Cell: A Novel by Stephen King Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cell: A Novel
Book Review: A Misdial...
Summary: 3 Stars
The Cell is half a book. It stops in the middle, just at the point where it finally started to grab my attention. The characters aren't King's best. They're a bit stereotyped and some are too good to be true. A young boy would rather be torn to pieces by King's cell-phone zombies than leave an elderly professor behind, the professor would rather die than risk the boy's life. A truck driver blows himself to smithereens to save the lives of people he has known just briefly. But this at least is a real Stephen King book. You can see the master's touch at work...a touch that has been missing from many of his recent books. The story, of course, revolves around a mysterious pulse that turns anyone unfortunate enough to be talking on a cell phone into a murderous zombie intent on bashing and biting. The pulse may be an act of terror, but the perpetrators remain undisclosed. The opening pages of The Cell are up to the best King standards, as the hero tries to make sense of a world going crazy all around him. The book opens with a truly horrifying scene in which a well-dressed, middle-aged woman and a school girl chew big hunks out of one another. People grab anything that comes to hand and smash at one another. Those lacking weapons learn that teeth and nails can make quite a dent in their fellow citizens. As in all end of the world set ups, a band of survivors heads off for safety, picking up members and losing others, as they travel. But The Cell brings some interesting twists to the genre. Day after day, the zombies themselves appear to be evolving, at least up to a point. From mindless killing machines, they start to flock together to find food. Soon they're helping one another (although still kicking the pudding out of "normals"). They have a form of telepathy that unites them. The premise works for a while, but King takes it one step too far for me. The book falls down a little when he gives his zombies the power of levitation. It just makes suspension of belief a little more difficult, because there is no reason for floating zombies. It does not influence their actions, other than keeping their feet dry in the rain. But King throws another little twist into the mix: there's a flaw in the original cell phone pulse programming, so the zombies' evolution is taking some odd curves. We don't know what the evolution was intended to create, but we know that something's going wrong. Still, the question remains: will the zombies become a better version of humanity. King's story has them beginning to help one another at the point where normal humans have started fighting among themselves; will they regress to their previous mindless violence, or perhaps mind-morph into some sort of uber-termites sharing a collective consciousness, but no intellect. it's an interesting situation, but one that's not resolved. The rest of the plot is also unresolved. The hero goes to desperate lengths to find his son, including parting with his loyal band of comrades. They go through detailed plans to leave messages and trail markers along their route, they discuss how the hero will follow and track the comrades, and then...nothing. The book ends. Lots of hanging threads, lots more I want to know. Stephen King is not a stingy writer. His books usually give readers more than our money's worth in size alone. Not this time. As I sat, stunned, with half a story in my hands and no more book to read, all I could think of was: "Volume after volume of those 'Gunslinger' books, and when King finally starts writing like King again, he cheats us out of a good 200 pages." Read the book, if only to hear an echo of what King used to be...and then wait for the sequel.Book Review: A Partial Return To Form
Summary: 4 Stars
There is much I like about this novel, and much I dislike, but in the end it left me feeling satisfied. It could be the Cube-like vagueness or the Levin-esque ending. It could be the predictability mixed with a few surprises. It could be that this is in a way a return to form since he went bonkers and thought that the world owed him something.
The one thing that really bothered me was that Mr. King has over the years written himself into a pigeonhole. When I say this I point you to Rose Madder, a story that began as a brilliant portrayal of spousal abuse but was cheapened by his diversion into the supernatural. In fact my favourite stories of his are those that he did as Richard Bachman. That isn't to say that all the 'supernatural' elements in Cell are unwarranted- I, for example, believe in telepathy as science. It was the levitating that I thought depreciated the value of his vision.
It has an amazing start that draws you in immediately, never letting you stop (a scene that I think would transcribe well to the screen) to think about what has happened, how it happened.
It begins with the Pulse, a 'virus carried by every cell phone' in the world, a virus that sends anyone listening to it into a blind rage with no focus. Clayton Riddell does not own a 'cell' phone, but his son does.
But Clay has hope. His son's phone is often left unattended and with a flat battery and all Clay wants to do is reach him or his estranged wife to make sure they are safe. So he sets out on a road trip on foot (a common theme in King's novels that resonates deeply in me) with Tom, who has no one to lose but his cat, and Alice, a teenage girl who has lost her entire family.
This novel will lose something over time, many of the references are so contemporary and US-centric that in the future people reading it will fail to completely understand some of the references (even some people living outside of the USA today who did not follow the New Orleans aftermath will have issues with some of it). And personally the middle eastern bashing infuriated me. To me terrorism has always been around and always will be, and it isn't a middle eastern phenomenon. However it could be said that he was taking the mickey out of US paranoia.
But it won't lose the terror that people have over modern technology or the emotions that many people don't want to admit to when faced with a challenging situation. His characters aren't always perfect and sometimes a little superficial. The story never lets up and is easy to read. It is definitely a worthwhile read. Who doesn't have a 'cell' phone?
Book Review: A Re-Vamped Yawn
Summary: 2 Stars
The devastating plague which kills or drives mad half the human race ... the "zombies" with their love of blood and gore ... their strange and charismatic leader ... the brave little band of survivors strugging against terrible odds to reach safety -... the devoted father's race to save his child ... the secret which the good guys know and the bad guys don't, which enables good to triumph ... It's all been done before, and making the "plague" a mobile phone virus doesn't render it new or original. In fact, don't I remember King writing it already - wasn't it called The Stand? There were a couple of gripping moments in Cell, but overall it was so predictable I found myself skimming the pages. Borrow a copy if you must read it, and don't waste your money.Book Review: A Real Treat for Classic King Fans!
Summary: 5 Stars
I picked up this book and finished it in two days of nearly non-stop reading. It is action packed and very hard to put down. This is a real treat for classic King fans! Buy it and read it today!Book Review: A Recipe for a great book but leaves you a little blah
Summary: 4 Stars
I think this is the best book King has written in 10yrs. It takes 2 cups of The Stand, a 1/4 cup of Tommyknockers, and throws in some of Carrie & Firestarter, with just a dash of Salem's Lot.
The problem is the end of the book made me feel, like King had just decided, "Ok, I've got a deadline, so I'm done now." He could of done so much more with the characters, and actually gave the book some closure, but he didn't. It was almost like he wrote it with a movie in mind, and decided that he wanted the movie to have a sequel.