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From Publishers Weekly
What if a pulse sent out through cell phones turned every person using one of them into a zombie-like killing machine? That's what happens on page six of King's latest, a glib, technophobic but compelling look at the end of civilization—or at what may turn into a new, extreme, telepathically enforced fascism. Those who are not on a call at the time of the pulse (and who don't reach for their phones to find out what is going on) remain "normies." One such is Clayton Riddell, an illustrator from Kent Pond, Maine, who has just sold some work in Boston when the pulse hits. Clay's single-minded attempt to get back to Maine, where his estranged wife, Sharon, and young son, Johnny-Gee, may or may not have been turned into "phoners" (as those who have had their brains wiped by the pulse come to be called) comprises the rest of the plot. King's imagining of what is more or less post-Armageddon Boston is rich, and the sociological asides made by his characters along the way—Clay travels at first with two other refugees—are jaunty and witty. The novel's three long set pieces are all pretty gory, but not gratuitously so, and the book holds together in signature King style. Fans will be satisfied and will look forward to the next King release, Lisey's Story, slated for October. (Jan. 24)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Think horrormeister King's gone soft? Try this: Clay Riddell, on top of the world after finally signing a contract that pays off for his years of scrabbling as a comics artist, is fairly bouncing along Boston Common when an awful lot of the people nearby suddenly go berserk, using any weapon that comes to hand, including their teeth, to assault with deadly intent everyone in their paths. Motor vehicles collide or leap curbs to smash through windows and doors at high speed. Planes power-dive into buildings. And, of course, gunfire and explosions punctuate the soundscape. Instinctively, Clay puts his heavy portfolio between a small man about to be butchered by a middle-aged crazy, and thus meets Tom McCourt. Within the hour, they rescue 15-year-old Alice Maxwell, and another of King's many stories of a decent remnant struggling to survive in a world gone mad is off and running. During the course of what must be the most suspenseful, fastest-paced book King has ever written--a 'Salem's Lot without lulls--the trio expands to as many as six, though it is solely from Clay's perspective that King tells the story. Clay is concerned with more than survival, for his 12-year-son is out there, surely by himself, Clay thinks, given the time of day that the Pulse began. The Pulse? Keenly perceptive Tom noticed right away that all the crazies became so while using their cell phones. Tom's was broken that day, and Clay doesn't own one. Exploiting motifs and devices from Richard Matheson's vampire-world classic, I Am Legend (1954), and George A. Romero's living-dead movies (author and filmmaker are this book's dedicatees), King blasts any notion that he's exhausted or dissipated his enormous talent. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Stephen King in a long while!,
By
This review is from: Cell: A Novel (Hardcover)
I eagerly awaited this release after reading the synopsis. This was the first Stephen King book I have bought in 6 or more years. I find that since Insomnia his books have gone downhill and are too much talk not enough of anything else. This book was fabulous, it read like I was watching a movie. Finished it in the blink of an eye, couldn't put it down! I totally recommend buying this book, especially if you were a fan of his older novels. I couldn't believe the so-so reviews out there, but maybe they were expecting his new style rather than the much appreciated past.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well, a movie will be made about this story next year !,
By
This review is from: Cell: A Novel (Hardcover)
Loved the book. The story was very Kingian and lents itself wellto what most of us endure every day: Cellular users poisoning our lives. It's about time they should be the subject of a story in which they die horribly. Anyway, loved the story and hope Mr. King continues to bring about the end of the world as we know it with his imagination. Long live King !!!
3.0 out of 5 stars
Thrilling end-of-the-world saga of the phone hordes versus the last few normies!?!,,
By
This review is from: Cell: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)
Ever since George A. Romero set the world alight with `Night of the Living Dead' in 1968, screen writers and novel writers alike, have tried to match the originality and brilliance of that story. Some have come close, but no-one has ever matched it. (Even George A. Romero has tried and despite some excellent attempts, he has failed.) The Cell is Stephen King's attempt and again it fails to hit the mark.It's a brilliant premise - something as ubiquitous as a cell phone, being used by an unknown enemy, to turn the population into frenzied, inane, killers. Think about it - everyone has a cell phone, from your eleven year old cousin to your eighty year old grandmother - they are everywhere! So, if they were ever were to turn against us, we would be in trouble! Unfortunately, the brilliance ends with the initial premise and does not radiate throughout the book. King's ideas are original; all the usual zombie clichés are missing, there are no gung-ho ex marines ready to kill anything that moves and in King's book when you die, you die, you are not resurrected as a flesh eating, groaning, monster. Even though this is true, I kinda miss these old unoriginal cliché's! 'The Cell', unfortunately, never seems to warm up, firstly, it jumps straight into it. The first zombie appears on the fourth page, giving the reader no time to get to know the characters. (Surely, we have to learn a bit about the characters in order to decide if we want them to get killed in grotesquely horrible ways, or we want them to survive to the end?) But Clayton is the only character we are introduced to before the book launches into the action and we only get to know him in the books dangerous and stressful situation. (I realise that books these days have to capture the reader from the first page, but King, is such a popular writer that surely he can afford to spend a few pages letting us get to know his characters.) King does have interesting ideas, the zombies or the `phone hordes' are all guided by some higher intelligence and communicate telepathically or through dreams, they are not the brainless, flesh-eating zombies we have come to expect from this genre, but like the premise, he never seems to capitalise on these good ideas. The book is definitely worth a read, if you are a massive King fan you will probably love it and any book that contains the line "Homeland Security's been cancelled due to a lack of sanity" has got to be worth consideration. However, this reader prefers, some of Stephen King's other work, like Shawshank or the Shining, both of these are as near perfection as a novel can be!!! I have no doubt Stephen King will return to form and impress us all again! After all, he is the brain behind such classics as Carrie and The Stand. So I am disappointed for the moment, but I am eagerly awaiting his next book, hoping it will match the novels previously mentioned.
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