Under the Dome
By Stephen King

Stephen King's most political novel to date rips the facade off of small town life and strips it down to the underlying power struggles and petty hatreds.

On an ordinary day in the town of Chester's Mills, Maine, and invisible wall cuts off the town from the outside world. Within a week, the citizens of Chester's Mills are in a life-and-death struggle, not only with whatever forces have put the "Dome" in place, but against the forces of tyranny imposed by their own fellow citizens.

At its heart, Under the Dome is a story about bullying, and, in the tradition of Lord of the Flies, about how good-intentioned people under stress can turn against each other. It's also King's political statement about the years of the Bush Administration.

And in places, it can be an extremely violent book. Aside from the placing of the Dome itself, most of the harm done to the people of Chester's Mills is done by the citizens themselves.

In terms of characters, pacing, and action, this is classic King. It's an intense read, definitely hard to put down. There are some truly memorable characters among the very large cast, and King has clearly done a lot of thinking about how people might react in the scenario he has dreamed up here.

King has done a pretty good job with the science of the Dome as well. The implications of the forcefield are fairly well thought out. One scene involving an attempt to burn through it with acid was a bit nonsensical from a chemistry standpoint, but for the most part King shows he has definitely done his homework (he acknowledges researcher Russ Dorr, who helped with some of the technical details, in his author's note).

The plot progressed nicely, with plenty of action crammed into a tight timeframe. The ending was interesting, although I was a bit disappointed in a lack of a true final confrontation between the story's heroes and its main villain.Still, there is a lot here that works really well. The characters work, and the details are terrific. Under the Dome is King's longest book to date at 1072 pages, but it never slows down, and there are numerous scenes that are genuinely disturbing.

Under the Dome was book #2 in my goal of reading 50 books in 2010.