As much as I love the book and the world in it, I was very upset with the ending. In the end, the...more

As much as I love the book and the world in it, I was very upset with the ending. In the end, the story implies that the devil overpowers God and there is no chance in fighting him. Evil conquers the good in life. :( Is this really true? It makes me wonder. I guess that's the point. It's such a shame because I got so connected with the characters and grew a "bond" with them even though they aren't real; the book is 1141 pages long, and then at the end, the devil wins. All the struggling, hardships, and sacrifices for nothing.   hide

The population of the world is decimated by a super-flu virus, this leads to strange dreams of a...more

The population of the world is decimated by a super-flu virus, this leads to strange dreams of a dodgy demon-bloke for those few survivors left on the face of the Earth...nuff said on plot. IMHO King is the master of characterization, he has a knack of depicting plausible and interesting people in every day life, then systematically destroys their lives. I think this is where the horror comes from, seeing someone you've kinda grown to like be consumed by terror and/or death - at least in this book anyhow. I found the demonic, supernatural elements are about as scary as Gordon the Gopher, incidentally. The way he describes his various characters journeys through desolate cities and landscapes littered with corpses is pretty damn spooky, though, much more so than aforementioned Satanic elements. At over 1300 pages definitely recommend this massive book on value for money alone; kept me turning the pages despite being thicker than Jade Goody.   hide

Excellent. Liked the uncut version better.

It must have been pretty good, since it's 1200 pages and I read all of them happily, without...more

It must have been pretty good, since it's 1200 pages and I read all of them happily, without boredom. But I didn't feel much different after I was done.   hide

How someone views this novel can easily depend on how much grey the reader thinks lies between...more

How someone views this novel can easily depend on how much grey the reader thinks lies between "evil" and "good." Unlike most of the people I've talked to, I wasn't particularly crazy about this book. Yes, the writing was good. Yes, the characters were good. My problem had only to do with my dislike of categorising things into such categories as "good" and "evil." There are no grey areas between the two in this book; a character is either completely good or completely evil. This can leave a bad aftertaste in the reader's mouth if they get hooked up on it for too long, which is what happened to me. If you can ignore the lack of grey areas, this book is amazing. While it is rather hefty, it spends most of its time deepening each character's personality and past, giving the entire novel much more depth. The only major character that does not get this treatment is Flagg himself, for he is supposedly "pure evil." The plot itself also may seem rather simplistic at times, but it weaves subplots within that intrigue and draw the reader in. When this is coupled with the realistic characters, you are left with an awe-inspiring novel of epic proportions.   hide