Under The Dome Review

Under the Dome
Stephen King
ISBN 0340992573(978-034-099257-9)
RRP $34.99 November 2009
H&S Fiction Paperback (C)

Celebrated storyteller Stephen King returns to his roots in this tour de force featuring more than 100 characters - some heroic, some diabolical - and a supernatural element as baffling and chilling as any he's ever conjured. On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as 'the dome' comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet, teams up with a few intrepid citizens against the town's corrupt politician. But time, under the dome, is running out.... UNDER THE DOME is King at his epic best and will capture a brand new readership as well as thrilling his existing fans.

Review

Under the Dome is the long awaited novel by Stephen King. So long in fact, that Stephen even released copies of his original notes to the general public to counter claims that the book was based on the Simpsons movie with a similar plot (sort of).
This novel is another epic, weighing in at 1072 pages long, but right from the get-go you're hooked and the pace of the book is brilliant. Yes there are a ton of characters but King handles their introductions with the skill he showed in The Stand, we like and care for the people who we are supposed to and we hate and dread those who deserve it. The story is not so much about the dome as it is about the town. Just as The Mist was more about the horrors of humanity trapped in the shop rather than the beasts in the mist outside, for the most part the dome itself is simply a means of containing a town.

King doesn’t fail to deliver a great story in the same vein as some of his better works, such as The Stand and The Dark Tower. There are plenty of characters for the reader to become familiar with and keep track of throughout the course of the novel.

This story is good and won’t disappoint fans of Stephen King and I can already see a movie being made based on this novel.