Stephen King - Under the Dome

5th - ?? November
Spotted this in Tesco's in Helston back in August and it has been on my list to order from the library since then. It is a work and a half so am guessing this is going to take more than 2 nights! Well it took him 25 years to write apparently so it would be rather rude to knock it off in less than a week don't you think? Basically its about a town that is surrounded by an invisible force field that prevents anyone coming in or going out, as invisible force fields tend to do in my experience. The book deals mainly with how the citizens in the town react to this and it gets some very mixed reviews on Amazon, read the first couple of chapters whilst dinner was cooking and am pretty drawn in already but if it starts to read like a Kellerman "I get paid by the word, here try my latest 60000 page novel" it will be back in the library quicker than a quick thing. Hey this is almost a review - on the basis that at least having read this you might have some idea what the book is about!! Might have to go back and edit the last couple as some facts might be of interest too!

9th Nov - about a third of the way through and its going very nicely thank you! Big cast of characters and it took me a while to get them all in order. I am liking that initially you are thinking "ooh how scary a great big invisible force field" and then a bit later you think "gosh I wouldnt be able to get to the trafford centre, that would be a bitch" followed by "exactly how much food is there in Elland and how long would it last?" at about the same rate that the residents of Chester's Mill are also working out that after the initial panic there are some pretty important things that need thinking about, not least that they are likely to run out of food and where the rubbery has all the gas gone that is needed to fuel the generators? Oh and a tip, never look on Wikepdia for the name of a town in a book you are reading, have just read a couple of spoilers by accident!

12th Nov - So good, am loving it. Reading one page last night and thought that the character was sounding an awful lot like Jack Reacher (if you haven't read any Lee Child stop reading this blog and get to a library at once, right now, seriously, I mean it) 3 pages further on and Stephen King only name checks Reacher, right there in the middle of his own novel, another authors hero, kudos Mr King.

13th Nov - All done. Terrific read, one of those that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let you go til you turn the last page. No spoilers here, you'll have to read it yourself but the main concept of the book is the study of how people in a small town react when their backs are up against the wall, no surprises really, the bad get worse and on the whole the good stay strong so no great "message" but a salutary reminder nonetheless and as a weeks worth of escapism - perfect!