I’m a huge Stephen King fan for many reasons. One: He’s a fantastic story teller, Two: He focuses on a variety of slants premises that deal with apocolyptic plots and sick/twisted characters, Three: he builds well rounded characters both “normal” and twisted ones and Four: He’s a decent writer compared to most.
What mostly intriques me about his writing is his story telling and great plotting. There are better writers, but none compare in telling a good story.
I just finished “Under The Dome” – a 1,000 page story about a small town in Maine that has a mysterious dome appear around the town cutting them off from the rest of the world. The characters are many, but he always pulls off a plethora of characters in books, like The Stand. However, his books follow a good plot with the right mix of character for focus and point-of-view. I enjoyed the book, but was disappointed on several counts.
Reason One why I was disappointed: The ending just didn’t do it for me. I really got into the beginning, all of plot twists and crazy characters in the middle and as the ending built, I was expecting something fantastic, but it fell apart for me. I don’t want to give it away, but suffice it to say, it was a bit lame and drawn out to the point I kept skipping.
Reason Two why I was disappointed: The evil villain in did not get his come-up-ins. This alone pissed me off. With all the bad this guy did, he ended pretty much by-himself and it was anti-climatic.
Reason Three why I was disappointed: There was little wrap up as to what happened to the survivors. It ended appruptly and some kind of comment about the state of the town, or something would have been interesting. Even if the final few chapters were about how the army/government quarantined the perimeter along the line of the dome to keep everyone out. The area was contaminated, something, but I guess that’s to our imagination.
Reason Four why I was disappointed: While the characters were great, of course most of them all died in the end, there were elements missing or confusing. There were at least three possible “Heros”. While there was one villain, with lots of moronic minions, there were actually two heros and a possible third. It was hard to track. While thrillers don’t HAVE to follow a formula, this one missed a few marks. It hit the first three sections, but the last two just fell apart. 1) Gripping opening (There in spades), 2) Hero thrown into serious peril like defeat was impossible, (There) 3) Hero had rebirth, goes on defense… (Kind of there, but there enough to say, sure.) 4) Hero confronts villain and almost is defeated, but in the end, the hero wins , defeating the hero. (Missed the mark. While thrillers don’t HAVE to have them fight directly, in this case, i would have been stronger. It was weak.) 5) Everyone is okay, including the hero and a quick synopsis displays how everyone is better because of the heros actions. (Again, missed the mark. The hero didn’t really do anything in the end, someone else did the work, and it was kind of lame.)
All in all, it was a good read, but the end really flopped for me. I’m not mad, like I want my money back, but I was extremely disappointed. The villain really should have gone out in a bigger blaze of glory, not sputter out in an anti-climatic lone way. The hero didn’t do much in the end either, kind of survived and helped, but didn’t really play a big part in the solution. He was in jail most of the book anyway. Someone else found the source and then someone else pleaded with the “leather-heads”. In the end, I think the formula failed and while it presented a strong glimpse into small town response to a serious situation, it didn’t really wind up in a good place.
So, after two weeks and 1,00o pages, err (17,947 places – I read it on my Kindle) I was left very disappointed.
