Yellow Morning

by Stephen King

Apartment dwellers find themselves trapped inside their building. This novel was the genesis for King's later novel, Under the Dome.

Genres: Horror

124 pages, ebook

First published October 4, 2009

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[Kandice]

This was Stephen King's first attempt at telling the story that eventually became Under the Dome. Even with just this little bit, you can tell the rest of this version would have had a very different feel. Biggest difference, right off the bat, is what contains the characters. In UtD the dome itself is visible and obviously "other" or alien. We cannot do this here on Earth! In The Cannibals just the one building is shut off from the rest of the world and at first seems to simply be a matter of locked doors or non-functioning emergency exits. Nothing "other" about that.

This reminded me quite a bit of the Twilight Zone episode, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. Something inexplicable happens and true to human nature everyone wants to blame someone, anyone, and whoever did it must have done so with the intention to harm. In UtD it seems very obvious that no one trapped in the Dome could have had anything to do with it's appearance. Those trapped can, will and do eventually turn on each other, but not because of blame. I think if The Cannibals had been finished there would have been quite a bit of blame splashed around.

King's genius has always been his ability to create characters that seem real. This effort is no exception. We are introduced to four characters, three tenants and the superintendent. They could not be more different, and even in these few pages, I wanted to know more about them. King is also a master at foreshadowing and he does so here with the praying girl. I really, really want to know what was going to happen when she got to work that day. Too bad I'll never know.

[HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows]

På Stephen Kings hemsida finns de första fem kapitlen från hans ofärdiga roman The Cannibals som han skrev 1982 att läsa. Upplägget är ett gäng hyresgäster som blir oförklarligt inlåsta i ett lägenhetskomplex och mycket längre än så om historien får vi inte veta under de 122 sidorna. Det är ett bra upplägg, samma upplägg som King utvidgade och gjorde på nytt med Under Kupolen nästan 30 år senare och då Under Kupolen är en av mina favoriter bland Kings senare romaner så är det kul att få läsa originalidén och jag skulle gärna, trots likheterna med Under Kupolen, läst vidare om möjligheten gavs.

[Caitlin Ball]

The start of this story holds ominous undertones similar to that of The Russian Sleep Experiment. One which kept me up for a week after hearing. The first thirty pages were gripping, right up until my cat sat in front of me and tried to eat my face. In part 2 it begins talking about how everyone separates to use their own particular reality avoidance drugs, or coping drugs. In this regard I couldn’t help but think how boring I would be in this scenario. My drug of choice is always coffee. Especially in a crisis. Coffee and two cups of water. I’d rather have heightened senses than dull ones in a scenario like that. Unfortunately, the copy I have wasn’t finished all the way through. I’m not sure if the original copies of this story ever were. The situation reminds me of a D&D one shot my husband DMed. In which the pub we started in got sucked into an alternate dimension of nothingness. While that story turned out alright the title of this one tells me it would be a few shades darker than our colorful adventure. It would make an interesting story. For now I’ll have to imagine it was something along the lines of Alice in Borderlands without the fun games. Or maybe alien zoo or a time travelers zoo. Trying to show people how those of the past lived without thinking things through completely. Wouldn't that be horribly funny?

[Gramm Hall]

Interesting idea, but it ended before anything good could've happened with it. Could've been good if it was finished.

[Dan Corey]

Maybe my least favorite King work of all time (although it’s probably tied with Rage to be honest). I just flat out didn’t like this early attempt at the concept that eventually bloomed into the far superior Under The Dome. I am quite thankful King jumped ship on this version, because it simply wasn’t working. It was unfocused, the setting was bland, the dialogue felt forced, and the characters were easily some of the worst King has ever created, including one that was so cartoonishly over-the-top racist that it made me want to tear my hair out of my head in frustration. I get that King was really trying to make us hate this man and used racism as a means to drive home how vile a character he is, but it went ridiculously overboard.

The Cannibals just felt cold and distant in a very off-putting way. Only recommended for King completists, and even then I can’t really guarantee you’ll find much to enjoy here.