Thursday, December 23, 2010

Review: Cell by Stephen King

 

Cell is a novel by Stephen King from Simon & Schuster.

Book Blurb:

On October 1, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and Clayton Riddell, an artist from Maine, is almost bouncing up Boylston Street in Boston.  He's just landed a comic book deal that might finally enable him to support his family by making art instead of teaching it.  He's already picked up a small (but inexpensive) gift for his long-suffering wife, and he knows just what he'll get for his boy Johnny.  Why not a little treat for himself?  Clay's feeling good about the future.

That changes in a hurry.  The cause of the devastation is a phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse, and the delivery method is a cell phone.  Everyone's cell phone.  Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization's darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.

There's really no escaping this nightmare.  But for Clay, an arrow points home to Maine, and as he and his fellow refugees make their harrowing journey north they begin to see crude signs confirming their direction:  KASHWAK=NO-FO.  A promise, perhaps.  Or a threat...


My thoughts:

I've been on a zombie kick lately, so when I found Cell I was very excited - eager to read Mr. King's take on the zombie lore.

I was a bit disappointed with Cell.  The zombie's aren't the typical mindless, eat your brains zombie that I have come to love.

These people have been more or less reprogrammed - rebooted, like a computer.  Now they are a 'hive mind' with one goal - to make sure that anyone who did not have a cell phone on that fatal day - anyone who is different from them - be rounded up and forced to become like them.

So it's like a zombie with a somewhat functioning brain - or at the least, recognizable thoughts.  And they have a kind of telepathy that allows them to enter dreams.

Cell is really about the people who have, so far, survived The Pulse - and the steps they take against the people who didn't - the plans to defend themselves and the hope to hold out until it's all over.

Stephen King is the master of macabre and I can't say that I am surprised by his unique take on zombies.  :)  It was just different.

I give Cell 3 out of 5 stars.

M

3 comments:

Blodeuedd said...

I am just saying meh *shrugs shoulders*

Bwt, posted my flash one day early :)

Tarran said...

I was very disapointed with this book, made me angry at the end.

Michelle Greathouse said...

B,

I felt the same way - meh. :)

A&RE,

I was like a cop out wasn't it? I mean he went through all that trouble and we were right there with him - only to be left in a closet with no way to know if it worked. No resolution at all.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment.

M