A Look at Under the Dome
*Originally published on 3/18/09
On November 10, 2009, Stephen King will release his latest novel Under the Dome.
Beyond that, all anyone really seems to know is that it is thick, really really thick. Even Amazon's product description simply says "the giant new fiction title from Stephen King".
How thick is it? The manuscript was said to be over 1,500 pages and weigh 19 pounds. Given the prevalence of the number 19 in the Dark Tower series, am I the only one who finds that an odd coincidence? Anyway, the hardcover edition is said to be 1,120 pages. That's about the same size as It and The Stand.
The closest thing we have to a plot synopsis is the fact that the book will be about how people behave when cut off from society. That comes from Wikipedia. Even Stephen King's website doesn't have any news or info about the book.
King originally wrote the book over 20 years ago but decided to rewrite it changing it from a social comedy to a straight forward story. Much like he did with Blaze, King seems to be digging out old manuscripts and reworking them. This may be due to his injury causing him discomfort when sitting down for extensive periods, or maybe he's focusing on other things. There was talk of him retiring a few years ago so it would make sense that he would rather redo something that is pretty much already done and improve it as opposed to starting from scratch.
Given the title and the synopsis I would not be surprised if the book used Post-Katrina New Orleans as a source of inspiration and overtone. It is Stephen King so I'm sure there will be some dark force pulling the strings and driving everybody nuts, but the parallel will most certainly be there.
There's really not much to say as there isn't a whole lot of information out right now. I just wanted to write this and give the fans a heads up on the off chance they hadn't heard. A new book is indeed coming and will be out later this year.
Signed Editions Available for Pre-Order
*Originally published on 8/10/09
I just read on Stephen King's website that signed copies of King's upcoming novel, Under the Dome, will be made available for pre-order on September 15 from Simon and Schuster. The publisher's website confirms the report. Sales start at 9 am eastern.
The signed edition will cost $200 plus shipping and handling. It will include collector's cards, illustrations, and a belly band around the jacket. Each customer will be limited to purchasing one book.
Also interesting is the fact that the cover image they've been using to promote the book is not the actual cover. Evidently, the actual cover art will be released on October 5. What their goal was when releasing the fake image was, I have no clue. I didn't see anything wrong with the image they did release. It was simple, but effective. We'll have to wait to see what the actual image is.
Official Cover Image Released
*Originally published on 10/7/09
Two days ago, the official cover image for Stephen King's upcoming novel, Under the Dome was released.
I have to say, I'm a little underwhelmed. I know, I praised the original image for being effective in it's simplicity and you could say the same for this. That's the problem though, it's pretty much the same thing.
I don't get why they went through the trouble of coming up with this decoy cover to say, "oh that's not the image, we've got something else in store, stay tuned!" only to release an image that's not so different from the first one.
If they had released this first, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. I would've praised it as I did the first image. It's not a bad cover, not by a long shot. The method they used to gain press just seems off to me.
Stephen King discusses Under the Dome
*Originally published on 10/28/09
Popeater.com recently had the chance to sit down and interview Stephen King about his upcoming novel, Under the Dome.
King discusses the history behind the book, how he kept coming back to it over the years as he liked the idea. He also says that this is more of a "canvas" novel with a wide array of characters and he adds that he loves them, which is essential for any writer to write a great book.
The ecological aspect is interesting. I figured it would be more of the traditional "humans turn on each other and act like idiots when put in extreme situations" but it seems like this somehow incorporates the environment. When the book said that time was running out for those inside the dome, I figured it meant that the dome was airtight and that they would all suffocate eventually, maybe that's the case and the smaller scale means pollutants have a greater impact.
We'll have to wait and see how it plays out in the novel. You can find the article and video here. It's only about four minutes long, but it's a good watch.
Entertainment Weekly hypes up Under the Dome
*Originally published on 11/4/09
It suddenly occurred to me that I should probably check Entertainment Weekly's website to see if King had another article published. Fortunately, the man has a pretty full plate so the most recent article is still his top 10 villains list.
I did, however find two articles along with videos to help build up anticipation for the book. The articles are a couple of days old, being featured on the 29th and 30th of October respectively, but I stumbled upon them just now.
The first article features an actual trailer for the novel. It's only about 30 seconds, but it's pretty effective and quite cool if I do say so myself. It gives off the impression of a sprawling epic, which fits, given that that was what King was going for. I don't know if it was intentional, but the commercial was a bit reminiscent of a commercial for Lost. The music and the flashing banners were similar to what ABC does with its hit show. It may've just been a coincidence though. Either way, it worked.
The second article has King himself reading a small excerpt from the book. The video also includes illustrations of the characters featured in the piece. Do I smell a future comic? We'll have to see.
If that isn't enough to whet your appetite before we reach the rapidly approaching release date of the anticipated novel, the latest issue of the magazine features a whopping 4,000 word excerpt from the book.
Under the Dome set to Hit Shelves
*Originally published on 11/9/09
It's the final countdown. In less than 24 hours, Stephen King's latest work, Under the Dome will be available in bookstores across the country.
We've been awaiting this day for some time now and it's finally here. You may want to clear your schedule as the book is well over a thousand pages long, making it one of his longest along with The Stand and It. Given King's ability to pull you into the story, I imagine that you will be in your chair for quite a while.
The book will be available in hardcover in bookstores across the country and can also be bought online through sites like Amazon.
The book will be available for purchase on Kindles and other e-book readers, but those won't be available until Christmas eve.
Under the Dome hits shelves
*Originally published on 11/10/09
The day is finally here. King's latest, Under the Dome is now available. The long wait is over and the anticipated epic is available in hardcover for purchase.
The cover price is a whopping $35 (with over 1,000 pages though it still breaks down to a decent deal). Both Barnes and Noble and Borders are offering it for $21 with a membership card. Amazon has it for sale at a little over $17.
I'm going to hold off on buying this for a myriad of reasons, a "to-read" pile of books that stacks up past my waist is one of them. There is also the possibility that I may be obtaining a Kindle in the near future, so if that pans out, I will buy it through that and save myself a good chunk of shelf space.
The reviews I've read have generally been positive. The customer reviews on Borders and Amazon give it five stars and even the professional critics call it a good read. They even go so far as to compare it to It and The Stand. Any King reader know that that isn't faint praise. It sounds like King is tapping into his roots with this novel and it should be a darn good read.
Reviews
Reviewstream review
Examiner halftime report
*Originally published on 12/7/09
So, I've reached about the halfway point of Under the Dome. Seeing as this is rather belated as it is, I thought I would give my thoughts on the book so far. I'll still give a complete review when I'm done but hopefully, this will hold you over.
People have said that this is a "return to form" for King, comparing it to his two other doorstoppers, It and The Stand. I'm not sure what people are missing in the newer works. I thought Black House was rather awesome and Bag of Bones was really a lot better than I thought it would be going in. I can see how this hearkens back to his earlier works though, it has that sort of feel to it. It's not surprising really since he started it decades ago.
Another thing that has come up is the wide cast of characters, and they weren't kidding. The character list is about three pages long; heck the fact that there is a character list at all tells you something. The only time I've seen those is in Shakespeare plays.
At first, I felt that this was actually working against King, that the book had too many characters. I got about 200 pages in and didn't really feel like anyone was fleshed out. The book's righted itself since then, we've gotten the core cast established and King has "thinned the herd" a little so it's definitely found it's focus.
Rightfully, we have no explanation for what sent the dome down yet, and outside of the dome itself no supernatural presence has made itself known. The two villains established are Big Jim Rennie and a deranged man known as "The Chef". The latter has only appeared once, lurking about a radio station, but the prior is the oft talked about Dick Cheney stand in.
The parallels are obvious, he has heart problems, he's second in command, but still pretty much runs the show. At first, I dismissed him as the mastermind because it seemed like the dome was hindering him as much as it was anyone else. As the book progressed though, it started to work more and more to his advantage and it seemed more and more likely that this was all a Palpatine-esque play for power.
If the ominous visions of the children are correct (and so far they have been) he's not the mastermind, but it was a nice theory while it lasted.
Rennie's puppet in the seat of First Selectman is Andy Sanders. Many of the characters have noted how he's such a "moron" but frankly I'm not seeing it. So far the only proof of said stupidity is him uttering one non-sequitur during a conference and mistakenly calling Little Walter, Walter. That's not that big a mistake. First off, who names their kid "Little"? And secondly, lots of mothers give their kids nicknames so it's not that much of a stretch that he thought that Walter was the kid's name. King hand waves it by saying that she's told him before, but so far he doesn't seem all that dim.
A few King tropes have shown up in this book. One of the kids has a psychic vision of a golden baseball (that does in fact come into play later), there are a few religious characters (a few hypocrites as well as fanatics and regular people of faith), a dog even gets killed. OK, it's somewhat justified in that the dog was attacking someone and about to kill said person, but a warning shot in the air would've worked. Even more, the cop heard the woman say that she would call him off.
Speaking of the cops, never was N.W.A's battle cry more apt cause these guys suck. They assault innocent bystanders with little to no provocation and they even rape a woman because...they can. There's a scene where they almost run over some children and I was expecting them to go bugnuts on them. Surprisingly enough, they're nice and kind to the kids and take care of them.
I was a bit surprised about how the dome functions. When the blurb says that time is running out, I figured it was air tight, but air gets through fine, even water (though only small portions of it). I wasn't surprised that the cruise missiles didn't work (that's not a spoiler, it's only 400 pages in you know it's not going to work). It's a force-field. It's specifically designed to repel things like missiles. It did however, remind me of an old Venture Bros. where some of the characters get trapped in a room by force field and the maid ends up washing it away with club soda. If this book ends with King making a Venture Bros. reference by having them escape that way, I would be so happy.
The book is thick, but like It, you hardly notice it as you're reading. It has that same "pull you in" effect that King's best works have. I'm not sure where I'd rank it exactly, that would be a question better answered after I finish and that sort of thing does tend to fall in the eye of the beholder, but this is definitely up there. I'm intrigued and excited to see where it's all going. So, while I'm still working on it. I do recommend this book. If you haven't picked it up yet, do so. The title has been steadily dropping slots on the NY Times Best seller list so we need to get it back up there.
Examiner review
It's been a while since we hit the end of the first half, but I finally finished the door stopper that is Under the Dome.
It's a good book. I don't know if I'd cite it as a masterpiece, but it certainly is a darn good read. People compare it to It and The Stand, where it seemed more like Bag of Bones. The dome itself almost becomes an afterthought. With the wide cast and three human villains to deal with, it sort of makes sense, but the whole dome arc was a tad abrupt.
I mean, first the dome comes down and the first third of the novel is the "whiskey tango foxtrot" phase. The crew on the outside pretty much figure out what's going on and tell Barbara to find the Macguffin to disable the dome. Said Macguffin turns out to be pretty easy to find, King handwaves this saying that the masterminds wanted the thing to be found, but it was a bit odd.
There are a ton of great characters in this book. Big Jim is such a reprehensible bastich that he almost makes Cheney look good by comparison. His son, Junior is not much better. I have to admit that Junior was fun to read about. He was so deliciously deranged that I loved every bit of page time he had, although again I'm forced to point out that necrophilia is gross. I loved how he and his father kept finding themselves at odds. There were a few scenes where they would just stare each other down, knowing full well that the other was up to no good. I got the feeling that even Big Jim was a bit put off by his son's slipping sanity. It was great.
Speaking of deliciously deranged, we also have "Chef" Bushey, who finally becomes a player later in the book. He especially shines when he befriends one of the other characters in the book. I don't know why, but I enjoy seeing average joes befriend sociopaths. It doesn't quite reach the awesomeness that is Dan Dreiberg and Rorschach, but it's in that same vein.
I also liked James Cox. I don't know what it was, but he had a great page presence that made me want to see more of him.
While the book doesn't tie into the Dark Tower directly (though there are several subtle nods to the 19 bit), it is linked in spirit. I'm thinking specifically of the final scene in the first book where the Man in Black explains the nature of the megaverse, telling Roland how there are universes inside of atoms and how their own universe was but a small piece of a larger spectrum. I'm not going to give away the ending, but that idea plays heavily into what is going on.
The book has been criticized for being a tad anti-climactic. I have to agree. I'm not sure how else you could've ended it, and I did like the metaphysical idea behind it, but it did pale in comparison to the buildup.
Many have made the comparison to the Simpsons movie, saying that King took his idea from that. There are several things wrong with this. First, he started writing this decades ago; and second, King says that he had never even seen the film (which I have to admit is rather surprising considering what a big film buff he is). Let's put that aside though. Let's say that he had seen the movie and it sparked an idea in his brain..so what? The characters are different, the story is different and the dome serves a completely different purpose. Now, had Barbie and Julia disposed of the aforementioned macguffin by riding a motorcycle around the perimeter of the dome, using physics to ride their way to the top of the dome, then yeah I'd say he would've ripped it off, but outside of the fact that there is a dome over a city, there is no similarity between the two.
While it took a while time-wise for me to get through, it was by no means a difficult read. King is so good at lengthier tomes that he almost makes writing a 1,000 page epic look easy.
If you haven't already, I do recommend checking this book out. If my endorsement isn't enough to convince you, Neil Gaiman cited it as one of his favorite books of the year in his blog.
I can't wait to see what comes of the planned adaptation by HBO. Hopefully, it doesn't go the way of TNT's The Talisman. It has the potential to be a great series.
Under the Dome tops the Charts
*Originally published on 11/21/09
The New York times lists Stephen King's door stopper of a new release, Under the Dome as the number one best seller in their latest top 5 list.
Unlike movies, they don't seem to track book copies as diligently so I can't comment on how close it was to the second best seller or how much it blew away the competition. I, myself, picked up my copy yesterday.
As I was walking out of the bookstore, I noticed the audiobook version of the novel on a rack. That would be a lot of listening. I was kind of curious to see how many CD's it would take to hold an 1,100 page book. Sadly, the audiobook's Amazon page doesn't tell you how many CD's are contained. It does, however, have a review co-written by Guillermo Del Toro, which is pretty cool.
You can also read the New York Times' review of the novel.
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