Under the Dome: A Novel

Remember when Stephen King said he was "semi-retired" and "writing at a much slower pace"? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Yeah, didn't think so. King is clearly back to his near-Herculean, perepiteic writing and publishing pace, producing 1,000+-page tomes so quickly readers can barely keep up. But, far better than that, King's latest efforts--this and the fabulous 11/22/63: A Novel --are absolutely great, entertaining reads. Stephen King at his very best. And this is coming from someone who has been reading about 90% (an aside: do you think even his immediate family can read all of the articles, books, short stories and essays King generates? It must be a full time job) of what King has put out since my middle school days, when 'Salem's Lot first gave me the serious heeby jeebies. But bad dreams didn't stop me, since I just used the logic that all these terrible things only happened in Maine, and I didn't/don't live in Maine. So, you know, I was safe. (Pre-teen logic at its best.) For me, King's "best" includes the The Stand , The Shining and the aforementioned Lot--the "S" books in King's own parlance--along with the inemitable novella "The Body," amongst others from the very best of his very many, very good short story collections, Different Seasons : Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption; Apt Pupil; The Body; The Breathing Method , along with the most engrossing non-fiction book I've ever had the pleasure to read: King's On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft . So, yes, I think King is genius. But that doesn't mean he hasn't had some clunkers ( Lisey's Story: A Novel anyone?). Luckily, there's no junk here and I breezed through this hefty tome in less than three days ... And would have read faster if silly things like life and work hadn't gotten in the way. The madness and mystery of life under THE DOME held my attention to the very end and, unlike others, I liked the ending/explanation and felt no fizzle, unlike other King stories with great build-up that didn't perfectly pay off for me (e.g. It ). I don't think there is any author in history that has had the way with words that King possesses. The ability to immerse readers in the supernatural so completely, while simultaneously grounding his characters so totally that they seem like people you must know. (And given many of his stories relative geography, many of King's characters do know each other.) This small-town story of madness and group-think works as a fairly dead-on study of human nature and its many flaws, as well as a fairly apt commentary on our environment and what we, as a human race, our doing to our own, fragile atmospheric "dome." Not to mention some pretty solid reasoning to always look at your actions through the lens of those they may effect ... No matter how small or insignificant they may seem. That ants are a minute presence in the human world, doesn't mean we aren't, or couldn't be, just ants to some other species. Great story and poignant food for thought. Bravo, Mr. King!

I didn't really like this one a lot when I first read it, but the second time around I enjoyed it a lot more, don't know why. It has really good characters, and the story is really original. It read almost like a dystopic, as a lot of this probably would happen if society at large collapsed. It might not be the best King has ever written, but it is still really good.

Wow. Like most King novels, this is a very fascinating, compelling story. He takes a great idea, everyday humans trapped under a dome without any possible intervention from the outside world....what will those humans do.....and he turns this idea into a good novel. Still, this is not one of Kings best novels. Knowing what King is capable of, I was disappointed by this novel. It is definitely not a 5-star novel compared to other novels of Kings, but compared to novels in general, it is a 5-star. I would rate it in the middle 3rd, compared to King's other books, King has written better books, but he has also written worst. Most annoying was the "all-knowing narrator" that kept popping in telling us what was going to be happening next. The over-the-top foreshadowing was quite overused in this novel. King is a better novelist than this, there was absolutely no need to beat his readers over the head with what was coming next. Really, probably 95% of his readers had read a previous novel and KNOW main characters will be dying and bad things happening, there is no need to blatantly spell it out before it happens. Next most annoying, just over the top unbelievableness. I am more than happy to suspend my disbelief when its necessary to further the story line, but in so many instances in this book, it was not necessary. King could have made the same storyline in a much more believable manner. A few examples, the dreadfully understaffed hospital which King "helpfully" kept pointing out was dreadfully understaffed. Reality is no hospital would be staffed with just 1 doctor, 1 PA, 1 EMT, 2 nurses & a couple of candy strippers. Real hospitals have tons of personnel, from licensed staff such as respiratory therapists, radiological technicians, physical therapists, lab technicians, phlebotomists, anesthesiologists/nurse anesthetists, pharmacists, tons of nurses, medical transcriptionists,nursing aides, etc. to tons of non-licensed staff, ward clerks, housecleaners, cooks, groundskeepers, etc. Even a very small hospital would have many more people on active staff, and even more close by "on-call" than in King's hospital. And the English professor who worked as a military medic 40 or so years before...we are really supposed to believe he can diagnosis rare brain tumors and treat heart arrhythmias, after all this time when he most likely never even saw this stuff in the military? And the pharmacist who is portrayed as being dumber than a box of rocks, reality is one doesn't make it through 4 or more years of chemistry & biology being dumber than a box of rocks. King could have made it assumed that more hospital staff were there, at least to clean up after all the deaths, he could have given the English Prof a backstory where his brother was a doctor and would swap work stories with him, he could have made the pharmacist book-smart but common-sense dumb. The storyline could have been the same, just told told in a more believable fashion. Overall, most of the character development was good, with a wide range of characters. I really enjoyed the ending. The deaths were (half-way) surprising, rather than having been fore-told a few pages before. And I was really impressed with how King tied much of the story together, the characters together, to make the final conclusion/ending point, of all our little lives. As with most of Kings books, the reader is left better off, with new perspectives on life. Reading through to a satisfactory ending was also a deciding factor in my 5-star rating.

Ertesi gun teslim edildi. Keske karton kapak olan biraz ucuz olsaydi. Bin lira biraz fazla imzasiz bir kitap icin.

ペーパーバック: 1088ページ Gallery (2010/7/6) ISBN-10: 1439192391 のレビュー。 マスマーケット版ではなくトレードペーパーバック版です。これぐらいの厚さになると、マスマーケット版はきついので、大きめの版がおすすめ。 いくら暇で読むのが速い方でも、これを徹夜で完読するのは不可能でしょう。ある程度、長期戦でのぞむ準備が必要。 それで、そのコツですが、最初の100ページないし150ページぐらいを一気に読むべき。あとは、登場人物が予想どおりに動き出します。細切れに読んでいってもOKでしょう。 そのほか若干の注意。 1. キングの作品にSF的な面白さや解決法を期待しないこと。 2. 政治や国際的な緊張、科学的な調査、そんなものは作者の埒外です。あくまで、ひとつの小さな町の事件です。 3. ホラー小説的な描写は少ない。ただし、グロな描写や痛みの描写はてんこ盛りです。苦手な方は避けるべき。 「読みだすと止まらない」というほどではなかったのですが、これを読んでる間、ほかの本はまったく読めなかった。ほかに読むべき本がある方注意。恐るべき筆力だ。

Sombre et fascinant, comme toujours avec Stephen King. Un must-read à lire ou relire de toute urgence.

Interesting read...

In many ways Under the Dome is complete tosh. But King writes brilliantly and every magnificent cliche of literary and screen small town America is gleefully thrown in, entirely deliberately and archly, to superb effect. Boss Hogg; Boss Hogg's psycho son; the hard nosed female diner owner with a heart of gold; the drifter army vet who might be the hero; a bunch of spunky kids on bikes who might also be the heroes; the dumb as a brick police chief who does just what Boss Hogg tells him; the corny old soak who might come good yet, you never know: they are all there and more, but every one is delivered with such style that none of it matters. The plot races along, there are outbreaks of serious nastiness and characters you think might make it are cheerfully done away with in a heartbeat, Game of Thrones style. A thousand plus pages shot by and I absolutely loved it. And some great throwaways: look out for Jack Reacher, and the great line about being a fiction writer and how risky it is to put a thousand pager out there and hope someone reads it. Brilliant.