Quick question

[briarwood]

Has anyone read Stephen King's Under the Dome?

I'm about halfway through the audiobook and it's so very slow I'm ready to give up. Is it worth continuing? If I keep listening, am I going to find out where the Dome came from? That's more or less all I care about at this point as all but one of the characters I found sympathetic are dead.

Comments

[darchildre]

I read the whole damned thing. Yes, you do eventually find out where the dome came from but I'm gonna warn you - Mr King did not actually care where the dome came from. He's just using it as a device to see what people are like in that situation.

Since I also didn't care where the dome came from and wanted to see what the people would do, that worked for me. But if the main mystery of the book for you is the dome, then you may find the ending something of a let-down.

[geonncannon.livejournal.com]

That's my opinion, too. I enjoyed the book throughout, but I can see why you might not. If you're not enjoying it by the halfway point, then I would suggest that's far enough for you and you can find someone to spoil you about where the dome came from. :)

And the SOB really had a good time murdering people in this one. :/

[briarwood]

Usually, I enjoy King's work. But this one is just too unrelentingly depressive, and the only characters I can identify with are either dead or looking very much like redshirts.

As cynical as I am (and I really, really am) I just don't believe that people, en masse are as bad as this novel paints them.

But I won't cheat! As long as the damn dome will be explained, I'll slog it out.

[briarwood]

He's just using it as a device to see what people are like in that situation.

Yes, I expect that from King. Usually, his theme of "people are the scariest evil" works well for me. In this case...well, I don't know if it's a realistic depiction of small-town Maine, since I don't live there, but I don't find it a realistic depiction of people. There's no one character who seems wrong, it's the balance that's off. Or am I to believe that only Brits are capable of "Blitz spirit"?

I daresay the dome explanation won't live up to the hype, but I'm willing to slog through just to find out. There are other story threads of interest...in this case it's the audiobook narrator who's making it hard going :(

[cereta]

Yes, you will find out. The rest...I dunno. I slogged through it because I liked some of the characters, but it was not my favorite (the icons are because I liked the artwork).

[briarwood]

Thank you :)

I'm a huge fan of King's early work; everything since IT has been a let-down. Not bad, just not to my taste. But this was the first of his later novels I've found as an audio download so I figured it was worth a go.

And the icon looks great :D