Robert Thienes

I have always enjoyed King's ability to weave terrific tales around memorable characters. His villains are what nightmares are made of. This is not one of those stories. The premise has so much potential but ended up strained and predictable. It felt as though it was a political allegory that simply failed to deliver its intended punch. It was a lot of build up to simply fall apart in the end. It could have easily flowed and intertwined within the already existing macroverse with pre established nodes such as the shine or even the Breakers. It felt like it was trying to start a larger story, but it fell flat on its face.