Cell

A Novel

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Campbell Scott

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

On October 1st, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and Clayton Riddell, an artist from Maine, is almost bouncing up Boylston Street in Boston. He's just landed a comic book deal that might finally enable him to support his family by making art instead of teaching it. He's already picked up a gift for his long-suffering wife, and he knows just what he'll get for his boy Johnny. Why not a little treat for himself? Clay's feeling good about the future.

That changes in a hurry. The cause of the devastation is a phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse, and the delivery method is a cell phone. Everyone's cell phone. Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization's darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.

There are 193 million cell phones in the United States alone. Who doesn't have one? Stephen King's utterly gripping, gory, and fascinating novel doesn't just ask the question "Can you hear me now?" It answers it with a vengeance.

©2006 Stephen King (P)2006 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"King's imagining of what is more or less post-Armageddon Boston is rich, and the sociological asides made by his characters along the way...are jaunty and witty." (Publishers Weekly)

Sure, I enjoyed it

I’m happy with the book and recording. I’ll keep it and listen to it again sometime. I doubt it will ever be a favorite.

The pace of the book is slow, despite one violent or survival episode happening after another. There was nothing wrong with the reader’s delivery. But, I listened to the recording at 1.4 speed for most of the book and 1.5 during the last few hours. I lost nothing by doing so and it improved the pace of the story.

Go into it with low or no expectations and you might find that you like it.

classic king

just another great piece of craziness. have listened to it twice now and it is still awesome. Love his use of the realness of people and not the cliched hero responses you see in books. You can just see it happening the way he writes.

Good story but …

It was way to long. And I did not like the ending. Had to come up with my own.

Okay

Not really very good compared to many of his others. Okay story. Performance was good though.

Good narration but

Cliche ending to let reader/listener draw their own conclusions.
I’m a Stephen King fan and loved Fairytale but this one just didn’t make sense….even as relatable as the Pulse could be as possible it just went too wacky.

Excellent Narration

Not the most uplifting tale, but deftly and poignantly narrated. A great listen. King is a master.

Well told Stephen King SciFi

Not one of his best works, but an engaging story with good characters and novel ideas. The narration is quite good.

Open-Ended: Such a waste

This was one of the best books I have ever listened to. This is the type of book that makes the reader imagine every word Steven King writes. I was amazed with the vivid images that were given from this book. The problem I have is with the ending. Without giving away the ending, the reader is left with choices on what happened after the end of the book, instead of letting the author make the decision. I would have rated this book a 5, but after yelling at my MP3 player upon the ending, I felt that I was risen to the point of greatness, and just fell off the cliff at the end. I give it a 4, because I was able to feel comfortable with the ending that I chose to have for this book. I just wish Steven King could have done that instead.

great 'til the end

Only Stephen King can make exquisite horror from such an everday device. I couldn't stop listening- right up until the end. I was frustrated at first with the abrupt ending, but then just "wrote" my own. Well read, but had some odd tonal variations, probably from later editing.

Interesting listen, However don't expect zombies.

Would you try another book from Stephen King and/or Campbell Scott?

First Stephen King is a well established author and has many great books. Campbell Scott did not impress me in the reading, he feels monotone and doesn't convey the emotion necessary to pull one into really enjoying the story. listen to the sample if your ok with that monotone nature of reading then you may thoroughly enjoy the book.

If you’ve listened to books by Stephen King before, how does this one compare?

If you are a reader of his books then as you already know nothing is usually what it seems at first so don't buy this book if you were directed here by zombie websites etc this is NOT a zombie thriller.
-Action
The action is lacking in this book almost absent and absolutely zero suspense you will not feel like there's something around that corner. He relies heavily on the narrative of the main protagonist however the story lacks the substance to make you feel that this disaster or phenomenon is really a horrible horrific thing!
-Story
very linear following the protagonist through his adventure up to his destination.
Lacks action as previously stated and totally devoid of humor, but that's Stephen for you.
i never felt that attached to the story or its characters, even when key party members die i personally felt like they never mattered anyway. If you pick this up as a budget title i think it will be worth the listen but in my opinion not worth a credit.

-Bottom line
If your into disaster stories following zombie like themes without allot of scary moments or action, slow story with...bad guys that are ...ok? with you.....then by all means give this a go.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Campbell Scott?

Only if he imbue some emotion into his reading, this is the only one of his readings i have listened to, so i feel cant make a fair objective decision, he may be superb in another i don't know.

Could you see Cell being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

I can see This being made into a "the dome" like tv series, not allot of action and gore just a story.