The King warning on cell phones! (Cell - Stephen King)

Member Name: bonsibabe

Product:	Cell - Stephen King
Date:	30/12/07 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: For King fans, it's another book by the master of horror and suspense

Disadvantages: If you are not a King fan, then its another book by King !

Yes folks - I am back! After a short absence I am back with a vengeance!

As an ardent Stephen King fan, you could say I was slightly chuffed to find that Santa had been kind enough to leave a couple of King books under my christmas tree this year! Needless to say, as soon as the kids were in bed, I was snuggled up on the chair and the book was open. And so on to the review ...

Synopsis
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Clayton Riddell is a happy man. He is an artist and is on his way "home" after having a meeting that has assured him a regular income for his comic book characters. But all of that initial euphoria is about to change and not for the better ...

All around him, all hell breaks loose. Some people are turning into homicidal maniacs for no reason whilst some others are just surprised and start to run for their lives. The one similarity of those who are homicidal for no reason, is that they have all answered a call on their mobile phones (or cell phones). Hence the title - Cell. The event that turned the majority of humans into prehistoric becomes known as the Pulse.

Clay's first thought is one of survival - after all no-one wants to be killed. He saves the life of another man and they in turn save the life of a young girl. And these three embark on a journey together, a journey to discover what has happened to their fellow men and women and also Clay's own journey to find out what has happened to his young son, who had a cell phone of his own.

My Opinion
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As a fan of King's, I have to say that I find that all of his books are exceptionally well written. Some have a rather slow start but this one was straight into the nitty gritty of the story, with the backgrounds of characters added in when needed. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and will happily read it again and again.

The storyline was great, just imagine if it was possible to send some subliminal message through mobile phones, thereby turning innocent people into killing machines? There are some out there who would love that kind of technology.
My only gripe was that the book doesn't tell you about who engineered this pulse and what their motivation was behind this act. That would have been quite interesting in my opinion, but probably would have made the book twice as long as it is!

His characters are completely believable, as they are in all of his books. I fell for the story completely, and really enjoyed reading the book.

Final Word
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The price on this book is 6.99 GBP and this seems to be the standard cost for a paperback of this size (496 pages). Oh yes I forgot to mention that at the end of the book, there is a little teaser of King's latest book, Liseys Story, in the form of the first chapter, just to get you hooked. The price is reasonable, although if you shop around on the internet, you can get it a lot cheaper, especially if you are not averse to buying second-hand books.

In all fairness, as a Stephen King fan, I will recommend any of his books to anyone who will listen to me. But this is so well written and sucks you in from the first paragraph that I cannot help but recommend it to you.

I give this 4 stars - it has lost one star simply because I feel that I would have liked to know who caused the Pulse and what their motivation was.

A nice 4 star recommendation from me!

Thank you for reading this and a Happy New Year to one and all - let's hope 2008 is a good year for everyone!

Di xx

Summary: A gripping tale for those dark winter nights!