Finished it last week. I liked it. King does such a great job with character development in novels like this one. I have to admit I was a bit worried during the first 1/4 or so of the book. There were so many characters that I feared I would not be able to keep up with them all. But I applied the same rule that I've applied in the past with some of King's books...Shut up and read! You sort of have to trust that King will keep all of these characters in order for you. That's exactly what he does. As usual Mr. King does such a great job slowly letting you get acquainted with the various characters that by the time you get to the end of the book you feel like you know them all very well. I've read just about everything King has published (several times) and I consider myself a fairly good judge of his work (as your basic constant reader that is). I would rank this book fairly high on the ol' must read list of King books.
Finished it in slightly more than two weeks. There are a few things about the novel I could complain about if I had a gun to my head and was being forced to complain about something ... but none of those things actively bothered me.
Overall, I'd say it was a pretty damn good book. In close to 1100 pages, I never once got tired of reading it, and in fact greatly anticipated getting through the workday so I could get home and pick it up again. I figure any time that's happening, the novel must be well worthwhile.
Once I was done, I printed out both excerpts of "The Cannibals" and read them. Clearly a work-in-progress, but a highly interesting one; the characters are terrific, and for that reason, if no other, I hope the rest of the manuscript will eventually get posted.
Finished in a week and two days ... As Bryanburnette said ... there are things I could complain about if you pressed a gun to my head; overall loved the book and will read it again early next year.
Thought Mr. King did a great job keeping all those characters in order––and as King has proved on many occasions, he is the master of crafting real characters and dragging them into supernatural circumstances––causing in the reader a constant 'domino theory of reality' which always brings everything back home and real.
Bravo, Mr. King
Hi Guys! I Just joined - and yesterday I finally finished UTD...wow! Thought it was a brilliant novel and although my hardback copy is almost 900 pages (the damn thing weighs a ton) I actually didn't want it to end! I have read a few reviews about it being 'too long', but IMO, the longer the book, the more I warm and seem to know the characters. Found it way more interesting than The Stand...and Chester's Mill is (well, was!) like the 'new' Castle Rock!!! The story was so vivid in my mind and cannot wait until either HBO (as rumored) or some other director makes this into a movie. Kinda a cross between Desperation and The Stand with some fine characters I'm gunna miss (until I re-read it anyways!)
Now I have a pile of 6 other SK novels stacked up waiting to be read...mmm what to choose??? UTD---> 10/10!!!!!!!!!!!
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