Under the Dome

A Novel

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Raul Esparza

Length: 34 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when - or if - it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens - town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing - even murder - to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

©2009 Stephen King (P)2009 Simon & Schuster

Awful narration, returned for credit

I have no idea how good the story is but it's Steven King so 3 sounds fair. I don't mean to be a hater but I had to return this. I tried for HOURS and the narration is just unbearable to the point I dreaded listening. The characters start with southern accents, then they're English, then theyve got Midwest accents??? The pacing is really bad too. So sorry Mr narrator 🫣

The scare is in the human nature under stress.

There have been so many really scary stories from King where the fear comes from the external environment. Great scares! This story studies that the real scare comes from within human nature. Under unreasonable, undeniable external stress, humans can act unnaturally scary. This story studies how a core of rotten characters added to a crew of extremely susceptiple folks; can twist a normal community into a terrifying place to be. And, isn't the most real of tangible of fears those that come from inside?

- Suzanne

Disappointing

The beginning was promising. The middle made a lot of promises. And the ending didn't follow through with those promises.

Not King's best work... not by a long shot.

In this easily forgettable story, loaded with very few likable characters, I fear this may be the first signs that King is at the end of his lifelong creative flow. In this story we find a re-hashing of King's idea, language and themes, pasted onto a flimsy storyline.

In his afterword, he mentioned that this original story idea laid dormant since the 1970's. I wish he could have let it continue sleeping... Or, to toss the idea as a fragment into another memoir.

The concept had great promise. Though, the way it played through and the ultimate payoff were completely unsatisfying.

Why this was turned into a mini-series is beyond me.

The Mundane Cruelty of Common Lives

The premise of Under the Dome is simple and brilliant; an enormous glass cake cover is dropped over a small Maine town. King is the master of careful detailed narrative which picks you up and drags you through the life and pain of the 'little lives' lived in his nightmare landscapes. If I have any criticism...and it's slight...it's that this is maybe five hours too long. The narration is masterful, but the grinding unmitigated ruthless ignorance of the villains is exhausting and not always entirely credible,it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Don't let that stop you from getting this book, you will enjoy it enormously. If you get lost in the plethora of Maine characters don't sweat it, hang on you will make it back to the plot. Once you have read the book you too will realize that the lead bad guy, and he is awfully bad, is what Boss Hog would have been if King had written the Dukes of Hazard. I have seldom found a character that I so wholeheartedly wanted to get alone in a room with a baseball bat...brilliant.

The story didn't engage me

I got this book because I just finished listening to 11-28 63 which was amazing, so I thought I'd give Stephen King another go. This book disappointed me.
For me, this book dragged and after about hour 20, I started skipping chapters just to get to the end and find out why the Dome was there.

Will it ever grab me?!

I Cannot finish this damn book! I have been trying to get into it for years now. loved the show, idk about the book because it can't keep my interest...smh

Enjoyable Read, Horrible narration and politics

The narrator is the absolute worst I have ever heard. His only good voice was of Barbie, the hero. The rest were either whiny, snivelly sounding folks (anyone under 20) Southern Accents (much of the town) and one southern soldier that sounds like no one from the south I have ever heard. Poor guy needs another career. On a political note, lordy, when did King decide that Christians and Republicans were there to be ridiculed? Stay out of politics Mr. King, do only what you do best, write, don't opine.

Great Narration. A Book of Mostly Filler.

Seriously this book could have taken 15 hours rather than the 30 it is. But what's true is that a majority of King's work is that 75% of his books could have done without 100 pages of meandering. Plus the ending was so rushed and put together. Great narration. Definitely not one of King's best.

I took a 10 year break from Stephen King

I took a 10 year break from Stephen King and was completely surprised at how predictable this story was. I'm not sure how King stories over the last 10 years have gone, but this one seemed to be a template for King stories. Same characters good and bad with same results. An interesting premise and the story held me. Overall a real dissapointment that is was a cookie cuter King story.