by Stephen King

A Fantasy, 2022 by Scribner, 599 Pages

What I Didn’t Like:

There’s dozens of stories like this one, many of which are mentioned in this story. Wizard of Oz (mentioned), Narnia chronicles (not mentioned), Something Wicked This Way Comes (mentioned), and The Magicians (not mentioned) all came to mind for me. Of course those are all series. This is a big, chonky, all-in-one story. Still, I’m not a fan of things that are a bit too similar.
I’m not a fan of chapter titles. Personal thing, I know. But this has chapters within chapters (King often does this) so only the big chapters have titles and they’re long titles. Of course, you can always skip or skim them (like I did) if they’re not your thing.
The big boss battle felt anticlimactic. I won’t say more (spoilers) but it was only eh. I wanted more.

Opener grabbed my attention right away. Between the teasers about what could be coming and the short chapters, I was INVESTED.
Radar. Every story can benefit from a fantastic dog and the story of how that dog changes a human’s life. I adored every part of this tale that featured Radar.
The ending works. It seems to go a bit further than the “traditional” happily-ever-after you’d expect from the title. More answers, more honesty. I liked that.

If you’re a fan of epic portals to other worlds fantasy, you may like this one. Keep in mind it is King so it’s an all-in-one tale that easily could have been 4 books.