather annoying, however, that they are using so many different narrators for the Wexford series. They really should stick to one for the whole series.

This book does not end, it just stops. Nothing is resolved, no questions are answered and there is no sense of closure. It seems more like an interesting dream than a story. There is interesting imagery and things you'd like to find out more about, but nothing is really tied together. Nothing means anything. There is no real story, just the imagery.

Also, the narrator sounds like the guy who narrated the TV show Pushing Daisies. He's quite over the top, which works for this book, but some people will definitely not enjoy listening to him for this long.

This was a little too gory for my taste and the endless minute details given for every weapon mentioned in the book (and there are a lot) makes it seem more of a guy book to me. However, the story was interesting enough to get me through all that weapons minutia. If I was more into monster stories, I'd happily continue with the series. It's not my thing but if you like monster killing madness, you'll love it. The narration was excellent.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as The Accidental Sorcerer. I found it hard to believe that the entire cast of characters, except for the 3 friends carried over from the first book, would have such an instant and intense dislike of someone who seems quite likeable, if a bit wishy washy. There seemed to be no reason at all for the dislike and ill treatment. Sure, everybody likes to root for the underdog, but I think they took it a bit far here. It just wasn't believable. I did enjoy the first book, so I may still give the third a try. Same great narrator in this one.

A nice bit of light entertainment, a likable underdog main character, and a good narrator. The series is just getting started so it may even improve. I'll be buying the next one to find out.

I normally like Piers Anthony but this was pretty awful. I've found some books are just slow to get going and tried to give it the benefit of the doubt, but found myself wishing the narrator would just shut up about these boring, unlikeable people. I couldn't finish it.