Cell

Started listening to this last night. On one hand, I do have to recognize the similarity (on the surface, at least) to The Stand, The Langoliers, The Mist — other King stories along the same general plotline. As the clock rolled by; 11pm, midnight, 1am, 2am, I was just facinated by this story. I don\’t know if it is the different world we live in at this time as opposed to the last time I visited the aforementioned stories (pre-9/11, I mean) or what, but I was unable to turn away from this story. The characters are very well fleshed-out (if a bit derivative) and interesting, the pacing is great, and I sat alone in the living room with moments of goosebumps, hoping my husband would not choose 2:00 in the morning to sneak up and say \”Boo!\” thereby giving me a heart failure. I\’m not quite half-done, and I\’m looking forward to the rest of the story. The narration is superb — a bit of voice interpretation for different characters, but just enough to differentiate, not aggravating in the least. I may be alone here, but I would have sworn (!!) the narrator was REM\’s Michael Stipe. I know it is not, but the cadence, accent and tone are dead-on. Maybe I\’m just nostalgic for my college days…. 🙂 If you are a King fan or not, this is a great choice. Bear in mind this would be a NC-17 rated movie, though — not for the fainthearted or squeamish.

Campbell Scott did a masterful job of keeping me on the edge of whatever seat I happened to be sitting while listening to King\’s thriller. It had me from the first word to the last. If Mr. Scott wasn\’t available for this book, Scott Brick is the only other voice I\’d have loved to hear. King takes one of today\’s icons, the cell phone, and turns cell phone owners into what many of us sometimes think of them (even if we own one). Methinks that King stuck his tongue into one of his cheeks and had fun with people who have turned the world upside down: the gal who has to blab her latest intimate news in the grocery store; the guy who is so self-important that he feels that he\’s the only person in the theater or concert…in other word King casts a spell on cell phone users. I give this highly entertaining piece of King\’s mind six stars. It\’s one of the best listens I\’ve had in the last five years.

This book starts off as a classic King \”situational\” disaster book: what happens if cell phones suddenly turn everyone holding them into evil zombies? Unlike in the other books, however, the disaster is only the engine for a bigger theme: in the face of insane, violent \”flock behavior,\” how does a person maintain his dignity, his humanity? If insanity is the majority, what can a human do to remember what is \”right\”? Throughout the book, we see example after example of the \”normies\”–the non-zombies who had no cell phones on the crucial day–doing what they can to reinforce and maintain the light of the human spirit in the face of utter destruction. Sometimes they fail, but more often they don\’t. If this is what the book is truly about, I believe it fully succeeds: especially at the end. Many of King\’s earlier works ended with a final confrontation, a battle royale in which one side or the other triumphed completely, with clear winners and losers. \”Cell\” ends differently, but in my view this is a more realistic kind of ending, given that in a disaster of these proportions, which group wins or loses is irrelevant. What matters, \”Cell\” tells us, is whether we can go on as humans in the best way we know how: that\’s where salvation lies. I hope that King will continue to take on these bigger themes, because his writing skills, and his prose style in particular, are certainly equal to it. Campbell Scott was a good choice for the narrator, with a dry and ironic delivery that captured King\’s narrative voice quite well. The production wasn\’t that great, especially the noticeable edits. Still, this book is well worth a listen if you\’re looking for something a little more complex.

Most will agree that new King doesn\’t stand up to old King. This is a little better than some of his newer stuff, but it begins to feel like other books. After writing so many novels and short stories, it\’s impossible to avoid that though. Personally, I enjoyed this book probably because I was in the mood for some violence and zombies. As far as the audiobook itself, I enjoyed the quality of it. I think the reader is perfect for it and has just the right tone for listening. Listen to a sample and judge for yourself though. Either way, a mildly entertaining Stephen King book is better than a lot of the mediocre crap out there.

This was one of the best books I have ever listened to. This is the type of book that makes the reader imagine every word Steven King writes. I was amazed with the vivid images that were given from this book. The problem I have is with the ending. Without giving away the ending, the reader is left with choices on what happened after the end of the book, instead of letting the author make the decision. I would have rated this book a 5, but after yelling at my MP3 player upon the ending, I felt that I was risen to the point of greatness, and just fell off the cliff at the end. I give it a 4, because I was able to feel comfortable with the ending that I chose to have for this book. I just wish Steven King could have done that instead.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member