That is true. :thumbsup:
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I Loved this one, it's the book that restored my faith in King :)
I Read it during the last week before my son was born, when I was flat out in bed and couldn't move. I thought it was a real return to form :) Very enjoyable indeed.
Did anyone catch the reference to LOST? One of the characters had just finished watching ________? (don’t recall the name) that was described as a clever sequel or spin off of LOST. I listened to the book on C.D. and cannot remember what chapter the reference was in.
Also I’m new to this forum and loved the story.Very scarry to think how people would just follow a fool like Big Jim.
I enjoyed reading this book, but wouldn't put it among King's best, honestly. It was a great page turner, and kept me involved, but I don't remember feeling...moved by it, if that makes sense. And that's how his best books make me feel. *shrugs* Pretty subjective judging there, but there ya have it.
It read like a Jack Reacher novel to me (which I love, by the way, great series by Lee Child), only a lot longer, and then he actually MENTIONED Jack Reacher, a fictional character. Interesting.
I actually saw my boss with this novel earlier today.
I was surprised by how long it is. Is this the first 1000+ page book he's written since It was published?
I work at a bookstore in Huntsville, Alabama and we got new shipment in on Thursday. I knew that the paperback was coming out next week but I thought it was going to be mass market. I'm pleased to see that it is an excellent looking trade paper. Even though I have a copy of the hardback, I will probably buy this when it comes out. The trade paper looks great man! I wish they would release IT in trade paper. The format works out wonderfully since the novel is so big.
I read the book recently and I found it quite a page turner too. It also reminded me a lot of his past books.
Much as I enjoyed the read, the story left me a bit cold though. The 'Leatherheads' stuff was fine. I quite liked the idea that they were essentially just kids playing games and we humans are the ants. I also liked most of the characters.
I wasn't keen on the explosion at the end though. I had my doubts it would go so far even in such an enclosed space, but I figured that I don't know, so I let it lie. I didn't like the massive death count at the end. I know that's often the case with King's books but not usually on this scale. Well. okay there were post-apocalyptic type novels like The Stand and and Cell where the death count was even higher, but it happened fairly early on and was an intrinsic part of the whole story. In Under the Dome, it was the finale. I guess it just felt a bit like all the hero characters's work didn't really pay off (apart from removing the dome I suppose). (Dark Tower spoilers:Spoiler:)
That being said I accept that this is simply a matter of taste, and there isn't anything wrong with ending the story that way.
What about the thread with the file, the drug addled third statesman lady and the corgi? (Apologies, I'm not good at remembering names.) Here we have a woman who went cold turkey the hard way. We have a dog who got a message from the beyond... and when the lady gets the file and find her balls (so to speak), how did that end? Bang! I understand that it was a red herring and there's nothing wrong with a bit of misdirection. It's applauded in fact. I'd have just liked all that pain and rigmarole to pay off. (Mind you, if it had I suppose there would be people groaning 'deus ex machina' as far as the ghost-voice is concerned.)
Again this is purely a taste thing.
I just felt, plot-wise, that everything seemed to be very much just a lot of bad stuff that happened. That being said, there were some wonderful and heart-rending character moments. And as a character piece about how a microcosm of society may react in a given extreme circumstance it worked very well. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
That being said, it kept me reading. 08-17-2010 09:41 AMWooferPropane canisters: Brice is correct. We’ve even had warnings here about checking the propane canisters before getting them because meth chefs (heh) are using them to store anhydrous ammonia and then returning them.
Small towns: The population of Chester’s Mill is less than half of the registered users of tdt.com. Assuming two people ran against him (1998 remaining) and assuming 1/3 the population is comprised of non-voters (approximately 666), then Jim Rennie would only need 445 out of 1332 votes to be elected – again, assuming all voters turn out and assuming a near 3-way tie with Rennie only inching out his competition. We know for a fact that Andy Sanders and Rennie are tighter than Jordache jeans, so that gives Rennie approximately 2/3 the town’s support. It’s easily conceivable that all the politics went down just the way he described in a town that size.
Riots: Shit can go bad fast!
Why people don’t stand up to JR (haha) or check the internet: Given the population breakdown above as well as the town being extremely rural, it’s unlikely that a majority of people even have the internet at home, much less wi-fi. Or the fuel to run their generators so they can get on the internet. Jim Rennie or no, most people don’t keep a lot of fuel around. We are encouraged not to because of the explosion/fire risk, and most rush out to stock up when storms are announced. Moreover, if, as we know, Jim Rennie was in office for 8 years before even Julia wised up to just how corrupt he was, it’s not that far fetched to imagine less keen minds never catching onto his antics. Again, given the small population, those that do understand him would be very careful in their opposition.
Jim Rennie: See above. Also, would have loved to see Cox get his hands on Rennie. Got the feeling that he was an only child and ancestors weren’t mentioned because he so overshadowed them.
The end: I think they should’ve started begging sooner, and it should’ve taken more than one shot at it. Julia and Barbie would fail; Joe and Norrie return later, catch one alone, succeed.
Message: Yes, I think there’s a message in this, but I don’t think King set out to write a book about global warming. I think the message fits naturally with the story. I believe that if it makes you uncomfortable, than he’s hit the ball out of the park.
What’s wrong in America message: I agree with Brice 100%. I think that’s always the story behind the story in King’s stories.
Y’all: Born and raised in The South, I can confirm that y’all is used both in the singular and the plural among the most Southernest of Southerners. It is not common, but it is used that way.
Brice! I am shockedSpoiler:
Yes, but not ants as we know here - maybe ants a la Phase IV, particularly when King started talking about the wars between red and black ants. That reference very much reminded me of the Fredric Brown’s story Come and Go Mad:
And:Quote:
“What’s it all about?” he asked. “Why was I brought here?”
“Because you are sane. I’m sorry about that, because you can’t be. It is not so much that you retained memory of your previous life, after you’d been moved. That happens. It is that you somehow know something of what you shouldn’t – something of The Brightly Shining, and of the game between the red and the black.”
I could see the children of the red and the black getting their … whatevers on a device that activated the dome and mucking up a town on The Brightly Shining, the parental red or black not noticing because one tiny town (population 2,000) is nothing in the grand scheme of their battles.Quote:
“What then is a man? Men are pawns, in games of – to you – unbelievable complexity, between the red and the black, the white and the black, for amusement. Played by one part of an organism against another part, to while away an instant of eternity. There are vaster games, played between galaxies. Not with man.”
08-31-2010 11:15 AMWooferAnybody? I thought Bev might weigh in on the Fredric Brown Come and Go Mad reference. 09-05-2010 12:12 AMJonWhat if the dome was just a new stadium for the local sports team that they could not get support for. They made it invisible so no one could see how many box seats were for sale etc...
(Oh Jesus I am tired!) 09-06-2010 06:53 PMmtdmanI did not like this book overall. It was very suspenseful and certainly a page turner. But I thought the ending was cheap. I thought a lot of the dialogue was bad, and a lot of the character development wasn't as good as King's past books. His teenager characters were horrible. And frankly, I'm tired of King's politics working their way into his books. I don't need to know about his politics and I don't need them biasing everything his characters do in his books, and how they act. I don't know if he's getting old and can't help himself or what, but he didn't have this problem with his early works. All the bad guys are republicans and military and the really good people are all liberals and progressive. Even the republican newspaper lady is really a lib and a progressive woman, so she's not really a bad guy.
Not to mention, the audio book was narrated by some guy that spoke every voice in a 'surfer dude' dialect and all his women characters sound permanently stoned. It was the worst narration I've heard in an audio book, probably ever. 09-06-2010 07:55 PMBROWNINGS CHILDEIs it so hard to imagine a megalomaniacal, greedy, self-serving, money grubbing, power snatching, back stabbing politician as a republican.
Spoiler: 09-07-2010 11:41 AMKvalhionI'm not religious nor am I replubican, so I didn't have a problem with the villain. Seemed accurate to me. :D 09-07-2010 12:10 PMICry4OyPolitical bs didn't bother me.
But who couldn't love Junior in the closet with the corpses!?!! 09-07-2010 08:29 PMmtdmanJunior was probably the best character in the book. 07-16-2011 12:24 PMLanceI read it for the first time last week. Couldn't put it down. I finished it in 3 days. 07-16-2011 04:22 PMur2ndbiggestfanI haven't read this whole thread (OK, I've only read a few posts so far), but I finished UTD a couple of weeks ago and I liked it. One of King's better books in a while. Annoyed as usual by the sayings and dumb abbreviations (I've never in my entire like heard anyone refer to a cafeteria as a 'caf' or an ambulance as an 'ambo', but hey, that's just me), but as usual I just read my own words over these (sort of a mental editor), and everything's ok! Thumbs up from me! 07-17-2011 12:08 AMJean 02-17-2012 11:12 AMOdettaOK, I just finished reading this book (a few years late) and I enjoyed it very much! It was a quick read, considering the size...
I really enjoyed it. I LOVED how the teenagers actually had a significant part to play, they were treated as smart, intelligent kids. My 2 favorite characters were Chef and Junior... I enjoyed watching Junior's thought process just completely disintegrate... reminded me of how SK did that with Cujo. 02-17-2012 11:15 AMJean:rose: :rose: :rose:
bears are happy, because they loved the book, and they love Odetta even more 02-17-2012 12:16 PMOdettaKeep up the sweet talk, darlin'... Odetta's in a 'good mood' 02-17-2012 08:46 PMmtdman 02-17-2012 08:59 PMGarrellGreat book with great characters:) One of his best page-turners!!!!!!!!! I even had to take a 1/2 day off of work to finish it when I was reading it. A luxury I get as a top salesman:tongue: 04-18-2012 09:24 AMDanI just finished last night. I think it has now been discussed nearly to death, but I wanted to say that I really enjoyed this book. The characters all effected some sort of emotional feeling whether love or hate. This is very important to me in a book because it makes you want to find out what happens. It is probably one of the reasons I would rather read a novel than a short story. It's harder to relate to a character in a short story.
I am overall pleased with how everything happened in the end, although I'm never a fan of children dying. Something about having my own child causes a more emotional response than an adult or elderly character dying.