Mr. King is a master of writing many characters. He could mention a minor character a couple of times, but yet he made that character memorable. He/she became a person in my mind. (At the beginning of the novel he wrote from the perspective of a woodchuck! That was incredible!) This book is set in a fictional Maine small town called Chester's Mill. "The Mill" as one comes to know it has many interesting people/characters.
The horror of the story comes into play when the city is enclosed in a dome that is impenetrable and totally seals off the village from the rest of the country. The town is run by a second selectman, Big Jim Rennie, who quickly becomes a dictator. There are people in the town that are for and against Rennie. The President has given control of the situation inside the dome to Colonel Dale Barbara. Rennie handily frames Barbara for murders that he and his son, Junior, commit. The hero, Barbara, and his friends have much to overcome.
This is a novel that covers many common themes or raises questions: good vs. evil; Is there really a God?; What would happen if a group of people were left in a situation without a normal government?; What would aliens think of us?; How might aliens treat us?
At one point while reading this novel I thought to myself, "Wow, King has really gone over the deep end." Well, after I finished maybe I've changed my mind. He left us at the end of the book with a message of hope. I liked that. There is hope.
