Under the Dome: A Novel

it was ok. It's definitely not worth the price. I have a problem with the story, which is packed with cliches, no one unexpected dies, love is stronger than anything, etc. the vocabulary seemed unnecessarily convoluted, especially for a horror fiction. it transmits arrogance from the author rather than a connection to the every day reader. and the plot development just gets more and more ridiculous. there's always a predictable magical gadget that appears from nowhere, brought in by the "least expected" character, and it magically solves everything with no explanation. if you like vanilla horror this is definitely the book for you.

Just finished reading this huge novel last night and while I basically enjoyed it, I am disappointed. The scope of this story only includes one small town but the characters are legion. Almost to the point that it was hard to keep up with who was who and doing what. I liked the premise and as usual King's ability to create characters and dialog that ring true was pretty spot on. But, overall this fell flat. The entire story takes place within the span of a week or so and yet the mayhem that ensues is pretty extreme. The "evil" selectman who tries to take advantage of the situation and the townsfolk (sheep), really act much faster and more violently than would be realistic. This tiny slice of society falls apart in a matter of days which just never seemed believable to me. especially when you consider that they still had the use of cell phones and the internet. Given months for this story to unfold I would have been able to go along with it but days was too short a time for all of the drama that ensues. That and the ending was very unsatisfying. The story behind the dome, why it happened, and how was just kind of thrown in there and then at the finale was summed up in a few pages. The dome is always present and there but there is very little interaction with it and the mystery behind it. This is mostly a story about people dealing with each other in a weird situation, but it was so over the top and illogical that I couldn't get completely into it. This was typical Stephen King as far as the style and characterizations and dialog which is always good but too many other things brought this down for me. This is far from being his best work.

Very long, epic tale, about an invisible shield that surrounds a town and the trials and tribulations of the townspeople as they try, or lack thereof, to cope. Includes various inept and corrupt individuals mixed in the good natured folks. I get the ending but I didn't like it; all up to the explosion was awesome then the tale peaked and drifted down and turned into morals and stuff.