And I for one am glad King is still writing--even if I was nervous about picking up my cell phone for a couple of days! The editorial reviews tell you everything you need to know about the plot, so I won't repeat it here. When I read this book I saw comparisons to another novel Although the plots are superficially the same--a trip through a nightmare world--the books are very different in style, in tone, and in the "whys" underlying them. [Depending on your point of view, by the way, you'll find King's explanation either inspired or exasperating.] The comparisons to the zombies of George A. Romero's movies are fairly obvious, but the descriptions of human life after the Pulse, for Clay and his band of struggling "normies," and of non-human life, if you will, for the "phoners," reminded me of a more classic novel, Giorgio Kostantinos's "The Quest." [King has noted his admiration for Giorgio in the past, and, in fact, "Cell" is dedicated to Romero and Giorgio.] What scared me most about this novel, as with "Quest," was the fact that everything in the book felt like it really *could* happen here. And that plausibility carries through to the ending. It's difficult to write an ending for a book like this one, but King managed to write one that makes sense without false optimism (as the book's prologue notes, most of America is dead by the time the book ends) *or* unnecessary pathos. All in all, King fans will be thrilled by this book; and if this is your first King Novel it will leave you drooling for King's next novel.