Stephen King - Under the Dome

Like him or hate him, it’s hard to deny that Stephen King is an extremely imaginative writer. Never mind his periodic lapses into hackneyed prose, and his maddening stubbornness in listening to his “muse” - even if it tells him to kill off your favorite character - he knows how to keep your ass in your seat.

And his latest work, the sprawling Under the Dome – which King attempted to write in the 1970s and 1980s as The Cannibals - will certainly do just that. Through its 1074 pages, King slams you with one disaster after another as a town in rural Maine becomes trapped from the outside world by an unexplainable invisible barrier, known as the Dome.

Of course, as with most King works, things go to Hell pretty quickly, a plane runs into the Dome, unknowing town residents drive cars into the Dome at full speed, and electric pulses from the barrier cause the pacemaker of the Sheriff – the one upstanding man in the town in a position of authority – to explode through his chest.

King’s greatest strength in this work, though, is his ability to pile on the misfortune. All of the above tragedies are only the beginning of the terror set to unfold in Under the Dome.

Riots, murders, corrupt and incompetent politicians, an out of control police force and a U.S. government powerless to intervene are just part of King’s explosive recipe for chaos. King moves through the chaos at break-neck speed as fear and paranoia set in among the residents of the town.

However, as is the case with many King works, the novel’s climax and resolution isn’t nearly as compelling as the build up. For all of the havoc that has taken place, the novel’s end will leave you asking, “That’s It?”

That being said, Under the Dome falls among King’s better works of the last 10 years, miles ahead of Blaze (2007) and Lisey’s Story (2006), though not quite on par with From A Buick 8 (2003) or the surprisingly excellent Duma Key (2008).

The lack of a satisfying conclusion, though, is what keeps it from being on that level. A novel that pulls its readers along for a thrill ride so effectively as Under the Dome should reward its readers at the end for completing the trip. Instead, it opens the door and boots its passengers to the curb.