Under the Dome
Encyclopedia
Under the Dome is a novel
by Stephen King
, published in November 2009. It is a partial rewrite of a novel King attempted writing twice in the late 1970s and early 1980s, under the titles The Cannibals and Under the Dome. As King stated on his official site, these two unfinished works "were two very different attempts to utilize the same idea, which concerns itself with how people behave when they are cut off from the society they've always belonged to. Also, my memory of The Cannibals is that it, like Needful Things
, was a kind of social comedy. The new Under the Dome is played dead straight." From the material originally written, only the first chapter is included in the new novel.
for Barack Obama
's successful 2012
re-election campaign), the small Maine
town of Chester's Mill is abruptly and gruesomely separated from the outside world by an invisible, semipermeable barrier of unknown origin. The immediate appearance of the barrier causes a number of injuries and fatalities, and traps former Army
"Captain" Dale "Barbie" Barbara—who is trying to leave Chester's Mill—inside the town.
Police Chief Howard "Duke" Perkins is soon killed when his pacemaker
explodes after getting too close to the barrier. This removes the last significant opposition to James "Big Jim" Rennie, used car salesman and the town's Second Selectman. Big Jim exerts significant influence within Chester's Mill, and seizes the opportunity to use the barrier as part of a power play to take over the town.
Big Jim appoints one of his cronies, the incompetent Peter Randolph as the new Police Chief. He also begins expanding the ranks of the Chester's Mill Police with questionable candidates, including his son, Junior Rennie, and his friends. Junior has frequent migraine
s caused by an as-yet undiscovered brain tumor
which has also begun affecting his mental state; unbeknownst to Big Jim, Junior was in the process of beating and strangling a girl to death when the barrier appeared, and has killed another girl by the time Rennie places him on the police force.
Elsewhere in Chester's Mill, Julia Shumway, the editor of the local newspaper and apparently a Republican, is phoned by Colonel James O. Cox, who has her carry a message to Barbie to contact him. When he does, Cox requests that Barbie act as the government's liaison in an effort to bring down the Dome, as it has come to be known. Because of Barbie's talents as a former bomb factory hunter, Cox gives him the task of locating the source, which is believed to be inside the Dome. Cox is also able to foresee the small town political ramifications of such a situation. By virtue of a Presidential order, Barbie is reinstated in the US Military and promoted to full Colonel. Barbie is also presented with a decree granting him authority over the township. However, smalltown politics being what they are, this action is not well received by Big Jim and his misguided band of renegade police officers.
As Big Jim covertly encourages and orchestrates unease and panic among the town to build up his grab for power, Barbie, Julia and a number of other townspeople attempt to stop things from spiraling out of control. After crossing Rennie's path on several occasions, Barbie is framed
and arrested for Junior's murders. He is also accused of killing Reverend Lester Coggins, who laundered money
for Rennie's large-scale methamphetamine
operation, and Duke's widow Brenda Perkins, who were both murdered by Big Jim. While Barbie is in jail other residents track the source of the Dome to an abandoned farm, and the device is strongly indicated to be extraterrestrial
in origin. The restrictions issued by Rennie become more severe and the police force grows more abusive, galvanizing the town and eventually leading some residents to break Barbie out of jail, killing Junior seconds before he can murder Barbie.
The semi-organized resistance flees to the abandoned farm, where multiple people touch the strange object and experience visions. They not only conclude that the device was put in place by extraterrestrial "leatherheads" (so named for their appearance), but that specifically they are juveniles who have set up the Dome as a cruel form of entertainment, a sort of ant farm used to capture sentient beings and allow their captors to view everything that happens inside.
On an organized "Visitors Day"—when people outside the Dome can meet at its edge with people within—Big Jim sends Randolph and a detachment of police to take back control of his former meth operation from Phil "Chef" Bushey, who is stopping Rennie from covering up the operation as well as hoarding the more than four-hundred tanks of propane
stored there. Many are killed in the ensuing gunfight and mortally-wounded Chef detonates a plastic explosive device he has placed in the meth production facility, before dying. The ensuing explosion, combined with the propane and meth-making chemicals, unleashes a toxic firestorm
.
More than a thousand of the town's residents are quickly incinerated on national television, leaving alive only the twenty-six survivors at the abandoned barn, an orphaned farm boy hiding in a potato cellar
, and Big Jim and his informal aide-de-camp
, Carter Thibodeau, in the town's fallout shelter
. Big Jim and Thibodeau eventually turn on each other; Big Jim stabs and disembowels Thibodeau, only to die several hours later when hallucination
s of the dead send him fleeing into the now-toxic environment outside. The survivors at the barn begin to slowly asphyxia
te, despite efforts by the Army to force clean air through the walls of the Dome.
Barbie and Julia go to the control device to beg their captors to release them. Julia is able to make contact with a single female leatherhead, no longer accompanied by her friends and thus not caught up in their peer pressure
. After repeatedly expressing that they are real sentient beings with real "little lives", and by sharing a painful childhood incident with the adolescent alien, Julia convinces the leatherhead to have pity on them. The Dome raises up slowly and vanishes, allowing the toxic air to dissipate and finally freeing the town of Chester's Mill.
magazine quoted King as saying he'd "be killing a lot of trees" with his next novel. The first draft was completed in late August 2008, with the manuscript weighing 19 lbs
(8.6kg
). King has stated the novel is twice as long as his most recent, Duma Key, at "over 1,500 pages in manuscript
", and "deals with some of the same issues that The Stand
does, but in a more allegorical
way". King also described the novel as "very, very long", saying "I tried this once before when I was a lot younger and the project was just too big for me".
The paperback edition of Just After Sunset
, released on September 29, 2009, included an excerpt from the novel. An excerpt was published in the November 6, 2009 issue of Entertainment Weekly
.
The preliminary dust jacket
cover art was released to online retailers like Amazon.com
and Barnes & Noble
with the words "cover to be unveiled". In late August 2009, it was revealed that the real cover would be unveiled on October 5, 2009, with parts of it being shown on September 21, 25, and 28. The cover art design for Under the Dome is said to be a departure from King's previous illustrated covers, using a combination of illustration, photographs, and 3D renderings. The final jacket design was released in two states: with white lettering, and with dark gray lettering.
On the day of the release, Stephen King was in New York City at The TimesCenter to promote the book.
In mid-October, Under the Dome became one of the highly-discounted book preorders on Amazon.com, Wal-Mart
, and Target
, sparking a "price war
" between the retailers. The price for Under the Dome and several other high-profile hardcover books to be released in November 2009, typically around $25, was set at just $9 (an unprecedented discount of nearly 75% off on a new hardcover). Later, Wal-Mart lowered the price to $8.98 and included free shipping. Target's price was set at $8.99.
s with the map of the town in color (regular edition contains a black and white map in the book's front matter), 27 illustrations by The New Yorker
cartoonist Matthew Diffee
, a ribbon marker, and also contain a deck of cards with the Diffee illustrations. These editions are printed on specialty paper with different binding.
A signed and numbered UK edition, exclusive to Waterstones, was limited to just 500 copies, making it substantially rarer than the US edition. It included the 4-color endpapers, the 27 trading cards illustrated by Matthew Diffee, and was packaged in a slipcase.
A significant number of the UK edition were slightly damaged in transit due to poor packaging on the distributor's part, making mint copies even more valuable.
Multiple other minor characters, including many who are introduced just prior to being killed, appear throughout the book.
Other human survivors are Dougie Twitchell, Ginny Tomlinson, Gina Buffalino, Harriet Bigelow, Janelle Everett, Judy Everett, Pete Freeman, Tony Guay, Claire McClatchey, Joanie Calvert, Alva Drake, Norrie Calvert, Little Walter Bushey and Lissa Jamieson. Julia Shumway's dog 'Horace' also survives.
, to whom Stephen King sent the manuscript for Under the Dome as a gift, commented on it on May 5, 2009, calling the novel "huge, generous, sprawling, infinitely energetic [...], absolutely enjoyable and impressive." Publishers Weekly
reviewed the novel on September 11, 2009, calling it "formidably complex and irresistibly compelling." The review said the book contains "themes and images from King's earlier fiction, and while this novel doesn't have the moral weight of, say, The Stand
, nevertheless, it's a nonstop thrill ride as well as a disturbing, moving meditation on our capacity for good and evil". In a review for The Plain Dealer, Daniel Dyer calls Under the Dome "a massive cautionary novel", saying it is "[busy, ambitious, overlong but addictively munchable, [and] fundamentally a novel about human cruelty, animated by our desires for power, pleasure and sex." USA Today
called the novel "propulsively intriguing", "staggeringly addictive", and that "[r]eaders can wallow in this glorious novel's metaphoric and oh-so au courant messages about U.S. domination, freedom of the press, torture and environmental abuse, but they also can come to this novel just for the story." The Los Angeles Times
called Under the Dome "impressive", containing "lucid prose and chilling precision." Janet Maslin's review for the New York Times said that Under the Dome "has the scope and flavor of literary Americana." Maslin says, "Hard as this thing is to hoist, it’s even harder to put down." Ted Anthony of The Associated Press states that "Under the Dome is one of those works of fiction that manages to be both pulp and high art, that successfully—and very improbably—captures the national zeitgeist at this particularly strange and breathless period in American history." On November 9, 2009, the author Neil Gaiman
in his blog
stated that "Under the Dome was one of my favourite books of the year so far."
James Parker of the New York Times noted in his review of Under the Dome that the novel contains lines that are "stinkers", which made him feel "the clutch of sorrow." Regarding King's "pulp speed" output, James Parker noted: "We shouldn’t be too squeamish about the odd half-baked simile or lapse into B-movie dialogue." The review in the New York Post
states that Under the Dome "shares some of The Stand
’s faults, like a left-field disaster [...] that works almost as a reverse deus ex machina
, randomly wiping out half the cast. In both novels, the climactic "battle"—if you can really call it that—pales to the buildup. King is better at characters and situations than causes and reasons. But at least The Stand feels like a saga [...]. I won’t reveal the secret of the Dome, except to say that the payoff is more Star Trek
(original series) than epic." John Dugdale, in a review for The Sunday Times
wrote: "King's inability to raise his game—to relinquish the methods of his more straightforward tales of the paranormal—prevents you taking his socio-political vision seriously. The simple division of characters into goodies and baddies, the use of magic, the homespun style, the sentimental ending, the vital role played by a dog in defeating the forces of evil—all of these belong in fiction for older children, not the grown-up novels he's bent on emulating."
regarding the novel's politics, King said:
. This work later served as inspiration to King's new novel Under the Dome. In 1982, King said:
On September 15, 2009, Stephen King's official site posted a 61-page facsimile
excerpt from King's original novel The Cannibals, consisting of the first four chapters of the original typescript. A further 63 pages were posted on October 4. The excerpts served to also document how long ago King had had the idea of being under a dome:
websites for popular locations referenced in Under the Dome were created to publicize the book, including Big Jim Rennie's Used Cars, the Sweet Briar Rose Diner, the Chester's Mill Democrat Newspaper, and others. A site was created for the Town of Chester's Mill, which provides links to all points of interest. An alternate reality game
also took place utilizing all of these sites, beginning at the blog of Scarecrow Joe, one of the characters in the novel.
's DreamWorks Television
will be developing a cable miniseries based on the novel. Spielberg and King will serve as executive producers. Showtime will broadcast the miniseries. Brian K. Vaughan
has been hired to adapt the book.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, published in November 2009. It is a partial rewrite of a novel King attempted writing twice in the late 1970s and early 1980s, under the titles The Cannibals and Under the Dome. As King stated on his official site, these two unfinished works "were two very different attempts to utilize the same idea, which concerns itself with how people behave when they are cut off from the society they've always belonged to. Also, my memory of The Cannibals is that it, like Needful Things
Needful Things
Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. According to the cover, it is "The Last Castle Rock Story." However, the town later served as the setting for the short story "It Grows on You," published in King's 1993 collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes which, according to...
, was a kind of social comedy. The new Under the Dome is played dead straight." From the material originally written, only the first chapter is included in the new novel.
Synopsis
Shortly before noon on Saturday October 21 of an unspecified year after 2012 (evidenced by mention of a faded bumper stickerBumper sticker
A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles - although they are often stuck onto other objects...
for Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's successful 2012
United States presidential election, 2012
The United States presidential election of 2012 is the next United States presidential election, to be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. It will be the 57th quadrennial presidential election in which presidential electors, who will actually elect the President and the Vice President of the United...
re-election campaign), the small Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
town of Chester's Mill is abruptly and gruesomely separated from the outside world by an invisible, semipermeable barrier of unknown origin. The immediate appearance of the barrier causes a number of injuries and fatalities, and traps former Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
"Captain" Dale "Barbie" Barbara—who is trying to leave Chester's Mill—inside the town.
Police Chief Howard "Duke" Perkins is soon killed when his pacemaker
Pacemaker
An artificial pacemaker is a medical device that uses electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart.Pacemaker may also refer to:-Medicine:...
explodes after getting too close to the barrier. This removes the last significant opposition to James "Big Jim" Rennie, used car salesman and the town's Second Selectman. Big Jim exerts significant influence within Chester's Mill, and seizes the opportunity to use the barrier as part of a power play to take over the town.
Big Jim appoints one of his cronies, the incompetent Peter Randolph as the new Police Chief. He also begins expanding the ranks of the Chester's Mill Police with questionable candidates, including his son, Junior Rennie, and his friends. Junior has frequent migraine
Migraine
Migraine is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by moderate to severe headaches, and nausea...
s caused by an as-yet undiscovered brain tumor
Brain tumor
A brain tumor is an intracranial solid neoplasm, a tumor within the brain or the central spinal canal.Brain tumors include all tumors inside the cranium or in the central spinal canal...
which has also begun affecting his mental state; unbeknownst to Big Jim, Junior was in the process of beating and strangling a girl to death when the barrier appeared, and has killed another girl by the time Rennie places him on the police force.
Elsewhere in Chester's Mill, Julia Shumway, the editor of the local newspaper and apparently a Republican, is phoned by Colonel James O. Cox, who has her carry a message to Barbie to contact him. When he does, Cox requests that Barbie act as the government's liaison in an effort to bring down the Dome, as it has come to be known. Because of Barbie's talents as a former bomb factory hunter, Cox gives him the task of locating the source, which is believed to be inside the Dome. Cox is also able to foresee the small town political ramifications of such a situation. By virtue of a Presidential order, Barbie is reinstated in the US Military and promoted to full Colonel. Barbie is also presented with a decree granting him authority over the township. However, smalltown politics being what they are, this action is not well received by Big Jim and his misguided band of renegade police officers.
As Big Jim covertly encourages and orchestrates unease and panic among the town to build up his grab for power, Barbie, Julia and a number of other townspeople attempt to stop things from spiraling out of control. After crossing Rennie's path on several occasions, Barbie is framed
Frameup
A frame-up or setup is an American term referring to the act of framing someone, that is, providing false evidence or false testimony in order to falsely prove someone guilty of a crime....
and arrested for Junior's murders. He is also accused of killing Reverend Lester Coggins, who laundered money
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
for Rennie's large-scale methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
operation, and Duke's widow Brenda Perkins, who were both murdered by Big Jim. While Barbie is in jail other residents track the source of the Dome to an abandoned farm, and the device is strongly indicated to be extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
in origin. The restrictions issued by Rennie become more severe and the police force grows more abusive, galvanizing the town and eventually leading some residents to break Barbie out of jail, killing Junior seconds before he can murder Barbie.
The semi-organized resistance flees to the abandoned farm, where multiple people touch the strange object and experience visions. They not only conclude that the device was put in place by extraterrestrial "leatherheads" (so named for their appearance), but that specifically they are juveniles who have set up the Dome as a cruel form of entertainment, a sort of ant farm used to capture sentient beings and allow their captors to view everything that happens inside.
On an organized "Visitors Day"—when people outside the Dome can meet at its edge with people within—Big Jim sends Randolph and a detachment of police to take back control of his former meth operation from Phil "Chef" Bushey, who is stopping Rennie from covering up the operation as well as hoarding the more than four-hundred tanks of propane
Propane
Propane is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula , normally a gas, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used as a fuel for engines, oxy-gas torches, barbecues, portable stoves, and residential central...
stored there. Many are killed in the ensuing gunfight and mortally-wounded Chef detonates a plastic explosive device he has placed in the meth production facility, before dying. The ensuing explosion, combined with the propane and meth-making chemicals, unleashes a toxic firestorm
Firestorm
A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires, forest fires, and wildfires...
.
More than a thousand of the town's residents are quickly incinerated on national television, leaving alive only the twenty-six survivors at the abandoned barn, an orphaned farm boy hiding in a potato cellar
Root cellar
A root cellar is a structure built underground or partially underground and used to store vegetables, fruits, and nuts or other foods.-Construction:Common construction methods are:...
, and Big Jim and his informal aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
, Carter Thibodeau, in the town's fallout shelter
Fallout shelter
A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War....
. Big Jim and Thibodeau eventually turn on each other; Big Jim stabs and disembowels Thibodeau, only to die several hours later when hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
s of the dead send him fleeing into the now-toxic environment outside. The survivors at the barn begin to slowly asphyxia
Asphyxia
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breathe normally. An example of asphyxia is choking. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which primarily affects the tissues and organs...
te, despite efforts by the Army to force clean air through the walls of the Dome.
Barbie and Julia go to the control device to beg their captors to release them. Julia is able to make contact with a single female leatherhead, no longer accompanied by her friends and thus not caught up in their peer pressure
Peer pressure
Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is "formally" a member , or a social clique...
. After repeatedly expressing that they are real sentient beings with real "little lives", and by sharing a painful childhood incident with the adolescent alien, Julia convinces the leatherhead to have pity on them. The Dome raises up slowly and vanishes, allowing the toxic air to dissipate and finally freeing the town of Chester's Mill.
Pre-release information
In January 2008, TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine quoted King as saying he'd "be killing a lot of trees" with his next novel. The first draft was completed in late August 2008, with the manuscript weighing 19 lbs
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
(8.6kg
Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme , also known as the kilo, is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram , which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water...
). King has stated the novel is twice as long as his most recent, Duma Key, at "over 1,500 pages in manuscript
Manuscript format
Manuscript format is the formatted work that an author submits to a publisher, editor, or producer for publication. Even with the advent of desktop publishing, making it possible for anyone to prepare text that appears professionally typeset, many publishers still require authors to submit...
", and "deals with some of the same issues that The Stand
The Stand
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf...
does, but in a more allegorical
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
way". King also described the novel as "very, very long", saying "I tried this once before when I was a lot younger and the project was just too big for me".
The paperback edition of Just After Sunset
Just After Sunset
Just After Sunset is the fifth collection of short stories by Stephen King. It was released in hardcover by Scribner on November 11, 2008, and features a holographic dust jacket. On February 6, 2008, the author's official website revealed the title of the collection to be Just Past Sunset. About a...
, released on September 29, 2009, included an excerpt from the novel. An excerpt was published in the November 6, 2009 issue of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
.
The preliminary dust jacket
Dust jacket
The dust jacket of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book covers...
cover art was released to online retailers like Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
and Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
with the words "cover to be unveiled". In late August 2009, it was revealed that the real cover would be unveiled on October 5, 2009, with parts of it being shown on September 21, 25, and 28. The cover art design for Under the Dome is said to be a departure from King's previous illustrated covers, using a combination of illustration, photographs, and 3D renderings. The final jacket design was released in two states: with white lettering, and with dark gray lettering.
On the day of the release, Stephen King was in New York City at The TimesCenter to promote the book.
In mid-October, Under the Dome became one of the highly-discounted book preorders on Amazon.com, Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
, and Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
, sparking a "price war
Price war
Price war is a term used in economic sector to indicate a state of intense competitive rivalry accompanied by a multi-lateral series of price reduction. One competitor will lower its price, then others will lower their prices to match. If one of them reduces their price again, a new round of...
" between the retailers. The price for Under the Dome and several other high-profile hardcover books to be released in November 2009, typically around $25, was set at just $9 (an unprecedented discount of nearly 75% off on a new hardcover). Later, Wal-Mart lowered the price to $8.98 and included free shipping. Target's price was set at $8.99.
Limited editions
A Collector's Edition (limited to 25,000 copies) and a Signed Edition (limited to 1,500 copies) were published by Scribner concurrently with the regular trade edition. These editions feature a dust jacket without any lettering, a removable band with author name and title, printed endpaperEndpaper
The endpapers or end-papers of a book are the leaves of paper before the title page and after the text. Booksellers sometimes refer to the front end paper as FEP....
s with the map of the town in color (regular edition contains a black and white map in the book's front matter), 27 illustrations by The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
cartoonist Matthew Diffee
Matthew Diffee
Matthew Diffee is an American cartoonist whose works appear in the New Yorker magazine.-Biography:Diffee was born in Denton, Texas and was raised as a fundamentalist Christian in Texas and North Carolina.His father was an airline pilot...
, a ribbon marker, and also contain a deck of cards with the Diffee illustrations. These editions are printed on specialty paper with different binding.
A signed and numbered UK edition, exclusive to Waterstones, was limited to just 500 copies, making it substantially rarer than the US edition. It included the 4-color endpapers, the 27 trading cards illustrated by Matthew Diffee, and was packaged in a slipcase.
A significant number of the UK edition were slightly damaged in transit due to poor packaging on the distributor's part, making mint copies even more valuable.
Characters
The novel contains an expansive cast of minor characters while maintaining a rather small circle of central players.Major characters
- Dale "Barbie" Barbara - A former Army lieutenant (initially referred to as a former captain by Colonel Cox), Barbara became a drifter after mustering from the Army. Trapped within feet of the edge of the Dome, witnessing a woodchuck cut in half by the event, Dale was attempting to flee the town after a confrontation with Junior Rennie and his friends. Dale soon becomes the US government's choice to run Chester's Mill. This causes more tension between Dale, Big Jim, and Junior causing the two to frame Dale for the murders they commit. One of the 26 survivors of the Dome.
- Julia Shumway - A cynical, witty woman who owns and edits The Democrat (despite being a Republican), the town's local newspaper. Julia often feels the need to prove a point and expose those she sees around her. Julia becomes the conduit between Colonel Cox and Dale Barbara via her cell phone. Julia and Dale have a budding romantic relationship. Both Dale and Julia are gutsy and tough, brave enough to try any chance they might have for survival. Julia comes from a family of news executives; the newspaper is a family concern. She was groomed early for success and was viewed by her peers as a "goody-two-shoes." A confrontation with her classmates in fourth grade caused her to rethink her status and changed the course of her academic career; however, this same confrontation is key in helping her formulate a plan to end the siege. One of the 26 survivors of the Dome.
- James "Big Jim" Rennie - The power-obsessed second selectman of Chester's Mill, owner of a used car dealership and the biggest crystal meth lab on the east coast. When Chief Perkins is killed on Dome Day, Big Jim becomes the de facto leader of the Mill. He is owed favors by virtually every person of authority in town, and is rubber stamped by Andy Sanders, the grieving and incompetent first selectman and Pete Randolph, the new, incompetent town police chief. Big Jim directly controls both Andy and Pete through most of the story. Big Jim murders Lester Coggins, Brenda Perkins, and Carter Thibodeau during his time under the Dome. His actions make him responsible for the deaths of many others.
- Junior Rennie - Junior is a small town thug and son of the most influential man in Chester's Mill. After he is deputized, he recruits new police officers for his father. Junior gradually devolves from thug to bitter, angry sociopath, suffering from a brain tumor disguising itself as migraines. He particularly hates Dale Barbara, who laid a beating on Junior and his friends even though they outnumbered him. Dale could have had Junior arrested for assault, but Dale was an outsider and Junior's father was Big Jim. Junior murders Angie McCain, Dodee Sanders, Stacey Moggins, Rupe Libby and Mickey Wardlaw before being killed by Jackie Wettington. He slowly becomes more delusional as the novel progresses and his tumor becomes more debilitating. Eventually Junior comes to the conclusion that Barbara has poisoned him and sets out to kill him.
- Eric "Rusty" Everett - A kind-hearted physician's assistantPhysician assistantA physician assistant/associate ' is a healthcare professional trained and licensed to practice medicine with limited supervision by a physician.-General description:...
at Cathy Russell Hospital. Rusty is married to Linda Everett, a police officer, and has two young daughters, Janelle and Judy. His children are the first of many to experience seizures and prophetic visions from the device that generates the Dome. After the town's doctor dies, Rusty tends to those that are ruined in the chaos that erupts after the Dome's arrival, maintaining a cool, optimistic attitude in a time of stress. Rusty is arrested for threatening Big Jim, but escapes and helps the other survivors. One of the 26 survivors of the Dome.
- Joseph "Scarecrow Joe" McClatchey - A thirteen-year old student at Chester's Mill Middle School. Joe is a dedicated skateboarder along with his two friends, Norrie Calvert and Benny Drake. Mature and intelligent beyond his years, Joe is one of the first in town to seek answers for the cause of the Dome rather than try to establish a semblance of an order. He organizes a protest at the Dome's wall - assisted by Norrie and Benny - and manages to rally the town before an incident calls the entire protest off. He later becomes a valuable ally of Dale Barbara, assisting him in providing a video feed during the incident early in the book where the government sends a missile to try to destroy the Dome. Afterward, he continues to make an effort to find answers to the Dome with his friends, and is among the group that finds the alien generator in the town's back fields. One of the 26 survivors of the Dome.
Minor characters
- Brenda Perkins - Brenda is the wife of the late Chief Perkins, who was killed on Day One under the Dome when he approached the surface of the Dome and his Pacemaker exploded. Brenda is instrumental in uncovering Big Jim's dirty laundry due to her knowledge of her husband's secret files. These files detail Big Jim's illegal activities. Brenda is a friend of Barbie's. After passing a copy of the files to Andrea Grinnell, she confronts Big Jim. Big Jim murders Brenda when she confronts him with the evidence regarding his criminal activities.
- Frank DeLesseps - Frank is a friend of Junior Rennie. He is engaged to Angie McCain and never suspects that Junior could have killed her. He becomes a special deputy at the request of Big Jim and Junior Rennie and is a participant in the gang-rape of Sammy Bushey. While keeping a vigil at the bedside of the injured Georgia Roux (an accessory to the rape), Frank is shot to death by Sammy.
- Carter Thibodeau - Carter is a friend of Junior Rennie, and so is recommended for special deputy. He participates in the gang-rape of Sammy Bushey and is Georgia Roux's boyfriend until her death. Carter becomes Big Jim's personal bodyguard for a short time. Carter shoots Andrea Grinnell to death at the special town meeting before the giant explosion. Eventually he is killed by Big Jim in the town's fallout shelter in order to preserve oxygen.
- Melvin Searles - Another friend of Junior Rennie, Melvin becomes a special deputy at the request of Big Jim Rennie, after Junior recommends him. Melvin is another participant in the rape of Sammy Bushey. Melvin is killed by the explosion started by Phil Bushey and Andy Sanders.
- Georgia Roux - Georgia is the girlfriend of Carter Thibodeau. Georgia becomes a special deputy at the request of Big Jim Rennie, after Junior recommends her. She is a participant in the rape of Sammy Bushey by egging the rapists on. She is admitted to the hospital after receiving facial injuries in the Food City riot. A cowering Georgia is shot dead by Sammy Bushey out of revenge.
- Andy Sanders - Andy is the town's first selectman. He is also widower of Claudette Sanders and the father of Dodee Sanders. Andy has been a puppet to Big Jim Rennie for a long time prior to the Dome and exerts no power. Andy first finds that Claudette has been killed when her plane crashes into the Dome. This immediately destroys any will or motivation he may have had left, causing Andy to follow Big Jim unquestioningly. Upon hearing news of losing his daughter as well, he is about to commit suicide. He changes his mind after an emergency phone call, then joins forces with The Chef. Andy becomes hooked on crystal meth, and later defends the radio station along with The Chef. During the raid on the station, Andy kills Peter Randolph, Roger Killian, Stewart Bowie and Fernald Bowie before he is willingly killed in the explosion detonated by Chef.
- Phil "The Chef" Bushey - As far as most of the citizens of Chester's Mill are concerned, Phil Bushey has disappeared. He is the estranged husband of Sammy Bushey and father of Little Walter Bushey. Big Jim and some others know that Phil has become "The Chef" and is holed up at the Christian radio station, charged with cooking vast amounts of crystal meth, hence his name. During the raid on the station, Phil kills Freddy Denton, Aubrey Towle, Stubby Norman and others. Phil presses the button which triggers the explosion that destroys himself and the town.
- Peter Randolph - Pete becomes Chief of Police after Duke Perkins' death. He is fairly simple minded and is easily manipulated by Big Jim, who secretly considers Pete his idiot. It is through Pete that Big Jim is able to expand and control the Mill's police force. Pete is executed by Andy Sanders during the raid on the radio station.
- Ollie Dinsmore - Ollie is the son of Alden & Shelley Dinsmore and older brother of Rory Dinsmore. Ollie must survive the death of his parents and brother while under the Dome. He amazingly survives the fire in the Dome by hiding under a pile of potatoes in a cellar with an oxygen tank. When the oxygen runs out the army provides giant fans which allow small amounts of air to enter the dome, allowing Ollie to survive. One of the 26 survivors of the dome.
- Romeo "Rommie" Burpee - Romeo is married to Michela Burpee. He is the owner of Burpee's department store, and assists in breaking Barbie and Rusty out of prison, as well as getting Dale up to the alien device using resources from his store. Romeo is initially motivated by long ago lover Brenda Perkins murder. One of the 26 survivors of the dome.
- Jackie Wettington - A police officer on the original Chester's Mill force, she is fired once Big Jim brings enough of his own recruits. Jackie assists in breaking Barbie and Rusty out of prison. She also kills Junior Rennie once Junior has completely snapped. One of the 26 survivors of the dome.
- Piper Libby - Reverend of the First Congregational Church in Chester's Mill. Despite her position, she no longer believes in God. One of the 26 survivors of the Dome.
- Linda Everett - Another police officer from the original force, she is fired because she is married to Rusty Everett. Her two daughters are Janelle and Judy Everett. One of the 26 survivors of the dome.
- Thurston Marshall - Professor at a university and acting doctor at the hospital. Partner of Carolyn Sturges, temporary father figure to Aidan & Alice Appleton. Is killed by lack of oxygen inside the dome, shortly before it was lifted.
- Carolyn Sturges - Graduate assistant at a university, partner of Thurston Marshall and temporary mother figure to Aidan & Alice Appleton. Killed by Freddy Denton.
- Alice Appleton - Separated from her mother due to the dome, older sister of Aidan Appleton, is cared for by Thurston Marshall and Carolyn Sturges whilst under the dome. One of the 26 survivors of the dome.
- Aidan Appleton - Separated from his mother due to the dome, younger brother of Alice Appleton, is cared for by Thurston Marshall and Carolyn Sturges whilst under the dome. Killed due to lack of oxygen shortly before the dome was lifted.
- Sammy Bushey - Wife of Phil "Chef" Bushey and mother of Little Walter Bushey. She sells marijuana and other drugs and is involved with Dodee Sanders before Sanders' murder. Later on, she is raped by Frank DeLesseps, Carter Thibodeau and Melvin Searles while Georgia Roux eggs them on. She kills DeLesseps and Roux as revenge before killing herself.
- Lester Coggins - Reverend of Christ the Holy Redeemer Church in Chester's Mill. In stark contrast to Piper Libby, he is devout to the point of insanity, frequently flagellating himself for his sins. He assists in Big Jim Rennie's meth ring, but is overcome by guilt after the Dome falls and attempts to convince Rennie to come clean. Rennie kills him with the help of Junior Rennie, a murder that is later blamed on Dale Barbara.
- Freddy Denton - Police officer, one of the first to take the changes in his stride, kills "Clover" Libby (Piper Libby's pet dog) as she mauls a fellow Special Deputy, and Carolyn Sturges. Is killed by The Chef.
- Rose Twitchell - Owner of the Sweetbriar Rose, the local cafe. Sister of Dougie Twitchell and Andrea Grinell, and employer of Dale Barbara. One of the 26 survivors of the dome.
- Andrea Grinnell - Town's third selectman and recovered Oxycontin addict near the end of the novel. Wife of Tommy Grinnell sister of Dougie Twitchell and Rose Twitchell. Finds the "Vader File" on Big Jim, and begins a proclamation against him during the town hall meeting, where she planned to assassinate Big Jim. After dropping her purse due to withdrawal, Aidan spots her pistol and innocently proclaims "that lady has a gun!" Killed by Carter Thibodeau.
- Ernie Calvert - Retired Supermarket manager, father-in-law of Joanie Calvert and grandfather of Norrie Calvert. Helps break Barbie and Rusty out of prison, dies due to lack of oxygen shortly before the dome was lifted.
- Stacey Moggin - Dispatcher at the police station, a supporter of Dale Barbara and had planned to assist in his break out but is killed by Junior Rennie.
- "Sloppy" Sam Verdreaux - Town drunk, dies from a lung problem after driving Barbie and Julia to the thing that controls the dome. Despite, or possibly because, he was a heavy-smoker for years, he is (temporarily) the least affected by the toxic air in the Dome and assists Dale and Julia in trying to make contact with their dome captors. Dies just after the Dome is lifted, but is not considered one of the 26 survivors.
- Benny Drake - A teenager and close friend of Joseph McClatchey. He helps Joe and Norrie Calvert search for the cause of the dome. He passed away due to lack of oxygen shortly before the dome was lifted.
- 'Audrey' Everett - The Everett's golden retriever. She alerts "Rusty" Everett to his daughter Janelle's seizures. She dies due to lack of oxygen shortly before the dome was lifted.
Multiple other minor characters, including many who are introduced just prior to being killed, appear throughout the book.
Other human survivors are Dougie Twitchell, Ginny Tomlinson, Gina Buffalino, Harriet Bigelow, Janelle Everett, Judy Everett, Pete Freeman, Tony Guay, Claire McClatchey, Joanie Calvert, Alva Drake, Norrie Calvert, Little Walter Bushey and Lissa Jamieson. Julia Shumway's dog 'Horace' also survives.
Reception
The author Dan SimmonsDan Simmons
Dan Simmons is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
, to whom Stephen King sent the manuscript for Under the Dome as a gift, commented on it on May 5, 2009, calling the novel "huge, generous, sprawling, infinitely energetic [...], absolutely enjoyable and impressive." Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
reviewed the novel on September 11, 2009, calling it "formidably complex and irresistibly compelling." The review said the book contains "themes and images from King's earlier fiction, and while this novel doesn't have the moral weight of, say, The Stand
The Stand
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf...
, nevertheless, it's a nonstop thrill ride as well as a disturbing, moving meditation on our capacity for good and evil". In a review for The Plain Dealer, Daniel Dyer calls Under the Dome "a massive cautionary novel", saying it is "[busy, ambitious, overlong but addictively munchable, [and] fundamentally a novel about human cruelty, animated by our desires for power, pleasure and sex." USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
called the novel "propulsively intriguing", "staggeringly addictive", and that "[r]eaders can wallow in this glorious novel's metaphoric and oh-so au courant messages about U.S. domination, freedom of the press, torture and environmental abuse, but they also can come to this novel just for the story." The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
called Under the Dome "impressive", containing "lucid prose and chilling precision." Janet Maslin's review for the New York Times said that Under the Dome "has the scope and flavor of literary Americana." Maslin says, "Hard as this thing is to hoist, it’s even harder to put down." Ted Anthony of The Associated Press states that "Under the Dome is one of those works of fiction that manages to be both pulp and high art, that successfully—and very improbably—captures the national zeitgeist at this particularly strange and breathless period in American history." On November 9, 2009, the author Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
in his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
stated that "Under the Dome was one of my favourite books of the year so far."
James Parker of the New York Times noted in his review of Under the Dome that the novel contains lines that are "stinkers", which made him feel "the clutch of sorrow." Regarding King's "pulp speed" output, James Parker noted: "We shouldn’t be too squeamish about the odd half-baked simile or lapse into B-movie dialogue." The review in the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
states that Under the Dome "shares some of The Stand
The Stand
The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf...
’s faults, like a left-field disaster [...] that works almost as a reverse deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
, randomly wiping out half the cast. In both novels, the climactic "battle"—if you can really call it that—pales to the buildup. King is better at characters and situations than causes and reasons. But at least The Stand feels like a saga [...]. I won’t reveal the secret of the Dome, except to say that the payoff is more Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
(original series) than epic." John Dugdale, in a review for The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
wrote: "King's inability to raise his game—to relinquish the methods of his more straightforward tales of the paranormal—prevents you taking his socio-political vision seriously. The simple division of characters into goodies and baddies, the use of magic, the homespun style, the sentimental ending, the vital role played by a dog in defeating the forces of evil—all of these belong in fiction for older children, not the grown-up novels he's bent on emulating."
Environmental issues
Regarding the theme of Under the Dome, King said:
From the very beginning, I saw it as a chance to write about the serious ecological problems that we face in the world today. The fact is we all live under the dome. We have this little blue world that we've all seen from outer space, and it appears like that's about all there is. It's a natural allegorical situation, without whamming the reader over the head with it. I don't like books where everything stands for everything else. It works with Animal FarmAnimal FarmAnimal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II...
: You can be a child and read it as a story about animals, but when you're older, you realize it's about communism, capitalism, fascism. That's the genius of Orwell. But I love the idea about isolating these people, addressing the questions that we face. We're a blue planet in a corner of the galaxy, and for all the satellites and probes and HubbleHubble Space TelescopeThe Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
pictures, we haven't seen evidence of anyone else. There's nothing like ours. We have to conclude we're on our own, and we have to deal with it. We're under the dome. All of us.
Political undertones
Speaking to Time magazine and The New York Times Book ReviewThe New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
regarding the novel's politics, King said:
I was angry about incompetency. Obviously I'm on the left of centerLeft-wing politicsIn politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
. I didn't believe there was justification for going into the war in Iraq. And it just seemed at the time, that in the wake of 9/11, the Bush Administration was like this angry kid walking down the street who couldn't find whoever sucker punched him, and so turned around and punched the first likely suspect. Sometimes the sublimely wrong people can be in power at a time when you really need the right people. I put a lot of that into the book. But when I started I said, "I want to use the Bush-CheneyDick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
dynamic for the people who are the leaders of this town." As a result, you have Big Jim Rennie, the villain of the piece. I got to like the other guy, Andy Sanders. He wasn't actively evil, he was just incompetent—which is how I always felt about George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. I enjoyed taking the Bush-Cheney dynamic and shrinking it to the small-town level. The last administration interested me because of the aura of fundamentalist religion that surrounded it and the rather amazing incompetency of those two top guys. I thought there is something blackly humorous in it. So in a sense, Under the Dome is an apocalyptic version of The Peter Principle.
The Cannibals as inspiration
According to Stephen J. Spignesi's 1998 book The Lost Work of Stephen King, The Cannibals (originally titled Under the Dome) is an unpublished unfinished 450-page handwritten novel written in 1982, while King was filming CreepshowCreepshow
Creepshow is a 1982 American horror anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King. The film's ensemble cast included Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, Hal Holbrook, E.G...
. This work later served as inspiration to King's new novel Under the Dome. In 1982, King said:
I've got about four-hundred-and-fifty pages done and it is all about these people who are trapped in an apartment building. Worst thing I could think of. And I thought, wouldn't it be funny if they all ended up eating each other? It's very, very bizarre because it's all on one note. And who knows whether it will be published or not?
On September 15, 2009, Stephen King's official site posted a 61-page facsimile
Facsimile
A facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in terms of scale,...
excerpt from King's original novel The Cannibals, consisting of the first four chapters of the original typescript. A further 63 pages were posted on October 4. The excerpts served to also document how long ago King had had the idea of being under a dome:
Several Internet writers have speculated on a perceived similarity between Under the Dome and The Simpsons MovieThe Simpsons MovieThe Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
, where, [...] Springfield is isolated inside a large glass dome [...]. I can’t speak personally to this, because I have never seen the movie, and the similarity came as a complete surprise to me...although I know, from personal experience, that the similarity will turn out to be casual. For the doubters, this excerpt [from The Cannibals] should demonstrate that I was thinking dome and isolation long before Homer, Marge, and their amusing brood came on the scene."
Viral marketing
A number of viral marketingViral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
websites for popular locations referenced in Under the Dome were created to publicize the book, including Big Jim Rennie's Used Cars, the Sweet Briar Rose Diner, the Chester's Mill Democrat Newspaper, and others. A site was created for the Town of Chester's Mill, which provides links to all points of interest. An alternate reality game
Alternate reality game
An alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions....
also took place utilizing all of these sites, beginning at the blog of Scarecrow Joe, one of the characters in the novel.
Film adaptation
Shortly after the release of the book, it was announced that Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's DreamWorks Television
DreamWorks Television
DreamWorks Television is a television distribution and production company that is a division of DreamWorks SKG, a former subsidiary of Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures. The syndication rights to DreamWorks' live-action TV series were held by CBS Television Distribution until fall 2008, the successor...
will be developing a cable miniseries based on the novel. Spielberg and King will serve as executive producers. Showtime will broadcast the miniseries. Brian K. Vaughan
Brian K. Vaughan
Brian Keller Vaughan is an American comic book and television writer. He is best known for the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, and Pride of Baghdad, and was one of the principal writers of the television series Lost, during seasons three through five...
has been hired to adapt the book.