Wow, where do I start? I had read reviews on this book and was leery about reading it. Mostly because the majority of people said that they couldn't get past the first 2/3 of the book.
I thought the book was good, not fantastic, but I did like it. My biggest problem was that every time I started to really connect with a character, or couldnt wait to find out what happened next, the scene totally changed to someone and something else. I did like that at times though, because it kept the suspense building and me interested in finding out what would end up happening.
I also loved how the chapters were short, so a lot of times I would read three or four chapters, quit to do something else, then come back to it. If I tried to push through more then a few chapters at a time, my mind would start wandering (never good when you're reading).
I think that he used way too much description at times - like someone else said here on a different thread, it seems like he added stuff to increase the word count. Which was fine because it blended in really well, but it also made the story stretch out....a lot.
I didn't mind so many characters. I think he did a great job at creating believeable lives for so many people.
The story reminded me of the movies "The Mist" and "Eagle Eye".
I loved the cats' names (Smoke and Ashes), and Winny's dog's name (Merle) - which happens to be my last name. Lol
Winny's experience with his tv really freaked me out because I had a bad experience that was very similar to his once (tv turning itself on several times and switching channels by itself, then it wouldn't respond to anything we did other then pulling the plug).
At first, the characters Witness and The One really confused me, which was driving me nuts everytime they spoke.
My biggest dislike was the concept of time travel. I hate things that deal with it, I really do. For instance, wouldn't changing the future and the existance of The One also change the past events of 1897, 1935, and 1973? If they changed the future to where The One never existed in the first place, then even with a time warp and if people still traveled between (and got stuck in) the different years, there wouldn't have been any monsters to "change" them. Mr. Pendleton's family never would have been infected with nanobots, therefore, their family mansion would have been passed down through family members (preventing the occurances in 1935 and 1973, and it from ever becoming a building complex where the story characters lived).
What happens in the future now? Won't time still shift since there is still a time warp?
Why did Mickey Dime kill his brother? I think it said his brother was there to kill him, but I don't remember it ever saying why? I wish it would have ventured into what happened between them.
