Not been on here for a long while - got some catching up to do...!
Not been on here for a long while - got some catching up to do...!
Member since:01.09.2004
Reviews:201
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Probably one of the most eagerly awaited books of the year, if not the decade, I can't deny the tingle of excitement that ran through my spine when I heard that Stephen King's latest novel, 'Cell', was finally going to be one of his more traditional works and not something from the Dark Tower series. Amazon's new online channel, Fishbowl, featured an interview with King in its pilot broadcast where the author was clearly excited about his new project and the media eagerly lapped up all the promotion as the Master of Horror finally returned to what he does best.
It's true to say that over the past twenty-four years, King has been besotted with his fantasy series, The Dark Tower, which attracted him a new audience of fans but detracted from the work that had made him a household name and a fortune to see him through the rest of his days. Steadily, over those two decades, the adventures of Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger, took over and traits of The Dark Tower found their way into King's mainstream novels. For me, the interweaving of two completely different types of story didn't work and newcomers to King's books found them difficult to comprehend. Ultimately, die-hard King fans like myself and the millions worldwide stuck with King through this period in the same way die-hard Formula One fans (again, like me) have stuck with the sport through its period of procession and Schumacher-dominance, but it's fair to say that much of King's work through the nineties didn't inspire me and, not being a fan of the fantasy genre, I didn't take too well to The Dark Tower series and was pleased when, in 2004, the seventh and final novel of the series was released and it was announced that my favourite novelist was actually working on a book that would have absolutely no reference to the long-running saga.
As soon as I could pre-order Cell I did, the synopsis on the inside jacket cover gripping - - "Civilisation slipped into its second dark age on an unsurprising
track of blood, but with a speed that could not have been foreseen by even the most pessimistic futurist. It was as if it had been waiting to go. On October 1, God was in His heaven, the stock market stood at 10'140, and most of the planes were on time (except for those landing and taking off in Chicago, and that was to be expected). Two weeks later the skies belonged to the birds again and the stock market was a memory. By Hallowe'en, every major city from New York to Moscow stank to the empty heavens and the world as it had been was a memory." - - and from the second paragraph - - "At three o'clock on that day, a young man of no particular importance in history came walking - almost 'bouncing' - east along Boylston Street in Boston. His name was Clayton Riddell." - - I was hooked.
Cell is little more than a modern-day Zombie story but King's flair and imagination have brought the archaic category slap-bang into the twenty-first century with style and panache. The story revolves around Clayton Riddell, a struggling artist who - at the beginning of the book - is in a bouncingly good mood thanks to having finally struck a golden contract with his latest cartoon. Clay barely has any time to enjoy his new-found success, however. Choosing to treat himself while on his way to call his estranged wife and tell her he had finally hit the big time, Clay stands in line at a Mister Softee ice-cream truck and watches the bustle of Boston go on around him. What happens next seems to happen in slow motion, the author's prose timing the sequence to perfection, as what comes to be known as 'The Pulse' suddenly hits. At first it's not obvious what is happening but ultimately it becomes obvious that a signal has been sent via the mobile phone network and anybody on their phone at the time of the transmission is turned into a crazed loon. People start killing themselves and each other and suddenly Clay finds himself not in the queue for an ice cream but instead in the middle of a blood bath. People around him are steadily going crazy and Clay quickly realises he needs to find a place to hide.
As the story progresses, Clay joins up with Tom and Alice; Tom had left his mobile phone at home that morning, Alice had just watched her mother go crazy and try to kill her. As the first day wears on, it dawns on Clay that his son, Johnny, also has a cellphone and Clay needs to find out whether he's been affected by The Pulse or not. Making it his mission to head home and try to find out whether his son and wife have been affected or not, Clay sets off with Tom and Alice in tow. The going is tough, many routes blocked by crashed or abandoned vehicles, and much of the journey has to be taken on foot. Along the way they encounter others that haven't been infected, but as each day passes the crazy 'phoners' - as they soon come to call those who were on their mobiles at the time of the attack - start to act differently. Instead of random acts of madness they begin to flock together and soon develop special abilities including telepathy and, it would seem, levitation. Clay and his merry band decide to try and destroy the flocks as they recharge but this soon invokes their wrath and Clay's growing band of dissidents soon find themselves on the run. Or so they think. Despite their attempts to split up and head in different directions, some force soon brings them all back together, where they're forced to head towards Kashwakamak, a place of apparent safety but which ultimately carries great danger.
The phoners soon start using Clay's obsession with his son's safety to lure him to Kashwakamak, the place of the book's explosive finale and it's here that the reader's true frustration with King's return to mainstream horror becomes obvious. Often accused of adding too much back-story to his work and lengthy, wordy endings to his novels, with Cell King doesn't exactly rush the ending but leads the reader to a quick and ultimately annoying ending that cannot be detailed here for risk of spoiling the book for those of you either reading it or about to read it.
Despite this, I can't praise this book highly enough and to be honest ripped through all 398 pages in record time. King's narrative is easy to read and the chapters move quickly from one to the next. The back-story is perfectly balanced with the main prose and for once King allows readers to make their own assumptions as to the background narrative, rather than trying to fill all the gaps. The reader is lead to believe that The Pulse that rips through the cellphone network is that of a terrorist attack that may have gone extremely wrong or got out of hand and it is left to you, the reader, to decide whether this is something that is localised to the state of Massachusetts, to the United States as a nation, or to the world as a whole. Rather than exploring the worldwide ramifications of a terrorist attack King has stuck boldly to the story but left enough open for you to question just how far-reaching the outbreak is.
Comparisons with former works can't be helped and this is again something that King has recently been accused of. From A Buick 8 takes its lead from Christine, while Cell can be accused of taking its lead from The Stand, but despite this the story stands up very well on its own and can King really be blamed for modernising some of his old stories? After all, the movie world has been doing it for some time now with remakes of classics such as The War of The World and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy to name but a few. Cell isn't a blatant rewrite of The Stand and the two stories are individuals in their own rights.
What Cell can do, however, that perhaps a tome like The Stand can't, is bring to King some new readers. His more recent style of writing faster prose and shorter novels will appeal to today's book readers much more easily than The Stand might do and that can only be a good thing for the genre, the author and the industry itself.
Personally, I can't wait for Lissey's Story - King's next novel - to be released in time for Christmas this year. An excerpt of the new book can be found at the back of the hardback release of Cell and it whetted myself just enough to have me keeping my eye out for pre-release ordering opportunities an the various websites I peruse. Despite that, however, some critics will undoubtedly liken Lissey's Story to Dolores Claiborne or Rose Madder, but for us fans we'll just have to wait and see.
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I really enjoyed this, even though it was similar to the stand. Lx
clownfoot 11.05.2006 18:16
Quality stuff - was beginning to think it was going to be something like I Am Legend or the recent film 28 Days Later, but there seems to be a little more intrigue here than most similar offerings and I just have to find out what the annoying end is now. Will keep an eye out for this in future bookshop jaunts. Alboy
susie191 09.05.2006 20:57
Enjoyed reading your review of this, youre obviously a big fan. It does sound really good! Susie x
Advantages: For King fans, it's another book by the master of horror and suspense Disadvantages: If you are not a King fan, then its another book by King!
bonsi6337 30.12.2007 (30.12.2007)
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Review of Cell - Stephen King
May 8th, 2006
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