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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9781416524519
ISBN number: 1416524517
Label: Pocket Star
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 480
Printing Date: November 21, 2006
Publishing house: Pocket Star
Sale Popularity Level: 143815
Studio: Pocket Star
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
WHERE WERE YOU ON OCTOBER 1ST AT 3:03 P.M.?
Graphic artist Clay Riddell was in the heart of Boston on that brilliant autumn afternoon when hell was unleashed before his eyes. Without warning, carnage and chaos reigned. Ordinary people fell victim to the basest, most animalistic destruction.
And the apocalypse began with the ring of a cell phone....
Amazon.com Review:
Witness Stephen King's triumphant, blood-spattered return to the genre that made him famous. Cell, the king of horror's homage to zombie films (the book is dedicated in part to George A. Romero) is his goriest, most horrific novel in years, not to mention the most intensely paced. Casting aside his love of elaborate character and town histories and penchant for delayed gratification, King yanks readers off their feet within the very first few pages; dragging them into the fray and offering no chance catch their breath until the very last page.
In Cell King taps into readers fears of technological warfare and terrorism. Mobile phones deliver the apocalypse to millions of unsuspecting humans by wiping their brains of any humanity, leaving only aggressive and destructive impulses behind. Those without cell phones, like illustrator Clayton Riddell and his small band of 'normies,' must fight for survival, and their journey to find Clayton's estranged wife and young son rockets the book toward resolution.
Fans that have followed King from the beginning will recognize and appreciate Cell as a departure--King's writing has not been so pure of heart and free of hang-ups in years (wrapping up his phenomenal Dark Tower series and receiving a medal from the National Book Foundation doesn't hurt either). 'Retirement' clearly suits King, and lucky for us, having nothing left to prove frees him up to write frenzied, juiced-up horror-thrillers like Cell. --Daphne Durham
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Rated by buyers 
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I'm a huge King fan and this book was no disappointment. Zombies and worldwide phenomena are hot items and King delivered. I'd like to see more.
Rated by buyers 
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Zombie tales have been done so often, it is hard to find a new twist. King has done so. Sure, it draws from lots of familiar sources, or at least, seems to parallel some of them (I Am Legend had some similarities, certainly).
But I like some of the new concepts, like the method the "disease" is transmitted. I like the intelligence of the zombies, or behind the zombies, as it were.
And I can't help but wonder if the zombies had been successful in absorbing everyone.... were they on their way to a better society?
Odd thoughts for a zombie story, but that's why I really enjoyed it, aside from King's regular ability to tell a great story.
Rated by buyers -
Are you one of them....? The seemingly mindless throngs of people (More and more every day, it seems) who sleepwalk through life with a cell-phone attached to the side of their head as if it were a malignant, metallic tumor? Horror fiction legend Stephen King is, apparently, not a cell-phone user, nor is he a fan of the slaves to the technology, and he uses our current cell-addiction as a springboard for his very first post DARK TOWER horror novel, CELL. And it's a pretty fine return to his classic form.
CELL is King stripped down to the bare essentials, without the bloat that's marked some of his novels (TOMMYKNOCKERS & NEEDFUL THINGS, anyone?), and it starts out FAST. Comic-book creator Clayton Riddell is on his way back home to Maine from Boston, flush with success, thanks to the sale of his graphic novel Dark Wanderer to Dark Horse Comics. Things are looking up for the struggling writer/artist........There's money in the bank for the very first time in a long time, and Clay is looking forward to sharing the news with his son, Johnny, and hoping for a fresh start with his estranged wife, Sharon. Unfortunately, going home isn't going to be as easy as catching a flight out of Logan international Airport. At 3:03 P.M., the world as Clay knows it ceases to exist, as cell-phones all over the world ring, exposing their unwitting owners to the phenomenon that will come to be known as "THE PULSE". Within moments, there is bedlam in the streets. Children bashing their heads against lamp-posts, men eating dogs, businesswomen tearing out ice-cream vendors throats with their teeth, naked men roaming the streets with genitalia "that swung from side to side like the pendulum of a grandfather clock on speed." (How can you not love a book that has a description like that in it?) And this is all in the very first 28 pages......
The remainder of the book will be very familiar to fans of King's post-apocalyptic masterpiece THE STAND, and also evokes echoes of George Romero (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) and Richard Matheson (I AM LEGEND), both of whom are mentioned in King's dedication. Clay hooks up with a few other survivors, and they head off to find that horror genre staple the "safe place", in this case KASHWAK= NO FO, A.K.A. Kashwakamak, a cell-phone dead zone, where the rag-tag band hopes to find a safe haven, and Clay hopes to find his wife and son. But are the survivors heading there of their own free will, or are they being herded by the "phonies", who start out as rampaging murder machines, morph into easy-listening reverse vampires (Sleeping at night while they zone out to such brain-cell-killing tunes as "You light up my life", and "Baby Elephant Walk"......), and finally evolving into a menacing hive consciousness reminiscent of Wyndham's THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS. King even gives the mob a face and voice, in the form of the Randall Flagg-esque "Raggedy Man", alias "The President of Harvard", a hoodie-wearing zombie who appears to be leading the brainless masses of phonies.
It's nice to see King return to straight horror, especially in such a stripped-down, balls-to-the-wall manner, but is CELL up to the high standards of his masterpieces like THE STAND, IT, THE SHINING, & 'SALEM'S LOT? Not even close. But it's still better than most of the stuff out there, and it's a lot of fun in it's own B-movie kind of way. The characters are sympathetic and endearing, and you actually give a damn about them and hope they all find a safe haven in Kashwakamak. King fills the book with gory descriptions of the phonie's carnage, floats out some interesting theories on just what might be driving them, and generally does an nice job of propelling the story along, making it a fun ride for his "constant readers". Flaws? Yeah, CELL has 'em. The quest for a safe place to call home is a tad too close to THE STAND, Dark Horse Comics is located in Oregon, so Clay selling the book to them in Boston is kind of weird and senseless, and there are a few events in the book that just seem to come out of left field (The bizarre drive-by, for instance....), but the tale is in the telling, and with CELL, Stephen King tells a whopper.
Rated by buyers -
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Stephen King is a master storyteller and Cell is no exception. In a small way, it reminded me of The Stand in that it was a return to a similar post apocalyptic landscape where society has crumbled and a small band of ordinary people are left to do what they think is right.
Another thing I found interesting when comparing Cell to Stephen King's other works was he cut right to the chase in this one. Right from the beginning it is WHAM! let's go. And it works. The reader, like the characters, is caught up in the Pulse and are left to go on this journey with the characters to figure it out.
Great book. The long build up of tension and impending doom through out the novel was perfect. You have to keep turning the page. Cell was a cool, fun read.
Rated by buyers 
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I don't really understand King's premise that if the civilization suddenly ended, as it does in this novel (as it also does in the Stand), then automobile traffic becomes, for the most part, impossible. That's a hard pill to swallow. I do however appreciate that King, who walks miles per day, appreciates the theme of people walking on a long journey, so he has incorporated it into several of his books (The Stand, Dark Tower Series, The Long Walk, etc.). This is an okay book for King fans or for zombie (or not-quite zombie) junkies, but it didn't sweep me up into the story as other King novels have. Another King theme, the protagonist is a writer. Write what you know.
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