Stephen King - Cell

[PoeticExplosion]

This is the first time I've ever read a King book. I'm not big on the horror type of SF, but this is one of the best in that genre I've read. Definately worth a read, especially if you're a fan of his sort of work.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I think, after all that threat of retirement (a threat to me at least, I'd be distraught...but then I don't think authors can really 'retire' you can never stop those creative juices!) Stephey-baby has returned on top form with this book. I love it, it's delightfully gruesome and the phone crazies are some seriously brilliant bad guys and gals. And as usual, SK's come up with a brilliant plot, when I found out why people were going crazy, I was amazed, it was such a cracking idea (I won't say what it is, in case people are still reading!)

 

[Krystal]

I finished reading Cell, and find it very good. Totally enjoy reading it and it maintains the attention from the first page to the end. So I recommend it. I was waiting something kind of different at the end but anyway it was great.

 

[Steffi]

I finally got round to reading Cell the other week and as usual couldn't put it down...I'm usually first in line when the new books come out but finances dictate that I have to use the library now but it will be in the rest of the collection asap.

 

[Alfy]

A great book. A similar situation as in The Stand but with the cast being so much smaller it became a much more intense read. The experiences of one or two people in this story were, to me, much more vivid and it was easier to empathise with the few characters rather than the ensemble cast of The Stand.

Loved The Stand though. Although, as an ensemble cast, I think It is the best and his best book all round. Dissapointed with the last 45 minutes of the mini-series but budget and effects constraints would seem to have played a part there. The screen always limits what the combined imaginations of writer and reader can do..........

Best / worst book to screen King stories? New thread I think.

 

[DL_Snell]

I’ve only read the first chapter of Cell, but . . . when I attended Mr. King’s Portland Arts and Lectures appearance, he mentioned the book. He said he got the idea when he saw a woman in a power suit get on her cell phone; this was in New York. He wondered what would happen if the lady got some kind of message that made her psychotic. I guess he found out: that woman actually finds her way into the book, except, if I’m not mistaken, the city is Boston, not New York--he said he didn’t want to piss off any New Yorkers by, for example, having his characters get off the train in a place where the train normally doesn’t stop; as anyone whose read the Dark Tower series knows, King is notorious for goofs in his research.

King also explained the genesis of his newest book, Lisey’s Story. I guess he got the idea when he returned home after a near-fatal bout of pneumonia: his wife had cleaned out his office because she was going to refurnish it, so the rug was rolled up to one side, and all of his stuff was boxed up in the corner; King realized that this is what his office will look like when he dies.

 

[Spade]

I just finished Cell last night. I enjoyed it, but found the ending a little climactic. But, the last sentence did manage to tug on some heart strings.

 

[McMurphy]

I finished the book not too long ago, also. Without a doubt, one must instantly call upon (a very small pun intended) his/her memories of The Stand to see how well it stacks up against it.

Cell is a tighter narrative than The Stand in several regards. The focus of a wide spread genocide is more narrow, and, not surprisedly, more effective than The Stand's attempt to drive home the point through several inner stories. A reader really gets the feeling that King has learned to achieve more with less since his bulky The Stand days. Another fine example is King's decision to leave more to the reader's imagination. In The Stand, King made sure to make us all aware what the virus was, where it originated, how it was released, and how the definitive misuse of the ramifications by Randall Flagg. In Cell, many of those questions are either left for the readers to figure out, or they are, at best, satisfied only through the theories of main characters in the story even though many of the characters, villains, stages of story progression, and plot are similar to the former book.

Cell is a good zombie-like tale, and, due to popular culture zombie films by the likes of Romero and the original Twilight Zone, I am tempted to read between the lines and find sociological or even political metaphors in play. Could there be? King is certainly not known for such leaps into lecture, but, as suggested before, such themes have been cemented into the zombie genre.

Thoughts?

 

[Quokka]

I enjoyed Cell probably more than I was expecting to, it had been awhile since I had read any King. As other's have said the comparisons with The Stand are inevitable but I think it holds up pretty well there. Its not intended to be another epic, in doing a tribute to or at least taking inspiration from the zombie movies/culture I thought it took on a nice cinematic feel (has a movie been confirmed yet? Im sure it will), it moved along quickly and I read it easily enough that I wasn't stopping to ponder it too deeply and over think the details.

The only thing that I didn't enjoy was the developments later about reversing the effects of the pulse, I just didn't by it.

 

[deathwizard]

Though I'm a huge King fan, I bought Cell not expecting much, for some reason. And instead I loved it, from the opening page until the end. The first thirty pages or so are amazing.

 

[AphroditeMSC]

I was disappointed with Cell. True, the story and the plot and the writing were great. Hey, it's Stephen King! But the ending just left me a little dry. I felt cheated, to be honest. The whole book built up to that very moment and then..........................

 

[smudge05]

Cell is the first Stephen King book i've read and i thought it was amazing. #The only thing that let it down was the ending.

 

[suupaabaka]

Cell is the first Stephen King book i've read and i thought it was amazing. #The only thing that let it down was the ending.

I remember making a sort of "nghargh" sound when I finished that one. Yes, the ending was slightly frustrating =P. But I don't think he could have given us anymore without jeopardising the story.

 

[Wiggum]

I am completely baffled by the fact that Cell gets more attention from us King fans than Lisey's Story.

Cell seemed like he chopped off the first and the last hundred pages and just decided to publish the middle of a story that had potential.

 

[Brigitte]

I loved this book! Sure, the ending was not as promising as I hoped, but the rest of the plot was captivating! When it comes to Stephen King, I only like his works that are only mildly bizarre and far-fetched, so this one fit the bill perfectly! I'd recommend it to anyone wondering about it.

 

[Barristan]

This was the 1st Stephen king book ive read, and the last.

The ending was soooo unfulfilling that it ruined the journey for me. I think he just couldnt think of a way to finish and his deadline was getting close.

Meh!

 

[Spade]

This was the 1st Stephen king book ive read, and the last.

The ending was soooo unfulfilling that it ruined the journey for me. I think he just couldnt think of a way to finish and his deadline was getting close.

Meh!

Please read some of his earlier works like Shining or Misery... or even Bag of Bones for something slightly more recent. Cell was terribly unfulfilling, I agree. He has written much better novels.

 

[Moraven]

This was the 1st Stephen king book ive read, and the last.

The ending was soooo unfulfilling that it ruined the journey for me. I think he just couldnt think of a way to finish and his deadline was getting close.

Meh!

I somehow doubt SK wouldn't have been able to get an extention on his deadline...

That said, I finished the novel about 45 minutes ago. Loved it, as seems to be the sentiment, though I'm not sure about the ending. Here comes a spoiler: quite reading.
















And here's some blank space in case you didn't.











I think he wanted to keep the ending creepy, by not saying "And then Johnnie-Gee was back to normal" but he didn't want to be like "Then Johnnie-Gee was totally insane and tore out his father's throat." Because, after all that, we didn't want to see them die. So he was sort of stuck for how to end it.

 

[BakaTensai]

I always feel that the endings of King's books let me down at first (Dark Tower Series?), but after thinking about them for awhile, meditating, and rethinking it, I usually decide that they are pretty good after all. I think that I'm just disappointed that it is over!!!

"Cell" = Good

"Dark Tower Series" = OMG read this it is amazing!!

 

[HoopyFrood]

The thing that I love most about Stephen King's books, friends and neighbours (well, OK, I pretty much love everything about the books ) is the endings. You get a...real ending with Stephen King, in that they are rarely happy. I guess for some this can be quite disappointing, to have read the entire book and then find out that the main character dies at the end (Insomnia, Desperation, The Shining, Tommyknockers (well, a little ambiguous, but I doubt Gard's coming back after that ending!) etc) or that things aren't resolved...but the fact is that not everyone does skip off into the sunset and especially not after going through the things that King's characters go through. I love King endings!

The ending of Cell was fine for me -- I wasn't annoyed that they didn't find out from where the pulse was coming, because really it's pretty unlikely that the characters would just coincidentally trip over it. And the ambiguous ending -- well that left people to make up their own minds. You could believe that it worked and his son would get better...or that it didn't...