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 … 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.
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Great book
The book is much better than the miniseries.
I could imagine this actual happening!
Much better and more satisfying ending than the TV series
Really good read. A lot better than the made for television version.
I have real mixed feelings about this story. I’ll start with what I liked. Bizarre storyline and plot!!! I love weird stories like this. A mixture of sci-fi and drama with great characters.
Now for what I didn’t like. First and foremost, wwwaaayyy too long for one book – it was a 1400pg tomb. This book could have and definitely should have been broken down into 2-3 separate installments. About halfway through, I had to put it down and read something else before I could pick it back up.
Secondly, I hated parts of the end. I’m glad that the aliens removed the dome. I’m also glad that most of the survivors lived. However, I hated what happened to Rennie. I’m glad that he died but I wanted his to go out really bad and horrible and gruesome. I also wanted to know what happened to the survivors because they obviously didn’t go back to Chesters Mill – or did they?
In true Stephen King manner, “Under the Stars” kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat. Great well-developed characters, exciting twists and unexpected turns, all came together to create another King winner!
I’ve been a Stephen King fan for decades and I’ve often wondered where his premises come from. I consider his mind to be magical and mysterious. I didn’t wonder where this premise came from. I’ve often thought that earth was an ant farm to some larger being. It felt that way when some horrific, unexplainable event occurred. If you’ve seen the TV series, the book’s ending is different.
In typical Stephen King fashion, he builds everything up to a fantastic ending. This turned out to be one of my favorite books. If you’re a fan, you need to read this book. The T.V. series that followed did not do this book justice. Read the book. You won’t be disappointed.
What can I say except Disturbing?! Fantastic book by the master of horror. The ending of this book to me is the most disturbing. So the reader must finish to find out exactly what is happening or should I say why it is happening.
I prefer the first ten books of Stephen King’s oeuvre to much of his later work. But this one hits the target squarely. He’s gone on record as praising “Lord of the Flies” and this book covers some of the same thematic territory. Whether the genre is horror, sci-fi, or Other, King’s characters and voice are what makes his best work shine, and is this no exception.
Wonderful book! Loved reading it, you never knew what might happen! Definitely a page turner!
Love the characters. Love Stephen King.
I managed to avoid spoilers for this book and didn’t watch the TV program when it aired, so had little preconceptions coming in, save that it was an intriguing idea. The build-up and introduction of the cast of inhabitants trapped in the town ‘under the dome’ was interesting, as was the gradual turn towards nefarious actions and then outright evil acts by certain factions in Chester’s Mill. The group of kids, Barbie, Julia, Sam and Andi were sympathetic (and troubled) protagonists and favourites of mine. On the other side, Junior and his posse were good, small-town bully antagonists. So far, so good.
However, I was disappointed with the last quarter or so of the book, and found it to be a bit of a let-down, unfortunately; the revelation of who put the dome in place, their reasoning and the finale just felt rushed and didn’t match up to the rest of the novel. My initial guess during the first 1/2 of the story was that the dome was actually protecting the inhabitants, not trapping them, on the cusp of a nuclear disaster that destroyed the world, but King took another direction with the ‘big reveal’. It didn’t work, for me, which is painful to say, as I very much enjoy this author’s work normally. 3/5.
1000% better than the tv series
Slow start.
What an epic novel and story. Read the book and don’t bother with the show.
Wow. Like most King novels, this is a very fascinating, compelling story. He takes a great idea, everyday humans trapped under a dome without any possible intervention from the outside world….what will those humans do…..and he turns this idea into a good novel. Still, this is not one of Kings best novels. Knowing what King is capable of, I was disappointed by this novel. It is definitely not a 5-star novel compared to other novels of Kings, but compared to novels in general, it is a 5-star. I would rate it in the middle 3rd, compared to King’s other books, King has written better books, but he has also written worst. Most annoying was the “all-knowing narrator” that kept popping in telling us what was going to be happening next. The over-the-top foreshadowing was quite overused in this novel. King is a better novelist than this, there was absolutely no need to beat his readers over the head with what was coming next. Really, probably 95% of his readers had read a previous novel and KNOW main characters will be dying and bad things happening, there is no need to blatantly spell it out before it happens. Next most annoying, just over the top unbelievableness. I am more than happy to suspend my disbelief when its necessary to further the story line, but in so many instances in this book, it was not necessary. King could have made the same storyline in a much more believable manner. A few examples, the dreadfully understaffed hospital which King “helpfully” kept pointing out was dreadfully understaffed. Reality is no hospital would be staffed with just 1 doctor, 1 PA, 1 EMT, 2 nurses & a couple of candy strippers. Real hospitals have tons of personnel, from licensed staff such as respiratory therapists, radiological technicians, physical therapists, lab technicians, phlebotomists, anesthesiologists/nurse anesthetists, pharmacists, tons of nurses, medical transcriptionists,nursing aides, etc. to tons of non-licensed staff, ward clerks, housecleaners, cooks, groundskeepers, etc. Even a very small hospital would have many more people on active staff, and even more close by “on-call” than in King’s hospital. And the English professor who worked as a military medic 40 or so years before…we are really supposed to believe he can diagnosis rare brain tumors and treat heart arrhythmias, after all this time when he most likely never even saw this stuff in the military? And the pharmacist who is portrayed as being dumber than a box of rocks, reality is one doesn’t make it through 4 or more years of chemistry & biology being dumber than a box of rocks. King could have made it assumed that more hospital staff were there, at least to clean up after all the deaths, he could have given the English Prof a backstory where his brother was a doctor and would swap work stories with him, he could have made the pharmacist book-smart but common-sense dumb. The storyline could have been the same, just told told in a more believable fashion.
Overall, most of the character development was good, with a wide range of characters.
I really enjoyed the ending. The deaths were (half-way) surprising, rather than having been fore-told a few pages before. And I was really impressed with how King tied much of the story together, the characters together, to make the final conclusion/ending point, of all our little lives. As with most of Kings books, the reader is left better off, with new perspectives on life. Reading through to a satisfactory ending was also a deciding factor in my 5-star rating.
S.K. (Stephen King) has made a strong come back with his newest book Under The Dome after his previous flop, a collection of short stories Just After Sunset, in my opinion. This was not a scary book. It was a great work of fiction that will thrill you, nauseates you, and make you think about a couple of issues. S.K. makes it very easy to find yourself trapped under the dome, like the poor people of Chester’s Mill.
Like in Needful Things, (another fantastic book of S.K.), there are two rival churches in Chester’s Mill. One is a saved sinner gone fanatic preacher, and the other is a faithless preacher who questions God’s existence. Piper Libby is the one that I liked right off from the start. She preaches at the Congo church, and really just goes through the motions of being a preacher. Lester Coggins is the other preacher in town who shouts Hell and brimstone. He so over-believes in God that he believes that God is actually talking to him, and goes insane. These townspeople are forced to look down inside of themselves and ask themselves what does it truly mean to be a Christian. The insane fanatic preacher Lester Coggins and one of the town’s selectmen Big Jim will have them asking is the Dome a test of our faith in God?
The other issue I found brought up in this brilliantly imaged novel is the always-hungry greed of man. Others believe that the Dome is man-made. Everyone’s first thought goes to the government. They cause this. They are the ones using its innocent citizens as guinea pigs. (Which I believe is kinda plausible.) Nevertheless, some in this group see Big Jim for who he really is. He’s a heavy-handed politician who not only runs a crooked car dealership, but runs the town too. Big Jim’s greed began with money and wealth, but now that is not enough. It has grown bigger that Big Jim. It is a greed for total control of Chester’s Mill. He is the king, and they are his servants. They believe that Big Jim created the Dome for this reason. It was easy to see how in Big Jim’s handling of his dictatorship, that it closely resembles the patriot act’s claimed purpose to provide safety and the good for all to it’s people and their property, against local terrorism. (view spoiler)
Try to think of all the things that would happen if an invisible wall suddenly appeared, enveloping your community, right now! Planes would crash and fall out of the sky. Birds and livestock would cripple and die. The traffic accidents would be piling up. Once everyone starts to begin to recover from this first shock, they realized just how trapped they are.
The Dome fully encompasses Chester’s Mill. Extending up thousands of feet in the sky, disrupting other airline’s flight paths. Also down thousands of feet equally, cutting off all running water, electricity, TV, and internet. Nothing passes through. How quickly would the air become toxic with everyone still driving, and burning wood, (or whatever they could get their hands on), for heat and cooking? Weather could not pass through with winds and rain to dissipate all the poison. How long do you think it would take before the sky would change or before you could no longer see through it, with all the smoke, pollen, and debris floating around and sticking to the Dome?
People around you would start to panic, with the sudden drastic change in their lives, and with the not knowing too. There would be riots for food, especially perishables, and for fuel.
How long do you think you would survive sick or wounded without a hospital?
Some of their smartest die when their attempts to break Chester’s Mill free from the Dome backfire.
Big Jim takes all these and turns them to where they work for him. He has a secret he is hiding. But can he get away with it, while still keeping the people and authorities blind to the key to his wealthy success. (view spoiler)
Now, S.K. adds his imaginative mind to this mix and the children are having prophetic seizures. A small group goes in search of the small X-box like device generating the Dome. What is it that put the Dome there? Is it extra-terrestrial?
Enjoy this very satisfying ride as it unfolds. The characters are vividly real. There is a magnificent, great big finish as S.K. puts you Under The Dome!
After I promised myself that I would never read another book by Stephen King again (his earlier books being the only half way decent things he has ever written) I caved and bought this one as this book was getting great reviews. Well it was a waste of money – a big build up for a mediocre ending. While his writing has never really been above the 5th grade level, I somehow expected more from this and it did not deliver.