Dome Day

The day is finally here... I finished listening to...


39 and a bit hours... It took dedication and some rewinding to relisten to little bits again.

This I feel is going to turn into a bit of a book-tv show crossover review, so my apologies in advance.

Firstly, having seen the show I was prepared for it to not be like the book. To change a book into a film they butcher things but the general outline is still the same. To turn a book into a show of several seasons is going to need a lot of reworking. When I went online to find some images and other people's thoughts I came across a letter that Stephen King wrote and I can see where he's coming from. Unfortunately if you watched it then read it, the whole thing is VERY confusing at first.

So, I erased the whole TV show from my mind and started listening to Under The Dome in my commute time. The reader on the audio was not in my opinion the best choice, he had a tendency to blur his character voices into the non-dialogue in between which was occasionally the reason for my mini rewinds. Regardless I trekked on. Very soon I felt like shouting "what in tarnations have you done?! They didn't die in the show." [Picked up a bit of a drawl from the book there!] No, I'm not supposed to be thinking about the show... so I get that out of my mind.

I enjoy Stephen King adaptations on the screen [apart from Dreamcatcher], but I can't remember the last time I read one of his books, I know I must have because I own read copies! I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary things in there, things that made me worry for King's state of mind occasionally. Is that always the case? I've got my eyes on another King audio so we'll see how that one goes.

There weren't a massive amount of things in it [and considering the size of it that was a bit disappointing] that made me stop and think... oh wow. Just two things that stuck out in my mind. 1] King writes fantastically well from the dog's point of view. It was only a tiny bit in the whole book, but it made me smile and was immensely satisfying. And 2] The visiting day scene, nearly brought me to tears. Again, a small part but he managed to make it seem so real, and moving.

I ditched the idea of following the chapter headings, what on earth was with those?! Jumping all over the place, I had no idea where I was going next.

I know I shouldn't be comparing the two, but my main comments on the differences between the show and the book should be noted. So I guess I should shout SPOILERS. I found this great page, and I'll have to check out the site for others too.

The whole Julia thing is up on its head, I guess they figured they needed a younger model for the TV. Rusty who is Linda's husband, who is not her husband in the show, is inside the dome... but not in the show. Maxine in the show? Yep, she aint in the book... or that house in the lake. Norrie isn't from out of town. They can talk and receive signals through the dome, which at the end makes for a touching bit between a soldier and a young boy dying on the inside. Oh yeah, this is a biggie, when the dome comes down it's actually a woodchuck that's cut in half... but I guess that isn't big enough for good TV viewing.

I really don't know how I felt about the book, I enjoyed it, but I didn't if you know what I mean. The end of the book for me felt a little too tacked on. I'll be interested to see how they do it in the show, I would assume conspiracy. It kept me engaged throughout, and I did find myself talking to thin air occasionally, cursing the characters for doing or not doing something, or generally going "whaaaaaaaat?"

It is definitely worth a read, I don't know if I could have powered through the physical book, it was just so imposing... I own a copy and when I look at it it makes me want to hide behind the sofa. Do make sure you read it without ideas of what you know to be "true" from the show. A fair bit of my rewinding happened at the beginning when I was having brain melt trying to work out why the characters weren't who I expected them to be. If you do a lot of commuting this is perfect, go to Audible and get it, I signed up for a free month and got it, but it's just one credit which is £7.99 and that's better to the twenty odd quid it is normally.

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