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Stephen King: Under The Dome

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Stephen King: Under The Dome

Old 11-21-09, 05:12 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Finished the book a couple of days ago....awesome. King's best book in years, in my opinion.

Originally Posted by maxfisher
Spoiler:
I'm still curious if King threw in the symbol as a little 'easter egg' to his readers or if there's supposed to be some implication that Pennywise came from the same place where the leather-faced children reside. If I recall correctly, Pennywise never really had a physical body. He just kind of took the shape of whatever people most feared. Perhaps he was an adult of one of the leather-faced people and was banished to earth for some reason.
I noticed that right away, and
Spoiler:
pulled down my copy of IT to compare the symbols. They're not EXACTLY the same - the symbol for IT is a little more spaced out and wider/longer, but they're way, way too close to be any sort of coincidence. I'm pretty curious about what the implications of it are, as well...I'm sure we'll find out someday in a snippet of an interview he does.
Old 11-21-09, 08:27 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Originally Posted by abrg923
Finished the book a couple of days ago....awesome. King's best book in years, in my opinion. . .
Fantastic! I am only about 200 pages in or so and really enjoying it. My reading time is also very limited right now (which stinks). Very glad to see someone who has actually finished it holds it in high regard.
Old 11-21-09, 04:30 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Just finished it today. Fun stuff - especially the final act. WOW!

Having read all of his work, this one ranks up there pretty high in terms of being "classic" King. A real mass of interesting characters, both good and very bad.

King has a way with creating very lifelike characters, and when one - or more - of them die I actually feel shock and sadness.
Not many popular fiction authors that I read can get away with that on such a regular basis.

Last edited by Pointyskull; 11-21-09 at 06:19 PM.
Old 11-24-09, 09:09 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Spoiler:
I wish the ending hadn't been so sci fi, sort of felt so "out there" compared to the rest of the book with the bad guy being human

Extremely great book for the first 900 pages or so, a little let down by the end. Boy did anyone else get physically uncomfortable reading this book, so big and bulky I just couldn't find a comfortable way to read it, if I didn't know better I would guess someone behind the scenes got the hardcover priced so low, so people would remember how uncomfortable really big books are to read, and get them to all buy kindles

Last edited by Sirgey; 11-24-09 at 09:11 AM.
Old 11-24-09, 04:40 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

I was laying down a lot with it next to me, it would start to dig into my hip or stomach if I read it too much with it laying on me.
Old 11-25-09, 09:51 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

I love reading big books. Not uncomfortable at all to me.
Old 11-26-09, 10:04 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Just finished it. My god could the ending have been worse?! The book was really interesting for the first 700 pages or so and then when they first started showing where the ending was going, I was really hoping it wouldn't actually go there and then it did. It sucked hard! I thought The Stand had a cop out with
Spoiler:
the friggin' hand of God coming out of the sky
, but this one almost takes the cake.

I'm also really tired of King's sappy introspective endings with characters re-evaluating their lives and deciding to be better people. Does Oprah write his endings now? I appreciate that he almost died from getting hit by a car and all, but good God, it sucked.
Old 11-27-09, 06:46 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Originally Posted by wahlers
Just finished it. My god could the ending have been worse?! The book was really interesting for the first 700 pages or so and then when they first started showing where the ending was going, I was really hoping it wouldn't actually go there and then it did. It sucked hard! I thought The Stand had a cop out with
Spoiler:
the friggin' hand of God coming out of the sky
, but this one almost takes the cake.

I'm also really tired of King's sappy introspective endings with characters re-evaluating their lives and deciding to be better people. Does Oprah write his endings now? I appreciate that he almost died from getting hit by a car and all, but good God, it sucked.
My thoughts exactly.

Spoiler:
A video game console belonging to alien children was keeping the dome in place? Are you fucking serious?

Nevermind that Big Jim went out with a whimper. 1000 pages of that evil bastard & he just croaks from a heart attack without having to suffer a deflated ego first.

I also HATED the way he handled Andrea. 800+ pages of her being pushed around, detoxing from her addiction, and vowing to ruin Rennie, then she gets shot. It was utterly pointless.


I've never read a book with such a shockingly bad ending. And I've read a lot of books. This thing is supposed to be an HBO series? Good luck visualizing it. It'll be laughed off the screen in homes across the country.
Old 11-29-09, 05:31 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Best Stephen King ending in a while. I'm not talking about the...(spoilers)

Spoiler:
...aliens, but the climax of the novel with the propane atomic bomb. My god, what images I had in my head. So terrible. Just imagining the hell of it. What a dark ending for King. I mean I was expecting a few hundred casualties in the town, but all but 30-some! That was some of the saddest stuff King has written in some time, the last few hours of the survivors' (and the ones that didn't make it) lives before the dome was lifted. I was surprised as hell, usually he lets children survive, I was getting broken up about Aidan and Benny. And Ollie struggling to live after everything that happened. The comment about the atmosphere being like Venus was a good description, and made for great imagery.

I wish Big Jim could have survived. I wanted him to live and have himself paraded as a traitor, coward, and crappy quasi-dictator. I was thinking it'd be hard to try him, though. Hardly any proof or witnesses left, with many things left unproven (the bodies he and Junior killed, the food riot, the Democrat fire, etc, even the responsibility for the propane exploding). I wish King let him survive, and then hint he was so broken and he'd be telling the authorities everything he been doing; of course that's not really Big Jim's way.

Oh, also, I didn't know how to take Junior. King has seemed to be fascinated with murderers and brain tumors for a long time. Like I thought Junior was a totally evil guy at first; he was certainly an asshole on his best day, but with the brain tumor, can you say all of the murders he did were the cause of the tumor, or only helped along? Like at the end, when he couldn't see very well cause of his eye, and was so paranoid about everyone, and made his assulat on the police station. He wasn't in his right mind, and obviously had advanced stages of the brain tumor. So what do you think? Can you say the tumor caused him to murder Angie and Dode, and everything else, or was the tumor only aiding him along?
Old 11-29-09, 07:11 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Originally Posted by Quack
I was laying down a lot with it next to me, it would start to dig into my hip or stomach if I read it too much with it laying on me.
Originally Posted by jmj713
I love reading big books. Not uncomfortable at all to me.
I can never find a comfortable angle to read for long periods of time. They should split the book in half and release it in a nice slipcover housing the two books. I would gladly pay extra for it. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to see this happen. Is there a reason why they cant do this?
Old 11-30-09, 09:41 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

I think it's a matter of cost. Some limited press companies still do that. Donald M. Grant published Dark Tower IV and VII (and maybe V & VI... but I don't remember for sure) in 2-volume sets along with single book editions due to the length.

I think the problem with mass market companies is that with twice as much binding and covers as well as the slipcase, the extra cost involved for the binding and shipping (due to the extra weight of covers and box) wouldn't be as cost-effective for them.
Old 12-05-09, 06:07 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

For those that missed out on grabbing the limited edition of this book, you can order the UK limited which is also signed by King and limited to 500 copies HERE for £100.00.

Old 12-06-09, 09:06 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Thanks for the link, cracksky. Not a bad price for a signed copy. Plus it has a slipcase which, I don't believe, the US version has.
Old 12-09-09, 08:50 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Originally Posted by golden_rod
My thoughts exactly.

Spoiler:
A video game console belonging to alien children was keeping the dome in place? Are you fucking serious?

Nevermind that Big Jim went out with a whimper. 1000 pages of that evil bastard & he just croaks from a heart attack without having to suffer a deflated ego first.

I also HATED the way he handled Andrea. 800+ pages of her being pushed around, detoxing from her addiction, and vowing to ruin Rennie, then she gets shot. It was utterly pointless.


I've never read a book with such a shockingly bad ending. And I've read a lot of books. This thing is supposed to be an HBO series? Good luck visualizing it. It'll be laughed off the screen in homes across the country.
I finished the book last night and was very entertained by the story, but I completely agree on your last point....

Spoiler:
The fact that he spent so much time on Andrea Grinnell's eventual detox combined with some book summaries online stating that Barbie's crew included a select-woman had led me, falsely, to believe she was going to play an important part in the story. Then she gets blown away right after Carolyn at the town hall. WTF? I can definitely understand SK likes to ratchet up the tension by killing off some of the heroes, but why spend so much time on a useless character? Ah well, I'm probably just groggy and grouchy after being unable to put the book down for the last 400 pages last night and not getting bed till 2:30am... :-)

I have to say that those parts of the book describing the inferno were freakin' insane.
Old 12-10-09, 09:45 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

I'm about a quarter way through and I'm loving it so much. The one thing that bothers me though is...

Spoiler:

How Junior turned from a guy who was shocked and appalled at how he killed Angie, and then kills Dodee out of self preservation, and now he's turning into a sick necrophiliac who cuddles with the rotting corpses of two dead women in the span of a few visits. Just seems... out of place.


Other then that it's a fantastic read.

Last edited by CKMorpheus; 12-11-09 at 08:47 PM.
Old 12-10-09, 10:13 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

I just finished the book on Tuesday and I loved everything about the book except for the reasoning behind the dome itself. The reasoning behind the dome just felt really out of place.
Old 12-19-09, 07:37 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

I know that someone already asked this question, but it was given a cryptic answer about reading 50 pages further in the book. I must have missed it in my fast forwarding of the "boring parts" aka most of the book. Why didn't they try to dig under it?
Old 12-19-09, 07:58 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Almost forgot my review I thought it was positively awful. It's really sad that SK seems to have lost his magic. I was able to finish it and there were a great number of interesting visualizations, but sadly none of the characters were interesting. I found myself rooting for Rennie about 1/3 of the way in, hoping he would kill off anyone who was too stupid to live (which I decided was pretty much everyone a few pages later). The only consolation was an ending as suitably stupid as the characters. Don't complain about the horrid ending, they deserved it. I would have felt cheated if a good ending was wasted on those characters.
Old 12-19-09, 08:06 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Originally Posted by damsel
I know that someone already asked this question, but it was given a cryptic answer about reading 50 pages further in the book. I must have missed it in my fast forwarding of the "boring parts" aka most of the book. Why didn't they try to dig under it?
Spoiler:
The government tried too. The dome goes down extremely far as well...
Old 12-20-09, 07:43 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Just finished last night. This was not as compelling as The Stand. I was able to finish The Stand in a week. This book took me over a damn month. Just wasn't really sucked into the story. Lost interest at page 900 and just skimmed through the rest. The ending was pretty laughable and I hope they change it for the HBO miniseries.
Old 12-22-09, 10:20 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

I liked it much better than any of the recent crap King has put out...then again I listened to the audiobook so it flows a lot easier and is not such a time-sink

(BTW, the reader Raul Esparza was FANTASTIC...his Maine accents were wonderful, his Junior was twisted, his Renny was dismissive and devious)

My only problem with the story was
Spoiler:
What a douch move by Rusty...he was part of a conspiracy and had Evil Enemy #1 under his care depending on him for IV drugs and his son babbling to the point where he could have easily pumped him for info and he blows his cover?!?! So massively stupid
Old 12-23-09, 04:15 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

Originally Posted by cracksky
For those that missed out on grabbing the limited edition of this book, you can order the UK limited which is also signed by King and limited to 500 copies HERE for £100.00.
Got my copy today. 90/500. Took about 2 weeks for the cheapest shipping. Here's some pics for those interested:
At the top of the slipcover, there is a section that the trading cards fit into.

Old 12-23-09, 05:04 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

^ Handsome presentation.
Old 01-03-10, 11:11 PM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

I thought it was pretty mediocre, I think if I'd been reading the normal version instead of the ebook version I would've been really tempted to skip through (Kindle is not overly conducive to skipping ahead). There were very few characters in all those pages and pages I cared about.

The only recent book by him I remember really enjoying was Duma Key. Luckily that's not too far in the past so I'm hopeful he was another good one or two left in him.
Old 01-04-10, 10:30 AM
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Re: Stephen King: Under The Dome

330 pages in myself and am liking it about as much as The Stand right now. Of his long novels (not including the Dark Tower) IT is the ultimate one, I really loved the characters in that book. I really disliked most of the characters in The Stand by the end. Maybe the same thing will happen with Dome, but I really like them all now.

I think his style is only getting better though. He writes some really great and often beautiful descriptions. The pacing of the book is outstanding too. With The Stand and IT I had to take a big break about half through before finishing them. This one I should finish without taking a break.

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