Ur **spoilers**
So I didn't see any threads on this (but given the title, it's hard to do a full search). Originally, as you all know, it was a Kindle exclusive but they recently released it on audiobook for the rest of us. I finished listening to it yesterday.
For those who don't know, it's about a guy who receives a special pink Kindle that can essentially access books and stuff from millions of parallel universes--I.E. universes where Hemingway or Poe lived on and wrote more books, etc.
Anyway, the first chunk of the story really felt like King was shilling the heck out of the Kindle, and it got really annoying; how the main character was marveling at how inexpensive it was, how convenient, etc and how all the other characters are like "Cool, it's a Kindle!" I get that King is writing about the Kindle for the Kindle, but c'mon...
That being said, I really found the concept of what it would be like to view millions of parallel 'books' on the Kindle to be very fascinating. There's also a bit where they look at newspaper archives from alternate realities where different presidents got reelected, where Kennedy wasn't assassinated, etc. Really interesting stuff.
Anyway, the second half of the story takes a different turn, almost as if King felt he needed a more dynamic plot--so the Kindle also turns out to show newspaper articles from the future, which just so happens to show a tragedy that impacts the protagonist personally. So he decides to see if he can interfere with the future. It was very exciting but felt a bit disjointed from the first half.
Finally...for all you DT junkies, there's a fair amount of Dark Tower references.At first, it's vague (to non DT readers, I guess) where there's an image of a Tower surrounded by roses.
At the end, however, it gets pretty heavy--creatures that are obviously meant to draw similarities to the Low Men (they are even called Low Men in Yellow Coats at one point) appear because the protagonist messed up with reality with his Kindle. But if these ARE Low Men, then that makes little sense--the Low Men in this story are horrific creatures, but are still trying to preserve the order of reality. Now, if I'm correct, wouldn't the Low Men from the Dark Tower series be AGAINST such a thing?
So there's a number of lines such as "Everything serves the Tower", etc. I admit that I had a bit of a fangasm here but in the end I don't felt the story needed them.
So, overall, I guess I'd give the story a 7 or 8 of 10. Despite King's blatant shilling of the Kindle, it was an interesting story with some fascinating ideas.
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Originally Posted by pablo
