Now I’ll start this off by stating that I’m a fan. I’m pretty sure I’ve read all of Kings work with the exceptions of Salem’s Lot which I started yesterday and Lisey’s Story which is next on my list. So I’m perfectly willing to believe that I may be biased in my opinion, however I don’t believe so.
So here it is. There is a theme I’ve seen written on this board and amongst readers I’ve talked with that Cell is a cheap inferior copy of The Stand. I find this comparison irritating and unfounded, but I’m willing to be convinced or at least hear your side.
Now here is my synopsis of both books:
The Stand. After a plague wipes out 99% of humanity the survivors come together is two camps. Mother Abigail comes to people in dreams leading her people ultimately to Denver. Meanwhile the Dark Man sets up shop with his minions in Vegas. Ultimately Mother Abigail sends off several of her chosen people to may a quest in what will ultimately be a showdown of good and evil.
The Cell is the story of a man, Clay, looking to find his family after a zombie outbreak. He has to travel some distance to get home, accompanied by companions he meets on the way. He has to avoid/fight antagonist of the zombie and human variety. That’s it in a nutshell. The cause of the Zombie is interesting but irrelevant to Clay. Whether the Zombie will be defeated is likewise irrelevant. As society falls down around him he seeks out the one thing that matters to him.
Ok both synopsis are a little simplistic but they show my point. These are not the same stories. The share some like elements but those trace similarities doesn’t make the same. Thoughts.
When I say “copy,” I don’t necessarily mean a 100% carbon copy in every aspect of plot and detail. But when Cell settled into a groove of a small band of people walking across a desolate, post-apocalyptic America, trying to avoid or fight off roving bands of hostiles, I found myself saying “King has done this one before, and better.”
I don’t remember zombified tropical fish in Cell. That’s when I stopped reading The Rising, when the fish broke out of its tank and started to talk. I wanted to stop when the guy’s cell phone worked after two months without a charge, and died just as his son called. I also wanted to stop when the guy left his bunker because his zombie wife was calling out to him. But it was the fish that made me finally stop.
I agree that Cell was pretty close in theme and style to The Stand, but I’m okay with writers going back to older works and taking another tack with them. My only complaint about Cell was that it should have been longer. But then I realized I could just read The Stand again.
Yeah, Brian Keene isn’t all that great; I read “The Rising” and “City of the Dead” because my best friend is a zombie-holic, and had bought them for himself. It just so happened that I read Keene about a month before “Cell,” so King’s story felt very familiar to me. But it’s cool…the more zombie stories, the better. I actually have a buddy on the board I run that has a paperback zombie novel coming out, which is pretty neat.
I actually thought “Cell” was pretty strong right up to the ending, but that’s kind of what we’ve come to expect from King, I suppose.
(What I want to know is, where’s the new Jack Ryan novel Clancy said he was working on during the commentary for the Sum of all Fears DVD?)
I’ve not yet read “The Stand,” but I liked “Cell.” Indeed, it should have been longer, and more detailed. Still, I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. And I’m not a huge King fan, either.
Can you elaborate? It’s been a little while since I read it, but I’m hard pressed to call anybody a leader. The head Zombie I thought was acting as a conduit for the collective. Or did you mean Clay and the others?
I didn’t know how until I hit Reply just now. It’s the U code, huh? Cool.
I think as long as they’re set out somehow – bold, italics, or underlining – should be fine. Makes them easier to notice in the thread. We’re not being graded. Are we?
It wasn’t precisely the same but it had the same feel enough to bring me out of the book. It may have been that he was a conduit but it didn’t feel much different to me.
I don’t underline book titles not because I don’t think there’s a reason but I get lazy about coding. Honest, that’s the only reason.
Book and movie titles should be italicized; short story titles, song titles, and tv show titles should be in quotes. That’s just the way it is.
So exactly how are cell phones supposed to turn people into zombies? King has never exactly been a hard science guy; he has a bright 8-year-old’s understanding of technology.
You’re supposed to only underline titles when you write them out long hand, and then only because it’s hard to write in italics. In print, titles should always be italicized.
