Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
My rant about not being able to read popular fiction anymore: I know I’ve said this before. Sorry.
Are books getting worse or has reading “better” fiction ruined me for the curl-up-on-the-couch-with-wine-and-chocolate stuff? How come Dean Koontz sucks now? I used to like his writing. I used to love it. Do you think it’s still him writing or do you think it’s being farmed out?
Why are the paragraphs only one sentence long?
Two or three at the most.
And more fragments than sentences anyway.
You see where I’m going.
I know that shorter paragraphs lend a sense of urgency to writing, but the entire novel can’t be urgent. There’s never a chance to sit back and relax your way into the story. But then, if you slowed down you might realize that the plot lines and characters are overflowing heaps of story cliches.
There’s the tough woman and the surprisingly sensitive man and the overly intelligent animal. Someone is psychologically damaged and someone is physically damaged and they all have to work together to overcome the paranormal threat. Which they overcome. First you have some minor skirmishes, followed by a growing sense of dread, and then the heroes fight back–a final battle and victory!
Not to paraphrase Tom Cruise, but it’s glib. It’s superficial and easy. The author didn’t think about it and the reader doesn’t need to think about it. Certainly the publisher didn’t think about it much. Koontz? Good to go.
Brother Odd is fine. Whatever. I think he used to write better stuff but I may be mis-remembering. Is this really what the people want?