Thursday, December 17, 2009

09.36 Cell by Stephen King

Cell (2006) by Stephen King
Pbk, Pocket Star Books, 449 p.

In the 80's I used to read all the Stephen King I could get my hands on. I haven't really touched him since but there has been a bit of buzz in the past couple of years. His book, On Writing, has been well received and I like the look of his newest novel, Under The Dome. And then I read the thoughtful reviews of this book by both Olman and meezly. Those both convinced me to pick this one up.

I won't give much more of a synopsis other than to say that it is about a New England artist struggling to reunite with his young son after a mysterious signal broadcast over the global cell-phone network turns the majority of his fellow humans into zombie-like killers.

I thought the book was a lot of fun but especially in the beginning. King writes gleefully about the chaos of a world gone completely mad. He is also able to have the hero characters behave as competently as you might expect people who are survivors to do. He still has his King-isms of old like the repetition of songs or the powerful dark man who is at the center of things a la "the Walkin’ Dude" from The Stand.

Overall, a book worth checking out if you have any love for the old 1980's Stephen King.

1 comment:

OlmanFeelyus said...

Don't forget to update your progress bar!

You know what would be fun to read? A collection of Stephen King stories that were all just his depiction of the beginning of various end-of-civilization catastrophes such as in the beginning of Cell and of course The Stand.