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

Great Story

Stephen King does not disappoint in this story of human beings at their worst and best. Love the way the story builds and pulls the reader in.

Good read

The book starts out a bit slow, introducing a LOT of disparate characters, most of whom are not very nice, to say the least. But it gets pretty interesting if you tough out the first 10% or so. The reader's voice gets a bit annoying -- he only seems to have 3-4 different voices in him, and all the children's voices sound nasal and whiny. Nevertheless, it was worth the listen.

My first King Book

I must admit that the only reason I chose this book is that after listening to 50 books this year, there were few new books that interested me. I was more than surprised. King is possibly the best author I have read. I am not a science fiction reader but I will admit that I loved this book. Great story, the reader was terrific and for a long book, the story moved well. King has a way with words and his character development was incredible. One of the 5 best I read this year.

Right Out of the Twilight Zone

The best episodes of the old Twilight Zone series would explore the effect of a supernatural event on human nature (with, of course, a twist at the end). That is precisely what Stephen King has done in this book. Although the premise is extraordinary, the cascading series of tragedies are driven by ordinary human failings such as the desire for power, fear and uncertainty, mental illness, grief, paranoia and drug abuse. While the remarkable chain of events makes this a "page turner" (I could not wait to get back to my ipod to hear what happened next), the characters are equally interesting, memorable and engaging. I agree with the other reviewers that the narrator may not have been the best match for this book, but the book itself makes this a must listen!

The narrator is terrible

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. The reader is so bad, it becomes distracting and the dialogue is dated. It felt like the story should have been set in the 80's rather than now.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Raul Esparza?

Anyone else

Sci-fi

Glad I didn't get caught in there! It was good. I think all King is good. It gave me pause. It disturbed me. It wasn't exactly horror, but it made me admit horrible things to myself. I didn't want to go back and listen again right away. Maybe never. It will stick with me. Richard Bachman. Again, disturbing, but not horrifying. Good listen.

Very Stephen King!

What did you love best about Under the Dome?

The fact that it stayed focused on the characters and their plight.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Actually, I enjoyed all of the characters; however, there were several characters that were very easy to dislike (if only because they were just plain evil).

What about Raul Esparza’s performance did you like?

I am new to Audible and enjoyed how Esparza was able to change his voice just enough to distinguish that it was a different character speaking.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I really enjoyed it. It did seem to slow down towards the end of the book, briefly, and I was completely stunned by the ending. Though, I must admit, that rarely has Stephen King failed to keep a reader/listener hanging until the end. There were a lot of funny parts and the death of several of the younger characters did make me cry. I was rooting for them to all make it to the end.

Great

Couldn't stop. Felt trapped with the characters and loved or hated them. It was surreal and a awesome story.

amazing book

this book it a must read for all high school and college students but this reader tries a little to hard

I did housework and gardening just to listen to it

I'm not a die-hard Stephen King fan, but my boss had listened to this one and recommended it highly, so I gambled on it and won. It started off with a bang and then got better. As with most long King books, it did drag on a bit in the middle, and you wanted to wonder how so many people in town could have been hornswoggled by the antagonist, but it all ended well, and the ending was unexpected and thought-provoking, if entirely unrealistic. But the good people mostly emerged alive and well and the bad people were mostly killed in the end, so I was mostly happy. It took a little while to get used to the profanity, though. King does a good job with his characters, on the whole, but some of them use so much and such strong profanity that it jars one away from the story, it's so offensive. Still, if you can get past some nasty language, this is a great read.