I am a veteran of about 15 or so different King novels and I have to say that Under the Dome really was on the low end of the quality spectrum.  The premise to me sounded really interesting and I was pleased to receive the book as a gift this Christmas.  Much like favorites like the Stand and Needful Things, UTD starts of with a lot of intrigue but really fails to deliver any payoff.To sum up the plot I would liken this novel to a combination of Storm of the Century and Needful Things.  It relies heavily on the Stephen King theme of entrapment and the moral and social conflicts that can arise.  King loves to trap his characters in various ways whether it be in bondage, a storm, mist, vagabond trucks, a crazy dog, or in this case, an invisible dome.  The basic premise of the story is very similar to that of The Mist or Needful Things with how the town dynamics change after the Dome falls and the rise of the villain(s).  Its the standard "everyone has some dark secrets under their normal demeanor" story.  But unfortunately like other King novels, nothing really happens in Dome.In the afterword King responds that in this book he was really trying to keep the pedal to the metal and that his editor pushed that sentiment.  My questions are what pedal and where was the metal???  He also admits that the book was a dinosaur and his editor was responsible for the 1075 page "more manageable" tome we see now.  Makes me wonder how long and boring it was originally?The Good:The concept was kind of interesting.  In typical King fashion you have no idea why the Dome exists or what it is so you get kind of drawn in pretty quick.Some characters are fairly interesting in the classic King way.It's not a terribly challenging read.The Bad:Too many of the characters are rigid and devoid of any depth or intrigue.  Most characters are just introduced only to be slaughtered so the reader quickly loses interest in most of them.The main villain is quite weak and very unbelievable at times.You don't really care about the main characters at all.Lots of filler content.  Probably 300+ pages of needless story.The Ugly:It's way too long.  I am not adverse to a 1000+ page book but so little happens it's unnecessary.  The book takes place in a about a week and the payoff ending occupies about 30 of those pages.  Quite ridiculous.  Needful Things had a lot more going on in fewer pages.  Because of the size of this story and lack of substance it is easy to get bored.  The filler gets annoying too.  Usually just a lot of meaningless characters doing nothing of any value to the story just being paraded in front of you.  They may add some human quality to the story but are ultimately un-needed.Worse, the book is ridiculously heavy.  Boring and heavy, not a good combo.Lastly, the ending, like many King novels to me, is incredibly weak.  The standard I find for King, and what I love, is that he creates amazing life like characters I feel like I know and care for, and then builds a thrilling tale over 2 acts.  Almost universally I find that King struggles with the 3rd act and the ending.  He has let me down quite a few times in several stories with seemingly simple solutions to what he presented as a complex thrilling problem.  UTD is exactly that just minus the thrilling buildup.  I never felt like any tension was building in this novel.  In fact it worked opposite to that.  The first several hundred pages were very tension fueled as no one seemed to know what was going on but once you were introduced to the cardboard characters and got used tot he Dome the story really calms down and just doesn't move much for about 500 or so pages.  Worse the main villain is entirely predictable and boring.  His plots unfold too neatly and the reader will not believe he is as convincing as King tries to make him.  Probably King's worst Antagonist ever.  Plus the ultimate ending left a lot of questions unanswered and was so overly simplistic it didn't reward the reader for those 1000 pages in any way.  It was typical to King in some ways but there was virtually no lead up to it.  It just pretty much happened and any foreshadowing of these events were buried in 100s of pages of meaningless text.I just felt the ending was a cheap cop out and in an ironic way made much of the story unnecessary because it seems the residents could have resolved the problem far quicker and with less chaos than they ended up facing.  In other words most of those who die died unnecessarily.  Worse, the ending doesn't really resolve the biggest question the reader will have.My final verdict is that if the book had been shorter, I am thinking maybe 700 pages, then it would have been paced better and could have been more rewarding.  But as it is the book is just too long, too slow, and too simple to be a rewarding read for hardcore King fans.If you are new to King I would not recommend this read.  It would turn you off completely.  GO to the Stand, Needful Things, Hearts in Atlantis, etc...  For existing fans, well, just be warned that it's one of his longest train wrecks to date.  King admits he tried to write this story back in the 70's and gave up on it.  Maybe even today the project was just too ambitious even for him.  Any experienced King reader will recognize all of the themes in this book whether they be political, moral, religious, emotional, supernatural, etc.  You have met all these characters before just in more vivid detail elsewhere.King was capable of much better.  My rating would be a 2.5 star because I found about half the book to be enjoyable to some degree.  Despite the weak characters there were some elements of King's voice in there.  His characters were merely shallow vehicles for his obvious emotional opinions of the world in which we live.  The conflicts he tried (and mostly failed in my opinion) to achieve represent King's own personal struggles with the world.He commentates (usually indirectly) on Political corruption, religious fundamentalism, censorship, human dominance or submissiveness, addiction, etc.  While I was not crazy about the story, and in most ways felt it failed to entertain, I did find some enjoyment of exploring these themes in King's mind.  The final scenes of the ending represent a strong King theme (and obvious opinion) buried in an abrupt and out of the blue ending.  At least King left the reader with a chance to salvage something from the stroy despite it's obvious shortcomings. 

Question: How long is this book?
Answer: I am a veteran of about 15 or so different King novels