I thought the timeline was a little bit ambitious. This 1000 page book covers a town that goes from normal to melt down in just under a week. I felt the hoarding would have started much sooner. I also felt the military forces outside waited too long and missed opportunities to influence the town’s events when they realized they could no longer control the municipal government. I had a hard time believing things could go so bad so fast, and I consider myself fairly jaded when it comes to what people are capable of. That being said, the short timeline does mean the book is action packed and the pace remains steady.

I felt the good guys spent a lot of time doing stuff that wasn’t helping the main issue, wich was getting rid of the dome. Even after Barbie is given an order to find out what is generating the dome, he seems to get caught in side plots and putting out proverbial fires that would all be moot if they could get rid of the dome. Wouldn’t that be your first priority? I felt the revelation of the cause of the dome was kind of stupid. I also felt that Julia and Barbie’s pivotal moment stories were sort of incomparable. Really Julia? Your shame is on the same level? Your story is the one that matters most?

All in all this book is well written, exciting, and enjoyable. It felt like a warm hug from an old friend reading Stephen King again after so many years. You know, an old friend that likes to swear a lot and kill people in horrible ways. Read it with caution if you don’t like language, sex or violence.

All slight sarcasm aside I actually liked this book. It was well written, well paced, and draws an interesting and complex new world. I felt the author did a great job of thinking the plot through and eliminating any large plot holes. (A pet peeve of mine with some science fiction.) I enjoyed the character portrayals, most of them torn between love and duty, and driven by love, fear, loyalty, and hate. I found it interesting the powerful women characters in the book were not wives and liked the way that was portrayed. Some of the most interesting plot lines in the book revolved around the planet itself. On a planet with such small amounts of available water it was very interesting to imagine the incredible importance of it and the ways in which your life would revolve around acquiring, retaining and reusing that precious resource. I have been trying to branch out and get my feet wet in science fiction and only wish I had read Dune at the beginning of my foray, and not towards the end as I’m starting to burn out. Did I love it? Not really, but it is the best science fiction book I’ve read in the last five years (I think) and I will get the next one in the series. I said before I read it I would be done science fiction after Dune, but now I guess I have to find out what happens next. Good heavens, what have I done, I think there are about a million and one books in this series. Ahkk, maybe i’m becoming a fan, ha ha. I’m also a little apprehensive to watch the 1984 film by David Lynch (but how can I not?).

As a side note, I noticed on Wikipedia that (unnamed) ‘scholars’ have compared Dune to Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Ummmmm, Wikipedia said the same thing about Foundation by Isaac Asimov. So I’m beginning to think I just need to read Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and imagine it in space.