Under The Dome : A Look Into The Breakdown Of Society In The Land Of Assholes

Stephen Kings Under The Dome Smoothie Review

As always when I grab a book, it is often a compulsive buy rather than smart one. And it usually comes from the most random of places. This time the book was found at a yard sale at the end of my block. An old lady was moving and was selling most of her stuff. And as I browsed, I came across this hard back, and the cover had this image of this entire town trapped underneath this bubble. The title says, “Under The Dome.” And the image alone allowed my over active imagination soar, because I have a love for inventive science fiction I had to find out more. Not a single synopsis was in the book. But did find some words on the inside cover. They said, “Written By Stephen King.” And those words hurt, as I am far from being a Stephen King lover. But on that moment of heart break, I must have had a psychotic snap. I made the crazy choice to buy and read the 1172 page book. And for me, reading a King novel that long is like climbing Mount Everest.

So now you ask, what is the book about? It’s about a town called Chester Mills. A small Maine town like always in King’s books. And randomly one day, a wall come out of nowhere cutting the town off from the rest of the world. A dome covers the whole town. A lot of casualties happen in these first few pages. Following this first town selectman and the second in charge of the town is greatly under the influence of the third who is Big Jim Rennie, the villain of this story. And Big Jim takes control of the town and town police department. He’s a con man who likes power, who has been even in controlling meth labs, black market drugs, laundering money and selling used cars. I’m not sure which is the worst crime. He practically brainwashed the people of the town by causing chaos indirectly and appearing set things right after the fact playing the hero. To avoid argument from the police department, he fires all those with a IQ and hire the dumbest jocks, and hicks to be on the police department. It was done in a way that people couldn’t possibly see what he was trying to do. This police department also includes his homicidal son Junior.

Then there are rebels in this plan. There’s a army man named Barbie (its his nickname.) And as the man was leaving Chester Mills because of bad blood between Rennie and himself, the dome appeared. So not only is he trapped in the dome with a powerful man who wants to hurt him, a old friend from Washington DC sends him a message to control the town, which goes against Rennie’s wishes. Along with him is Julia a reporter, a trio of smart kids side with Barbie. And first selectman’s wife, who want to expose the truth about Rennie and gain control of the town back before things get worse. Later on, they are joined by the new town doctor. And overtime with Rennie’s dictatorship and his basic abusive police squad within the dome, there is break down of society boiling down to fact that everything is being ran by self serving assholes who often times in the book even murder to get things Rennie’s way.

So what is the good? Well I have to say, if King wanted us to hate the bad guys, he done it well. There is no measure to how much I hated Rennie and all those on the police department. There is rape scene involving Junior and his cop buddies attacking a woman for no apparent reason, in here that just made me want to reach into pages and strangle them. There is lot of bad things that happen in this book by Rennie and his police with not logic or reason behind it. It’s just that evil. I also believed that the breakdown of society was done very well. I was impressed with King on that level.

Now what is the bad? One thing that always did bug me with horror writers in general, is that the random person pops out of no where to just to die. Drives me crazy. There’s one or two of those in here. Another is for the first three hundred pages, a segment of each chapter was introducing someone. It seemed scattered brained and was difficult to keep rack of them all, until page 290, it is finally revealed the Barbie and Julia are ones we should be caring bout. And did I mention a lot of those characters in the beginning don’t have any importance or show up again? Time to time it gets off track. One example is Rennie going down memory lane of how always goes to girls basket ball games, which has nothing to do with the story. But those bits are minor.

Then there’s the bit between the good and bad. It’s the ending. The book starts with the idea this might have a religious reason behind the dome. Then it leans toward science fiction reasoning. There is a constant conflict between the two. And in the end it’s open ended. Julia and Barbie have a very sci-fi like theory. But with what happens to Big Jim Rennie at the end leaves room to differ. It is never said who or what these things are that is doing this to him. Alien? Ghosts? Interdemensional Monsters? Demons? Or maybe it’s god? The end feels rushed or at least to me slapped together at the end. Like King wrote himself between a rock and hard place and he didn’t know what to. So he left it open ended. And in some ways, I like that he did that but in other ways (as with the length of the book) I thought there should have been a pay off.

Overall, it’s a scifi book about the collapse of society in the land of assholes. And to be completely honest there is so much evil assholism that me just go “Grrrrrrr!” It made me so mad. What these guys got in the end did not justify for all that they did. Also the pacing was very slow as well that makes reading it painstaking. So if you love King, this might be for you. If you hate jerks, don’t read this, it’ll just make you mad. If you love science fiction like me, then avoid this. Nothing is really explained. That’s my recommendations for others out there. I personally didn’t like it so the rating is very low.

1 smoothie out of four

Overall Rating : A Journey Into The Land Of Assholes.

P.S. If you like books, please check out my ebook and book website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Pig Blood Blues :Join a Ex Cop Into The World With The Weirdest Climax In History.

Pig Blood Blues by Clive Barker Smoothie review

Right now I’m in the process of a very long Stephen King book. Over a thousand pages, I might add, but decided to get through the thing I would take breaks to read a short story every once and a while. (Its very hard to commit to a long novel sometimes) And I decided to read the next short story in the Book of Blood collection by Clive Barker. And this one is called the Pig Blood Blues.

I started reading having no idea what this was about. The title itself brings to mind two things; Johnny Cash and a slaughter house. Thankfully it is about neither of those. It is about ex cop named Redman who takes a job at a rehabilitation center for young boys who have a criminal nature. The ones who are wildly borderline psychotic. The type who would find joy in setting the neighbor’s cat on fire and trying to run over it with a ATV as it runs away. The compound is reinforced with bars and locks. Redman quickly finds it to be a prison. And within the first couple pages you would guess it would be about evil children, but this story is smarter than that. There is a boy named Lacey. A boy who seems to be abused by both the children and caretaker. Redman feels sorry for the boy and tried to help him. And the boy confesses to Redman that his best friend who he was told had “escaped” is dead and is after him as a ghost. Suspicious of the center and the goings on of what appears to be a conspiracy, he tries to protect Lacey, but when the boy vanishes, he discovers a twisted truth that he couldn’t see coming.

So the good? Well the fact that it breaks the mold and is not afraid to do something new is great. Even if it might not work, you have to give this man a cookie for having a imagination. Unlike the other Clive Barker works so far, this feel much more real emotion wise. Barker nails down the element of crazy and Redman has emotion in him. And though it might not be apparent at first, you learn more about the character as you read. Also it is a mystery. Clues here and there lead up to a climax. The pacing is great. Lastly, it asks you to put these clues together. You see all this through Redman’s eyes, therefore not all questions are answered giving more to the horror of it all.

The Bad? This is a general complaint for all horror tales. And of you read these often, then you know I’m not spoiling anything. But why do the main characters have to die in every one of the stories? The author takes out time to make us care and the kills him off. What’s up with that? My only complaint.

And there is a borderline good/bad issue with this story. It’s a the twist. When you find out what is really going on in this story, you may either buy into it or think it’s stupid. I, for one am teeter tottering on whether if it was really that scary or not. Because on one level, I read it and go “That’s really messed up.” And then I will remember how pigs are just so cute and it just makes it seem silly. It really does depend on what sort angle you look at it when you read the story. And this is the first story that I felt so split about. But regardless, the twist is otherworldly insane weird, so it is something you won’t see coming.

Overall, a very entertaining read. It is unusual and original. But whether it is scary, or not is up to you, because its just so damn weird it just be hard to buy into.

Overall Rating : Join a Ex Cop Into The World With The Weirdest Climax In History.

3 ½ smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books, check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/