Under the Dome: A Novel

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

The first twenty one hours of this book had lots of moments that felt like listeners torture. It would have been deleted unfinished if I hadn't been so awed by 11-22-63. Fortunately, "Under the Dome" got a lot better in the final twelve hours.

Stephen King in his talk after the book finished (a great feature in both books) indicated that the book originally was larger and was shortened with input from a helper. Thank heavens for that --- because a longer version may have done me in.

More pages isn't always better. This book could have been shortened by about fifteen hours and become a very impressive story.

"Under the Dome" is being compared to King's earlier and greater work, "The Stand." "Dome" is entertaining, and I give it 3 points mostly for King-isms such as "Nothing runs like a Deere." (Of course the narrator deserves some credit for the delivery too.)

It's no "Stand," however. The big difference is that King devotes the entire work of the "Dome" to the subject covered in about 1/6 of "The Stand" - that is, the destruction of the world he's writing about. "The Stand" deals with that and then moves swiftly on to the part which I personally found more interesting; would it be possible to reconstruct society after the loss of so many people? That King had to use the hand-wavium of supernatural events to pull the protagonists together into one location shows that Stewart's "Earth Abides" describes the likelier outcome of such a catastrophe, but in "The Stand," King manages to pull off a fairly exciting work on the subject. In "Dome," however, King becomes one of those kids burning ants under a magnifying lens that he talks about in the book; he creates characters - some really evil bad guys and some weak and ineffectual good guys - then he spends the rest of the book watching them jump through hoops while everything goes crashing down around them.

If you thought the best part of "The Stand" was part 1, you'll enjoy "Under the Dome." If you're a hard core SF buff and would like a more character-driven and more scientifically interesting look at this notion of what would happen if you were cut off from the rest of the universe, I highly recommend Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin" instead.

I really enjoyed this audiobook except where I feel the last segment (5 parts) was rushed and the ending was a bit disappointing. Not my typical Stephen King ending. The narrator is very good as he has the voice of many many characters. This is another thing you may need to know.. many many characters here. Overall a very interesting listen. Approximately 54 hours I believe. Well worth your money. It took me about 2 weeks to get the whole book through and with me taking every day to see what happens next. I took this week me to the pool and just sit and relaxed.

I think this was the best King book since the last Dark Tower. The idea for this book is so interesting! I love the story so much that I've listened to it twice!!

I am not a Stephen King reader so I don't know how this rates compared to his other works but I enjoyed it. It's really long which I like in an audio book. It took me a bit to get hooked but once I did I couldn't stop listening. The reader is excellent so he makes the experience fun.

This was my 1st audio book, it was awesome!!!! The story kept me so interested, also Raul Esparza the narrator, did wonderful voices that made the characters come to life. Stephen King is the best ever.

As with all Stephen King's books this one is a real page turner; however, the characters were one-dimensional. His endings are always a bit lame. Being a big King fan though, I can't dislike it.

I do not like King's books but when I see the ratings sometimes I try it out. Yes, I have been disappointed....lord knows, but not this time. Ok it gets a bit far fetched, ok the whole thing is but it gets far fetched within being far fetched....yes that's right. I like it, I really liked it and would recommend it. It's a fun story, rated R though

This story is one that made me cringe a lot, there is so much human tragedy, evil, suffering and then triumph in this storyline, I found it very painful at times. The writing is complex, extremely compelling and combined with the narration paints a vivid picture in your mind. You feel the pain, you live and die with the characters, its brutal! That is also what makes it brilliant. I consider it a "can't miss" audiobook but won't listen to anything so heavy for a long time. I think this is Stephen King's best work in a very long time.