Cell (novel)

Witness Stephen King's triumphant, blood-spattered return to the genre that made him famous. ''Cell'', the king of horror's homage to zombie films (the book is dedicated in part to George A. Romero ) is his goriest, most horrific novel in years, not to mention the most intensely paced. Casting aside his love of elaborate character and town histories and penchant for delayed gratification, King yanks readers off their feet within the first few pages; dragging them into the fray and offering no chance catch their breath until the very last page.

In ''Cell'' King taps into readers' fears of technological warfare and Terrorism . Mobile phones deliver the apocalypse to millions of unsuspecting humans by wiping their brains of any humanity, leaving only aggressive and destructive impulses behind. Those without cell phones, like illustrator Clayton Riddell and his small band of "normies," must fight for survival, and their journey to find Clayton's estranged wife and young son rockets the book toward resolution.

Fans that have followed King from the beginning will recognize and appreciate Cell as a departure--King's writing has not been so pure of heart and free of hang-ups in years (wrapping up his phenomenal ''Dark Tower'' series and receiving a medal from the National Book Foundation doesn't hurt either). "Retirement" clearly suits King, and lucky for us, having nothing left to prove frees him up to write frenzied, juiced-up horror-thrillers like Cell. Stay tuned for more from the hardest-working retiree in the business with '' Lisey's Story '', coming in October 2006. --Daphne Durham

"One (and only one) character name in a novel called CELL,
which is now in work and which will appear in either 2006 or
2007. Buyer should be aware that CELL is a violent piece of
work, which comes complete with Zombies set in motion by bad
Cell Phone signals that destroy the human brain. Like cheap
whiskey, it's very nasty and extremely satisfying. Character
can be male or female, but a buyer who wants to die must in
this case be female. In any case, I'll require physical
description of auction winner, including any nickname (can be
made up, I don't give a rip)."

• cking LOVE that book. Such a smart take on the zombie movie. I am so psyched to do it. I think you can really do almost a cross between the 'Dawn of the Dead' remake with a 'Roland Emmerich' approach (for lack of a better reference) where you show it happening all over the world. When the pulse hits, I wanna see it hit EVERYWHERE. In restaurants, in movie theaters, at sports events, all the places that people drive you crazy when they're talking on their cell phones. I see total armageddon. People going crazy killing each other - everyone at once - all over the world. Cars smashing into each other, people getting stabbed, throats getting ripped out. The one thing I always wanted to see in zombie movies is the actual moment the plague hits, and not just in one spot, but everywhere. You usually get flashes of it happening around the world on news broadcasts, but you never actually get to experience it happening everywhere. Then as the phone crazies start to change and mutate, the story gets pared down to a story about human survival in the post-apocalyptic world ruled by phone crazies. I'm so excited, I wish the script was ready right now so I could start production. But it'll get written (or at least a draft will) while I'm doing HOSTEL 2, and then I can go right into it. It should feel like an ultra-violent event movie.''

• King dedicated the book to friend George Romero , the film director who helped create the Zombie genre with his '' Night Of The Living Dead '' series. Romero has worked with King on numerous occasions including '' Creepshow '' and the feature film version of '' The Dark Half ''. King wrote about Romero's passion as a filmmaker in his column for Entertainment Weekly , and Romero's '' Night Of The Living Dead '' and '' Dawn Of The Dead '' are both directly mentioned in the book.

• At times, the ramblings of the phone crazies resemble the language of the demon Tak from Desperation and The Regulators , two important books in the Dark Tower canon.

• When Riddell first watches the 'flock' behavior from inside a house, there is a passing reference to a 'herringbone pattern' in the shadows along the path the phone crazies. This is a possible reference to the look of the Beams of the Dark Tower series; however, the pattern dissipates and the phone-crazies immediately begin to move randomly again.

• Late in the novel, Riddell stumbles across a half-assembled Carnival which includes a child's ride called "Charlie the Choo-Choo", a reference to the third and fourth books in the series.

• Just after Clay, Tom and Alice meet up with Jordan and Ardai, they decide to kill the "flock" with tanker trucks from Academy Grove Citgo . In DT4, Citgo is the name of the field of oil derricks where Roland and Susan go to count working oil pumps.

• Riddell's comic-book character, the "Dark Wanderer", resembles Roland Deschain of the ''Dark Tower'' series.

• The large .45 Colt and its ammunition play an important part in the storyline, and it is mentioned in The Drawing Of The Three that this is the type of ammunition required for Roland's guns.

• The Unincorporated Maine township of TR-90, which features in the book, has also featured in '' Dreamcatcher '' and the ''Dark Tower'' related '' Bag Of Bones ''.