Under The Dome – Stephen King

When a mysterious dome cuts a small town off from the rest of the world, its residents must find a way to survive while a power hungry local politician sees this as his opportunity to become the ultimate authority.  Such is the plot of this tome from Stephen King, the third longest book I’ve ever read and the longest since I tackled The Stand back in 1992.

Prior to reading 11/22/63 2 years ago, I had stayed away from King’s work since finishing Dolores Claiborne back in 1993.  But based on my enjoyment of that book, and a sale at the Kindle store, I picked up this one on the cheap.  After watching the first two seasons of the television adaptation, which CBS has aired over the past 2 summers, I finally found myself in the mood for this thousand page monster.

The show deviates pretty quickly from the book, sharing little more than character names and a dome at this point, so reading the book was an entirely new experience, although I did picture the show’s actors as the characters in my mind.  Overall, I enjoyed the book, though the ending, and the force behind the dome, left a little to be desired.  I do have a couple more King works waiting to be read, though none of this magnitude.