زیر گنبد

by Stephen King, محمد جوادی (Translator)

«زیر گنبد» رمانی علمی‌تخیلی است که در سال ۲۰۰۹ منتشر شد. این رمان در شهری کوچک به نام مِین اتفاق می‌افتد و داستانی پیچیده، همراه با خرده‌روایت‌های فراوان را از شخصیت‌های آن بیان می‌کند. داستانی که ساکنان شهر با فاجعه‌ای ناگهانی مواجه می‌شوند: سقوط گنبد شیشه‌ایِ غیرقابل عبور و نامرئی که آن‌ها را از دنیای بیرون جدا می‌کند. گنبدی که ظاهراً از آسمان افتاده و جامعه را به شهری گنبدی تبدیل کرده است.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction, Thriller, Fantasy, Mystery, Audiobook

1184 pages, Hardcover

First published November 10, 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

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely out of the blue a clear dome appears over the town of Chester’s Mill, in Maine, of course. A plane crashes into it. A groundhog is sliced in half. A woman gardening in her yard has a hand sheared off. How did this thing get there? Who or what is responsible? How can it be removed?

This is not the Stephen King I am used to. I have been a fan since the beginning and have read the vast majority, although not all, of King’s books. For me Under the Dome kicks it up a notch. Sure there is supernatural creepiness, and an explanation that is, well, disappointing. But this is Stephen King. Duh-uh. If you read the guy for his wonderful denouement explanations you probably shouldn't bother. What makes King so successful is that he writes great characters, draws you in and keeps you there once he has you, while scaring the bejesus out of you often enough to matter. He kept me under his dome for all 1072 pages. The addition to his usual toolkit this time is his expansion to the political.

“If I'm going to spend a year writing a single draft of a book, it should be about something.” - from a Barnes & Noble interview

Which of course begs a question about the value of spending, say half a year. What is the duration of labor at which one must cross over from pure entertainment to something?

I've always been a political novelist, and those things have always interested me. Firestarter is a political novel. The Dead Zone is a political novel. There's that scene in The Dead Zone where Johnny Smith sees Greg Stillson in the future starting a nuclear war. Around my house we kinda laugh when Sarah Palin comes on TV, and we say, "That's Greg Stillson as a woman." - from an interview in Salon)

More scary than funny to me. Well, maybe Dome is not so out of the way for King.

But while political commentary has definitely found its way into King’s books, there are few who consider him to be a political author. His other concerns usually take precedence. In Under the Dome he continues a lifelong fascination with small town life. Most of his people have significant secrets. And we get to see their character from how they cope with the stress they experience.

The book took a long time to reach its final form.

“I started it in 1976, got about 75 pages into it — and then I saw what the scope of the thing was going to be, how many technological issues it raised, and I buckled. I’m not a sci-fi writer; I don’t know a lot about technology, so I thought I’d try again, set it in an apartment building, and then I wouldn’t have to deal with what the weather would be like under a dome. But I didn’t like any of the characters, so I put it away.” - from an interview in Pop Matters

He revisited the story in the 1980s. Renamed “The Cannibals” it still had to do with people isolated in an apartment building. And still avoided having to cope with the technical demands of having the story set under a dome. The inspiration for the reduction in venue was a stay in a less than appealing area of suburban Pittsburgh during the filming of Creepshow. He wrote almost five hundred pages this time, but was still unable to figure out all that he needed to figure out. It was not until the new millennium that the manuscript turned up again. This time he was able to garner the expertise needed to get past his technical roadblocks. He returned to the dome notion and wrote up a storm.

What would people do if stuck together, whether under a dome or in an apartment building? Perhaps a less tropical version of William Golding’s classic, with adults gone wild instead of kids and without the beach. Let’s just say that things do not go well, and dark forces, human ones, come to the fore.

His boogey man this time is personified by that most iconic totem of dishonesty, a used-car salesman, named Big Jim Rennie. Big Jim may be the Second Selectman in the town of Chester’s Mill, but he is the real power in town. First Selectman Andy Sanders is pretty much a smiling, charming non-entity, content to do whatever Big Jim wants. And the third Selectman is a drug-addicted woman who is reliant on Big Jim and Andy for her supplies. If you might think Big Jim is a stand-in for a certain vice president, you would be right. All the way to his questionable ticker. It might be a stretch to see in Rennie’s son, Junior, a stand-in for Cheney’s activist progeny, but maybe not. If you think Andy might be a stand-in for Dubya, right again, complete with an addiction issue. King sees Bush and Andy not so much as evil as weak, and the portrayal here reflects that. Rennie seemed pretty evil to me, complete with his insanely hypocritical refusal to use or tolerate profanity while behaving as profanely as possible, stealing critical supplies from the hospital, among other places, to support his meth lab, one of the largest in the country. He tells himself he is doing God’s will.

“I enjoyed taking the Bush-Cheney dynamic and shrinking it to the small-town level,” he said. “The last administration interested me because of the aura of fundamentalist religion that surrounded it and the rather amazing incompetency of those top two guys. I thought there was something blackly humorous in it. So in a sense, ‘Under the Dome’ is an apocalyptic version of ‘The Peter Principle.’ ” from a NY Times interview

Expanding on his Cheney/Bush analogy, he goes through a list of items one can associate not only with that dynamic duo but with others throughout history who have used crisis as a way to consolidate power, fomenting discord by sponsoring provocative and secretive actions (think Reichstag fire) as a way to cast blame on enemies, raising a private army (whether in 1930s Germany or contemporary Blackwater, sorry, Xe), planning to massacre one’s opponents (back to the funny moustache guy again), spying on one’s own citizens (see Patriot Act), controlling or at least monitoring communications (ditto), attempting to destroy opposing media, and so on. No one actually says “Kill the Pig” but if asked to, some would. It is certainly no coincidence that the evildoers here go after a truth-telling newspaper named The Democrat. There is also a countervailing force, the Jack of this scenario, although he has a name that sounds incongruous here. Dale Barbara, known as Barbie, is an ex-military wanderer, last employed at the local diner, someone who does all he can to avoid conflict, but like a certain Corleone, keeps getting dragged back.

It is interesting that the hero here is a reluctant military guy and the baddies are both civilians and cops. Note also that the honest reporter is a Republican.

Keeping a hand in with supernatural elements, some town residents, particularly children, have premonitions, visions of unpleasant events to come. Gee, do ya think they might?

King keeps the action moving, and all the while gives us characters we can care about, warts and all. That is his greatest talent. Don’t worry about the explanation for the dome. It is the reactions of the people contained within it that matter. The Dome itself could have come out of a mystical cracker jack box.

While it might have been no fun for the residents of Chester’s Mill to be stuck with each other for so long, it is no chore to keep an eye on them for all 1,072 pages, through a dome, darkly.

My favorite review nugget comes from Charles Taylor, in a review for BarnesandNobleReview.com. He calls the book “A Twilight Zone version of It Can't Happen Here"

==============================EXTRA STUFF

Here is SK’s site and FB page

June 23, 2013 - A New York Times article Life, Hermetically Sealed by Neil Genzliger about the impending show

Some promotional videos for the show on CBS

A few other King Family items I have reviewed
by Stephen King
The Shining
Doctor Sleep
Under the Dome
Mr. Merecdes
Lisey's Story
Revival

by Joe Hill
Strange Weather
The Fireman
NOS4A2
20th Century Ghosts
Heart-Shaped Box

[brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

in the 2008 film max payne the gloomy hero is, of course, offered casual sex by this woman:



aware that payne is mourning the murder of his wife she says something to the effect that he can call out his wife's name as he fucks her. ok. now this utterly bland piece-of-shit movie is getting kinda interesting, there's some potential complexity here, some fun with the old eros/thanos.
of course payne tosses her out, all offended at the very notion. in movies like this you can't have your hero engaging in any kinda deviancy.

well, there's a bunch of that shit going on in under the dome, in which the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad (i mean reeeeaaaaal bad. like gang-rape bad, kill-your-own-son bad, mass-murderer bad). and it's a shame b/c there's much to love about this novel. but king's view of human beings and human behavior in this one is kinda narrow and uninteresting--strange from a guy with such a fertile imagination for the fantastic. what's most frustrating is that when you're dealing with common folk it's most fun to throw 'em in extreme situations and watch them crack. we've seen it all over Apocalit*: lord of the flies, blindness, the road, etc… and this is the part i don't get: the characters that crack when the dome comes down ARE ALREADY ASSHOLES! what's fun about this shit is watching the slow burn of a decent or sane character as they descend into evil or lunacy. it's kinda obvious what's gonna happen when dick cheney is tossed into No Exit, ain't it? king's bad guys were bad before the dome and once the shit comes down they kill and gang-rape with no fore or afterthought. how the shit is this interesting? what's great about murder in serious works of art (and make no mistake: this novel means to be a serious work of art) is not the murder itself but all which surrounds it.

human existence is kaleidoscopically demented and deranged and far weirder than it appears on the surface. the most normal & upstanding of us are revealed to be sucking random cock in airport bathrooms, talking to snakes or burning bushes or interplanetary beneficiaries, etc… in short, i appreciate people like david lynch not in that he offers an alternative to the humdrum of daily existence but that he throws to the forefront what is actually happening behind closed doors; i reject Under the Dome's view of the world in that it lacks moral complexity, it lacks the true stink of human existence. blue velvet is heightened for sure, but it reveals what small town americana feels like. edward hopper to king's norman rockwell.

the good? gobs of it. what king might lack in his basic presentation of human behavior he almost makes up for in his evocation of a kind of horrible and ineffable beauty. amidst this mash-up of sci-fi & political allegory there are scenes of true beauty and a kind of gritty poetry as the town descends into a Hobbesian nightmare. one that sticks out: as pollutants and dust and pollen collect on the roof of the invisible dome, the townspeoples' view of the sky is skewed, the sky itself appears... different. sunsets seem as when a volcano explodes, a deep rich burning red. and the night sky? a meteor shower appears as streams of pink and red slashing the sky to bits. and minus the 'leatherhead' parts, the final 'fireball and survivor' sequence haunted the hell outta me. some seriously horrifying stuff.

[Mario the lone bookwolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minimizing space for maximizing massive massacre madness

Very often seen, hardly ever reached
It´s just King, he takes the crew, let´s the already lurking evil escalate, and the great bloodbath begins. In this case, it´s even just simply human evilness without supernatural elements, just greed, substance abuse, and perversion. King especially flexes his muscles when it comes to the description of drug use because

King once was a junkie too
And how he describes the terminal stage living zombie, his dialogues, and how he influences another antagonist is just hellish crazy, and especially funny. I know, my sense of humor is a bit borderline, but I had some great, long laughs because of the sheer scurrility of the setting. Although one of the mentioned guys is the reason why many don´t like Kings' political statements, which makes me realize that

I don´t care about politics and authors proselytizing in their novels
As long as it´s my ideology as in this case. Just google it, I won´t spoiler, King said that 2 of his antagonists were a parody of the political leaders at the time of publishing. Hell broke loose and I would really like to know if Under the dome could have gotten far higher ratings without that provocation. It´s one of his best, new works reminding me of how he once could write before he became tame and really did what many said already before about his work. That he´s just writing one novel after the other without much caring about quality. But who cares

As long as each mass produced piece is still of very high quality
Which, of course, isn´t the case. One can read most works from his first 3 creative periods very young and epic, high as heck, and sober and middle age. And then there is the most problematic one with his works of the last 2 decades. The quality of this stuff is so extremely fluctuating that I highly suggest reading a certain few ones and avoiding many others. That´s especially important for hardcore fans like me who can find much disillusion and frustration in his average and bad works. It´s just not what one is expecting and feels a bit like a fraud. So try to

Choose wisely by using meta ratings and best of lists
You can avoid immense trauma and disappointment by just picking the pearls other, brave, selfless reader heroes like I had to dig out of pigs, I mean, Kings' diarrhetic rhetoric.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen King makes a serious attempt at getting back to his best with this very King-ish 'terror in a small town' epic. An invisible dome suddenly appears and engulfs a small town and the surrounding area… and the terror begins, but not from demons, monsters or other fantasy horrors ...it comes from the people trapped under the dome themselves! Seriously un-put-down-able.

Harking back to classic King with multiple sub plots on how the dome impacted individuals and groups, to ongoing multiple story lines for the large cast of characters. A very nice lesson in suspense building. 9 out of 12. And yes, I know some people loathe the ending, but to be honest there were very few other plausible rationales for the dome?

2017 and 2010 read

[Annemarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, I really hope no one ever tries to make me choose my favorite King-book, because I would never be able to make a decision. Every time I read one of his books, I'm absolutely blown away by the amazing writing style and by how fast the (sometimes massive amount of) pages fly by.

Even though this story was (once again) told in great detail, I never felt like scenes were unnecessarily drawn out. I thought the plot progressed at an appropriate speed with a fitting development. I would say that the story in general had many realistic aspects. The concept of a dome suddenly appearing over a town might sound outlandish and far-fetched, but the execution was done in a very believable way. The characters behaved in completely normal and humane ways (both good and bad, calm and agitated).

At first I was quite intimidated by the big number of different characters. I got to know them pretty well rather fast though, as they were all described in good and memorable ways. They all had several facades to them, which made them very authentic and (some more than others) lovable. I'm sure that you would find all these types of people in a real town. Stephen King just knows how many different character traits there are in the world and he never fails to include many of them. This helps immensely to paint a picture of a town and all the different people that live in it.

He also knows how to write out of the perspective of all those different kind of people. It doesn't matter if we see the viewpoint of a man or a woman, a child or a senior, an established wealthy person or a messy alcoholic, or even (in some instances) a dog. He manages to hit the nail on the head with every single perspective.
Sometimes, the story was suddenly told by an outside-narrator and a different tense. I often find these sudden changes in the middle of a story confusing and rather annoying, but (of course) King knows how to do it in the right way and use it to his advantage. He only uses this "tactic" sparsely, which is what makes the story feel even more intense once past tense changes into present tense. It really helps to deliver the point the story is trying to make.

Lastly, I also would like to show my appreciation for the little ordinary things included throughout the book. Despite all the drama and all the things that happen, there is still time found for a mum wanting her son to clean his room, kids playing games and so on. This adds another layer of realism, which makes me love this book even more.

[Mohammed Arabey · Rating 5 out of 5]

هل تعرف لِم قصّ الله تعالي لنا قصة النملة وسيدنا سليمان عليه السلام بالقرآن الكريم؟
برواية من أفضل ما قرأت من روايات عرفت حكمة تلك القصة، بأقامتي الحافلة بمدينة شيستر ميل

بهذا الكتاب الضخم حكاية ما حدث بها صباح السبت الحادي والعشرين من أكتوبر، عندما سقطت عليها قبة غير مرئية تعزل سكانها عن العالم كنمل تحت كوب

لتتابع في 1075 صفحة كيف واجه سكانها وضعهم الغريب، والمشاكل التي ستواجههم ليس أصعبها القبة العازلة، فالنتائج المترتبة عليها أكثر قسوة..باﻷخص علي النفس البشرية

إنها بلدة صغيرة
هل تفهم مقصدي
إنها بلدة صغيرة يا بني

فكما قلت عن رواية العمي لسارماجو، تظهر معادن بعض نماذج البشر وقت الشدائد والكوارث..وسقوط القبة كفيلا بأن يكون أسوأ ما يمكن من الشدائد لبلدة صغيرة
لتظهر أسوأ ما في الكثير من البشر
من جنون السلطة وشهوة الحكم ، الهلع البشري الذي قد يترتب عليه اﻷحكام الخاطئة ، الطمع والفوضى وحتي الجنون المطلق
لتجد نفسك برواية تدخل نفوس مختلفة من البشر كروايات دويستوفسكي ، وبمجتمع كاد أن يفوق النظرة اﻷورويلية للديستوبيا

هل جربت حبس حشرة بكوب زجاجي مقلوب لتشاهد معاناتها؟؟
الأن تخيل أهل المدينة كلهم تحت ذلك الكوب, المدينة بأسرها تحت القبة

هل تفهم مقصدي
إنها بلدة صغيرة يا بني
وكلنا نشجع نفس الفريق

شعورك برهبة الإحتجاز واﻷماكن المغلقة سيصل لأعلي مستوياته..وربما رهبة الكتب الضخمة أيضا كتلك الرواية..ولكني أضمن لك أحتجازك فعليا تحت القبة..أقصد بهذه الرواية

فهي رواية صعب وضعها جانبا بمجرد معايشتك ﻷول يوم فحسب 'أول 140 صفحة' مع أهل بلدة شيستر ميل
بوصف ستيفين كينج الدقيق والممتع للبلدة وأهلها والروابط بينهم والشعور الغريب باﻷحتجاز بسبب حاجز -قبل أطلاق لقب القبة عليه رسميا- أحتجزهم فجأة وبلا أسباب أو تفسير

ليأتي عليك اليوم الثاني بشعور غريب...الجو المكتوم بالرغم من أن أكتوبر شهير برياح الخريف القوية...القلق والتوتر مما قد يحدث اﻷيام القادمة إذا ما ظلت القبة علي حالها

كيف سيكون الهواء والتلوث...واﻷخطر القلق والتوتر من تقلب نفوس بعض وربما في حالتنا تلك الكثير من البشر..أهل البلدة نفسهم
الخوف من الداخل
الخوف من تقلبات النفس البشرية
بوجودك تحت هذه القبة ستشعر شعور النملة التي يتم حبسها تحت كوب
وربما .... ربما تعلم لم قص الله لنا قصة النمل...لم قص لنا قصة اشفاق سيدنا سليمان عليه السلام عندما سمع النمل
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
أسلوب وطابع الرواية
------------
من أفضل الروايات الأنسانية التي قرأتها في حياتي بلا مبالغة..شعرت باﻷحتجاز فعلا والتوتر والشعور بالظلم والرغبة في الثورة...وقد تأثرت كثيرا بربعها الأخير، ولا اخفي عليك بكيت فعلا في اكثر من مشاهد نهايتها

لا أعتقد أن عليك إعتبارها رواية خيال علمي ، فحتي 75% من الرواية لم يظهر أي عامل من عوامل الخيال العلمي -بالطبع عدا سقوط القبة في البداية- فلا خيال علمي كالملسلسل مثلا
لن تجد كائنات فضائية تتجول في الأرض أو شخصيات ذات قدرات خارقة للطبيعة ..فقط شخصيات واقعية وأحداث قد تجد مثيلتها في الواقع

بلدة صغيرة ككثير من مثيلتها بأمريكا..وربما بالعالم كله، بل ومثل دول كبري بلا شك، تعاني من متحكم فاسد ، ليس بالضرورة حاكم، قد يكون في الظل كعضو مجلس المدينة ...متسترا بالدين وبالقيم والعمل في حب البلد ،ولكنه يزيد من ثروته بأساليب غير مشروعة كصناعة المخدرات واﻷتجار بها

تعاني نهب بعض مواردها 'كغاز البروبان، وقود البلدة في هذه الحالة' وأهمال مجلس المدينة لأولويات كثيرة بها لصالح ذلك العضو الفاسد ، الذي يتحكم بها بديكتاتورية

تعاني التلوث...تلوث النهر والهواء
تعاني أيضا التلوث اﻷخلاقي...تعاني أزمة حقيقية في أخلاق بعض شبابها ومراهقينها
يعاني أهلها كالكثير من اﻷمريكيين -وباقي العالم تقرييا- بعدم الثقة في الحكومات والسلطات العسكرية

يعاني بعض أهلها، حتي هؤلاء المسئولين عن دور العبادة، عدم الأيمان الكافي بالله سبحانه وتعالي

قد تكون هذه باﻷخص ، قضية اﻷلحاد، تيمة مفضلة للمؤلف فقد قرأتها من قبل في روايته
Revival
ولكنها هنا أفضل وتظهر ولو لمحات من أن الله مع من يدعوه بصدق، وهذا ما أعجبني هنا كثيرا

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

ستجد أيضا اللقطات الإنسانية ومشاعر الترابط والعطف...وبعض اللحظات المؤثرة التي ستخنق مشاعرك أحيانا والمكتوبة بشكل رائع بالرغم من كل الشدائد واﻷهوال الدموية التي ستحدث

لتعيش بضع أيام بشيستر ميل
تحت القبة
مع عشرات الشخصيات المثيرة والتي ستجد ﻷغلبهم فصول من وجهة نظرهم ، وحتي بعض الحيوانات أحيانا لها فصول بشكل روائي أذهلني
ستتعرف علي تلك الشخصيات بدون فلاش باك تقريبا -حيث لا يتعدي بضع السطور لبعض الشخصيات- ولكنك ستبدأ معهم من صباح السبت 21 أكتوبر، يوم القبة، حتي تشعر كأنهم أهل مدينتك..كأنك كنت تعيش معهم منذ زمن وتعرفهم جيدا
لتعيش معهم تلك المحنة ، الجو الخانق والنجوم الوردية ، ومحاولات كسر حاجز القبة بلا جدوي
تعاني معهم وتشعر بخوفهم وشعورهم بالظلم ، أو حتي تشعر بشهوة الحكم علي حسب الشخصية التي تقرأها
فستيفين كينج يرسم الشحصيات بنفس دقة رسمه للمشاهد الدموية التي يشتهر بها

أتذكر أول تجاربي مع ستيفين كينج
The Revival
Mr. Mercedes
لم تعجبني حبكتهم ، قدر ما أشدت فعلا بروعة رسم الشخصيات وتصاعد الأحداث -في اﻷولي فقط- بالرغم من شئ من التطويل والشعور بالملل بل والضجر -في الثانية-
ولكن هنا صدقني شعرت بأنه فعلا أديب قدير
من فصول بها مشاهد مرسومة بشكل سينمائي روائي رهيب كأنك تعيشه والتنقل بسلاسة من مكان ﻷخر ومن وجهة نظر شخصية ﻷخري أحيانا بنفس الفصل عندما يكون هناك حدثا ملحميا خطيرا يحدث

وجل ما أعجبني هو رموز ورسائل خفية تجعلك تشك في البداية أنه لايقصد من وراءها سوي الأنتقاد لتري رسالة مهمة ومحترمة وهدف حقيقي من رواية بهذا الحجم...من معاملة الجنود اﻷمريكان للعراقيين ، التستر بأسم الدين، وغيرها الكثير من اﻷمور المثيرة للجدل والتي تنتهي بهدف محترم نبيل

ولنر إذا رغبت في المزيد الاحداث، لا أعدك بتلخيص بعضها كما أفعل في أغلب الريفيوهات..إنها 1075 صفحة..ولكن إذا لم تقتنع بكلامي السابق بانك يجب أن تمنح الرواية فرصة فلنر إذن بعض لمحات اﻷحداث مع بعض الشخصيات وما حدث لهم
بتلك البلدة الصغيرة..شيستر ميل
عندما تم إحتجازها
تحت القبة
**********
الشخصيات واﻷحداث
------------

عمن تبحث
ما كان أسمه؟
غالبا ستجده هناك
يشاهد المبارة
إنها بلدة صغيرة

جيمس 'بيج جيم' ريني الاب
وجيم جونيور الابن

بيج جيم هو الوحيد تقريبا الذي لم يكن يريد من اﻷساس ترك شيستر ميل ..فهي مدينته...وهو الرابح الوحيد من سقوط القبة

هو رجل أعمال صاحب أكبر توكيل سيارات بالبلدة...وهو ايضا ، واﻷهم، عضو مجلس المدينة الثاني رسميا لكنه اﻷول وربما اﻷوحد فعليا..يحرك باقي الأعضاء المنتخبين في الخفاء...ينهب من اﻷموال العامة ويصنع المخدرات الكيميائية 'الميثمفيتامين' سرا ويغسل اﻷموال القذرة بمقر إذاعة دينية... ﻷنه رجلا يتغطي بساتر الدين..والقيم..والعمل لصالح البلدة
تلعب القبة دورا في خروجه ليكون الحاكم الفعلي في النور..يتحكم في الشرطة ويقوم بتعيين شباب خاضعة له ، شباب مراهقة لا تعرف الإحترام ولا الرحمة..شباب عابث، وهذا ما يريده بيج جيم لفرض سلطته

وليحكم قبضته يقوم بإفتعال الفوضي ويثير الذعر باللعب علي الغريزة البشرية اﻷضعف..بلعبة نقص الموارد وقت اﻷزمة، يثم يفق التهم لمنافسه في الحكم..يقضي علي الصحافة وحرية الرأي ومشاركة المعلومات. ..بل ويقتل في سبيل عدم كشف سره اﻷخطر، تجارة المخدرات

من أجل السلطة والحكم..تلك الشهوة البشرية القديمة

هل بيج جيم سوبرمان؟
بالطبع لا..ولكنك ستتابع كيف تتطور اﻷمور بسرعة في تلك اﻷيام القليلة وكيف يستغلها لصالحه..وكيف يصنع بعض الناس ديكتاتورا بحق .. قلت لك هي ليست رواية خيال علمي، ولكن بعض الحكام فعلا أسوأ من مجانين جوثام سيتي

بيج جيم فعلا شخصية مرسومة بدقة كمهووس سلطة..أما أبنه فكان لديه نوعا أخر من الجنون

فإبنه جيم جونيور شاب فاسد، مدللا مصابا بورم في المخ يسيطر علي أعصابه ..يرتكب جريمة قتل في أول يوم القبة..يقتل حبيبته أنجي وصديقتها بدافع الغيرة..والجنون بالطبع
وعندما يفيق يفكر في الهرب من شيستر ميل..قبل أن يدرك ما أستجد علي المدينة..التي صارت تحت القبة

بل واﻷدهي...يطلب منه أبيه لظروف الطارئة علي شيستر ميل أن يكون من قوات شرطتها
شرطة المدينة...تحت القبة

إنها بلدة صغيرة
هل تفهم مقصدي
إنها بلدة صغيرة يا بني
وكلنا نشجع نفس الفريق

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ديل باربرا ، باربي

باربي ، ضابط جيش سابق خدم في العراق ، كان يعمل طاهيا بمطعم روز بشيستر ميل ولكنه كان يستعد لترك تلك البلدة صباح السبت 21 أكتوبر...بعد شجار عنيف مع جونيور ، أبن بيج جيم ورفاقة عضابة المراهقين لمجرد أنهم ظنوا أن باربي يغازل صديقة أحدهم أنجي
ولكن تأتي الرياح بما لاتشتهي السفن...تسقط القبة بهذا الصباح لتحتجز باربي في تلك البلدة رغما عنه بل ويصير جونيور وعصابته البغيضة هم الضباط وبيج جيم هو قائدها

وبالرغم من أن متحدث عسكري أرسل له عن طريق جوليا ، الصحفية الوحيدة بالبلدة، رسالة ألكترونية بأمر رئاسي بأعادة تعيين باربي للخدمة العسكرية وترقيته ليحكم شيستر ميل لحين إنتهاء اﻷزمة...فإن هذا يثير غضب بيج جيم بل ويجعله هدف ليقضي عليه تماما
ليعرف أن بسقوط القبة صارت شيستر ميل دولة مستقلة يحكمها ديكتاتور فاسد..بكل الوسائل التي لم تخطر ﻷورويل علي بال..ولكنها للأسف مستمدة من كثير من رؤساء العالم
يمكنك أن تلاحظ أن ستيفين كينج ليس من مشجعي حكومة أوباما ، وقد ضايقني شيئا ما أشارات باربي لأنه قابل الكثير أمثال بيج جيم بالعراق، الفرق أنهم عربا...ولكن أعتقد أن هذا الضيق غير مبرر ، فالحق قد قيل
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
جو و نوري

إذا تضايقت من النماذج السلبية لكثير من الشباب المنضمة لشرطة شيستر ميل...فإن ستيفين كينج يصالحنا بنموذج ممتاز لثلاث من المراهقين ، جو ، نوري وبين
بالرغم من قصة حب المراهقة الخافتة من طرف كلا من جو وبين تجاه نوري ، التي تعاملهما كأصدقاء فحسب..وبالرغم من أنهم كأي مراهقين لهم ألعابهم وهوسهم بالسكيبورد مثلا
إلا أن وقت الشدة يتحمل جو ونوري وبين المسئولية سواء مع باربي ، أو راستي الممرض من بعد القبض علي اﻷول، للبحث وراء مسبب القبة وما يولد طاقتها

قد بكون هناك لمحة من الخيال العلمي في جزء مولد القبة ولكنه يظل ضئيل حتي اﻷن
رسم ستيفين كينج لذلك الثلاثي كان متميزا، عبقريا وجميلا بحق ولكن ليس هؤلاء فقط

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
جوليا شامواي

هناك جوليا شامواي الصحفية بالصحيفة الوحيدة بالمدينة وموقفها الثوري ووقوفها جوار الحق والعدل
كان جدود جدودها هم من أسس الصحيفة وظلت منذ أن أسست المدينة في 1803..ولكنها تصطدم بديكتاتور المدينة من اجل الدفاع عن الحق مما يكلفها الكثير

تشعر بالندم ﻷنها هي واهل المدينة هم من وافق من البداية علي بيج جيم, ذلك الديكتاتور الفاسد , وغض النظر عن بعض عيوبه الواضحة فتشعر أنهم قد يستحقوا مايحدث لهم بعد ذلك

ومن خلال قصة قديمة لجوليا يظهر مغزي الرواية
ليس جوليا فحسب، بل وباربي وحتي بيج جيم.. ليس بيج جيم هو الوحيد الذي له عيوب..من منا ليس به شئ من القسوة؟
هل شعرت يوما بأنك أفضل من الأخرين وأستبد بك الغرور ولو لمحطة في حياتك؟
لقد شعرت جوليا بذلك عندما كانت طالبة صغيرة..ودفعت الثمن
هل قمت بمعاقبتك من هو أضعف منك بقسوة لايتحملها؟
لقد فعل باربي ذلك عندما كان بالعراق بالعرب
هل قمت بركل قطة من قبل؟ أو تقطيع أجنحة بعوضة عندما تمسك بها حية؟
هكذا فعل جونيور ورفاقه من الشباب المراهقين الذين بين يوم وليلة صار بأيديهم السلطة..صاروا شرطة المدينة ليستعرضوا قوتهم علي كل اهل المدينة, بلا مراعاة لأي أحد أيا كانت أعمارهم
هل جربت يوما أن تسلط عدسة مكبرة علي نمل لتراها تحترق؟
هكذا كان يفعل بيج جيم..كان يحرق المدينة فقط ليفرض سلطته..ليقود القطيع ويصير مصيرهم بين يديه

وكل هذه الشخصيات بالنهاية سقطت ..تحت القبة
وليس هؤلاء فحسب

هناك بيبير ليبي الكاهنة التي فقدت أيمانها لحد ما بالله سبحانه وتعالي...ولكن مازال لديها أمل في قدرته وتسعي للحق حتي إن كلفها المتاعب..واعز أصدقائها

راستي ، الممرض الذي يواجه طفلتيه تشنج غريب من وقت ﻷخر..ولكن هذا لا يمنع بأداءه الواجب خاصا بعد وفاة دكتور البلدة الوحيد

جاكي , الضابطة التي ضحت بوظيفتها من أجل الحق

كارتر, الذراع اليمين الشاب لجيم ريني, الأحمق والذي يسهل السيطرة عليه

أوللي, فتي المزرعة الذي أبكتني حكايته بشدة بسبب عائلته التي بدأت التساقط منذ اليوم الثاني من القبة

-يمكنني فعليا أن أكتب سطرين لكل شخصية مكتوبة بمقدمة الكتاب ولا أشعر أني وفيتها حقها-

ايضا العالم الخارجي
من الجيش الذي يراه السكان خارج القبة، مديرا له ظهره في رمزية جيدة...اﻷعلام وتناوله للأزمة..الحكومة وفرضها منع اﻷتصالات
وهناك أنيس ,العريف الشاب الذي يحاول الوقوف بجوار أوللي, فتي الأبقار

ستتأثر بكل هذا رغم تلك القبة التي تعزلك
تعزلك بين صفحات كتاب تخطي اﻷلف صفحة
ألف صفحة تضمنت فصولا بعضها عبقري بحق لا أستطيع وصف عبقريته بالكلمات
في 27 فصلا متنوعا يزداد اﻷثارة بهم كلما تقدمت في اﻷحداث
من فصل "النمل" والذي يوضح لك فعلا مغزي السورة القرآنية الكريمة وكيف سيدنا سليمان عطف علي النمل وراعي ألا يدهسه
إلي "الهالووين يأتي مبكرا" وشعور أهوال نهاية العالم والقيامة
وحتي الفصل اﻷخير "أرتديها للبيت..كأنها رداء" , الفصل الأخير والذي فعلا ستفهم أن الله سبحانه وتعالي أمرنا بالعطف,الشفقة علي الضعيف لأن إذا لم تكن بنا تلك المشاعر..فأننا سنحيا في جحيم حقيقي
إذا لم تتوقف الشرطة والسلطة عن عنفها مع الاقل منها..سنعيش فوضي حقيقية
إذا لم يشعر الأنسان بعطف منذ صغره .. فأن العالم لن يكون أفضلا حالا من شيستر ميل تحت القبة

ستخرج من تحت القبة..من بعد 1075 صفحة، وحوالي 7 أيام هي مدة اﻷحداث، ولكنك ستظل محتفظا بمشاعر شعرت بها في شيستر ميل للأبد
فحياتك بشيستر ميل ومعايشتك بين شخصياتها ,تمقت بعضهم تارة وتتعاطف مع بعضهم تارة , هي تجربة فريدة فعلا لاتنسي
فإنها رغم كل شئ، بلدة صغيرة يا صديقي

عمن تبحث
ما كان أسمه؟
غالبا ستجده هناك
يشاهد المبارة
إنها بلدة صغيرة
هل تفهم مقصدي
إنها بلدة صغيرة يا بني
وكلنا نشجع نفس الفريق

من أغنية لجيمس ماكمارتري تم ذكرها بمقدمة الرواية

أدعوك فعلا تجربة الذهاب إلي هناك
لتعيش تلك التجربة..التي قد تغير نظرتك للعالم
أدعوك للذهاب إلي شيستر ميل
تحت القبة

محمد العربي
من 5 أكتوبر 2015
إلي 25 أكتوبر 2015


"ملحوظة
المسلسل مختلف تماما عن الرواية..من اغلب الشخصيات والأحداث بالأخص
المسلسل خيال علمي بعكس الرواية بها حدث واحد خيالي وباقي الأحداث كلها واقعية

ملحوظة 2
السيمسون عملوا الفيلم صيف 2007..نفس فكرة القبة فقط لا غير

الرواية مختلفة تماما
بدأها ستيفين كينج 1976 لكنه توقف بعد اقل من 100 صفحة
وعاد لها في نوفمبر 2007 بشكل مختلف واكثر دقة لينهيها في حوالي سنتين
لتكون تاني اطول رواية له بعد
It
أو الثالثة بعد النسخة الكاملة من
The Stand

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3 1/2 stars. This is my first full-fledged Stephen King novel, so I'm not sure how it measures up against other King classics like The Stand, It, Salem's Lot, or Carrie. Sure, I've read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but only because it was described as a young adult novel (King-lite, if you will). I have spent most of my life actively avoiding Stephen King and here's my story as to why Mr. King and I parted ways before I even read anything by him.

When I was but a wee little girl, full of innocence and a precocious love of reading, my mom was also a voracious reader. As I was consuming Little House on the Prairie books (my earliest encounter with book rape--thanks, grandma) and Nancy Drew, I began noticing that mom was always reading these big ass books with KING running down the spine. When she wasn't reading these books, they were always placed on top of the refrigerator which was well out of my grasp. Eager for us to share this love of reading (Mom curiously had no interest in the plight of the Ingalls family), I begged and pleaded to be allowed to read the King books. "Gee, wouldn't it be fun if Mom and I read the same books? Then we could talk about them!" I thought. Days, weeks, months went by and, eventually, my constant wheedling became too much. She relented, but the deal was that she would pick the scene I was allowed to read. She chose a particularly horrific and descriptive scene from The Stand. I read with increasing horror--Nancy Drew never encountered messed up shit like this! When I finished that scene, I handed the book over and never asked to read King again. And I stepped lightly around Mom from that day forward. I suddenly understood that, if that woman snapped, it would be ugly--and she would know what to do with the bodies.

Therefore, unlike most teenagers, I skipped over the desire to consume everything King between junior high and high school. And this brings us to present day and my first King novel. At 1,072 pages, this is definitely a doorstop of a book. However, it reads fairly quickly. My main complaint is that many of the characters are one dimensional stereotypes. There are no shades of gray in the small town of Chester's Mill. At first, this bothered me; however, I think maybe individual characters had to be sacrificed in order to portray the real character--small town America and how it reacts to cataclysmic events. If King shorthands individual characterizations, he nails the panic and herd-like mentality that takes over when uncertainty is the order of the day.

The premise of the novel, as blatantly presented by the title, is that Chester's Mill one day finds itself cutoff from the outside world by a mysterious dome that perfectly conforms itself to the borders of Chester's Mill. In the days ahead, the people wait and worry as the United States government desperately tries to free them. As hope begins to dwindle, reason is in short supply as people trade in their humanity for mass hysteria and panic.

The dome is not, however, the ultimate villain in this tale. The real villain is Big Jim Rennie, the town selectman who has been waiting for just such a "clustermug" so that he can claim control of the town. Big Jim is the most vile type of Christian, one who believes that being able to quote scripture and abstain from saying cuss words is all it takes to be amongst God's chosen. Big Jim does everything in the belief that God is on his side and damn anyone who tries to get in his way, for not only are they his enemies, but enemies of Christianity itself. It is possible to have religion without true faith, and Big Jim is proof of that. He has customized his religion to serve his needs; indeed, his belief in God is little more than a manifestation of his own belief in himself as superior, as "chosen," to be above all others.

It appears that my review may be destined to be as long as the book, so I'll cut it short. Weaknesses: there are a few clunker sentences that pulled me out of the story, there is an abundance of detail that I could have lived without, and I was disappointed in the reason for the dome because it seemed so obvious. Strengths: King deftly keeps his cast of characters straight and realistically interacting with one another, he captures the terror and bovine-like stupidity that takes over when day-to-day life is disrupted and threatened, there are some colorful cuss words that I hope to employ in the near future, and there's a catastrophic scene toward the end that is one of the most terrifying and well-written that I've ever read.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

If it hurts to breathe, open a window / Oh, your mind wants to leave, but you can't go (House of Balloons – The Weeknd).

I'm sure you remember that highly celebrated episode of Twilight Zone titled “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” that’s about the idyllic neighborhood of Maple Street suddenly losing power in unexplainable ways. What starts out as a bit of a laugh quickly turns pointed as tensions continue to rise the longer Maple Street’s residents are without their conveniences, and when the idea of outside interference via aliens is introduced by a comic book reading child, false politeness is quickly thrown out the window in lieu of lingering resentments, buried prejudices, and baseless accusations from one fellow neighbor to the next. The kicker at the end of the episode is that… of course it was actually aliens that were manipulating the town, and yet they decide that they don’t need to invade earth at all, because if something as simple as turning off the lights could cause a murderous frenzy, then their work is already done. It’s an incredibly effective episode that deconstructs the image of small town bliss and “good ole American values,” and has always stuck in my mind as one of the freakiest episodes due to its simplicity, lack of sci-fi elements, and its critiquing of the nuclear family. Also… the episode is twenty minutes. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, but damn, is Under the Dome long as fuck! Have you ever read one of those Manhwa webtoon comics where there would be entire full page spreads of a character’s face and you’d be scrolling for ages only to find that the next page is yet another page dedicated to the other character’s reaction to the first person’s reaction!? Yeah well, I had the same experience while reading this book. You could read ten chapters of the same event through every one of the townsfolk’s eyes and barely any amount of time would pass in-universe. I don’t like criticizing writing decisions too much, but come on now, at a certain point we have to get on with it! It’s like running in a dream, where no matter how much you try to gain momentum, the second you look around you realize that you’ve made no ground. And trust me, the lowest form of comedy in my opinion are those weak ass jokes Jimmy Kimmel and/or Fallon make when hosting the Oscars about how Killers of the Flower Moon or Oppenheimer were too long, and yet I'm sadly of the mind that this book was wa~aay too long. Oh no, I'm turning into the anti-critical thinking one sentence reviewer guy on Letterboxd, help me!

But really though, despite conceptual interest, I’ve always found Stephen King’s length (heh heh) to be a little intimidating for me to actually get into, so for the last few reads, I’ve only been micro-dosing on his short stories in order to get the lay of the land. It sounds pretty silly, but it worked! And after loving The Jaunt (Reddit’s favorite horror book for some reason), 1408, and The Mist, I figured I was ready for the big leagues, to read the one book of his that I always wanted to; Under the Dome! And right now, I’m not sure whether or not I actually should have, because I think I enjoyed this book’s story more as a synopsis rather than the text on the page. Don’t get me wrong, Stephen King is still firing on all cylinders here, because when the horror hits, it really hits. I liked the part where our main guy, Barbie, is reminiscing about the moments before the dome appeared that there was a car passing by that had he been on, he just might just have escaped being trapped in hell. It was an incredibly powerful piece of writing that filled me with a sense of forlorn longing just by his simple, yet distraught narration. Or even just the opening scene of a plane crashing into the invisible dome in general, because it was absolutely terrifying how unfair and senseless it was. Horror lovers always like to play “here’s what I would do” while watching the flick, but with this book… like, what could you even do in this situation? How do you plan around a big ass dome that shows up out of nowhere and will kill you once you touch it!? That wasn’t rhetorical, I’m actually asking you! No, but really, despite its effectiveness, I think this is also the part where I also knew something was slightly wrong, because it was here where we were given the chapter from a bird’s perspective of the plane crash. I was like, okay? What’s next, my perspective!? Anyway, I’m sure most people already know the broad strokes, but basically a dome is put over a town and then the rest of the book is about the townsfolk coping with their new, terrible predicament. Look, I know that wasn't a good synopsis, but come on now, it's the same synopsis of "Monsters are Due on Maple Street!" Besides, like with most of these kinds of stories, the dome quickly becomes inconsequential to the plot as our resident villain, Big Jim, immediately tries to use the situation to become a Mad Max type warlord to rule over the dome. From creating his own police army to hoarding all the food and resources, this dude so quickly turns into a cackling villain that I couldn’t help but laugh. My man didn’t even wait a couple days before going all Doctor Doom!

"Would it help, do you think, if I prayed for your success?"
"Couldn't hurt." Barbie said.

I’m sure it's obvious by now, but I absolutely love stories about small towns that quickly become unhinged when deprived of their thin veneer of domestic comforts, because they’re often as poignant as they are frightening. And while they've always got a lot to say thematically, I also find the concept a little funny as well. It's fun to imagine myself in these scenarios too, and while I don't think I'd be doing even half of the wild shit that happens in this book, I still totally understand the almost immediate suspicion and anger that overwhelms the population at a record pace. I remember in Jeff Smith’s Bone series, my favorite subplot was when the main character’s cousin, Phoney Bone (the main trio are old school cartoony characters who wander into a Lord of the Rings fantasy world), stokes the flames of a small town’s fears by uniting them under the pretense of hunting dragons (the good guys), and thus gets rich in the process. It was wonderfully done because these are the same simple townsfolk who we’ve grown to love over the course of five or six volumes, and it not only showed how easy it can be to manipulate people when they already carry so much hate in their hearts for people who are different than them, but it was also very, very entertaining. Another good example of this is in the movie Weapons, where the main character’s goals are achieved almost immediately after they stop blaming each other and trying to find scapegoats for their grief and anger. It's never outright said, but I interpreted it as the narrative also placing blame on all the parents who were too busy harassing an innocent teacher to actually open their eyes to what was happening under their noses. Suspicion creeping into a seemingly perfect society has always been a powerful narrative tool because of how easy it is to see in your own neighborhood and your own neighbors. And there's also just the simple fact that everybody knows how much of a mammoth's task it is to actually shake off a growing suspicion. It's similar to how Austin Butler talked like Elvis for months in preparation for playing the man, and now that's just how he talks, the spirit of the curled lip taking over his consciousness like the Symbiote. Of course, to say that all humanity is just waiting at the front of the line to turn on each other is incredibly cynical and an oversimplification of what these stories are even trying to say. It’s the whole Lord of the Flies thing, where every 10th grade teacher for some reason gets it wrong and tries to claim that the story is about how deep down, everybody is secretly evil and given the opportunity, they will let their inner "savage" out when the pretense of society is thrown out the window.

In my opinion, the common thread among all these stories (even Bone) is actually privilege, not some all encompassing statement on human nature. The main characters at the center are usually well off people who are used to certain comforts and are more than willing to fuck everybody else over in the process of holding on to said comforts. The kids from Lord of the Flies all have rich parents that haven’t taught them basic empathy because… well, they’re rich, the citizens of Maple Street are all more than happy to keep things "the way they are" and react violently to even the smallest amount of change to their daily lives, and then Big Jim from this book, Under the Dome, is a rich man who doesn't wait to use fear and ignorance to amass even more riches and power. The point isn’t that people are evil, it’s that powerful people, grift happy people, will use any situation to their benefit by getting people to turn on each other when looking out for each other would have been to the benefit to everyone. Crabs in a barrel and all that. Anyway, I still don’t know where I stand on Under the Dome, unlike its superior predecessor with the Twilight Zone, I’m afraid that it tries to do too much with too little. Of course, none of this is to say that there’s nothing to enjoy here, as its poignancy isn't diminished whether or not it's given to us in twenty minutes or on a thousand pages. Besides, the book is so long that it’s almost a statistic certainty that there would be at least several aspects of it for me to enjoy. For example, I know a lot of people complain about Stephen King’s “terrible” endings, but of all the works of his that I’ve read, I honestly enjoyed them all, and let me tell you, Under the Dome is no different! I loved the way all the villains go out rather unceremoniously because they don’t deserve any kind of emotional resonance, and how (slight spoiler) the town is saved due to a random act of pity rather than heroic bravery because I thought it was thematically fitting due to how random the inception of the conflict originally was. An act of uncaring malice is undone by that same indifference. Then, just the sheer feeling of aimlessness after all is said and done was incredibly impactful. Under the Dome went out with a restlessness, and I loved everybody is left questioning what it all meant. And in that regard, I think it was Rod Sterling who said it the best:

“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices ... to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own ... for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined only to The Twilight Zone.”

Here's my pre-read review (Hey, I knew, I just knew!) –

I really want to read this because I love a good small town horror, but I'm thinking the most frightening thing will be the fact that it's a thousand pages.

[Jonathan Janz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished Under the Dome a few days ago. I haven't seen the mini-series, nor do I want to for a good while. That has nothing to do with the negative comments I've heard about the aforementioned adaptation and everything to do with one simple fact: I don't need to see a filmed version.

Because the mental version of the book is still unspooling in my mind.

Sometimes you hear a lot of hype about a book, but the reading experience falls short. Sometimes, a book is about what you expected. There are occasionally those glorious occasions when the book exceeds the hype. For an example of this, check out Norman Partridge's sublime Dark Harvest, which I'd heard about for several years but never read until a couple months ago. That book knocked me on my tookus.

And then there's Under the Dome. This novel catapulted my entire body into the air, propelled it through the window in a maelstrom of shattered glass, and sent it tumbling and broken into the lawn. Then, when I staggered to my feet, the darn book rose up from my bedroom floor, blasted through the window, and flattened me again.

I've read more than fifty Stephen King books. Under the Dome is one of the top five.

I've read plenty of criticisms about it. Too many points-of-view, unsubtle characterization, an anti-climactic ending.

Personally, I loved it.

Because I adore lists, here are just a few reasons why I consider Under the Dome a modern classic:

1. Big Jim Rennie: I love it when a villain takes over a story. The nastier the villain is, the greater the danger to the heroes and the more powerful potential catharsis there exists in defeating him. The Shark in Jaws. The warden in The Shawshank Redemption. Big Jim Rennie is as vicious and calculating and eerily real as any villain in modern fiction. I absolutely despised him. But whenever he was on stage, I couldn't look away.

2. Baaaarbie: Dale Barbara was an unlikely protagonist, or at least he sure seemed that way. At first, I thought of him as a military Larry Underwood (if you're wondering about my favorite King book, it's still The Stand), but as the novel wore on, I realized how much I'd underestimated him---both his capacity for good and the depth of his sins. Plus, he had those three crucial traits: grit, wit, and It.

3. The Twists and the Straightaways: When I thought I knew who would live and who would die, I was often wrong. I never would've guessed what Andy Sanders would become. I had no idea I'd end up liking (or at least caring about) characters like the town drunk and the resident meth-maker. Sure, there were plot twists I saw coming; King never sacrifices plausibility for sheer shock value. But the things I did see coming fit beautifully into the framework of the tale, and King still found a way---via his technique, his timing, or even his word choice---to render those foreseen developments fresh. The intertextuality with his own works or the works of others---particularly William Golding's Lord of the Flies---was so deftly handled that the novel would have been diminished without it.

I could write about this book for days, but I think an imperfect analogy might work best here. When Michael Jordan---the best player in basketball history---returned from retirement for the second time, it was with the Washington Wizards. Jordan had lost a step or three, and he no longer aired like he once did. But there was still magic in his shoes, and though his last team never did much, he certainly flashed moments of the old brilliance.

But in one amazing game Jordan again surpassed the fifty-point mark, including an astonishing thirty-four-point first half. Watching Jordan out there performing his wizardry (sorry), it was obvious that all his accumulated knowledge and experience had been distilled into something transcendent. He pulled up for mid-range jumpers, he knocked down threes. He even threw down a thunderous dunk. Watching Jordan that night was like watching him in his prime, only it was somehow greater. He had defeated time. Or at least spun back the hands of the clock for one marvelous night.

Reading Stephen King's Under the Dome was like watching Jordan work his magic that night. Only King's brilliance lasted for over a thousand pages (1348 pages on my Nook), and King never let up. Here was King scaring the hell out of me. Next was King breaking my heart by describing the death of a character I loved. King created a villain, and then another one even more monstrous, and then he threw me a bone by killing off a minor villain. Then he walloped me with some poetic setting descriptions before making me belly laugh at a shockingly crude joke. In other words, it was all there. The whole amazing repertoire. But that doesn't begin to describe this book.

I said the Jordan comparison was imperfect, and it is. Woefully so. Because King never really retired the way Jordan did. King never had a game like the one Jordan had prior to the explosion alluded to above (Jordan only scored six in the game before the one I described; the worst games King ever played, Rose Madder and Insomnia, were still twenty-point/six-rebound/four-assist performances and far better than most writers could ever dream of mustering). And unlike Jordan was that night, King is not---in my opinion---immersed in the twilight of his career.

No, I don't believe King's almost done. In fact, I believe, like the great Elmore Leonard, Stephen King is going to be producing amazing books for at least a couple more decades. I base this on the fact that he's a relentless self-improver, and if you don't believe that, compare his early stuff to Under the Dome. Sure, I love his early stuff. 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Dead Zone, and of course, The Stand are all among my favorite books by any writer. But putting Under the Dome next to the aforementioned titles shows that King has retained the pure storytelling magic that enthralled audiences back in the seventies, yet he hasn't ceased to grow. Looking at his recent writing, it's clear that his mastery of point-of-view, his eye for detail, his ability to orchestrate such a mindblowingly complex plot are even more impressive than they've ever been. These traits are the hallmarks of an individual who has never stopped learning, who has never gotten lazy.

So yes, I loved Under the Dome. And I love Stephen King's work. I wrote a letter to him a few weeks ago, a letter I'll probably never send because I'm afraid he won't get it, and if he does, I'm afraid he'll think I'm either trying to ingratiate myself with him or worse, that I'm an obsessed fan.

But friends, let me just say this. From the moment the dome came down until the very last word of that book....I was under that dread barrier too. I shuddered at the atrocities some of the characters committed. I fretted for the safety of my fellow townspeople. I came to fear Halloween and whatever else the premonitions foretold. But most of all, I hoped there would be a few good-hearted souls who would stand up for what was right.

I stood with them under the dome. And if you haven't yet, I'd strongly encourage you to stand with them too.

[Kemper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here’s a nightmare scenario. A mysterious disaster occurs. The area is completely cut off from any outside help. Resources are limited. People are confused and scared. And Dick Cheney is in charge….

That terrifying idea is what makes Under the Dome one of the best books King has done.

Chester’s Mill, Maine, is a typical Stephen King small town, filled with people both good and criminally insane. One fall day, a force-field crashes down around the area, causing a fair amount of carnage and disaster. The Dome is quickly found to be impenetrable, and while the townspeople can communicate with the outside world via cell phones or wireless internet, they’re essentially on their own. If the situation wasn’t bad enough, the town is now in the hands of Big Jim Rennie.

Forget about Randall Flagg or Annie Wilkes or the Crimson King or Pennywise the Clown. Big Jim, a used car salesman and town selectman, is King’s scariest villain ever. Why? Because America lived through a Big Jim-like reign after 9/11, and it’s all too easy to picture how much worse it could have gotten while reading this book.

King isn’t very subtle in the allegory here. Chester’s Mill is the stand-in for America, and Big Jim is obviously based on Cheney, a corrupt political weasel hiding behind the dim-witted first selectman of the town as a front to cover up his shenanigans. He doesn’t drink or smoke and talks about his love for Jesus, but Big Jim is utterly ruthless about destroying his enemies. And to Big Jim, just disagreeing with him makes you an enemy.

Big Jim has spent years refusing to spend money on needed town improvements while involved in all kinds of criminal enterprises. While he demands total power and authority, he’s actually completely incompetent at leadership except for placing blame and manipulating people. When the Dome comes down, his first concern is covering up his criminal activity, but he quickly realizes that with the outside world at bay, he can create his own little dictatorship inside the bubble. And of course, he’s doing it for the good of the town.

A small group of people realize what Rennie is doing and try to stop him, but they vastly overestimate what the threat of eventual punishment from the outside will do. They just can’t believe that anyone would actually go as far as Big Jim is prepared to do, and while the federal government tries in vain to assert its authority, Big Jim is all too happy to thumb his nose at them and continue to consolidate power even as the air inside the Dome is getting awfully stale.

King’s always been terrific at depicting the strengths and weaknesses of a small town in books like ‘Salem’s Lot or Needful Things, but this is something different. He claims that he’s had the idea for this book since the mid-70s, but never completed it because the science of what would happen within the Dome was beyond him. Delay may have been a blessing, I don’t think this would have been the same book if it wasn’t for the Bush/Cheney administration after 9/11.

It’s being routinely pointed out in various reviews that the plot here is eerily similar to The Simpson’s Movie where the government puts a giant dome over polluted Springfield. I’ve read an interview where King claims that he had no idea about this until the book was written and someone told him. I’m going to cry bullshit on that. He writes a column about pop culture for Entertainment Weekly and has played himself on the show. I find it really hard to believe that he somehow missed The Simpson’s Movie having a giant dome in it. It’s very weird that none of the people within the Dome ever mention the movie since King has never been shy about incorporating pop culture references before.

But that’s nitpicking and doesn’t change the fact that this story and Big Jim scared the crap out of me. (I grew up in a small town, and I could easily think of some of the locals who would have tried to take over after a crisis if left unchecked, and some of them probably would have been worse than Big Jim and his crowd of hand-picked bullies.) Although this is a huge book and King has been bad about over-writing in the past, this one flies by and I actually found myself wanting a little more detail about some of the people since many of them don’t get much of a wrap up. I was a shade disappointed in the eventual explanation to the cause of the Dome, and how it is resolved, but overall, this is going to end up being one of my favorite Stephen King books.

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

in brief, because i am nearly starting my first day of readers advisory class (yay!) and i have to prepare mentally for the schoolplace after the long break, plus i'm not really in the mood to write this review what with salinger and all casting a pall over my day, but book report compulsion gets the best of me, so.

this book ... whole lotta length, not much depth. and as any lady will tell you...etc etc... i don't have a problem with stephen king. i stopped reading him when i was a teenager not because i felt "better" than him or was too snobby for mass market fiction, but because gerald's game was so so so laughably bad that i could not carry on. oh, god even thinking about it now makes me chuckle a little bit. go, read it - it is dreadful. but the stand i think is a bunch of fun, and i have read that one a number of times. king is also the only author to terrify me to this day with a story i read when i was about 7 or 8 on my way to the fair (yeah, i know, but what better to read trapped in a car on the way to some fair?) and even thinking about it now (the boogeyman) gives me delicious shivers.

this one started off pretty good - engaging plot, fast-paced, numerous characters to keep straight in the head. but then...it just goes nowhere while going everywhere, you know? much of it seems tacked-on, in a way. he attempts to give the characters more dimensions than they deserve and he somehow fails to follow through with this promise. by trying to complicate them, he makes their shallowness stand out even more. bad guys melt in the face of abandoned children, good guys have secret shady pasts... but i'm not buying it.

all the action takes place in about a week, even though this thing is the size of the bible (which is much more willing to sacrifice some details in the interest of economy; learn from god, s.k; we like a little mystery....) i am a huge fan of the "aftermath" novel, but i think i prefer a little more time to have passed before the story begins... when we had the blackout here in nyc, and we allll had to walk home to our respective boroughs, vendors were handing out bottled water along the way and the atmosphere was actually kind of fun. if this had lasted longer than it did, those vendors would probably be huddled in their bodegas, guarding their chips and gum like gold... and that's when it gets interesting. it's true there is some bad behavior in this book. some hugely antisocial behavior. but no one seems panic-stricken, until provoked. come on, maine, act like survivors!! stop making pancakes for everyone and hoard some shit.

there are cool moments - how the dome affects pacemakers is pretty awesome, there is some nice description in places of sunsets, meteors, nightgowns - also a shout-out to librarians (smart stephen king, smart...) and i like it when authors name-drop themselves in their books. if stephen king were on goodreads.com he would be a total votewhore, say these two facts.

the resolution is just awful. truly. i was hoping for something really cool, or at least plausible/comprehensible. it was like the happening in my epic disappointment, only this took longer than 2 hours to get through. ON MY VACATION!

i am scattered right now - i will probably tidy up my thinking on this book later, but i wanted to get a start while it was mostly fresh in my head. it was overlong, and i hated the ending, but fun enough for me to not hate it overall. but i have no desire to reread it ever, the way i did with the stand, several times over. schooltime now!

okay - school is over - i had one other thing to say I AM NOT FLOATING!! but here is the good librarian comment: "who better to recruit than a librarian when you're dealing with a fledgling dictatorship?" yes sir!

but so this is about language, and i might be nitpicking a huge book's tiny problem, but while i love (and will in the future use) king's word "joyshit", it troubles me that he uses "debark" instead of "disembark", which is just more elegant and honestly, i have never heard the word "debark", and i thought he made it up. he hadn't. and also, he should know the difference between "unbelievingly" and "disbelievingly". just things that stuck out in my jerky mind that i felt would be exciting to share. was it?

come to my blog!

[Nina (ninjasbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book many, many years ago and still remember it clearly. For a reader who easily forgets books, this was different. I was in another, magical world when I turned the pages and fell in love with the characters that became real to me.

[Lindsey Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

I DID IT. I DID IT!!!

[Leo . · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pink Stars Are Falling!👍🐯

Flat Earthers would go crazy for this story!!!🐯👍

Get to the centre and jump in!!!🐯👍

To leave the Matrix!!🐯👍

At least that is what they did in the TV show to escape the dome and appear outside. Is Stephen King basing this book on the Flat Earth Model? The inner realm? Agartha? Shamballa? New Jerusalem? Eden? 🐯👍. 😕

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

UPDATE ON THE TV SERIES 8/14/2013: I gave up. I've been watching on Amazon Prime because I hate commercials. But not even Mike Vogel/Barbie's pretty face can make me overlook more of the filmmaking infelicities of the show. I didn't expect the book on screen. I did expect the show to follow the rules of TV storytelling and not just dump plotlines they set up. Not for me.

UPDATE ON THE TV SERIES 6/24/2013 in 5sec: cute boys, dirty pols, meanass bitches = weeks of fun! Junior is perfect, sociopathic little shit; Barbie is too young and too pretty, thank GOODNESS, to be true to the book; and the amount of writing talent is adequate to the task, but no more than that.

YET MORE INFO: The trade paper edition of this doorstopper is out. It's $19.99! Remember when that was a hardcover book's top price? My review is also at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Book Report: Chester's Mills, Maine, is having itself an ordinary morning, and its citizens are gettin' up to all the usual things: Spending too much of their husband's money, killing girls, beating up people they don't like and driving them out of town, making evil brews, only thing missing really is a bonfire and a faggot. Business as usual for the human race, in other words.

*WHAM*

Down comes the Dome.

No way in, no way out, no one can understand the nature, the origin, or the purpose of the Dome inside or outside of it. National security issues crop up. The town misfit, an Iraqi war vet, is called back into national service to solve the mystery. And then things get **really** ugly: The local used car salesman takes control.

Think Nixon with a mean streak and a Big Fat Secret to protect.

"From Bad to Worse" could be the subtitle of every Stephen King novel, but this time it's so so so so bad and then it gets so so so much worse that the reader is calling out to Divine Providence for the mercy of Death...and then comes The Twist. The Dome is revealed to be...but no, you have to read it.

My Review: Stephen King = what Chuckles the Dick would've been if he'd had talent.

Just sayin'.

I hated liking this book. I resented the demands on my gouty wrists and fingers, supporting its mammoth weight, flipping the pages faster and faster and faster as I got more and more sucked in to the story. I snorted snobbily at myself, caught up in this not-terribly-sophisticated narrative. None of which stopped me finishing the book and sighing with mitigated contentment at its sudsy, gloriously cinematically trajectory. I can see the miniseries...I want to see the miniseries! soon please!...unfold in my mind. It's what Stephen King does brilliantly: Tells you a story of human nature, irrefutably making points that need making about Mankind and its flaws, while wringing your withers with fear, excitement, and sadness.

The Dome was a really cool narrative device. I liked its unknowability, I was completely on board with mystery forces causing it who-knows-why...and then we find out why. I wasn't especially interested in that part, and felt it was a tidge unimaginitive coming from Mr. Shock-and-Awe himself.

Eh...so what...I had over 1000pp of reading pleasure. It's like potato-chip sex. The kind you have because you can. It still feels good, and no way are you gonna stop just because it's meaningless.

(I suppose this last isn't comprehensible to my girly readers of either gender.)

Relax. Enjoy. Don't think too much. You'll end up in a much better mood than you started out in.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[Tracy P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I did not watch the TV series first. Going in blindly allowed me to absorb the pages with no expectations or preconceived notions.

Magical, exciting, emotional, humorous, and (of course) horrifying. I love a novel with a plethora of characters and Mr. King made it easy to get to know and identify one and all by discreetly threading in (most helpful) tiny descriptors as reminders all throughout. The characters are fascinating and multidimensional. I got to know each and every one of their backstories, which made a huge difference in my appreciation and understanding of what drove and motivated their actions Under the Dome.

I could go on and on, but it has all been said, and don't want to be redundant. Highest of praises and recommendations.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure how to feel about Under the Dome. In one sense, the concept of an entire town being suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world and the social, political, and even meteorological struggles that ensue is highly fascinating. But at the same time, King has really let me down with this cast of dull, one-dimensional, and highly stereotypical characters. It seems in this novel you are either a hateful, fear-mongering, murderous megalomaniac or you are a gentle, respectful, selfless individual with a limitless background of useful talents. There is little in between. In one case, a character is a blatant clone of the Trash Can Man from The Stand, complete with being the cause of a widespread disaster. Not very original. The interactions of these characters often seems forced and unnatural, and the dialogue, at times, horrendous. But still, the premise of the novel kept me going and the idea that one can be so completely isolated from functional society and the disasters which could result from this isolation became a truly terrifying prospect, especially as the story progressed.

In the end, I would have to say that what I like about this novel outweighs the negative, especially with some touching scenes at the novel’s conclusion where it becomes crushingly apparent how different a situation could be from one location to another, even if those locations are just inches apart.

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t give a rats ass! I couldn’t get into the book and I never finished the show! It’s all good, I still love many of his books 😏😉



Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Debbie W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I could not get enough of this story! This psychological thriller was about cruelty/bullying at its worst!
A small town in Maine is suddenly trapped by an impenetrable dome. I felt like a voyeur watching the interactions between its citizens and the "monsters" within their midst. Some readers might be turned off by the extremely graphic violent details, but in my opinion, these details just added to the intensity of the story. Shameful as it sounds, I would get a primal satisfaction during some violent scenes when I felt that justice was being served. Some dark, tongue-in-cheek humor helped (somewhat) to alleviate the tension.
Even though there were loads of characters, amazingly, I managed to keep them all straight! I appreciate the portrayal of strong female characters, but overall, the deep character development was commanding throughout. Stephen King is one powerful storyteller!
I chose to listen to this story in audio-book format because I was scared of getting carpel tunnel syndrome while holding this 1074-page tome! Except for some female characters, the narration by Raul Esparza was admirable. I especially enjoyed his delivery of the character Big Jim Rennie. With his slow, insidious drawl, I didn't want to miss a word!
I highly recommend this book in print or audio format!

[Braden Canfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only thing more preposterous than the premise of this book is how the characters responded to it. What a bunch of pathetic caricatures! A dome mysteriously descends upon a small town in Maine and within hours the sociopath selectman and his amazingly evil son begin wreaking havoc to be joined later by other weak-minded psychos and an army of idiot under-aged thugs who are picked to be interim policemen during the crisis. The other townies seem to see nothing wrong with this and start wearing blue armbands in solidarity to their new officer friendlys. Meanwhile, a small collection of like-minded good guys start to strangely gather one to another and begin bonding around their outlandish good nature and intuitive good sense, an intuition shared only by this select few who gather together occasionally to collect all their facts and come to stunningly accurate conclusions through dialogues that read like the minutes of a high school student government meeting.

My good man, Stephen King needs an editor who can snap him into shape. I don't mean to necessarily make a book like this shorter, I mean to make it better. King can handle a large ensemble of characters and a complex plot. He can even write well enough to keep me reading a huge book that I find stupid. I just ask that he be required to not simplify his characters just to drive a ridiculous plot to a rip-roaring ending.

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When the dawn was still long hours away, bad thoughts took on flesh and began to walk. In the middle of the night thoughts became zombies."

An impenetrable and transparent barrier inexplicably falls down over the small town of Chester's Mill, cutting it off from the rest of the world as its inhabitants are left to fight for survival.

Under the Dome was always one of those King books that I dreaded. Reviews were not always so favourable on Instagram with a lot of people claiming it had one of King's worst endings… so I really was expecting the worst. However, I was very pleasantly surprised. Now admittedly that may be due to having the ending semi-spoilered for me prior to reading, but even if that wasn't the case, I'm pretty sure I would still have liked it.

I'm a huge fan of when King takes a small town and really fleshes it out - I love when he expands upon the different families and relationships, and even the doggos. Under the Dome has a massive cast, which is always a problem for me initially trying to keep track of everyone, I felt like I was constantly flicking back to the character list at the beginning of the book. But as I progressed further into the story I found myself checking less and less often. We have our "good guys" who we are cheering on - Barbie, Julia, Linda and Rusty Everett etc - and then we have quite possibility THE most fucking terrible villain that King has ever created in Big Jim Rennie. I hated Big Jim with the passion of a thousand suns, and I absolutely loathed his weak-minded little minions too.

Speaking of Jim and his cronies, this book has a few triggers like rape and abuse, so people might want to take note of this. There's quite a lot of violence as well. This was one of my minor issues with the book - there's just so much of it that it becomes exhausting. I accept that King wanted us to really hate these guys, but I was calling for their blood about 100 pages in… I didn't need to keep having this hammered home. A particular highlight for me in terms of the characters was the story of Ollie Dinsmore - I was heavily emotionally involved in his story, there were even tears towards the end!

I found Under the Dome to be a really fascinating exploration of what happens when a small community is just cut off from the rest of society and put under a microscope. What happens when the usual law and rules no longer seem to apply? Also when you add in a egocentric psychopath like Big Jim Rennie who already holds a little bit of power. It's basically a huge human experiment!! And I was here for it! Under the Dome wouldn't really be categorised as horror, but I found the concept itself horrifying, especially when King describes the smells and gases accumulating under the dome, as well as the slow decline of resources - that just makes me feel SO claustrophobic. Imagine being trapped in such a small space with Jim and his cronies where everything can be twisted to suit their agenda - no thank you!!

The entire point of this book is not what caused the dome, but what was happening underneath it. The dome is merely being used as a device to cut off Chester's Mill from the rest of the world. As for the ending itself *no spoilers here*, I really don't understand what else could have caused the dome? There were tonnes of hints and foreshadowing indicating this outcome, so I guess I don't get why people were disappointed. But that's just me! I liked the ending, and I really couldn't care less if that's an unpopular opinion.

Overall, I really enjoyed Under the Dome. It's not one of my favourites, but it's a pretty damn good read. Another prime example of King's ability to create characters that you will love AND HATE.

4 stars.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Of course we are in another fictional Maine town, except this time-the town is under a dome. It has endless possibilities and considering Stephen King is a master storyteller, I was so excited! Not to mention this is a BIG ass book.
So of course, in classic King fashion there is a slow build here. The townies are first rattled and shocked and then slowly, they start formulating a plan--well some do, some just take advantage of the fact that their community is sealed off from the rest of the world and they get up to some bad behavior.
Like really bad, disgusting behavior.
Where this all went wrong, I think, was in the character development story lines that were super long winded and overly wrought. I think King tried to make us care about these people and their fate but I just didn't. I didn't care about anyone which was surprising and disappointing because in The Dark Tower Series, I obsessed over the characters, Jake, Eddie, Roland and Susannah.
How could King write characters like those but then completely miss the mark in Dome? I was constantly screaming in my mind, "This is not good!” while reading.
In comparison to his other doomsday style writing like The Stand, this book falls short even more. So maybe if you read this book having never read any of King's earlier work, maybe you'd like it more but if you're a fangirl, like myself--it fell horribly short of what he's truly capable of.

[Blaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

“She can't help it,” he said. “She’s got the soul of a poet and the emotional makeup of a junkyard dog.”

The concept of Under the Dome is exceedingly simple. One random day, the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine is suddenly cut off from the rest of the world by an impenetrable dome.

Under the Dome is another strong story from Stephen King. As has been typical of his more recent works, it is light on the paranormal. Instead, the “horror” largely comes from how people change and begin to treat one another as they adapt to the strange new world they now live in. The characters are well-developed (admittedly, 1100 pages gives you time to do that), yet the story rarely slows and it ends well.

If you like Mr. King’s books, Under the Dome is a must-read. If you’ve always wondered what the fuss was about, this book would be a good choice to see if you like his style (though I probably recommend one of his non-doorstoppers 😀).

[Holly B · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

A quiet town-Chester's Mill, Maine is trapped under an invisible dome. It catches the town off guard and causes planes to crash straight into it and will ultimately terrorize the community in more ways than one. This was my first book by King and enjoyed it, although it was over 1000 pages long with many characters to keep up with.

Of course there is murder, plenty of creepiness and quite the cast of quirky characters. I was so intrigued by the invisible dome and all the images it provided. I read this with some reading buddies and we had so much fun trying to guess where the story was going and how it would end.

Plenty of suspense sustains most of the story, although some of the side stories did feel unnecessary and slowed the momentum down. The ending was a bit disappointing to me (which I can't disclose because of spoilers) Now I can't wait to watch the television show and see how the characters are portrayed.

[Bill Muganda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trigger warning for Rape, Abuse, Violence and Pure Gore



• MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES - Check
• Original Scary Concept - Check
• F#$% Psychos - Check
• Stephen King’s writing - Check

“If you can't laugh when things go bad--laugh and put on a little carnival--then you're either dead or wishing you were.”

I DID IT!!! I FREAKING READ THE MOST INTIMIDATING BOOK ON MY TBR!!! And boy did it take a lot of effort *mentally and physically* to pick up this book from my shelf and start it, being a HUGE *pun intended* fan of King I felt obligated to try this GROUND-BREAKING book. It was everything I wanted in a book and more.


You have to agree when Stephen King writes a big book it’s usually mind-blowingly amazing and with Under the Dome I got nothing less but pure perfection in story-telling. If you have read The Stand you will absolutely devour this one. The Story essentially follows the lives of people in Chester’s Mill, from out of nowhere a transparent and impenetrable Dome appears, with that we see how being literally caught in a rock and a hard place might change some people and the story kicks off from there…


First of all the HUGE cast of people was my favorite part, different personalities and a vast a ray of faces made the story appear so real, that you question whether this disaster is actually happening. King managed to immerse me into the dome and feel for these characters and also how he managed to capture voices of dogs, woodchucks, birds and other animals as the phenomena was happening was genius. He single handedly managed to balance out plot-development and characterization, which made the book personal and fast for the reader.

The Writing-style was fun and easy to get into, with a sense of dark humor and really short chapter which made the pacing of the book move really quickly. If you are those people who are affected by death of characters and pets, 50 people die in the first 50 pages YES! King went there. I was like...


I rooted for the awesome good guys and I HATED like 50 people, my wanting for revenge and retribution made flip the pages. I personally HATED Big Jim (if you’ve read the book you understand) I wanted to jump in the pages and shoot his ass.

It touched upon topics of Power, Rape and Abuse, Morality, Religion, Death, Politics and so much more. I was surprised by how fast I went through it and people are intimidated by the size but sparing some time and immersing yourself in the story, you will not regret, especially if you are familiar with kings writing. I loved loved loved this book and it might on of the best book I have ever read.


UPDATE: I Just saw the series adaptation... AND IT WAS SHIT!!!

The book is 10000% better

MY BLOG https://kenyanlibrary.wordpress.com/2...
https://youtu.be/F5FBQ-1kEyM

[Felina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the King books I've read so far this one was my favorite. Because of my working situation I was only ever able to read this book in 10 to 20 minute intervals and it took me about 3 months. Even with the constant breaks and interruptions I still found this book very engrossing.

This book isn't conventionally scary. There are no monsters or creepers (well not really) but I think the villians in this story are much more terrifying because of the recent outbreak of fear-mongering in America. Whats the only thing more terrifying that monsters...Republicans. Just kidding...well not really...but sorta. Its funny that I tend to lean more conservative. I believe in the right to bare arms, capital punishment and small government but if I had to be trapped under a dome with a group of people I hope and pray its liberals.

King has crafted himself a gang of the most terrifying villians yet and its because they are actual people. No special powers just regular murderous money grubbing people. I bet I know people who would reduce themselves to the acts of Big Jim if pushed to far. Maybe I'm one of those people.

And as usual I am impressed with Kings character development. While not nearly as good as Duma Key or Misery (whose cast of characters were much smaller) I thought King put a lot of thought and care into these characters because in the end there were people that I absolutely hated and people that I absolutely loved. To me character development is the most important component to any story. Bravo King!

But really what struck me the most is how fast a civilized group of people can turn into a lynching mob under the right leadership. In the story these people were lied to and very few of them stopped to use common sense or ask questions. How very similiar to recent events. 'Well he's the guy in charge so he must be right'. I'm not sure if King ment for this story to make a political statement but thats how I saw it and it really spoke to me.

[Misty Marie Harms · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's just another regular day in Chester's Mill, Maine. That is, until an invisible force shield slams down around the whole town. Our unlikely heroes Dale Barbara, a former Iraq vet turned short order cook, Julia Shumway, and three kids are the town's only hope. On the other side of town is Big Jim Rennie, a politician, who is hellbent on keeping control of Chester Mill no matter what it takes. As the battle for control of the town rages on, few realize the real enemy is the dome itself. Time is running out for the residents trapped inside.

First, this is a really long book. Lucky for me, I fell in love with the characters and wanted to see them make it out. It is full of action that rarely slowed down. The fun part was the things happening under the main plot line and told through different points of view. The residents of Chester Mill have some serious dark secrets, it fun to find them out. A lot of people didn't like this book, but I loved it. What knocked a star off was the ending. I was really mad to go through all that and have that crappy ending.

[Charlotte May · Rating 4 out of 5]

880 pages.

Finally finished this tome about a dome (sorry not sorry 😂)

When the synopsis said hundreds of characters, they were not kidding! But they are so necessary to understanding the scale of the destruction in a small town.

Chester’s Mill is a standard all American town. Until one day an invisible dome lands on it, blocking all exits and causing death to many inhabitants.

As time goes on and there is no sign of this mysterious dome moving, the town becomes a law unto itself. With corrupt selectman Jim Rennie at the helm.
There were so many unlikeable characters, but equally just as many to root for.

Ultimately it was like watching the downfall of a town purely by its own making.

I was hooked throughout, and pretty satisfied with the ending as well.

Note - there is pretty much a trigger warning for almost anything in here. Rape, racism, abuse, violence, murder etc. just a forewarning.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I don’t watch TV so never saw the series- in fact I didn’t know there was one until I started checking out reviews of the book on Goodreads. What I enjoyed most was the rapid breakdown of society in this small town. It was so believable and horrifying. Rennie was totally evil and I loved the whole cast of characters. While this was a long book, I think King managed to stay away from too much waffle this time although I’m sure many would disagree!

[Stacia (the 2010 club) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished after almost a week of reading. I liked this for the most part, but by about the 85% mark, I was screaming STFU Mr. King! in my head.

Watch an inside look at the upcoming t.v. show here.

Great storytelling and characterization is present, and it gives enough weight to cancel out some of the over-excessive descriptions and random add-ins. But only to a certain extent. Obviously, my opinion matters little, since Stephen King is popular enough that he can write everything as long-winded as he'd like and tell us all to move along if we aren't happy with it.

This was a disturbing, gory, graphic and engrossing read. The cast of characters varied from sane to insane, which made for a lot of booing and cheering when it came to following everyone's individual stories.

Quick Story Synopsis : One small town is minding their own small-town business when from out of nowhere, a dome closes over their town, shutting them off from the rest of the world. They can see the world, but can't get to it. What caused this dome to appear? Nobody knows and answers aren't so quick to be found.

Can you imagine what people would do in such a situation? What if supplies ran out? What if law and order suddenly ceased to exist? If you can think of all the horrific things which could happen, chances are many of those exact things are happening in this book.

Ever heard of the term "shit hits the fan?" Yep. You guessed it.

I can't really review this book further without giving away big plot reveals. In a nutshell, I'll go back to what I said above : there was a story worth reading, but I don't know if I'll ever fully embrace King's style of over-descriptive writing. If there's a hair growing out of a mole on a person's face, chances are, we'll hear about it.

Also, I always feel like there's some soap-box opinions being brought to us through the writing. I prefer not to have to read about politics and religion in books when it becomes sort of nit-picky. That's just my personal preference.

Do I think this is going to make for an interesting t.v. show? Probably. At least I think there's room for a lot of crazy potential, although some scenes might have to be downgraded in content to meet mainstream t.v. requirements.

I'll be watching it even if it's horrible though because of Mike Vogel, who is playing my favorite character Barbie from the book.

Shallow? Probably. Sue me. :p