Joel

If it's a Stephen King book, I'm going to find something to enjoy. Something about his writing style is magnetic. Conversational, but not dumbed down. Down to earth, but out of this world. Frankly, I consider him a national treasure.

Fairy Tale, however, is not among my favorites. The first half, was outstanding. Really drew me in, and I couldn't put it down. About half-way when things ... changed? ... I started to lose interest. There were parts that felt extremely drawn out. Maybe some aggressive editing could have helped? I wonder if there was an opportunity to split this into two books and stretch out each half to its own book? We'll never know.

All in all - I enjoyed it, but this took me a while to finish as some parts felt like a slog. Not his best, but still Stephen King.

Holy CRAP did I love this book. Exquisite piece of work!

As far as good summer reads go - this one hit the spot. Not the least bit challenging, but the character development was good (John is a compelling protagonist), and the main conceit was entertaining. As I was reading I got the feeling that this was “lite” space-opera, but that's fine. No need for pretense. This just wasn't as out there (for me, at least) as, for example, Iain Banks' work is.

I guess the measure of how much I liked this is to consider how likely I'll dip into books 2 and 3. The answer to which is “yes”.

Excellent read. As a member of the “tech community” I, we, would do well to get MORE of this sort of first-hand look at this industry. For a book that feels like you can't put it down, it paradoxically makes you stop and think about how what she's writing about is so common in the day to day. Tech culture is weird. It's flawed. It could use a big shake-up. I hope things evolve in the next 10+ years.

Tried ... tried for a while. Just could NOT get into it. When it feels like a chore and I have no idea what the hell is going on? Yeah, I don't know about this one chief.

I'm good with this probably being an objectively GREAT book but it's just not good for me.