Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Too many characters for the plot.

This book could have used a good editor. As it stands, the idea is good but the delivery is lacking. Too many characters are introduced to possibly flesh out all of their storylines. The result is a book of mainly cardboard cutouts. The bad characters are evil, and the good characters can do no wrong. Jason has to be the most unbelievable teenager I have ever read. I can't remember exactly how old he was supposed to be, but he sounded forty through most of the book. Trimming some of the barely rendered characters and telling the story through only a few viewpoints would have made the tale much more powerful, as well as leaving more room for the main characters to develop. As it is, "The Stand" and "Swan Song" are far superior books with similar themes.