Hank Ringworm

Finished it. Loved the ending; though it was anti-climactic, action-wise, none other could have fit the main theme. The secondary themes were surprisingly overtly political, though hazy enough to satisfy anyone's politics.

Great piece of writing; the 1000+ pages drifted by effortlessly.

Drop

Halfway through now and I officially love it. Everything is really pushing forward so well. I'm dying to know what's going to happen next. Really tempted to skip ahead, hard to resist.

No one writes villains like Stephen King.

marty888

Raced through this in less than a week - terrific read, one of the best "pop fiction" books I've ever read.

For me, the dome was like a Hitchcock "McGuffin" - a device to get to the real story. The book is not titled The Dome - it's Under The Dome - and it's King's perceptions about contemporary society and human nature that elevate this book to something more than a "scifi" novel.

Deke Rivers

good book but very ridiculous ending..

Drop

I don't think the ending is ridiculous at all. If you are on with the concept of a mysterious dome suddenly appearing, the ending is not anymore out there. It's hinted at well before the ending, and nearly confirmed somewhere around 740.

Not to mention thematically it makes sense. There's the idea of microcosms in society. The idea of a big creature picking on little creatures. Jim Rennie being one of them, which is further reflected in the US government, and of course the very literal story of the magnifying glass and the ants. The Dome is very much so an ant farm, with all this hustle and bustle.

Not liking the ending is one thing, but to say it doesn't fit, well I think King very much so justified it.

Deke Rivers

like everything we all have our own opinion...I understood the end and how it fit but it still didnt make it any less ridiculous to me..as much of a King fan as I am I always felt his weak point were his endings give or take a couple of books..this was one of the weakest

Mudo

I didn't like the ending, I thought it was very half-arsed. The story though, amazing, the characters were good except for the relentless heroic lines. Argh, not every one in a small town will have the same sarcastic sense of humour.

But yes. I felt kind of cheated at the end conclusion, I guess I was expecting way more intensity around the dome than what was recieved.

The dome, realistically, was the second main focus. The First was the Arsehole Jim Jennie.



I still really liked this book though, was money well spent because it was entertaining. SK never fails to make me happy.

Drop

Well let's talk about what could be a better ending. Terrorists? Government experiment? Unexplained? Or maybe he could've just spent more time on the aliens?

Xander

I thought the ending was fine. Better than some of King's endings.

Drop

I definitely agree playing to the sympathies was good idea. It was in contrast to how everything else was done in that book. Rennie was all about getting physical, and when the way to end it was just to ask, well it's kind of funny and a great contrast and in line with the themes.

Frenzy

In my opinion the ending wasn't bad, but it wasn't surprising either.

Michael Corvin

Finished this the other day. Probably my favorite King book since the Green Mile or Bag of Bones (haven't read Lisey or Duma yet though). It kinda felt like a large scale version of the Mist.

He did an excellent job crafting Big Jim Rennie as one of the best villains in all his work. He's up there with Flagg and Pennywise, IMO. Although his demise was pretty weak. It's comparable to Flagg though, I guess. 'Not with a bang, but a wimper.' On the 'good guys' side of the coin, Barbie was very reminiscent of Stu Redman.

There seemed to be a lot of buildup of characters that really didn't matter in the end. Seemed like padding to me.

I was thinking it would/could have been Randall Flagg or Dark Tower thing. Anything could have been better. However I do agree with HeilHeiser about the climax up until the Dome reveal was some of the best shit King has ever written.

Jason Bovberg

Just an FYI: The $75 limited edition of DOME is on sale for 50% off at Barnes & Noble right now.

Michael Corvin

The Collector's Set? It's showing 32% for a $50 pricetag

Jason Bovberg

Perhaps just brick-n-mortar stores? It's tagged 50% off at my two local stores. And yes, that's the one.

Nth Power

I just finished it and really enjoyed it. I liked it better than Duma Key, which was the last SK book I read.

Loved the parts with Andy and The Chef and everything that happened with their situation and afterwards. The only bits that seemed questionable were
Small complaints though. Those two just stuck out for me.
Overall, it was a really good read.

Geofferson

Paperback comes out July 6th:

Dan

Bump!

I just finished the audio book. I also bought the limited edition shortly after initially starting the audio book, but only read a few pages here and there. As someone else mentioned, Raul Esparza is a fantastic narrator. He really gave each character their own distinct voice.

As for origin of the Dome, I didn't love it... but it did feel like an appropriate answer.

I think this would make for an excellent miniseries. Hell, it could even be a full season of a TV series (but no more than that.)

89981

King said something about Under The Dome being on hbo.

Dan

Yeah, nothing new has been mentioned since November. I have a feeling that fell through.

TheMadFapper

Read it a couple months ago, and it was pretty typical for King, which means not bad, except once again the characters were really one dimensional, especially Big Jim. He was Snidely Whiplash bad in terms of characterization and believability.

milo bloom

Picked this up over the summer, got halfway through and got hung up on too much bad stuff hitting all at once. Restarted about two weeks ago and finally finished last night. I thought the ending was spot on. It could have been all

Rob V

I have under 100 pages to go. I literally just got to the part where the propane bomb goes off and while the first 300 pages or so were slow and character developing, after page 400 I was all in. I love how King develops a character and you never know if that person will turn out to be a hero or die the very next page

Wick

I started reading it just over a month ago and I'm currently at page 759. It's an outstanding book - possibly the best I've ever read. It's hooked me and I can't wait to find out what happens next.

I'm going to avoid reading much of this thread, due to fear of spoilers.

brainee

I'm late to the party too! I just finished it a couple of days ago. I broke my Kindle cherry with it While I certainly wouldn't call it the best book I ever read - or even the best Stephen King book I ever read - I think it's one of his stronger efforts. Like King's best, it isn't so much the idea that's key (the whole "mysterious force cuts a town off from the rest of the world" has been done many times). It's how well King brings the characters to life, and makes you care about what happens to them. And he does a great job of that here. Big Jim Rennie and his thug police force are absolutely loathsome. And Barbie and his friends are easy to root for - not overbearingly cutesy or too perfect.

I didn't mind the ending. If anything, on the scale of Stephen King endings, this is on the higher end. Despite some worries I read earlier in this thread, King doesn't abandon the cause and creators of the dome. If you were expecting a more detailed scientific explanation ... well, if you're at all familiar with King I don't know why you'd expect that. It was pretty clear that the crux of the story was how the people trapped under the dome reacted - not some sci-fi adventure centered around the dome creators. I was a bit let-down by

That is an excellent idea. Spoilers (even unhidden ones) abound!