I love Stephen King. I truly enjoyed this book. It had a great plot and good characters.

That being said, it was too long. The Stand is one of my favorite books, and it deserved every page. But this book less so. The narration was clumsy at times, drawing attention to the fact that someone was narrating instead of just letting the story tell itself. That really annoyed me when Kind would go, "No time has passed due to the joy of narration" or something like that. Clumsy for an accomplished writer.

The ET part was also annoying because it wasn't developed. It was hinted at a few times, but it was basically just a neat ending. Couldn't we have heard those ET kids giggle a few time as they fried the ants?

As I said, it was a good read if long (I felt as if I couldn't quit ... not because I didn't want to stop but because I wouldn't be able to keep up with what was happening if I did.) I am a REALLY fast reader, by the way. I can't imagine what moderate readers thought.