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If you see it that way, you will like it. Then go away somewhere for the weekend and read The Stand. The resulting bloodbath reduces the population considerably.Clay Riddle picks his way through the destruction, trying to find his way from Boston back to Maine, where his wife and son may or may not still be alive. I was happy when Stephen King released the longer, "editorial cuts restored" edition of The Stand. Remember when we were afraid that holding our cell phones next to our heads was cooking our brains.
I don't want any more of Cell.Read this book if you are a diehard fan of Stephen King, zombie movies, or of dying hard. Clay goes, still determined to escape and find his family. Read it before The Stand if you can. I'm still impressed that anybody could write something that good. But it also comes across as a simplified version of The Stand. Like The Stand, it has an initial global catastrophe, separation of the survivors into "good guys" and "bad guys," and is driven by a journey through the wreckage of our civilization.
These fears are justified in Stephen King's tale of a world driven mad through cell phones. Clay and his fellow travelers reach a fairground in Kashwak, Maine where they are imprisoned by the communal intelligence and await execution. But it lacks the complex and interesting characters, intertwining subplots, and engaging drama of its lengthier shelfmate. Strange tones emanating from cell phones turn their users into mindless, frenzied killers who immediately turn on the normal humans around them. That's what made it less enjoyable for me--the unavoidable comparison. It is fast-paced, bloody and isn't weighed down with a lot of complexity or exposition.
Along the way he scavenges for supplies, battles and befriends various other survivors, and begins to deal with the communal intelligence that possesses and directs the "cell phone crazies." This intelligence drives Clay and his fellow travelers toward an area in Maine that has no cell reception. The reader is left to discover if Clay escapes or finds his wife and son.This book could be turned into a great zombie movie.
Clay (like King, incidentally) does not use cell phone technology. Still, the action (immediate and constant) along with King's imagining of this what-if scenario was enough to keep me turning the pages in the wee hours of the night. In Cell, Stephen King takes us to a world where cell phone technology has been turned against its users, turning anyone who uses a cell phone into a flesh-hungry zombie.
However, don't come to Cell expecting deep characters as, in the tradition of classic zombie flicks, this is very much a plot-driven novel. If you expect to fall in love with your characters or get an in-depth back story as King gives us in other recent novels Lisey's Story or Duma Key, you may come away disappointed. The characters continually move from one danger zone to another and King provided just enough character development to make me care if they live or die.
CellBy Stephen KingThe phone is ringing, but you'd better not pick it up. We follow Clay as he has to fight through zombies, learning their patterns as they continue to evolve, in order to find his son.Along the way Clay meets several colorful characters including Tom McCourt, a confirmed bachelor whose cell phone was broken by his cat, and Alice Maxwell, a high school freshman who witnesses her mother's zombification. However, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys their science fiction or horror novels light on suspense and heavy on action.
The author shows us just how quickly our technology-dependant nation can be driven into chaos.Cell follows Clay Riddell, an emerging artist who finds himself in the thick of madness after making a successful business deal in Boston. However, his son back home in Maine does have a phone.
Made me think, definintely a read for someone who is concerned about possible permanent affects from cell phones. Thought the book was really suspenseful. I enjoyed it thoroughly since you have to wonder if indeed could something happen to those who use their cell phones too much.
King is the preferred storyteller among my greater group of literary friends. It would be unfriendly this far down the line to do anything but listen. And CELL is as good as anything else we've ever talked about. I'm giving this one a 5 star rating because reading Stephen King after all these years is more like having an interesting conversation with a good old friend. Doesn't matter what we talk about anymore, just so long as we are together and the words are flowing.
Too many important questions are left unanwered. The novel's ending leaves the reader wondering what happened. It's as if King just got tired of writing and just stopped -- there's no real resolution of the conflict.
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