When I read Cell, it reminded me very much about another end-of-the world Stephen King novel, The Stand. Don't get me wrong, they are very different books...however I couldn't stop comparing the two as I read them. So I guess this review will end up being a compare/constrast review.The Stand:
- Population killed off by a biological agent which has become known as Captain Tripps Disease
- Very long novel. Complete and Uncut Version comes in at 1,152 pages.
- Follows the viewpoints of a number of characters on both sides of the battle which ensues.
- Character flaws lead to conflicts later in the novel.
Cell:
- Population turned into zombies by a pulse whenever a cellphone is used.
- Shorter novel, only 350 pages.
- Follows the viewpoints of one main character.
- It seems like none of the main characters can make any mistakes at all.
You can probably tell that I definitely preferred The Stand. Here's why:
- The kill-off scenario is much more realistic. I think that it is a lot more plausible for the world to be affected by some biological agent than by some pulse which turns into zombies. It makes for a much more disturbing book if you have "this might really happen" in the back of your head while you're reading. While there is a bunch of mysticism in The Stand which definitely takes it out of reality, it still makes for a much better read than Cell.
- The length of The Stand allows for much more character development. There are probably a lot of people out there who thought The Stand was much too long, I'm definitely not one of them. I really felt that I knew the characters and it affected me a lot more when some of them died. I had no such connection with the characters in Cell.
- The different viewpoints approach in The Stand definitely led to me having a closer connection with the characters. I also liked how Mr. King showed that the people on the "evil" side of the conflict weren't pure evil. Cell was very one sided in this regard. I know, I know, zombies aren't supposed to think so how are we supposed to see their point of view. But think of what might have come if we did see the zombie point of view. If he had explored that path, it might have made for a very interesting book indeed.
- Finally, the thing that really bugged me about Cell was that it seemed that none of the main characters could make any mistakes...at all. The teenagers were too smart and centered, the adults were too reasonable, even the cat did what cat's are supposed to do. It really got to me after a while, especially the uber-awesome teenagers. While The Stand had it's fair number of characters that didn't have their flaws (Tom Cullen comes immediately to mind) there were a number who had there flaws. This made them more believable in my eyes.
I'm not saying that Cell is a terrible book. The first couple of chapters really had me on the edge of my seat. I even had to force myself to stop reading during the last couple of chapters so that I wouldn't stay up all night finishing the book. These qualities in themselves definitely put the book in the "decent" to "good" categories. However, after a couple of days of digesting the book and comparing it to The Stand, it really doesn't hold it's own when the two books are put side by side. I really consider The Stand to be one of King's masterworks that will stay with me for a long time while Cell is another one of his books which I've read and will soon forget.
Next Books:
Learning the World by Ken MacLeod
The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
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