Krazykiwi @ Kiwitopia

Cronin tries to rewrite The Stand? But with vampires? It's got that same big sprawling feel, and I really was enjoying it quite well to begin with, but then it dropped all the characters I cared about, jumped some 90 odd years into the future, and introduced a bunch of really unlikeable, unsympathetic people who I just didn't give a crap if they lived and died.

Decent enough, but I just didn't like most of the characters. And it's another one I didn't realise was part of a series, so the ending left me utterly non-plussed. In fact, I was recently reading a blog post from a traditionally published author bemoaning the fact that despite her fighting for it, the publisher removed any mention of her book being part of a series from the cover and blurbs - this is one area where indies and self-pubs do a lot better, and I rarely have this problem.

Will probably pick up the sequel (now that I realise there is one, or two in fact) from the library if they ever turn up there. And I would be interested in more by Cronin, he does a decent impersonation of Stephen King's easy, readable, early style and sharp observations of people, for the first half or so of the book.