Books : Cell
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Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743554336
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN: 0743554337
Label: Simon & Schuster Audio
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audio
Number Of Items: 12
Publication Date: January 24, 2006
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: January 24, 2006
Sales Rank: 358658
Studio: Simon & Schuster Audio
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
There's a reason cell rhymes with hell.
On October 1st, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and Clayton Riddell, an artist from Maine, is almost bouncing up Boylston Street in Boston. He's just landed a comic book deal that might finally enable him to support his family by making art instead of teaching it. He's already picked up a gift for his long-suffering wife, and he knows just what he'll get for his boy Johnny. Why not a little treat for himself? Clay's feeling good about the future.
That changes in a hurry. The cause of the devastation is a phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse, and the delivery method is a cell phone. Everyone's cell phone. Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization's darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.
There are one hundred and ninety-three million cell phones in the United States alone. Who doesn't have one? Stephen King's utterly gripping, gory, and fascinating novel doesn't just ask the question "Can you hear me now?" It answers it with a vengeance.
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 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
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
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.
Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
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 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 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 ... Read More
Rating: -
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.
Rating:  -
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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