Stephen Sommers, the director, said from day one that Anton Yelchin was his only choice to play Odd and that if Anton didn’t want to do it, the film would never be quite what it could have been. I’ll admit to being skeptical. But once you see Anton in this, you know you have seen the best of all possible Odds. He is soooo good! This young man is a remarkable talent, and he brings great heart to the role. He handles the action scenes with tremendous energy and conviction, but he really, really shines when it comes to selling the love story, the emotion, as well as Odd’s humility and sweet nature.

The four of us were also in agreement that Addison Timlin is Stormy Llewellyn. She is no less powerful than Anton, giving a nuanced and utterly charming performance. Every guy in the audience will be in love with her, and I expect every woman will want her as best friend forever. She and Anton have such chemistry that this film is a thriller that is also a beautiful love story; that love story, combined with the action and scares, makes this a date movie for the ages. The audience–men, women, young, old—were laughing when they should have been, jumping when they should have been, and in tears when they should have been.

Steve has taken chances in the way he has crossed genres, in the density of story detail highly unusual in movies of this nature, and in the visual sophistication with which this has been edited. The movie comes at you with all kinds of transitions that you have not seen before, and if you’re interested in directorial technique, it’s worth studying.

Faithful to the book? Yes, in every way that matters. Odd is Odd. Stormy is Stormy. The themes are rigorously adhered to. Is much missing? Yes. Ozzie has one scene, and he has become a sculptor instead of a mystery writer. Odd’s backstory–mom and dad–has been condensed to one scene because test audiences found the backstory too dark. Odd has been given a new power: He sometimes touches someone/something and has startling visions of how some real event went down earlier, as a means of conveying facts without talking-head scenes, but it really, really works.

Based on past experiences, I wasn’t sure anyone could ever adapt a Koontz book as a feature film and capture the flavor and essentials of it. Steve Sommers has done it with great panache. It should hit theaters sometime this winter. There’s probably a law against being as happy as I am right now.

ODD THOMAS

The dead don’t talk. I don’t know why. But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Meet Odd Thomas, the unassuming young hero of Dean Koontz’s dazzling New York Times bestsellers, a gallant sentinel at the crossroads of life and death. Sometimes the silent souls who seek out Odd want justice. Occasionally their otherworldly tips help him prevent a crime. But this time it’s different. A stranger comes to Pico Mundo, accompanied by a horde of hyena-like shades who herald an imminent catastrophe. Aided by his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Odd will race against time to thwart the gathering evil, as past and present, fate and destiny, converge.

FOREVER ODD

I see dead people. But then, by God, I do something about it. Odd Thomas never asked for his special ability. Yet he feels an obligation to do right by his otherworldly confidants, and that’s why he’s won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death. But when a childhood friend disappears, Odd discovers something worse than a dead body and embarks on a heart-stopping battle of will and wits with an enemy of exceptional cunning. In the hours to come there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope.

BROTHER ODD

Loop me in, odd one. The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn, his lost love. In the haunted halls of the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature. Now, wielding all the power and magic of a master storyteller at the pinnacle of his craft, Dean Koontz follows Odd into a singular new world where he hopes to make a fresh beginning—but where he will meet an adversary as old and inexorable as time itself.

ODD HOURS

Only a handful of fictional characters are recognized by first name alone. Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas is one such literary hero, who has come alive in readers’ imaginations as he explores the greatest mysteries of this world and the next with his inimitable wit, heart, and quiet gallantry. Now Koontz follows Odd as he is drawn onward, to a destiny he cannot imagine. Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems.

Contains a preview of the next thrilling addition to the Odd Thomas series, Odd Apocalypse!

Transforming a ramshackle mansion into a dream house has become a nightmare for onetime Hollywood producer Nedra Nolan, whose newly purchased fixer-upper in Pico Mundo has sent a string of spooked contractors scurrying off the job, claiming the place is haunted. Who’s she gonna call? Her friend recommends Odd Thomas, the mild-mannered young man with a gift for communing with ghosts who won’t rest in peace. With his soul mate and sidekick, Stormy Llewellyn, in tow, Odd agrees to investigate the eerie incidents. But his spirit-seeking style is cramped by the obnoxious TV ghost hunters Nedra hires to flush out the troublesome phantoms with elaborate gadgets.

As night falls and a raging storm traps them all in the mazelike manse, Odd tries in vain to scare up some lost souls. But instead, something more terrifying than any apparition—something with flesh, blood, and teeth—makes its sinister presence known. And with nowhere to hide, Odd and his fellow hunters suddenly become the prey.

I, Trixie, who is dog is a part of the Auryn line from Auryn Inc. and is based on Dean Koontz’s book by the same name.

Not everyone can be a dog. Some must be people. Some must be cats, or birds, or even skunks, although it’s hard to explain why anyone would want to be a skunk. But Trixie is happy, because she does get to be a dog – the best thing there is to be. The food, the belly rubs… if only she could drive, her life would be perfect!

Bestselling author Dean Koontz gives readers a fun, lighthearted glimpse into the imagination of Trixie, his beloved golden retriever, whose quirky narration and irrepressible spirit will delight readers young and old.

Key features include

• Personalisation of picture, voice and text:
  • Children can double up as illustrators of this book app by coloring Trixie herself, the background layouts, and other elements in every page using bright vibrant colours.
  • Kids can become their own narrator or listen to their parents narrate the book.
  • Interactivity allows kids to personalize the sentence, create new action words and sharpen their vocabulary skills
• Features on each page:
  • Image and word association vocabulary builder – when an image is touched the associated word is spoken and the written word displayed.
  • Karaoke effect – when a word is spoken during narration then the word is highlighted.
  • Touch a word to hear it being spoken.
• Three ways to read the book.
  • “Read to me” – Listen to the narrated story while the text is displayed Karaoke style. After the narration finishes on a page the child can interact with objects till they are ready to move to the next page.
  • “Read myself” – There is no narration but the child can touch a word to hear it being spoken aloud.
  • “Auto Play” – same as “Read to Me” except the page advances automatically once the narration is finished. Useful for those long car rides when you want the child to have a complete book experience.

Twelve-year-old Crispin has lived on the streets since he was nine—with only his wits and his daring to sustain him, and only his silent dog, Harley, to call his friend. He is always on the move, never lingering in any one place long enough to risk being discovered. Still, there are certain places he returns to. In the midst of the tumultuous city, they are havens of solitude: like the hushed environs of St. Mary Salome Cemetery, a place where Crispin can feel at peace—safe, at least for a while, from the fearsome memories that plague him . . . and seep into his darkest nightmares. But not only his dreams are haunted. The city he roams with Harley has secrets and mysteries, things unexplainable and maybe unimaginable. Crispin has seen ghosts in the dead of night, and sensed dimensions beyond reason in broad daylight. Hints of things disturbing and strange nibble at the edges of his existence, even as dangers wholly natural and earthbound cast their shadows across his path. Alone, drifting, and scavenging to survive is no life for a boy. But the life Crispin has left behind, and is still running scared from, is an unspeakable alternative . . . that may yet catch up with him.

There is more to Crispin’s world, and its darkest corners yet to be encountered, in this eBook’s special bonus: a spine-tingling excerpt from Dean Koontz’s forthcoming novel, 77 Shadow Street.

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