Mrs. Cups’ former workplace had some kind of free book fair thingy and a brand-new copy of Under the Dome was ripe for the taking. Knowing I like King she swiped it for me. I read it off-and-on for the better part of three or so months and I just finished it today.
Wow, that’s a long book, but I liked it.
It was an interesting book too in that for the first 500 or so pages I could easily pick it up and put it down as other things got in the way, but once the book hit its stride it got REALLY good. My biggest problem was remembering the cast of characters and who was what and to whom, but I have such trouble with characters in books anyway I was pretty used to it.
I’m glad I read the book and would recommend it to anyone who has the time to read it. It’s very King-y in its style and prose and even though the book is massive, it felt like a quick read in retrospect.
I haven’t seen the mini-series and by looking at the trailer it looks godawful, so I’ll probably skip it unless I’m convinced otherwise.
I got half-way through and put it down for good (so far). The religious nut character was just too much to take (IMHO). I liked the theatrical version based on it–“The Simpsons Movie”!
Give the mini-series a miss. It should have been just that, a mini-series, but they stretched it out for two (?) seasons and diverged WILDLY from the book.
I like the story although the ending Aliens? Really? could only have been written by King. Any other author would have been laughed out the of office by his/her publisher.
Do you ever wonder if King even gets edited anymore? Or do you think he delivers the manuscript and his agent rubberstamps it while imagining all that sweet sweet cash.
Remember in the book when they found the device that was causing the dome? In the show they found it fairly early and brought it home. There was also a series of underground tunnels in the show that people were using to get in and out from under the dome…I gave up pretty much at that point.
I watched only the first couple of episodes, did the TV series make the dome consious and with plans? I remember commercials with people talking about “what the dome wants.”
I read the first 25 or 30 King novels back in the day, then got out of the habit, but UtD is one of his recent ones I’ve read. Something I remember about it is something that I’ve always admired about King is that he attempts to flesh out people into real characters even when he is introducing them to be killed a few pages later. But still, his character types for the book seem to have been generic King Stock Characters plugged in.
I didn’t have a problem with the aliens–not much else it could have been–but I was annoyed by the breif gratuitous use of ghosts as a deus ex machana. (For those who have forgot, a ghost led a dog to drag a lost important document from behind a couch.)
I think like Cell, it was very Stephen King in that it had a great premise, set up and life like characters but he had no idea what to do with it for the last third or so so it goes a little off the rails.
It’s been a good while since I’ve read that one, but I remember liking it. I also recall raising an eyebrow “o-rly” style at the ending. But I’ve learned to give Mr. King a little leeway on the endings. After all, the subject matter is sometimes so fantastical that the ending might have to be a bit of a letdown. I feel the same way about The Stand. But it’s the journey, not the destination so it’s ok.
The miniseries, I made no attempt to watch.
Have to agree with Bryan Ekers. Just like The Dark Tower, he wrote himself into a corner again.
Love King and all, and it was a great book 'till the last thirty pages or so.
I thought it was an OK book with a fantastic ending that, really, should have been its own short story. The alien idiocy didn’t bother me because I’m kinda used to that from King now (which is its own indictment, I get it), but blowing up the meth processing facility brought a kinda meandering story to sharp focus… I was worried that I would have to read how everyone was slowly asphyxiating, but no! That’s not what happened!
I thought 11.22.63 was the opposite… a fantastic story with a shitacular ending. May have been the worst ending of all his works.
I rather liked the ending, but I think it was a little too heroic.
I would almost rather have had the dome just disappear as quickly as it appeared once the meth lab blew. No one knows what happened, but we just assume once the aliens saw the people in the dome get blown up, they get bored and just leave.
They’re kids after all.
It would make all the deaths that happened sting all the more because they were super pointless.
I enjoyed a lot of the series, Dean Norris was a hoot as Big Jim. There were some parts that I really disliked (like the fight club thing) but a lot of it was engaging.
To me, if you’re going to base a series on a book, try to follow the book. I understand there are differences between what an author can write and what a director can film, but let’s not veer so off track the show is unrecognizable from the source material.
