agentorange [Celluloid 04.09.09] news book scifi horror drama



Just as good as the drama of a good post-apocalyptic story are strange scifi stories where people get cut off from the rest of the world and have to cope with the ramifications. Enter Stephen King's upcoming novel, one that he's been working on since the early 80s but just couldn't lick. It's called "Under the Dome" it sounds too amazing not to report on. The official synopsis was just released on his official website last month to little fan fare so I thought I'd share it with you all here.

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.


Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

The novel supposedly weighs in at over 1000 pages long and has over 100 characters (or so I've read) so expect another epic in the vein of the "The Stand." Pretty cool no?

Tom Smith (2 years ago) Reply

Can't wait I am a huge fan and eave everything he has written.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

Wasn't the whole DOME thing, the plot of the SIMPSONS movie?

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

I like the story better when it was written by Robert McCammon and it was called "Stinger"

Geoff J (2 years ago) Reply

It's been done, by McCammon and also by Lonsdale in The Drive-In. Doesn't sound too scary either.

agentorange (2 years ago) Reply

Agreed it's not a new idea. It also happens in Village of the Damned but King has a way of making anything seem fresh. That's why he remains the most read man on the planet (hyperbole intended for emphasis) ;)

cincinnati mike (2 years ago) Reply

also sounds like that "1432" series of novels. a manufactured space bubble from the deep future lands on a small present day american town, and transports it thru time and space to the middle of the 100 Years War in medieval Germany. scrappy band of survivors, political intrigue, the whole bit. surprisingly not as dopey as it sounds.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

I also remember a novel quite a while back called Zoo Event, where a black dome covers a town and the dome is gradually closing in.

wa5 (2 years ago) Reply

In Grof Conclins' "Golden age of science fiction" there was a story along the same lines... it was told through the diary of a long dead person trapped inside a similar dome...

rek (2 years ago) Reply

In Greg Egan's 'Quarantine' the entire solar system is put in an opaque dome by unseen aliens because humans keep destroying multiverses by collapsing quantum probability waves *just by looking up at night*.

arash (2 years ago) Reply

Look, screw Stephen King. Is this the best he can come up with? He just watched Rahxephon and decided he can just turn out another live-action abortion? NONE of King's works have translated well to the screen - at least, not compared to his literary works. Can someone just persuade William Gibson to do a movie set in the Sprawl? I mean, they got Bucky Domes and the Panther Moderns.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

It's also been done by The Simpsons, technically. The line "Day 31 under the dome..."

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

Someone already made a cheesy movie about this in the 70s, though I can't remember the title. The dome thing has been done countless times before in comics, short stories, movies, and novels over the last 50 years before being invented by Stephen King. It's as if someone had a time machine and was stealing ideas from him in the future!

wendi (2 years ago) Reply

i dont care if it has been done before, i read everything he writes. stephen king books are the only ones that have me at the bookstore at opening time the day they are released.

Anonymous (2 years ago) Reply

I remember a movie from the 70's that had a similar plot. Wish I could remember the name.

Lincoln Crisler (2 years ago) Reply

Find me a decent plot device that has truly been done only once.

Or launch your own highly successfuly literary career.

Or shut up and color.

This one's going to be sweeeet!

Anonymous (1 year ago) Reply

I've been reading it; Now 500 pgs worth. There is a lot of nidy-gridy to get into and read. If you enjoy sex, drugs, blood and guts--there's a lot of that.

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