I've got to say - King has developed into one of the most consistently good reads out there. He is beyond the "Bright eyed ingénue" phase and he knows it - and is concentrating on turning out one great read after another. One thing I am very impressed with (And I am not going to mention any spoilers here) is that he is trying to challenge himself a bit in this book. King has never been known for his light touch, but in this book he is trying to develop a bit of subtly in his writing (All I will say on that front is keep in mind a picture of the main character and juxtapose what he says with that picture - King never brings the writing to bear directly on it, but it is a VERY important part of the story). Another thing is that King, for one of the few times in his career, ended the novel at the perfect spot. The last time I saw a ending this good out of King was "The Shining"... If there is anything bad about the book it is the fact that some of his worse habits shine through in the climax (Although that is also a good thing, since this climax required a bit of the early King storytelling style - but it also doesn't fit perfectly with the rest of the book) but that is only there for a total of 20 pages out of a 609 page novel. All in all, if you enjoyed "Lisey's Story", this one is actually better - it fits together as a better story. I was impressed that, in 609 pages, there really wasn't any part that felt like filler...