Under the Dome by Stephen King reviewed by Rocky Wood

Under the Dome by Stephen King reviewed by Rocky Wood, writer and President of Horror Writers Association:
Stephen King returns to his roots with has latest novel, Under the Dome.  The western Maine setting of Chester’s Mill may as well be Lisbon Falls, where he attended school in the mid 1960s (and which is a centrepoint in ‘11/22/63’).  Long time King fans (which he calls ‘Constant Readers’) will enjoy the constant references to such familiar locations as Castle Rock and Derry and its Maine Yankee feel.  In fact this is King’s third shot at this story – having lost the original manuscript in the 70s and failed to make the second attempt (The Cannibals) work to his satisfaction.
With no warning an invisible Dome descends on Chester’s Mill, separating it from the United States, and setting off a series of human interplay that may destroy the town and all in it.  As is generally the case with King’s fiction it is the choices made, under pressure or not, and the way characters react that reveals the true horror.  The source of the Dome is largely irrelevant but the total isolation it imposes, releasing the worst impulses of the town megalomaniac, is not.  

King is the master of the huge novel, and this was his longest since his apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand.  While not to the standard of that novel Under the Dome masterfully manipulates a huge cast of characters ranging from the short-order cook living with his Iraq tour of duty guilt, through the tough local newspaperwoman, to a host of the dour Yankees the author always portrays so realistically.  The antagonist, used car lot owner and petty politician ‘Big Jim’ Rennie, is nasty, manipulative and all too believable as he sets about creating a not-so-petty dictatorship.  The band of locals who stand against him, led by the cook, now reinstated as a US Army officer, finds themselves caught in a series of moral dilemmas ordinary enough to present as totally believable.

Reminiscent of King’s Needful Things this novel illustrates just how thin the veneer of our civilisation is, all the time humanising the horror to the individual level.  Those who recall King’s uncanny ability to put readers in the mindset of young teenagers and even canine characters will not be disappointed.  He cannily uses his strong foreshadowing skills, which also assist in suspending any disbelief about the Dome’s origins, to create deep tension from the opening scene - a tension which rapidly escalates to a ‘can’t put the book down’ level by mid-telling.
Under the Dome delivers a non-stop roller-coaster ride of emotion as the situation in Chester’s Mill escalates towards the inevitable final confrontations.  But this is not just a book for King fans – the mainstream feel will appeal to even those who normally avoid horror or ‘dark fiction’.
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Synopsis:
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, 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 selectwoman, 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.

Profile: Rocky Wood
Writer and President of the Horror Writers Association, is recognised as one of the world's leading King experts. He received Bram Stoker Award nominations for Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished (Cemetery Dance) and Stephen King: The Non-Fiction (Cemetery Dance). His firts graphic novel, Horrors! Great Tales of Fear and Their Creators (McFarland, 2010), received a Dark Quill Award nomination. His latest book is Stephen King: A Literary Companion (McFarland, 2011). He has spoken at numerous conventions on King, including the Skemer Con in Colorado (2003), Continuum 3 & 4 (2005, 2006) and the 2nd Annual Stephen King Dollar Baby Festival in Bangor, Maine (2005). He has published non-fiction articles about King in the US, UK and Australia.