Beyond the fantastic story.

Chester's Mill, a small town of 2000 inhabitants of the northeastern United States in the state of Maine is suddenly cut off from the world and its inhabitants with (some of them end up on the outside, without not being able to return home). The reason for this failure? A gigantic dome transparent, kind of cheese cover, impassable ... While panic is starting to gain the city, various heroes and villains in the story appear to play an important role.

What dome? Why is it there? The city will survive?

These are the questions this last story by Stephen King, a long narrative, delirious and truly fascinating, not far from one theme to the Philip K. Dick.

This is probably the most ambitious authored novel. During his lecture, I am constantly asked me about the deep motivations behind this deceptively simple story. As is the case with the best novels of fantasy and science fiction genres, it is not a simple story of monster freedom and seeking prey. Here, what interests clearly enough Stephen King - and us readers - is the behavior of ordinary people when they are placed in an amazing and improbable situation of this kind. By living by proxy behavior of the various protagonists of this story, we see ourselves as we would react in such a circumstance - in extreme situations, extreme behavior, irrational, totally unexpected ... This is where the performance is to be found and the art of "Under the Dome".

It's been 35 years since I read the novels of Stephen King, and, like many, I was always impressed by the stories by this author. But "Under the Dome" now belongs to those few whose scope goes well beyond mere fiction story written just to have a good time. I augur that some compare inevitably "Under the Dome" to "The Stand" because it just talks about the horrors of the ordinary world, we live with every day without even realizing it, sometimes. And yes, drop ghosts, vampires and monsters come from space, as there is nothing more terrible than what human beings are capable of doing to others. Stephen King knows, and this is why his stories are selling so well, and never yield to ridicule. During his long career, Stephen King has rarely been as talented with this story.

"Under the Dome" is a story fast paced and in which it is screened from the earliest pages without preamble - a horror story, of course - and opens the door, I believe, a new and sophisticated kind which was also marked this year by the amazing and monumental thriller "Grandoria" Dominique Raymond Poirier (curiously in French, but sold only from Amazon US (?)) that talks about the escape of a man lost in the middle an entire country goes crazy. Exactly as occurs in "Grandoria" (the name of an imaginary country of Western Europe in that other story), but for different reasons, Chester's Mill becomes a steaming black pot containing all at once murder , corruption, conspiracy, and a fear that comes to become terror. As is "Grandoria", "Under the Dome" is not really a book easy to read, not just because of its imposing size. Familiar Stephen King will not be too surprised to find some mild language and sex, disturbing in some cases since there is in "Under the Dome" a gang rape scene, and a little necrophilia in passing. Violence abounds, the use of the drug is present, and examples of other people dealing with horrible way are particularly numerous. In "Under the Dome", we discover that the only thing that will always happen, this is the worst ... Just like in "Grandoria" but in "Under the Dome" for a reason still fantastic, the story talking about what is wrong in the human being, and it puts the reader in a particularly uncomfortable position because it sounds true ...

I give five stars to "Under the Dome" and I would have given six, if possible. This is in my opinion one of the best if not the best fantastic stories of the last ten years (and again, I wonder which would give that title rather than "Under the Dome" before that.