When you think of Stephen King's novels, political undertones don't generally come to mind. He dabbles with social allegory in some of his earlier works like The Long Walk, The Running Man, and The Stand, but the bulk of his output has been of the "ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances" variety. With his latest novel, Under the Dome, he comes out swinging -- perhaps too late -- with a cautionary tale of what happens when our leaders' political ambition, blind faith, and raging incompetence block the way of effective governance.

Let's begin with the dome. It's a beautiful day in Chester's Mill, Maine (pop. 2000), when an invisible, impenetrable dome descends along the borders of the town, cutting off the population from the rest of the world. The dome is just permeable enough for air and water to pass through but not enough that the wind blows. The river becomes a marsh in a couple of days.

King masterfully explores the physical and environmental ramifications of the dome: air slowly moves in and out, but particulate matter like smoke is trapped. Since the town is cut off from the electrical grid, they turn to kerosene generators for power, and the pollution begins to accumulate on the inside of the dome, giving it a smeary, sooty sheen. It's a brilliant, ominous touch, not to mention a nod to the real-life climate crisis.

Inside the town, the normally pragmatic, self-reliant New Englanders are fanned to a fearful frenzy by the machinations of Second Selectman Big Jim Rennie who bullies the incompetent First Selectman into expanding the size and powers of the tiny police force to absurd levels. It's martial law couched in "public safety," and Big Jim is clearly a small-town Dick Cheney. His power grab isn't all that it seems, though. Big Jim and some of the other town officials have a dirty secret.

As for the dome, it's simply a plot device to isolate the town: its cause isn't even explored until the last third of the novel. As the real enemy remains anonymous, the self-serving, short-sighted politicians become the monsters; the fearful people who blindly follow them become the enemy. Lord of the Flies said it best, but Under the Dome says it again: the worst of human nature emerges and is amplified (ants under a magnifying glass?) when people try to govern themselves in a vacuum.

King is a master storyteller at the top of his game, and Under The Dome is a fantastic page turner with a superb level of character development and detail. These people feel real, and what happens to them could happen (minus the supernatural dome, of course). During the Bush/Cheney era, we came as close to it as we ever have as our fear-mongering leaders, fighting a faceless enemy, ignored human rights and rolled back our freedoms in the name of security. Let's hope we're not back there any time soon. Under the Dome is Stephen King's best novel in years.