Under the Dome - A Review

A week ago, one of my Christmas presents was Stephen King's latest novel, Under the Dome. This thirty-some dollar, 1072 page bohemath was, sad to say, one of the most dissapointing reads since Deathly Hallows two and a half years ago. However, unlike the final Harry Potter book (the most overpriced piece of fanfiction in print), this one had its enjoyable moments.

Please note, that there are going to be spoilers throughout, so if you would like to read the book, then go and buy it. I promise, though I might not agree with how he went about it, the book is damn enjoyable and worth the money.

For the most part, King is taking for granted that the people in the situation that is presented would act like good people. Maybe they would in Maine. I, however, live in California. If that happened here, the elected officials would probably be hung after the first twelve hours and the police force publicly executed right after. That would be how it would go. King has them acting nice until a staged riot starts and even then they still obey the officials. I spent close to the entire book waiting for the general population to start acting like real people and tear the main official's head from his body and overthrow the police force.

The main cast (and it's a cast at least as large as The Stand, if not bigger), however, are well written. You have your main hero, you main villian (who I must admit, reminded me far to much of Albus "It was for the Greater Good" Dumbledore), the hero's love interest, a trio of young teenagers going through puberty and a spawning love triangle (again, shade of Harry Potter with the brains, the brawn, and the goof), and that's not even scratching the surface of the dome. The characters are given life and you start to mutter as you read it, cheering on the goods guys, booing the bad guys while telling them to go to hell, and telling the leader of the teenage trio to just shut up with the inner monologues and kiss the girl already. There are even points when you start to cheer for the bad guys when they have a change of heart.

All in all, I must say that, while the book was unreal, it was a great book. And it was most likely the aformentioned book that caused it to be hard to read at times.

This book has many shades of The Stand, only instead of the setting being all over America, the setting is reduced to a single town. Whereas in The Stand there was no government, there is one in Under the Dome. He has seemed to try and capture that, a story that takes place over the course of a year, and put it into a book that takes place over the course of a week. I'm sorry, Mr. King, but it didn't work.

Nevertheless, I still say buy the book. My biggest complaint could be written down to culture shock, and the dozen or so mistakes (while annoying as hell...that line about being an author and then reading a book is true), are forgiveable. So go and buy this book, read it, enjoy it, and cheer for the good guys.

So, Mr. King, while the idea is kinda...meh, this is one Constant Reader that you have not lost. So start writing again while I continue to catch up.