There arent many people who enjoy a good apocalyptic fiction (as opposed to apocalyptic non-fiction, I guess) book as much as I. So, when I heard Stephen King had a book out (Cell) about zombies I figured Id give it a shot. Now, theres spoilage ahead but I dont think you’ll care because Im advocating you save yourself $18 and give this thing a pass.

The premise is simple: unknown source sends a pulse through all cellphones that rewires the human brain, turning the cellphone user into a zombie. Dont own a cellphone? Then you remain a normal person. The zombies, such as they are, start developing supernatural abilities…mostly of the psionic nature – telepathy, telekinesis, etc( hey, its a Stephenm King book..didnt think it was just going to stop at zombies, didja?). Survivors are being mentally manipulated into migrating into a region of the country where, it is presumed, the zombies will convert them all to their side.

Thats about it.
The ending is thoroughly unsatisfying and leaves room for a sequel. This would translate fairly well into a movie if you put Jerry Bruckheimer in charge.

The writing is a bit plain and basic. I suspect King has gotten so big that, like Geo. Lucas, he’s allowed to produce whatever he wants without the constraints of an editor.

Lets talk gun bias – the survivors need guns and figure that they’ll rob the home of the guy with the NRA sticker on his car. He has guns that are ‘probably illegal’ and has evil hollowpoint ammo from ‘American Paranoia’ websites. The guns, as it turns out, are used very few times and not without the usual claptrap about how ‘before, it would have seemed unthinkable..but now…”

Some of the fiction floating around on the various survival boards was better than this stuff.

Give this one a pass, take the twenty bucks you save and buy a box of hollowpoints…you’ll get more enjoyment out of the ammo.