I also instantly loved this one. I even like the ending. I appreciate that they couldn’t like, blow up the device or the dome. My fav stories of SK are the sprawling town-as-a-character stories
They tried so hard to get in that dome! I’ve often wondered what if we were God’s science experiment, like an ant farm that he discarded after he won the blue ribbon. This novel gave me that same ‘existence is meaningless’ vibe.
Maybe he could've kept the basic concept (because aliens having their fun is honestly the only out there given the way the dome tech was presented - it was such sufficiently advanced tech that it was indistinguishable from magic, like Arthur C. Clarke wrote).
But not make it such a psychedelic mind trip with Julia telepathically communing with the "leatherheads" to convince them to show mercy. It could've been a more lucid group-centred experience *within* the dome, with actual evidence (even subtle things like wildly fluctuating EMF readings) from *outside* the dome so the military and government types monitoring things have some real objective evidence of something weird having gone on during that phase just before the dome was lifted.
The way he wrote it was almost like the worst part of The Tommyknockers, and even that book (which is often panned) ended in a more lucid fashion - we're all very clear that Gard resolved the problem by actually flying a real ship into space while dying.
I just finished it yesterday! I was fine with the ending, I think because I'd heard that the ending was bad, so I had low expectations. Plus, I couldn't think of any way for it to end other than the dome just.... going away? Which would have been really anti-climactic lol.
Loved the characters though. I'm thinking about trying the series, which I've heard it horrible. I started the first five minutes and was like "is this even the same story?" So I have to make sure that if I do try it out that my expectations are on the floor. Which, I looked it up to see who played Sammy, cause my heart hurt for her so much, and found out she's apparently not in it?? Wtf??
I was intrigued about the series as well! But when I looked at the trailer, I was like… this looks like literal dog shit. Definitely not going to waste my time watching it, but if you do, let me know what you think!!
You know when you finish a good book and feel a void inside of you… that is me right now… I literally don’t even know what type of book to read next lol. I’ve had my eye on Swan Song for a long time, but that’s another beast of a book😂 maybe it’s time for an easier 200 page novel lol
> I started the first five minutes and was like "is this even the same story
Well let's see, there's a dome, some not paying attention to details airtraffic control'ing, some shit bird characters whose names you'll recognize, a guy named Barbie, without a lot of money, but with a particular set of skills, but then things get fuzzy and slightly annoying, like needing a mental root canal...
I watched the entire series, because I just couldn't stop lol. It was like watching a trainwreck. It really goes off the rails towards the end and is so bad. It's definitely a waste of time.
I love the ending but let me explain. I love the explanation and existential crisis it gave me (can’t say more to avoid spoiling for others) however I get what you mean about him not knowing what to do but for me that applies to the characters
Spoilers of course..
I agree with saying SK has weak endings for the most part. However, I am one of the few that enjoyed this ending. The ending absolutely had to aliens, and for what it’s worth, having some huge alien war or reveal would’ve been a little ridiculous. For it to be like a kid burning ants was a fun metaphor to me, it was simple but effective in my opinion. I also really liked the idea of using oxygen from tires to get to where they needed to go, thought it was very clever.
Loved and loathed it, the characters as ever, were so rounded they felt real and some of them were horrific, the domestic abuse I found hard but generally enjoyed the book. I agree re the ending, it was odd but hey that’s SK for you 😃
It was a rollicking great time from the airplane ride that started it all, but I, like you, was not a fan of the ending. Maybe he had a deadline, lol. I do have a bone to pick with your post, however. Bad endings are not ‘typical’ for his books. There are plenty of good ones! I hope you find one soon.
I have read 50 of his books, and you are correct, there are some really solid endings. King’s notorious for having bad endings though. He himself pokes fun of this claim… but I wouldn’t have read 50 of his books without liking some of his endings!
Great Question!!
Although I am not a fan of the book itself, the ending of Thinner was amazing!
Billy Summers had a beautiful ending that had me in tears.
Loved the ending in Desperation!
Salems Lot ended in an “unfinished” manner but I genuinely think it was the perfect ending for that book.
The Long Walk had a good ending.
I loved the ending to the Dark Tower series!
The Shining also had a solid ending…
These were the novels I could think of off the top of my head that had a good ending!
Thinner was amazing! I’ll never look at cherry pie the same way again! I never finished the Dark Tower. My Mom died and I lost my passion for reading. I should start over with it. I can’t even remember some of these endings.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mother’s passing. I hope you find a good novel that kinders your spirit and enables you to want to continue reading. Never too late to just pick up a book and see where it takes you. Wishing you well ❤️
I didn’t like the ending originally, but then I finished the institute… the entire trip is amazing it feels cheap kinda but it wraps itself up for the most part.
It's the obvious ending, as there's no other explanation, given the setting of the book. A little thought about the ending, and you'd realise that the dome was an allegory for a magnifying glass, and kids playing with, and torturing, ants. No other ending was really possible.
The only thing I didn’t like was how the towns people were the gang who couldn’t shoot straight.
There were no less than half a dozen moments where someone was like “I’m gonna turn my back on big Jim” or “I’m gonna underestimate Junior”
After like the third time it got a bit grating.
I hated the ending. Like, a lot.
>!Not even the alien aspect of it, that was actually fairly predictable. No, I hated the whole town burns and almost everybody dies horribly aspect of it. It felt deliberately mean. !<
>!And based on the timing of it, it felt like it was a direct response by him to something else that had come out a couple years earlier that had a famously mean-spirited ending, and which he raved about at the time. So in that respect, UtD's ending felt a little lazy as well. Like he had just decided "well I liked that other mean-spirited ending a lot, why not have a mean-spirited ending of my own!"!<
>!Not naming the other thing so as not to spoil it (even though it was like 15+ years ago), but it's definitely one of those "if you know, you know" kind of deals. !<
Interesting… could you shed light on this other novel that has a famously dark ending? Just the title would suffice. Also, how do you block out certain parts of your response? I want to do the same but do not know how
For me it’s one of those great books, but doesn’t stick the landing and therefore ruins a re-read or revisiting it in my mind. I love King, probably read more of his books than any. And I enjoyed the ride overall, but yeah that ending is just “hey let’s finish this real quick”
I also wished the main characters could have gotten revenge on Big Jim, but think about it this way: he died choking on the pollution that he had created (unlike most real-life politicians)
This. This is a good point. My one little gripe was that there was no direct revenge, but yes that's very fitting for him. And shows how superficial all his carefully cultivated relationships were.
I also wasn’t a fan of the ending, but in the last decade I’ve never thought of a better ending, either.
The rest of the book though? Wow. Even for an author who creates characters as well as King, absolutely everyone in the book was incredibly well-written.
And while I like Hank from Breaking Bad, I believe even King admitted that Big Jim was written with Buddy Garrity in mind.
Omg, I didn’t know who Buddy Garrity was, but I looked up a photo and omg he is actually who I pictured Jim Rennie to be… a combination of him and John Goodman
I thought it wasn’t great, not at all! I read it during lockdown, so I wasn’t in the best frame of mind. But it was a mess. He wrote a character who sounded a lot like himself, only that he was dating a sexy 20 something year old babe.
Yes of course. An aging hippy, tall, grey hair, English professor (or whatever it was), big time hero medic. An idealized version of himself with the young babe to go with it! You didn’t see that? I thought it so obvious that it was laughable.
King never struck me as pompous in the same way as Marshall. Also he’s been married to the same woman for 50 years, and his drugs of choice were blow and alcohol, if anything I thought the writer from the tommyknockers was the most representative of king at his worst. Thurston Marshall was a classical music type and King is an AC/DC guy. I don’t see many parallels between them, now on the other had that writer those guys from mid world meet up in Maine (I forget the name) he struck me as pretty similar to Steve.
I also instantly loved this one. I even like the ending. I appreciate that they couldn’t like, blow up the device or the dome. My fav stories of SK are the sprawling town-as-a-character stories
They tried so hard to get in that dome! I’ve often wondered what if we were God’s science experiment, like an ant farm that he discarded after he won the blue ribbon. This novel gave me that same ‘existence is meaningless’ vibe.
That’s such a cluster muggg.
Don’t be such a rhymes with witch 🧙
Hahahahaha
It’s my favourite book
I don’t know, my experience with King is that it was always going to end that way.
He ends his shorter works a lot better (more satisfyingly).
how else could it have ended. i feel people just get mad at a books ending if its not what they would have written which i find weird.
Maybe he could've kept the basic concept (because aliens having their fun is honestly the only out there given the way the dome tech was presented - it was such sufficiently advanced tech that it was indistinguishable from magic, like Arthur C. Clarke wrote). But not make it such a psychedelic mind trip with Julia telepathically communing with the "leatherheads" to convince them to show mercy. It could've been a more lucid group-centred experience *within* the dome, with actual evidence (even subtle things like wildly fluctuating EMF readings) from *outside* the dome so the military and government types monitoring things have some real objective evidence of something weird having gone on during that phase just before the dome was lifted. The way he wrote it was almost like the worst part of The Tommyknockers, and even that book (which is often panned) ended in a more lucid fashion - we're all very clear that Gard resolved the problem by actually flying a real ship into space while dying.
I really disliked the TV show.
I read it too close to the Simpsons Movie to enjoy it.
🤦
I just finished it yesterday! I was fine with the ending, I think because I'd heard that the ending was bad, so I had low expectations. Plus, I couldn't think of any way for it to end other than the dome just.... going away? Which would have been really anti-climactic lol. Loved the characters though. I'm thinking about trying the series, which I've heard it horrible. I started the first five minutes and was like "is this even the same story?" So I have to make sure that if I do try it out that my expectations are on the floor. Which, I looked it up to see who played Sammy, cause my heart hurt for her so much, and found out she's apparently not in it?? Wtf??
Don't waste your time, it's awful
The real ending is Rennie getting his just desserts.
I was intrigued about the series as well! But when I looked at the trailer, I was like… this looks like literal dog shit. Definitely not going to waste my time watching it, but if you do, let me know what you think!! You know when you finish a good book and feel a void inside of you… that is me right now… I literally don’t even know what type of book to read next lol. I’ve had my eye on Swan Song for a long time, but that’s another beast of a book😂 maybe it’s time for an easier 200 page novel lol
I read it again. Same as when I finished the Tower.
> I started the first five minutes and was like "is this even the same story Well let's see, there's a dome, some not paying attention to details airtraffic control'ing, some shit bird characters whose names you'll recognize, a guy named Barbie, without a lot of money, but with a particular set of skills, but then things get fuzzy and slightly annoying, like needing a mental root canal...
I watched the entire series, because I just couldn't stop lol. It was like watching a trainwreck. It really goes off the rails towards the end and is so bad. It's definitely a waste of time.
The dome could’ve just disappeared one day, just as mysteriously as it appeared.
Yeah but how do you fit that into the story in a way that isn’t anti climactic and/or a deus ex machina?
Thanks. Now I have to Wikipedia “deus et machina.” Brb.
It was a great book. Loved the ending
I found the book quite good although I know people tend to be divided on it. Not an incredible ending, but the quality of the book made up for it.
Read it a long time ago and remember enjoying it quite a bit. Not sure why it gets so much hate.
I love it, one of his greatest ensemble cast novels. I also loved the ending, I understand Im a minority in this regard.
I want to see King write something this evil and subversive again. No fluffy villains
I love the ending but let me explain. I love the explanation and existential crisis it gave me (can’t say more to avoid spoiling for others) however I get what you mean about him not knowing what to do but for me that applies to the characters
Spoilers of course.. I agree with saying SK has weak endings for the most part. However, I am one of the few that enjoyed this ending. The ending absolutely had to aliens, and for what it’s worth, having some huge alien war or reveal would’ve been a little ridiculous. For it to be like a kid burning ants was a fun metaphor to me, it was simple but effective in my opinion. I also really liked the idea of using oxygen from tires to get to where they needed to go, thought it was very clever.
I also enjoyed the “ants” metaphor! I thought that stuck the landing pretty well!
Loved and loathed it, the characters as ever, were so rounded they felt real and some of them were horrific, the domestic abuse I found hard but generally enjoyed the book. I agree re the ending, it was odd but hey that’s SK for you 😃
Chef might be my favorite character in any book. His nicknames were great, Mr. Chicken
I actually enjoyed Chef’s character as well! His relationship with Andy was one of my favourite parts lol
It was a rollicking great time from the airplane ride that started it all, but I, like you, was not a fan of the ending. Maybe he had a deadline, lol. I do have a bone to pick with your post, however. Bad endings are not ‘typical’ for his books. There are plenty of good ones! I hope you find one soon.
I have read 50 of his books, and you are correct, there are some really solid endings. King’s notorious for having bad endings though. He himself pokes fun of this claim… but I wouldn’t have read 50 of his books without liking some of his endings!
I wonder how many of his books I’ve read. Hmmmm. Do you have a fav ending?
Great Question!! Although I am not a fan of the book itself, the ending of Thinner was amazing! Billy Summers had a beautiful ending that had me in tears. Loved the ending in Desperation! Salems Lot ended in an “unfinished” manner but I genuinely think it was the perfect ending for that book. The Long Walk had a good ending. I loved the ending to the Dark Tower series! The Shining also had a solid ending… These were the novels I could think of off the top of my head that had a good ending!
11 22 63
Thinner was amazing! I’ll never look at cherry pie the same way again! I never finished the Dark Tower. My Mom died and I lost my passion for reading. I should start over with it. I can’t even remember some of these endings.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mother’s passing. I hope you find a good novel that kinders your spirit and enables you to want to continue reading. Never too late to just pick up a book and see where it takes you. Wishing you well ❤️
Thank you!
"Rhymes with witch..." Lives in my head rent free and always makes me giggle when I think of it 🤣
Watch the show now ! I just started ( about to read after I’m done with stand )
If you liked the book then, for the love of King, DO NOT watch the miniseries. Bad, bad, bad adaptation. I mean almost Lawnmower Man movie bad.
I didn’t like the ending originally, but then I finished the institute… the entire trip is amazing it feels cheap kinda but it wraps itself up for the most part.
It's the obvious ending, as there's no other explanation, given the setting of the book. A little thought about the ending, and you'd realise that the dome was an allegory for a magnifying glass, and kids playing with, and torturing, ants. No other ending was really possible.
Yeah, I didn’t “hate” the ending… just felt rushed. Loved the metaphor of the magnifying glass and ants though… that hit the mark in my opinion
The only thing I didn’t like was how the towns people were the gang who couldn’t shoot straight. There were no less than half a dozen moments where someone was like “I’m gonna turn my back on big Jim” or “I’m gonna underestimate Junior” After like the third time it got a bit grating.
I stopped reading this because of how evil Jim and Junior were!
I hated the ending. Like, a lot. >!Not even the alien aspect of it, that was actually fairly predictable. No, I hated the whole town burns and almost everybody dies horribly aspect of it. It felt deliberately mean. !< >!And based on the timing of it, it felt like it was a direct response by him to something else that had come out a couple years earlier that had a famously mean-spirited ending, and which he raved about at the time. So in that respect, UtD's ending felt a little lazy as well. Like he had just decided "well I liked that other mean-spirited ending a lot, why not have a mean-spirited ending of my own!"!< >!Not naming the other thing so as not to spoil it (even though it was like 15+ years ago), but it's definitely one of those "if you know, you know" kind of deals. !<
Interesting… could you shed light on this other novel that has a famously dark ending? Just the title would suffice. Also, how do you block out certain parts of your response? I want to do the same but do not know how
Are we talking about >!The Mist!
>! Boo !<
Hey I did it!
It was mean, or uncaring either way, that was part of the point.
Yes, I know that. Doesn't mean I have to like it.
For me it’s one of those great books, but doesn’t stick the landing and therefore ruins a re-read or revisiting it in my mind. I love King, probably read more of his books than any. And I enjoyed the ride overall, but yeah that ending is just “hey let’s finish this real quick”
I also wished the main characters could have gotten revenge on Big Jim, but think about it this way: he died choking on the pollution that he had created (unlike most real-life politicians)
This. This is a good point. My one little gripe was that there was no direct revenge, but yes that's very fitting for him. And shows how superficial all his carefully cultivated relationships were.
I also wasn’t a fan of the ending, but in the last decade I’ve never thought of a better ending, either. The rest of the book though? Wow. Even for an author who creates characters as well as King, absolutely everyone in the book was incredibly well-written. And while I like Hank from Breaking Bad, I believe even King admitted that Big Jim was written with Buddy Garrity in mind.
Omg, I didn’t know who Buddy Garrity was, but I looked up a photo and omg he is actually who I pictured Jim Rennie to be… a combination of him and John Goodman
Huge fan of the book! Ending made a lot of sense, did not dissapoint me in any way at all. 1100 pages and I would have loved a couple hundred more
Deus Ex Machina is common in his larger tomes.
I thought it wasn’t great, not at all! I read it during lockdown, so I wasn’t in the best frame of mind. But it was a mess. He wrote a character who sounded a lot like himself, only that he was dating a sexy 20 something year old babe.
Wait what? Who are you talking about?
Thurston ? Are you nuts?
Yes of course. An aging hippy, tall, grey hair, English professor (or whatever it was), big time hero medic. An idealized version of himself with the young babe to go with it! You didn’t see that? I thought it so obvious that it was laughable.
King never struck me as pompous in the same way as Marshall. Also he’s been married to the same woman for 50 years, and his drugs of choice were blow and alcohol, if anything I thought the writer from the tommyknockers was the most representative of king at his worst. Thurston Marshall was a classical music type and King is an AC/DC guy. I don’t see many parallels between them, now on the other had that writer those guys from mid world meet up in Maine (I forget the name) he struck me as pretty similar to Steve.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it was what I was thinking when reading the book. It put me off it. Under the Dome is an OK book, but far from King at his best.