Review - "Cell" Stephen King

[dex]

I just finished listening to the unabridged versions of the book "Cell" by Stephen King. I'm happy I got it from the library and didn't pay for it. I was hoping for a little satire or humor related to individual's and society interaction with the cell phone. - nothing. There was so much opportunity here to for satire, humor, and to lament the decline of good communication amoung people.

Stop reading here if you don't want to know the story line.

At the very beginning of the book the main character of the book is waiting on line for ice cream. A few people on line with him talk on their cell phone and then begin to act crazy - think Night of the Living Dead. That is it for the rest of the book. The main character joins with some others to fiend his family and go to a suposed safe zone. However the "phone crazies" have developed telepathic abilities and are directing people to the safe zone to absorbe them into the "flock". The main characters kill the "flock" with a bomb and go to wait out the winter to kill the rest of the "phone crazies" who again are just like zombies. Again after the cell phone "pulse" there was no real connection between cell phones and people. The literary devise of a cell phone to turne people into zombies could have been anything - food, music, solar flair, phase of the moon.

This book is so formulaic - a strange occurance changes some to zombies and the nomal people try to survive.

 

[Martha]

I stopped reading Stephen King a while ago. About the time I noticed that the "hero" was always wearing a chambray shirt.

Liked his early stuff a lot though.

 

[REWahoo]

I stopped reading Stephen King a while ago. About the time I noticed that the "hero" was always wearing a chambray shirt.

So you prefer your heroes sans shirts?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Right after that accident he had when he was hit by the car. His writing hasnt been the same since. I read two of his books post-accident and they both took me a month to read. It used to take me a day or so to read one of his books as I couldnt put them down. Something left the man...maybe he lost his will to scare the pants off of us when he had the pants scared off of HIM...

 

[laurence]

I heard when he got up from the accident he sang some creepy song as he staggered to the sidewalk...

His books have seemd formulaic to me for a while. Salem's Lot and The Stand were my favorites.


BTW, I may check out this book, I love Zombie stuff, anybody see "Shawn of the Dead"? That move rocks!

 

[dex]

"shawn of the dead" had a good slacker spin to it.
There is nothing good about "Cell" get it from the library if you must read it.

 

[laurence]

Have you read "Monster Island"? Great Zombie novel. Took me about 6 hours to read it. Not exactly a deep thinkers book, but loads of fun, perfect to take on a vacation, IMHO.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I watched shaun of the dead last month due to the explosive ratings. About fifteen minutes into it I was about to try something else but ended up sticking with it and got into the routine.

The stand was good, but the green mile, the shawshank redemption, and the shining were some of the ones I enjoyed most.

 

[kaudrey]

I love Shaun of the Dead!

I am a big Stephen King fan, but I also like his older stuff. I have read The Stand many times, I also like Misery. Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies of all time.

 

[Andre1969]

I didn't know that Stephen King got hit by a car. It wasn't a 1958 Plymouth, was it?

I haven't read much of anything lately, let alone King. I did read "The Stand" a few years after the miniseries came out. I thought the miniseries sucked at first, but over time it grew on me. I found the book to be a hard read initially, because it was so damned big, but eventually I immersed myself in it.

I did start reading some Stephen King book a year or two ago, but eventually lost interest. I forget what it was called, but I think it was kind of a companion to "Desperation", a book I also got but didn't read at first. At least, one or two of the same characters was in each book, and each book also had a bit of the other's cover art in its own cover.

"Cell" actually sounds interesting enough for me to pick up. I wonder if it'll end up as another dreadful King tv movie/miniseries? I liked stuff like "The Omega Man", "28 Days Later", the "Living Dead" movies, etc. I saw parts of "Shaun of the Dead", but never got a chance to see the whole thing. Seemed like a cool movie, though.

 

[Mwsinron]

The Dark Tower/Gunslinger series is some great reading. Its one of those I will head back and re-read down the road. I was so disappointed they had to end

 

[Kronk]

There are a few Stephen King's I like. "It" is great and Pet Sematary is good, and I forget what others I like. But then I read a few that I hated, primarily The Tommyknockers, that really turned me off to King. Oh, and Thinner was a clunker as well.

And Dean Koontz's later offerings have gotten pretty bad as well, IMO. He used to churn out fun stories even if the characters were always just about the same and the story predictable. But I haven't liked the last few of his I've read.