Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
1987! Instead of plagues, climate change and AI uprisings, we have that old chestnut, nuclear holocaust. The story wasn't bad as far as apocalypse tales go, although I'm not sure quite so many people would have survived.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
tense
medium-paced
This is an eminently readable book that doesn’t belabor it’s hefty page count, but, unfortunately, doesn’t quite justify it, either. It is obviously hard not to compare this to The Stand, but that is especially true because that book excels in the areas where this one falls flat for me.
First, the good. The writing is very clean and readable, and it carries the story well. While I don’t think the story told justified the length that burden was never emphasized by the prose, which kept things moving and interesting. The writing kept me interested and never bored, which is to be commended. Additionally, the few places this really distinguishes itself from King’s precedent is in the nature of the apocalyptic events, and, subsequently, how those affect the characters. The ravaged wasteland is an ever present threat, and any hope that some semblance of infrastructure survived and was just waiting for the right person to turn the lights back on, so to speak, is totally done away with. This added an even more desolated feeling to the environment, and a continued menace, which I appreciated. I can only imagine what reading this around the time of publication would have been like, given the international nuclear tensions at the time, and that added a lot to the story. Additionally, I enjoyed the time jump between books one and books two. I think that added a gravitas and weight to the story that was really effective.
But, if I am being honest, most everything else was just “meh” for me. I didn’t find the main characters all that original at all. Instead they felt very expected and underwritten, with nothing particularly engaging or surprising about them. The introductions at the beginning were great, and held a lot of promise for me, but the characters all quickly fell into a groove that just didn’t feel particularly original or exciting. And I felt the same way about the story itself. I should start by saying it was just simply too long, especially book one. If book one had been 150 pages instead of 500 pages then I might be feeling different about the overall reading experience right now… But not a whole lot happened in those extra pages that amounted to more than spinning our wheels. The characters didn’t spend those 350 pages with a whole lot of interesting character growth, and their environments and situations were established pretty quickly. It felt like it wanted to give the experience of being sprawling and all-encompassing, but in reality it just felt bored. The story just felt, at almost every point, expected. A character didn’t make a single decision that didn’t feel like anything other than the easiest and most expected decision. Were there a number of really nice, heartfelt, exciting, tense, gripping moments? Sure, and they were all well-written. But they all felt pat and expected. And the magical realism that worked its way through the story and led to its eventual (very expected) conclusion didn’t feel at all earned. The miracles/magic and the way everything resolved felt entirely convenient and nothing felt earned or important. The whole closing chapters were just a disappointment after disappointment, of miraculous behavior across the board that felt somewhere between overly optimistic and lazy.
This kind of a story is asking really important questions about what it means to be an average person in an extraordinary circumstances. When faced with terrible odds, will you be tempted toward humanity or selfishness? Although there is a portrayal of “good vs. evil,” it is really about the very human struggle in the grey land between the two poles. But… we don’t really see that struggle in any of these characters. Their decisions are essentially made for them, and if there is any moment of doubt toward one side or the other it lasts the space of a paragraph break and that’s it. When characters do have a change of heart it is unearned and miraculous and in no way compelling. I didn’t feel like there was any moral wrestling in any of these characters, and the circumstances were so heavy-handed and miraculous there was never any doubt about what was the “right” option in any case.
Basically, everything just felt too easy, too neat and tidy. The characters weren’t complicated or wracked with moral dilemma. The resolutions were magical and unearned. The final ending and any optimism that accompanied it felt both entirely expected, given everything else in the novel, and at the same time unsatisfying. Not because I wanted a different outcome but because, again, all the rough spots were just sanded down for the easiest, most sanguine and bland answer. Numerous characters fell deeply in love after only having met the other person for a few days and that feeling of a forced unbelievability just pervaded the story. I liked the magical elements conceptually, but why and how they were employed didn’t have any rationale or sweat and labor to it. It felt far too much like a magical savior just falling into our laps, with heavy soteriological allusions that did nothing for me.
I see why people enjoy these characters, they all had potential. But that potential felt squandered by making them very expected, devoid of surprise or growth. In fact, any character growth that did happen all occurred during the seven year time jump, off the page. I liked spending time with these characters, those on all sides of the conflict, but just wish they had more to say and do, more depth to explore and grow. The pacing was strange, having the two major opposing forces not even really be aware of each other for the first 80% of the novel, which did make sense given the world-building but made the storytelling lopsided. I really think that if this was a 600 page novel I would have had a much better time with it, but instead it buckled under its own weight as well as that of the praise that is lavished on it for reasons that defy my reading experience. Still, the writing was descriptive and interesting, and never made the page count feel like a slog. I was happy to keep turning pages, on a prose level at least, even when I was exasperated at the story feeling both a little bland and also stuck in a narrative rut through the first half, especially (the back 500 pages felt like they earned their page count, narratively speaking).
So, maybe read it? But, really, if you’re willing to spend 1,000 pages here, maybe just add the additional 300 pages and read The Stand. Not only did it come out a decade before this, its characters have much more complicated and interesting internal journeys, and the narrative is just more satisfying. But maybe that’s just me. This isn’t a bad book. It is longer than it needs to be, for sure, but doesn’t really present the problems of good and evil in the complicated grey way that I think it feels like it does, but it is still an epic story that has a terrifying vision for how a few itchy trigger fingers might tear humanity apart as we know it. The world-building, the panorama of a nuclear winter settling over the American landscape, does feel convincing and, unfortunately, prescient.
First, the good. The writing is very clean and readable, and it carries the story well. While I don’t think the story told justified the length that burden was never emphasized by the prose, which kept things moving and interesting. The writing kept me interested and never bored, which is to be commended. Additionally, the few places this really distinguishes itself from King’s precedent is in the nature of the apocalyptic events, and, subsequently, how those affect the characters. The ravaged wasteland is an ever present threat, and any hope that some semblance of infrastructure survived and was just waiting for the right person to turn the lights back on, so to speak, is totally done away with. This added an even more desolated feeling to the environment, and a continued menace, which I appreciated. I can only imagine what reading this around the time of publication would have been like, given the international nuclear tensions at the time, and that added a lot to the story. Additionally, I enjoyed the time jump between books one and books two. I think that added a gravitas and weight to the story that was really effective.
But, if I am being honest, most everything else was just “meh” for me. I didn’t find the main characters all that original at all. Instead they felt very expected and underwritten, with nothing particularly engaging or surprising about them. The introductions at the beginning were great, and held a lot of promise for me, but the characters all quickly fell into a groove that just didn’t feel particularly original or exciting. And I felt the same way about the story itself. I should start by saying it was just simply too long, especially book one. If book one had been 150 pages instead of 500 pages then I might be feeling different about the overall reading experience right now… But not a whole lot happened in those extra pages that amounted to more than spinning our wheels. The characters didn’t spend those 350 pages with a whole lot of interesting character growth, and their environments and situations were established pretty quickly. It felt like it wanted to give the experience of being sprawling and all-encompassing, but in reality it just felt bored. The story just felt, at almost every point, expected. A character didn’t make a single decision that didn’t feel like anything other than the easiest and most expected decision. Were there a number of really nice, heartfelt, exciting, tense, gripping moments? Sure, and they were all well-written. But they all felt pat and expected. And the magical realism that worked its way through the story and led to its eventual (very expected) conclusion didn’t feel at all earned. The miracles/magic and the way everything resolved felt entirely convenient and nothing felt earned or important. The whole closing chapters were just a disappointment after disappointment, of miraculous behavior across the board that felt somewhere between overly optimistic and lazy.
This kind of a story is asking really important questions about what it means to be an average person in an extraordinary circumstances. When faced with terrible odds, will you be tempted toward humanity or selfishness? Although there is a portrayal of “good vs. evil,” it is really about the very human struggle in the grey land between the two poles. But… we don’t really see that struggle in any of these characters. Their decisions are essentially made for them, and if there is any moment of doubt toward one side or the other it lasts the space of a paragraph break and that’s it. When characters do have a change of heart it is unearned and miraculous and in no way compelling. I didn’t feel like there was any moral wrestling in any of these characters, and the circumstances were so heavy-handed and miraculous there was never any doubt about what was the “right” option in any case.
Basically, everything just felt too easy, too neat and tidy. The characters weren’t complicated or wracked with moral dilemma. The resolutions were magical and unearned. The final ending and any optimism that accompanied it felt both entirely expected, given everything else in the novel, and at the same time unsatisfying. Not because I wanted a different outcome but because, again, all the rough spots were just sanded down for the easiest, most sanguine and bland answer. Numerous characters fell deeply in love after only having met the other person for a few days and that feeling of a forced unbelievability just pervaded the story. I liked the magical elements conceptually, but why and how they were employed didn’t have any rationale or sweat and labor to it. It felt far too much like a magical savior just falling into our laps, with heavy soteriological allusions that did nothing for me.
I see why people enjoy these characters, they all had potential. But that potential felt squandered by making them very expected, devoid of surprise or growth. In fact, any character growth that did happen all occurred during the seven year time jump, off the page. I liked spending time with these characters, those on all sides of the conflict, but just wish they had more to say and do, more depth to explore and grow. The pacing was strange, having the two major opposing forces not even really be aware of each other for the first 80% of the novel, which did make sense given the world-building but made the storytelling lopsided. I really think that if this was a 600 page novel I would have had a much better time with it, but instead it buckled under its own weight as well as that of the praise that is lavished on it for reasons that defy my reading experience. Still, the writing was descriptive and interesting, and never made the page count feel like a slog. I was happy to keep turning pages, on a prose level at least, even when I was exasperated at the story feeling both a little bland and also stuck in a narrative rut through the first half, especially (the back 500 pages felt like they earned their page count, narratively speaking).
So, maybe read it? But, really, if you’re willing to spend 1,000 pages here, maybe just add the additional 300 pages and read The Stand. Not only did it come out a decade before this, its characters have much more complicated and interesting internal journeys, and the narrative is just more satisfying. But maybe that’s just me. This isn’t a bad book. It is longer than it needs to be, for sure, but doesn’t really present the problems of good and evil in the complicated grey way that I think it feels like it does, but it is still an epic story that has a terrifying vision for how a few itchy trigger fingers might tear humanity apart as we know it. The world-building, the panorama of a nuclear winter settling over the American landscape, does feel convincing and, unfortunately, prescient.
Good book. A little (ok a lot) long and I am not sure why it needed the stuff w the devil but I liked it. I liked the other supernatural stuff just didn’t think the devil stuff was necessary or a good addition.
I love, love, love this book. I read it just because while I was in high school and it is something that I look forward to every few years. It has everything in it, a love story, horror, redemption and hope. I would suggest you give it a try.
I picked this book to read as an acceptee into AP English. I was 15, a total book nerd, but as for books I had to read, I couldn't get into.
Background: You know the movie Matilda? yeah, that was me.
I brought this one thousand page behemoth of a novel home. I remember thinking that I would NEVER be able to read this over summer break and read anything else. It was huge, the first few chapters were a bit wordy, but I persevered.
I can't even explain how I devoured this book. I think the first time I read it, it took me two weeks. The second time I read it, I read it in 4 days.
I just cant explain how I related to ALL the characters. I was fascinated by the utter devastation and the cruel behaviors of the new world, but also the kindness and freedom of a new world.
Each story/character was perfectly written, and the orchestra that Robert created hit an ultimate crescendo with a beautifully written ending.
I'll be 40 soon. Thats how much I love this book. Thank you RM.
Background: You know the movie Matilda? yeah, that was me.
I brought this one thousand page behemoth of a novel home. I remember thinking that I would NEVER be able to read this over summer break and read anything else. It was huge, the first few chapters were a bit wordy, but I persevered.
I can't even explain how I devoured this book. I think the first time I read it, it took me two weeks. The second time I read it, I read it in 4 days.
I just cant explain how I related to ALL the characters. I was fascinated by the utter devastation and the cruel behaviors of the new world, but also the kindness and freedom of a new world.
Each story/character was perfectly written, and the orchestra that Robert created hit an ultimate crescendo with a beautifully written ending.
I'll be 40 soon. Thats how much I love this book. Thank you RM.
the end of the world part was actually pretty cool. It was nuclear bombs in this case and radiation was done well but the PARANORMAL part I really really did not like. It's not that it's badly written but I had no idea it will be paranormal when I was going into this book. Guess just not the best marketing.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes