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)

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.

Narration drove me nuts!

I found the different voices that the narrator used for the different characters to be quite distracting. But more than that, it sounded like there was some really sloppy editing. The narrators voice occasionally is replaced by a completely different sounding voice, speaking a few words or lines. Sounds like they were trying to use recordings from different takes. Nothing wrong with that but it's so sloppy it became annoying after a while.

Pretty good, but not as fun as King's other stuff

PROS: Cell has an interesting premise, and it has a pretty intriguing plot. It's bold, and is a fun nod to zombie stories while still maintaining a sense of originality.

Characters are good, and Campbell Scott does a solid job narrating. King's writing is solid as well, and makes you really care about the protagonist.

CONS: From a plot development perspective, the payoff at the end is disappointing and leaves too many open-ended questions.

From a technical perspective, there was a glitch where one of the chapters repeated itself.

Overall, Cell is okay. It's not terrible, but not great compared to other Stephen King books like IT and THE STAND. But the book is definitely better than the movie.

Lovely for those who love King

Written like a classic King novel. A lot of us constant readers enjoy King not for the "scare factor", but for the "telling of the tale". It's a creepy good story with all the twisted wit and dry humor that King fans have come to know and love. A very satisfying 12 hrs and 28 mn indeed.

Not his best but worth the read

I am not always a fan of Stephen King but generally enjoy most of his books. This book seemed to miss its mark somehow. I wasn't 'drawn in' to the characters, the production of the taping was not the best, and the ending was extremely weak - or a good cliff hanger for Cell II.

Just boring...

I enjoyed Campbell Scott's narrating, but the story was just so slow. I did like the idea behind the book. It just took way too long to get there and not enough action for me.

Apocalyptic SciFi/Horror

It took me about a week to finish this book. So I wasn't infatuated, but I was eager to complete the book. Practically all King's work is good, he is a master at his trade. It's not five star material. In fact if I were ranking it among King's body of work alone it would be on the lower half of the list. But like I said, for me all of King's novels are good.

Reading King is my comfort food

Took a break from SK for a while into other fiction and non fiction stuff… finally put this one on. Such a sweet reminder of why he’s truly one of the greats. Character development, crazy details and wacky thoughts and sayings through different characters, and YES! The gore!! I saw a review that complained about the gore… WTF do you think your reading?
Great read, thought narrator killed it, and felt so complete with the ending(the toughest part to a successful book IMO)
Two thumbs up for this horror junkie

A different take on the apocalypse

A great and unique take on the apocalypse. This universe King created about mobile phones turning everyone into zombie like creatures was brilliant. King does a great job creating characters that you just connect to and hate seeing a few that perish. The ending leaves you on a cliff hanger and that was ok with me.

Great listen.. highly recommend

Just not a big fan of the ending. Some reviews say they liked it, personally for me it wasn’t enough closure. But definitely worth the credit! King never fails to give us a unique storyline!