Firstly, I want to say thanks to my friend, Chris, for getting me this book for Christmas and secondly, sorry Chris because this book sucks.

Stephen King has obviously got a lot of rope from selling 350 million plus books over the year, but there has to be an editor somewhere that can be honest with him. This book is 715 pages, but could easily have been half that length.

Sleeping Beauties is a The Stand/Under the Dome clone, but more clumsily done. There are a raft of characters involved, but the majority are one note or involved for barely a section of a chapter. Characters are introduced even into the last hundred pages of the novel and I did find myself confused once or twice in the middle of the book about who was who.

My biggest qualm with the book is that the eventual conflict is set up at around the half way point of the book and it takes another 250 pages to get there. The trudge leaves no fulfilment when it finally happens. We're treated to the minituae of both sides setting up for it and treated to an unnecessary subplot that drags things out further.

It's rather idealistic in how it sets apart the men and women. Where I don't doubt there would be a lot of violence in a men's world, the setting up of the women's world and lack of conflict therein doesn't quite ring true especially with a group of inhabitants from the local women's prison. The prisoners are fine in this new world because men caused them to get sent to prison. It's a little trite.

Again, sorry, Chris!