Is anyone reading the new Stephen King, Under the Dome ? I picked this up over Christmas and I'm around 200 pages into it at the moment. Its enjoyable stuff, but feels a little lightweight after finishing the monumental The Dark Tower series last year. I've heard rumblings that the plot is close to the Simpsons Movie but I haven't seen it so I don't know. Apparently King was working on the book in the 80's under the title The Cannibals and it does feel like every bit a Stephen King novel, with a small town coming under attack by mysterious forces, and the town folk with their own dark secrets coming to the surface. Its a huge novel, so I'm intrigued to see where its gonna go, but as a lifelong Stephen King fan, I gotta say his dialogue is absolutely awful. I mean I don't know anyone from Maine, but does anyone actually talk like a character from a Stephen King novel ? I dunno....

I'm reading it, I bought it a few months ago, read a chunk of it but then never returned to it. I guess I really should. My problem was is that I kept thinking about the Luna Brother's 'Girls' which has a very simlar plot of a small American town trapped under a dome. Girls had a bit more of a hook than the King book did.
I'll get back to reading it and then we can compare notes.

Want to get back into King - read a bunch of his books when I was younger. Think the last 'new' book of his I got was 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' - which is the best book he has done since then . . . ?

By no means a 'great' book but I rather enjoyed Cell - it's King's take on the crazed/rage/zombie/techno-fear type of genre. Had some great moments and some - erm - not so good ones. Worth a punt though if you like that type of thing (which I do).

Took your advice and bought 'Cell' this afternoon - just getting into it, though I keep getting pulled out of the action by some pretty ropey diologue...

I read Cell a couple of years back...really enjoyed it, but I recommend that you stop reading with about 20 pages left to go and make up your own mind what happens.
Could have been so much better, but ruined by the ending.

Heh! Well I don't think I'll be able to do that, but appreciate the advice . . . !

Wally.Wonka is right though even though you will not be able to not read the ending. When I finished reading The Cell I remember just staring at the book and then threw it against the wall in anger. King has written some great books but his endings can be very annoying.

Just brace yourself for it!

Ok then - I'll post here when I'm on the 21st to last page . . .

I read this entire thing in about 5 days.

Personally, I think it is King's best single novel. It's not without its flaws, but it contains some of King's best writing and characters, and the plot is handled with great skill. The way King leads the reader around the town in the first 200 pages is absolutely masterful.

Just a brilliant novel.

This is the first King I've read in nearly 20 years, and I thought it was up to par with the old favourites if you excise the ridiculous Twilight Zone-y explanation from your brain. No explanation necessary Mr King.

I just finished it and really enjoyed it. The ending, more specifically the deus ex machina therein, kind of annoyed me but didn't ruin it for me.


I thought that after his magnum opus of The Dark Tower he was a tad spent and needed to clear the decks as a writer before he got back to his best. So for me Cell and Just After Sunset were a bit of a drag. I enjoyed Lisey's Story and Duma Key a lot though and it seems he is getting back into his groove.

I started it on an iPhone and ended it on a Sony e-reader even though I bought the book. The book is so heavy that you would need two cabin boys to hold it while you read it in bed. Having two cabin boys in your bedroom when you are married isn't really a going concern though.