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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Molecular dissitation at a cellular level, 25 Feb 2006
King goes back to his roots. All those bemoaning that King doesn't do horror anymore may now rejoice because this novel is horror pure and simple. When a 'pulse' is sent out via cellular phones it turns everybody who has one into mindless, violent zombies (are there any other kind?). A small band of 'normals' (those unaffected) are then charged with the task of finding somewhere safe to live whilst rescuing the protagonist's son. And ultimately that is what the book is all about, one man's attempts to rescue his son. King has ventured here before, and the child in peril plot line works well here as well as it worked in his other novels such as "Cujo" and "Pet Semetary". The novel flys along with barely a limp and the characters are all well drawn out, as is King's speciality. My only gripe with the novel, if you can call it a gripe, is that the book seems short, but I guess thats just me wishing for more from King when he is in such good form. The ending, which I obviously will not give away, is perfect despite some rumblings on fans sites. I bought this from the States as it was out a good month before the UK release date, but now the time is upon us and I urge everyone to pick it up. You will not be disappointed.
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39 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stephen King is back, 3 Feb 2006
Stephen King is back and I, for one, am glad King is still writing--even if I was nervous about picking up my cell phone for a couple of days!
The editorial reviews tell you everything you need to know about the plot, so I won't repeat it here.
When I read this book I saw comparisons to two novels; one of those books is Dean Koontz's "The Taking." Although the plots are superficially the same--a trip through a nightmare world--the books are very different in style, in tone, and in the "whys" underlying them. [Depending on your point of view, by the way, you'll find King's explanation either inspired or exasperating.]
The comparisons to the zombies movies are fairly obvious, but the descriptions of human life after the Pulse, for Clay and his band of struggling "normies," and of non-human life.
And that plausibility carries through to the ending. It's difficult to write an ending for a book like this one, but King managed to write one that makes sense without false optimism (as the book's prologue notes, most of America is dead by the time the book ends) *or* unnecessary pathos.
All in all, King fans will be thrilled by this book; and if this is your first King Novel it will leave you drooling for King's next novel.
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50 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Deja vu?, 21 Mar 2006
By A Customer
As a die-hard Stephen King fan, I was mightily disappointed with this latest offering from the master of horror. It would be churlish not to admit that it's a page-turner - once hooked I read it through in a matter of a few days. However, gone is the trademark characterisation that made Arnie Cunnigham of 'Christine' or Jack Torrance of 'The Shining' not just one-dimensional bad guys. Gone is the small town creepiness and petty jealousies and adulteries, minor sins letting in the real evil in the plot dynamics of Salem's Lot or Needful Things. Gone too, under insufferable conditions, the essential heroics of Rose Madder or Dolores Claiborne.
This is Stephen King stripped bare of all that makes Stephen King more than just a pulp writer of horror. Death, mutilation and gore were always staples of King's writing - but always BECAUSE of something - malevolent supernatural forces born out of past evils or present corruption, sociopaths, wife-beaters, aliens. There is no depth to 'Cell' to even begin to explain from where the evil within has originated - just plenty of carnage to indicate its consequences. The worst thing is that whilst the 'Will-be-stiffs' pile up on the pages - I don't care. Never has King shown such little regard for his characters. Maybe his novels have always been thick as doorstops but I've always felt that you got your money's worth in living alongside ordinary human beings faced with impossible situations and dealing with incomprehensible evil in the best way they can. In all but one story that I can remember (Pet Cemetary - though others may remember more) the evil is overcome and life goes on through the heroic actions of sharply drawn characters that we care about. This novel ultimately disappoints because we don't know the characters at all and their reactions to the situation unfolding around them beggar belief.
It's a definite post 9/11 book - references a-plenty to global terrorism - but it's unworthy of King to jump on the bandwagon of American paranoia.The nihilism isn't in the effects of the 'Pulse' - the rage, the brutality, the despair - it's in the reactions of those not affected who immediately set themselves apart, as higher lifeforms, not only to defend themselves (which is understandable) but to immediately wage war on something that they haven't yet completely begun to understand. I don't know if King meant anything analogous by his 'flocks' and 'brainwashings' and 'unreasoning rage' but if he did he certainly doesn't present those who are supposedly rational in any better a light - in fact worse because they are supposedly rational. Maybe that was his intent. Sadly I think it all falls well short of the mark on any level and even the ending is the same old thing. Ultimately I can't help thinking this was all done so much better in '28 Days' to which it bears more than a passing resemblance!
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