Under the Dome

Under the Dome by Stephen King (2009)

Reader's Annotation

When an invisible force field seals Chester's Mill off from the world, the good people  pull together, but to "Big Jim" Rennie it's an opportunity to grab power.

Summary

When the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine is mysteriously sealed off by an invisible and completely impenetrable force field, the results are like nothing anyone could have imagined. Planes and cars crash into the invisible barrier. Family members are stranded on opposite sides. Even worse, as long as the Dome is up, no new resources will be coming in from outside: no food, no gasoline, no propane, no medicines. "Big Jim" Rennie, used car dealer and town selectman, sees this situation as the perfect opportunity to grab power. As Rennie expands the police force into his own private band of thugs, he is opposed by Iraq War hero Dale Barbara and a few of the town's more sensible citizens. When opposition becomes open conflict, destructive fires poison the Dome's limited atmosphere. Dale Barbara and his friends must race to discover the secret of the mysterious Dome before it's rendered completely uninhabitable.

Evaluation

I can only compare this recent novel to King's earlier novel The Stand. Like that novel, Under the Dome is a big sprawling book with a huge cast of characters. And like The Stand, it is an allegory of our society in microcosm. Few writers could pull off a novel with this many characters and keep them interesting and worthy of our attention. The only other writer I've read recently who can do this is George R.R. Martin, whose epic fantasy Game of Thrones has a similarly large cast of interesting characters.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Subgenres: Disaster, Human Monster