I loved the first half of the books and I was on the edge of my seat all the way up until the middle section. I felt it sagged a little then but picked up towards the end and kinda stumbles on the landing but overall I thought it was very good.

I loved this book! Have you read “the eyes of the dragon”? The first king book I ever read, more than twenty years ago. Such a great fantasy!

I quite enjoyed it as well, although I preferred the beginning (the human story of the son dealing with grief and his father’s alcoholism) to the fantasy epic. But an enjoyable book throughout.

I loved this book. I read all of the classics Stephen King books years ago and found it hard to get back into them but this book reignited my love for his story telling abilities. It was so different from us usual stuff but the story was amazing

I tried reading this book a few times. Each time I get halfway through and then I dread reading the rest. It’s been a repeated DNF. It lags too much in the middle for me.

I am still reading but wanted to say it’s tough picking it up each day. Nothing remotely fantasy happens until after 100 pages, and even then it’s mostly a mundane story building at a glacial pace. Maybe the back two thirds of the book make are worth it, but holy crap I could have gone with less exposition

I sped through the first half of this book but felt that the climax was somewhat disappointing. Still a fun Reade

Just finished this (audible version) and loved it as well.

I am mostly loving this but I agree with others, the second half is a hard read. There’s some really weird writing cobbled together that could have done with a bit more editing, I don’t mind the plot as such but there’s definitely something amiss. I do love the imagination behind it overall though, and the worldbuilding.

He has another dark fantasy style book he wrote with his son called sleeping beauties, I remember enjoying that.

Man, that slow burn boy/dad/old man/dog beginning is my vibe. I could do that for a 300 page novel and nothing else has to happen. Same thing with Doctor Sleep. Just hanging out with Dan and the cat in the hospice would be enough supernatural for me. The True Knot was the least interesting part for me.

I just finished the audiobook, which is read marvelously, but was extremely disappointed.

The first third is excellent because it is based in character and the relationship between Charlie and Mr. Bodich. But once we go to the fantasy world, imo it becomes plot, plot, plot. I didn’t feel that the events really meant anything or led to future events for any reason deeper than “this happens next”.

! He spends ages in a dungeon. Flight-killer wants 32 whole people. For a ritual? Nope! Just for a death match tournament. Radar is de-aged on the sundial with no drawbacks. We are told that Charlie seeing the dead mermaid “changes everything”, but it doesn’t. !<

Those are just a few examples of why I found the book so frustrating after the first third. Glad you enjoyed it though!

I liked the book. Simple storytelling, in my view. I did wonder though if he was putting his thoughts about his own dogs in there somewhere. His dogs are getting older…

​

I read Radar, and think Molly.

I felt it was less Narnia inspired and more Oz. The main character is a Dorothy parallel in many ways, from the dog sidekick to the three companions he meets on his quest who are each missing some essential quality.

I never read a Stephen King book all the way through until Fairy Tale.

That being said, if I didn’t take this book on in audio format I really don’t think I would have liked it as much as I did. His writing, while good, is very hard to get into. I was able to appreciate that slow burn beginning after the fact but it was very brutal during it. I just kept thinking “can we get to the guts of this book already?!”

I honestly felt more indifferent than anything else about the book. I gave it three stars because the writing was good and I didn’t take any major issues with it I just felt…meh. Wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but I don’t regret reading it. I can honestly say though that I probably could’ve walked away from this book without knowing how it ended and never think twice about it.

I can see how some people could love it though, I just wasn’t one of them.

I love this book. He nailed fantasy. It was a great story kept me intrigued the whole time.