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librarian_linnea's review against another edition
3.0
finally finished this beast. It was okay, but about 500 pages too long. I forced myself to finish the last 150 pages just to find out what would finally happen in the end. I'm glad I don't have to lug around this brick anymore.
bigfred's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
omcosgray's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
mlg9's review against another edition
3.0
I'd probably give this 2.5 stars. It's interesting, but it's also very bleak. And, as usual for Stephen King, there was a glut of made-up workds used by some of the characters. I'd don't know why, but I find that very irksome. Not my favorite King book by a long shot, but interesting enough to keep me reading through to the end.
dgirl80's review against another edition
2.0
The idea is great, but the dialogue was horrible and I couldn't make myself finish the book.
berylbp's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars is more accurate. Absolutely impossible to stop reading (audio in the car and realbook at home). Loved the small town politics and all of the characters, but, the resolution was disappointing to me-I wanted a better explanation. Also, felt like some of the plot could have been edited down.
seekup's review against another edition
3.0
I found this quite similar to The Stand. The situations were obviously a bit different, but the concept is similar: a group of people having to come together and govern themselves in the face of a freak occurrence, where the town/group quickly divides into camps. You always want to see good triumph over evil, and this time was no different.
If it's one thing that Stephen King does well, it's creating atmosphere, creating a backdrop where the situation continues to build and you know something is going to happen, you're just not sure what or when. Sometimes he does it too well and then goes nowhere with it (The Long Walk, I'm looking at you). This one wasn't exactly that, but there were parts of the novel that made me quite anxious, enough so that I'd have to put it down and pick it up again later. I was, however, a little disappointed with a) how he "got rid of" some of the characters and 2) the explanation of the dome. It wasn't anticlimactic, per se, but I felt a little let down that after all that many pages, the outcome wasn't as satisfying as I wanted.
If it's one thing that Stephen King does well, it's creating atmosphere, creating a backdrop where the situation continues to build and you know something is going to happen, you're just not sure what or when. Sometimes he does it too well and then goes nowhere with it (The Long Walk, I'm looking at you). This one wasn't exactly that, but there were parts of the novel that made me quite anxious, enough so that I'd have to put it down and pick it up again later. I was, however, a little disappointed with a) how he "got rid of" some of the characters and 2) the explanation of the dome. It wasn't anticlimactic, per se, but I felt a little let down that after all that many pages, the outcome wasn't as satisfying as I wanted.
vahyso's review against another edition
4.0
Ever read a book so long that it feels like you're on some kind of journey? That's how I felt while reading this book. (Along with a few of King's other works, such as Insomnia and Desperation.) Not that it's a bad thing, I actually quite enjoyed it.
Compared to the other books I've read lately, Under the Dome is very slow paced, but it's never boring. There's always some sort of action going on, the big events were just widely spaced out. There is a massive cast of characters, but after the first few chapters I didn't have too much trouble remembering who was who. The only time a big population is troublesome in a book (for me) is when the quality of the writing is poor, which I haven't experienced from any of King's works thus far.
At over 1,000 pages, it's not going to be a quick read for anybody, but I definitely recommend it to anybody who is intrigued by the description. It's definitely worth the time it takes to read.
Compared to the other books I've read lately, Under the Dome is very slow paced, but it's never boring. There's always some sort of action going on, the big events were just widely spaced out. There is a massive cast of characters, but after the first few chapters I didn't have too much trouble remembering who was who. The only time a big population is troublesome in a book (for me) is when the quality of the writing is poor, which I haven't experienced from any of King's works thus far.
At over 1,000 pages, it's not going to be a quick read for anybody, but I definitely recommend it to anybody who is intrigued by the description. It's definitely worth the time it takes to read.
titus_hjelm's review against another edition
4.0
This read almost like a sci-fi version of Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (http://www.prisonexp.org/) and the famous 'Lucifer Effect'. It also had reminisces of King's earlier work, especially The Stand and perhaps Needful Things. Again, it's the small town people and dynamics that are the focus, not 'horror' or 'sci-fi' as such, although there's a little bit of both here too. I got hopeful about King returning to the more traditional horror of his early years with Duma Key, but this was very good as well. 4,5 stars, really.