Under The Dome

After a little break from logging (seriously, where are you guys?) I have finally finished Stephen King's new epic novel, Under the Dome. Seriously, this is definitely the longest book I've ever read, clocking in at just under 1100 pages. Fellow backlogger Trev is also reading this at the moment, so I'll try to avoid spoilers. The concept is simple: a small town in Maine, maybe one or two years in the future, is suddenly and inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world by an impermeable dome. It's a gimmick, sure, and the first thing a gimmick like this did to me was make me play devil's advocate. "Yeah, I bet the people are going to turn into animals under the dome, but I'm sure they could logic their way out if they thought hard enough. Why not shoot the thing? Launch a missile at it? Try to dig under it? Plus, it makes no sense! How can it be a dome if it follows the borders of a non-circular town? Why would it follow man-made borders in the first place?" Of course, all of these questions are addressed in a sensible way, so you have to at least give Steve some credit there. You also have to give him credit for being able to juggle such a huge cast and keep it all interesting, something I haven't seen since the first few episodes of Lost. The majority of these characters eventually fall into one of two factions- a small group of "good guys" who allied with the soldier-turned-drifter Dale Barbara; and the rest of the town, most of whom are scared out of their minds and just looking for some kind of leadership. They find this in town selectman "Big" Jim Rennie. In most Stephen King books I've read, the antagonist has been serviceable but not all that memorable. Under The Dome, however, is the exception. Jim Rennie is a fictional character, and yet I still hate him. He often hides behind the guise of a religious man, can easily manipulate almost anyone to do his dirty work, and really just reminds me of Boss Hogg from Dukes of Hazard. When the Dome is first discovered, he's the first one to blame terrorism. He's just so undeniably smug about everything he does, it makes you hate his actions even more. There's plenty of other memorable characters here and each get their turn in the spotlight- Rusty Everett, the physician's assistant forced into the role of doctor; Julia Shumway, editor of the town paper; "The Chef," a crystal meth dealer who causes one of the most important events in the book; as well as a heap of others. A number of different dogs even take on important roles. The book moves along with an excellent pace for the first 900 or so pages, but I have to say that the foreshadowed supernatural ending didn't sit well with me. I was perfectly happy with the story remaining a thriller about good and evil when a small group is cut off from society, but this is Stephen King, so I guess it had to turn surreal. There's a few more small things Steve does that got on my nerves- most of the kids' "hip" talk was just awful, and brief moments where he broke the fourth wall really killed off my immersion pretty fast. The good news is, these things happened maybe once or twice each, so there's plenty of good reading to be had in between the minor annoyances. It definitely didn't make me want to stop. I guess that's exactly what Stephen King goes for though- it's not advanced literature, but definitely a pleasure to read. It's nice to have one of my three 800+ pagers out of the way, but while this was the longest, it's probably going to be the easiest. I'll get to the rest soon enough, but I could definitely use a few quick loggings over the next few days as opposed to another marathon.