Please, no spoilers, but has anyone had a chance to read this one yet? I got the hardcover from the girlfriend’s parents last night for a late Christmas present. There’s no dust jacket description, just a pretty telling title and cover art.
I’m only just starting it, but at 1000+ pages, I’d like to know if it’s worth the time. So far, it seems like it’s echoing the plot of the Simpsons Movie, i.e., big dome comes down and seals off city from the rest of the world. Is that really all there is to it, plus some character exposition?
Not just the Simpsons Movie, a mysterious dome isolating a small town or city is standard sci-fi stuff - for instance Dick’s Cosmic Puppets, Galouye’s Simulacron-3, even an episode of The Twilight Zone. King often recycles old SF ideas in his novels, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there’s very little new under the sun and he often puts a fresh spin on it.
As to whether it’s worth reading? Yes, King is always readable, even if he does have a tendency sometimes to bloat books out far beyond what the plot will bear and a novel which would have been an excelllent read at 300 pages turns into something of a snoozefest at 1000. My own opinion is that this one would have benefited from some determined editing. Still well worth the read though.
Mmm… I’m saying this as a huge King Fan. I’m halfway through and considering putting it down. I just don’t… like it. I dunno. I don’t really like any of the characters (definitely don’t like being just told which ones I’m supposed to like) and the bad guys are just too damned bad. I mean, seriously. It doesn’t do it for me. I haven’t put down a Stephen King book since The Tommyknockers. I liked a lot of the ones that aren’t very popular. Just not this one.
As a Stephen King fan who hasn’t enjoyed anything he’s written since a couple of stories from Everything’s Eventual and After Sunset, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Under The Dome. I thought the pace was fantastic and, say what you want about the ending, I thought that he got himself out of the corner he painted himself into better than he does most of the time.
The Chef is one of my favorite characters in a King book since his Dark Tower series, and Selectman Rennie is a fantastic villain.
This is totally me! I’m about 1/2 way through and it feels like such a chore to pick it up. The bad guys are too bad, and they don’t even need a Dome, they’re bad anyway. For a FREAKING LONG BOOK, I feel like I’m not spending enough time with the good guys to get to like them especially well. I am a big SK fan as well, so for me not to find things to like in one of his books is very unusual.
I’m a King fan – I even liked From A Buick Eight and The Colorado Kid, that’s how big a fan I am. Under the Dome had a promising start – King is always good with build-up – but it fell apart quickly. It’s my least favorite King title. Not just that, it’s one of the most disappointing books I’ve ever read, from anyone.
I just finished it and it will be the last Stephen King I ever waste money on–even though it was only $9. Not a lot of interesting things happen. Dome comes down, assholes turn into bigger assholes, but, and this is funny to say for a King novel, none of it is believable. The whole town seems to know Rennie is an A-hole (many praise him, but when you get glimpses of what he’s done in the past, its just not elieveable), but they blindly believe some of the most outlandish stuff that is easily proven to be incorrect. It seemed like everyhting was written simpliy to put the “good guys” in peril, not to advance a story. The ending and the reason for the dome are also stupid and pointless in light of the 1000+ pages.
I’ve been a fan since Salem’s Lot which was the only book to ever give me nightmares, but I’ve had too many losers in a row.
Hey, I really liked the first three fourths of Duma Key, I even liked a good bit of smucking Lisey’s Story. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only fan of From a Buick 8. But I think I’m deleting this one off the Kindle and not reading any more of it. And I very, very rarely don’t finish books on purpose. Lose them, yes, but rarely do I leave them unfinished.
Agreed 100%. Book started off good then tanked around page 600. Then it became work to pick up and read but I forced myself to, then the end has the worst payoff in literary history.
I don’t think he knew what the dome was going to be when he started writing the book.
Read it. I spent all day yesterday curled up with it and finished at 1:30am. It moves very quickly, it’s got a good number of interesting characters, and I thought the ending was–actually–a little clever, for King. It was entertaining, so if that’s what you’re looking for, dive in.
“when you wake up, you’ll be washing your feet in a cool stream…”
Didn’t like the ending. I also don’t like it when the bad guys are so comically bad. I wanted the big ending - the comeuppance. In the past, King was pretty good about that - the bad guys got what was coming to them. This one, not as good.
I’m 250 pages in, and I have mixed feelings. It feels like not a whole lot is happening right now. And since something kind of gruesome and bad DID just happen, that’s sort of a weird reaction.
I’ll probably finish it, but I’m not exactly immersed.