Oh wow,

It hasn't even been a year since I finished this and I'm rereading again?

*******************

I'm not entirely certain what I can contribute in terms of thoughts about this enormous tome that hasn't already been expressed before. However, I came, I read, and I overcame the challenge. I truly relished the journey as well, which is quite significant considering my difficulty in devoting myself to such hefty books. :) I wonder if anyone knows whether there will be a new adaptation of this book into a screen production in the near future, or if the old mini-series is worthy of my time. In any case, I'm content and a little bit relieved to have completed it. <3 Thanks to everyone who urged me to make 2019 the year I picked up The Stand and to all those who encouraged me along the way.

One of my favorites by my favorite author, and one of the most complex and well-crafted. I'm not going to write 1000 words to convince you to read it. Just trust these few lines and my perfect rating. When I say it's among the very best of the best, it truly is. It's a fantastic piece of work by King. It's an essential read, moving, and exciting.

This book has so many layers and details that draw you in from the very beginning. The characters are vividly portrayed, and you can't help but become invested in their stories. The plot twists and turns keep you on the edge of your seat, and you never know what's going to happen next.

Stephen King has a unique ability to create a world that feels both real and otherworldly at the same time. His writing is engaging and accessible, yet it also has a depth and complexity that makes you think long after you've finished reading. If you're a fan of great literature, then this book is a must-read.

Dear God,

This was an incredibly large amount of information to get through. It felt like a never-ending task at times. But you know what? DAMN was it worth it!

The journey of going through all of this has been both challenging and rewarding. It has pushed me to my limits and made me grow in ways I never thought possible. And now that I've come out on the other side, I can look back and say WOW!

I'm so grateful for this experience and all that it has taught me. It has given me a new perspective and a deeper understanding of things. I know that I will carry this knowledge and these lessons with me for the rest of my life.

Meh.

I get the distinct impression that Stephen King was aiming for nothing short of crafting an updated, all-American rendition of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings epic in The Stand. However, the end result comes across as shallow, overly long, self-important, cheesy, and in some instances, a touch smug.

The sentences in The Stand seem to be rather self-satisfied, which can become quite irritating when one realizes they don't actually have that much substance to convey.

On the other hand, The Stand has amassed over 200,000 five-star reviews here at GR, many of which are from good and respected friends. So, there must be something about the book that eludes me.

Even I have to admit that it isn't entirely bad. King is a competent writer, and every now and then, the story manages to become downright interesting for a few pages, usually when either Larry Underwood or Randall Flagg is on the scene. For the most part, though, it's a bit of a yawn-inducing experience.

October 14, 2018 Review:

This is my second encounter with this absurdly lengthy piece of apocalyptic fiction. I'm still somewhat baffled as to why I chose to read it again (well, listen to it actually... I had someone read most of it to me this time through headphones directly into my ears). My review from two years ago is beneath, and it's honest. It reflects exactly how I felt when I finally reached the conclusion of the book.

I believe I hurried through the ending last time. In fact, I think I rushed through a significant portion of the book. It's long, you know? Like a million pages or something. It can be truly overwhelming. The first time I read it, I just wanted to finish. The book had exhausted me, and I was ready to throw in the towel, submit, cash in my chips, and call it a night.

This time, however, I didn't let that happen.

This time I listened to the first third or so of the book (Book I) and reacquainted myself with all the characters I'd met two years ago. It was an enjoyable experience getting to know some of these people again. Many of them I remembered vividly from before, while some seemed new once more. So I listened to all that stuff... and then I put the book down.

After a short break, I picked up where I left off and continued my journey west with these crazy survivors. The middle part felt a bit bloated and overcooked, but it was still good. I simply stopped when I noticed myself losing focus and went back to the story later.

When I reached the last act (The Stand!), I really slowed down. I took the exact opposite approach I used the first time around, and it paid off handsomely. I don't want to spoil anything, but spending a lot of time with a couple of characters slowly making their way west was probably the best part of the book for me. I completely missed it last time in my haste to reach the end, but taking the time to truly savor what was happening and let it sink in made me enjoy this so much more this time.

So, yes, read The Stand. Listen to it if you have to. Take your time and enjoy it. It's a massive undertaking, and it won't always be easy, but do it. If you consider yourself a King fan, you really have no excuse. He creates a beautiful world here with dozens of memorable characters and scenes that will stay with me for a long while. Some of his best writing is on display in certain sections of the book, especially when nothing scary is happening.

I'm glad I came back to this one, and I'm looking forward to reading more of his early works this month.

__________________

August 5, 2016 Review:

I once had the goal of reading every King book in the order of publication. I began with Carrie and worked my way through. When I got to The Stand, I was worried because the copy I had was the new 1200-page version. I'd always heard that this one was his best, so I finally gave it a try.

It started out fantastically. A virus sweeps across the country. There are several different storylines to follow. Everything was great until about a third of the way into the book. Stephen King connects all the stories together and then seems to drop everything. The book becomes extremely slow-paced, and nothing really happens.

After page after page of nothing, I finally reached the end. I was about 30 pages from the end, then 20, 10... and the book ended. There were no big surprises. No real climax. The big scary man wasn't scary at all. I closed the book and wondered how this could be considered a classic. So much more could have been done with this. It was a great idea, but it just didn't work out for me. Oh well.

Maybe I'll continue my quest through King's books. For now, I need a break.

**"The Stand" by Stephen King: A Comprehensive Analysis**

Stephen King's "The Stand" is an epic and captivating novel that spans a whopping 1440 pages. It is not your typical post-apocalyptic story as King builds the world of Dystopia from the ground up, rather than starting with a pre-packaged, already devastated society like many other popular novels.

The story begins in the 1990s in America, which is facing various issues such as an economic crisis, inflation, population growth, and a shortage of resources. In a government-owned military laboratory, a seemingly ordinary man witnesses a sudden death of everyone in the laboratory on the surveillance cameras. He manages to escape with his family just before the laboratory building's doors close automatically to contain the situation.

The next day, his car crashes at a gas station in the next state. Fortunately or unfortunately, Stu Redman notices the speeding car and quickly turns off the gas pumps to prevent an explosion. This incident marks the beginning of Captain Trips, The Plague, The Big One. King vividly describes how the disease spreads, almost as if from the perspective of the plague itself, in a detailed and eerie manner.

The symptoms start off as a common cold but quickly progress to all the complications of a severe flu, ultimately leading to the death of the patient. As the situation worsens, there is chaos and fear everywhere. The military imposes martial law, hospitals are overwhelmed with the sick and dying, and the media is in a frenzy. Before the end of the first book, 99% of the American population and, by extension, the world, has been wiped out. However, there are still 1% of survivors who were not affected by the plague.

The second book, "On the Border", sees the main characters from different states starting to move from the empty cities filled with the corpses of the millions who have died, towards their fates. But where exactly are they headed? This is the question. There is no longer a society, and a new one must be built from scratch. Here, King plays a game of inner conflict. Some people dream of a dark man who walks in the shadows, causing chills and fear to those who see him and tries to gather followers. Others dream of an old black woman, Abigail Freemantle, who believes that God has chosen her to live for a reason.

Abigail Freemantle takes on the role of guiding the survivors who will come to her, according to her vision from God, to the west to settle in a city she will name "The Free Zone" on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. Meanwhile, the other side chooses to go to Las Vegas, Nevada, to the dark man, the devil himself. Here, King presents a continuous debate throughout the events about societies and their formation. How can a society be run by a tyrannical devil who rules his subjects with fear and plans all his efforts on how to deal with others? And how can a society remain diverse and fragmented despite having good intentions, being democratic, but only trying to organize in a bureaucratic and ineffective way?

Most importantly, how can a good society prepare itself against the devil, the external enemy? Does it also start sending spies? Prepare for other weapons, perhaps biological or another plague? Why, after all these hardships (a deadly plague that humans created themselves), do they still have to face the devil?

The third and final book, "The Stand", is both the worst and the most beautiful part for me. It is the weakest and the most exciting at the same time. You might expect a long and bloody battle filled with heroic speeches and powerful religious quotes after reading more than 1100 pages. However, the actual events are much simpler and more profound than you might expect. The battles that take place between the characters and the devil, the Antichrist, and the exposure of his weaknesses in front of the power of faith and the shaking of his image in front of his followers are all worth reading.

The characters in "The Stand" are diverse and well-developed. Stu Redman represents the ordinary man on the street. Fran Goldsmith is a beautiful and gentle woman who shows great strength in the face of hardships, especially when she discovers she is pregnant and has to deal with her parents. Larry Underwood is a rock star and one of the favorite characters, perhaps because of his scenes with his mother, Alice Underwood. Nick Andros is a young deaf-mute orphan who shows great responsibility from the moment he appears. Glen Bateman is an old social scientist who can easily predict how the society of the survivors will be formed. Harold Lauder is a young, lonely, and intelligent man whose character development is masterfully written by King.

In conclusion, "The Stand" is a remarkable novel that takes you on a journey through a post-apocalyptic world, exploring themes such as good vs. evil, faith, society, and human nature. It is a must-read for any fan of Stephen King or anyone who enjoys a thought-provoking and engaging story.

The saying 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions' truly holds some truth. This book is nothing short of epic! I have had an absolute blast reading it. I have a soft spot for end of the world plotlines, and although there isn't anything here that we haven't read before (such as the world ending, minimal survivors forming tribes, making alliances, etc.), it felt like an ending I had never witnessed before. These characters are simply everything!

'We've become so used to the idea of the flu - it almost seems like a common cold, doesn't it?' Larry, Stu, Glen, Fran, Harold, Nick, Tom, and Ralph - an epilogue of people. I love how King breathes life into his everyday characters. There are no heroes or pageant queens here, just your regular folk with flaws and scars that leap off the pages and into your heart.

'But no one knows how long five minutes is in the dark; it might be fair to say that, in the dark, five minutes does not exist.' And when King gets dark, he really gets dark. Some parts of this book are downright terrifying! Rita and her strappy sandals could potentially haunt me until the end of time, and those scenes in the Lincoln Tunnel should definitely not be read at night! I cried in the stadium while singing the national anthem for the American dream that fled and the culture lag - my soul felt these scenes! This book is filled with so many emotions that it's exhausting!

'I wonder if we need to reinvent that whole tiresome business of gods and saviors and ever-afters before we reinvent the flushing toilet. That's what I'm saying. I wonder if this is the right time for gods.' And in true SK style, you can't have a book that doesn't mention and quote a ton of other books. I especially enjoyed the Watership Down references as I adore those wise bunnies.

'And it always, at the end, came round to the same place again.' I know, you're probably thinking about Men and Mice (or is it Mice and Men?), and so am I. For all our new normals, we always seem to start where we ended. Five superflu filled stars!

M-O-O-N. That spells “Damn, what a great book!”

I knew King had it in him. I am a fan of his brilliant 1977 haunted house thriller, The Shining. But I did not expect this. The best post-apocalyptic novel ever? Maybe. That is a broad category teaming with great work from talented writers. But King’s The Stand is an epic, genre-defining work.

My friend Michael has a profile statement, something to the effect of finding our next 5-star rating. I like that sentiment. And I am excited by the opportunity that our next favorite book is out there waiting to be read; a new best friend of an author to whom we’ve yet to be introduced. Here’s mine. I’m late to the party, just reading this for the first time in 2015. I think I was always a little intimidated by the length. It’s a beast, and I was a glutton for punishment reading the 1990 extended version, weighing in at a heavyweight 1153 pages. But it’s a runaway train, grabbing the reader up and taking him or her where Stephen King wants to take you.

Yes, it’s a book about a devastating plague, but also so, so much more. King weaves in an allegory about the viruses amongst us. There is also the spiritual quality of the book. King shows how we are sinners in the hands of an angry God, and that dreamers will survive – and survivors can still dream.

I could not help making a comparison with the Left Behind series, and associating Flagg to Nicholai Carpathia. Though King’s characterization is far more complex and well-rounded. And like Milton’s Satan, the most interesting character here is the villain. This makes me appreciate his The Gunslinger series and I want to search out Flagg and read more about him.

This is also an American epic and in its context an American eulogy. King shows us the good, the bad, and the ugly of what we are and what we can be. An observant reader will see references to Ursula K. LeGuin, to Jim Morison, Edgar Allan Poe, Woody Guthrie, and even Rod McKuen.

I know Mr. King and have enjoyed many of his works. And I have now been amazed by his finest.

A masterpiece of truly epic proportions! It is a book that I will never tire of rereading. This is my fourth time delving into this captivating story, and to be honest, it might just be my favorite time yet.

I took the time to carefully annotate it, and in doing so, I discovered so many new details that I may have overlooked in previous readings. This was particularly true when it came to our good friend, Randy Flagg.

There were aspects of the story that I had forgotten, and others that I remembered all too well but was dreading revisiting. Most notably, everything related to the scouting trips to the West pulled at all of my heartstrings.

My most hated character? That would have to be freaking Nadine Cross.

There are more thoughts brewing in my mind, so stay tuned!!!

Laws yes, laws yes, M-O-O-N, that spells 2 stars.

Stephen King wrote in his ‘Preface Part 2: To Be Read After Purchase’ that he added 400 pages to this unedited 1990 copyright of The Stand. I believe it was 500 pages too much. He says he added the extra pages at the behest of a majority of fans who considered The Stand one of his best books—though, personally, he doesn’t regard it as his best fiction. I’ve given King several other chances to capture my imagination, with only one success, The Long Walk. I figured I’d try King one last time, and so I went with what’s ostensibly the fan favorite. But once again, Stephen King came up short in the following areas.

Storyline. A post-apocalyptic world is a fertile context in which to reveal a fascinating, phenomenal environment, and it takes the imagination of a superstar to make it believable. King has the requisite imagination, but the story missed spectrums of opportunities to describe the process of the extermination of the human population. What we get instead is a relentless elaboration of all the vehicular accidents that occurred as people panicked and barreled straight into each other. There really was no description of the exodus, the run on supplies, the vigilanteism, the ad-hoc, grass-roots organization that must have banded together as societies’ institutions failed. There was no description of media’s spin and government’s intervention to fix the crisis, which the reader is aware happens all too often in catastrophes. King is happy to dedicate 400 pages to character development, and in the process isolates his characters from the carnage that is happening, transporting them cleanly to the other side of the apocalypse where everybody is already dead—in their cars apparently. How about increasingly desperate newscasts; some immunological forecasting where the charts and infection vectors are cobbled together by tired scientists; some scenes as the power dies, water pressure fails, hospitals surrender. Instead we get the National Guard deployed to cordon off cities, and machine gun nests manned by soldiers who were willing to accomplish their duties, despite that they would more realistically have abandoned guns and returned home to family. I think King missed a fecund opportunity to comment on human nature, the dark side of human nature, as they packed together like rats.

Characters. They were two-dimensional. With 400 additional pages and 20 main characters, one calculates that each person in this unabridged version would get 20 extra pages of detailed character development. That’s probably true, but King didn’t mature the characters. He used those extra pages merely to place them into more action. Consequently, none of the characters grew—none made profound statements of the human condition. The emotional breakdowns were weak. The fright was hollow. The good guys and bad were stereotyped and their development was heavy-handed; in other words, the characters were not leading independent lives, they were doing exactly as Stephen King’s pen dictated. The evil man overacted his part, and was thereby flat and unbelievable.

Denouement. To say the ending was anticlimactic is an understatement. The different threads of the story came to the same stitch, but it was messy and rushed. We come about 1030 pages not knowing how it’s going to end, we’re given a big clue, then it pans out exactly how you would have guessed 98 times out of a 100. There are 2 pages of what the world-to-come may look like from the different character perspectives, and yet King fails again to make resounding, sweeping, vitriolic summaries of the human condition. No warnings to mankind. No predictions. No lessons to the reader.

What gristle, then, are you supposed to take away from this book? I don’t know. I was never spooked, chilled, frightened, or even discomforted. I learned nothing about the dimension and capacity of humans in the land of post-apocalypse. I never empathized with any of the characters. Now, for 1153 pages, that’s not worth it.

New words: drumlin, nonce, caul, jocund, yatter, treacly, gymkhana, rugose, intaglio, blatting.

The Stand Abridged: 5 Stars
The Stand Unabridged: 3.5 to 4 Stars

I hope that Goodreads allows both of my star ratings for this book to go through as I already rated The Stand Abridged years ago. But in case it doesn't, I'm combining my review of the two into one.

The original Stand is one of my top three favorite books of all time. The other two being Brave New World and 1984. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories. I don't think The Stand is the best introduction to Stephen King. That would be Salem's Lot or The Dead Zone. But it's a great story of good vs evil that showcases King's writing skills to the extreme. Other than a slow spot in the middle (Free Zone), it's perfectly paced and un-put-downable.

That's where my issue with the Unabridged version lies. I've seen other reviews complaining about the same thing. Some even say that the abridged version is their favorite King book, while the Unabridged is their least favorite. There's just too much extra content! The editors were right to cut down some of the extended scenes as they slow the pace significantly of what was a thrilling book. The extensive scenes at the beginning and in the middle felt never-ending. The already slow part I mentioned is now almost 400 pages long! The best-paced part was the action-packed final 200 pages or so, which were almost the same as in the abridged version. In fact, all the parts I enjoyed the most were in the abridged version, and I don't think it was just due to familiarity.

Another problem caused by the extended parts is that we lose touch with the characters for a much longer time than before. Several times I found myself asking, "Where is so and so? It's been ages since we heard what was happening to them." This made me lose my connection with some of the minor characters as they're now overshadowed by the major characters. Also, most of the added parts related to the good guys, making the storylines of the bad guys seem like an afterthought. Probably the best new part was Trashcan Man and The Kid as it filled in the blanks for Trashcan Man's journey across America. However, it makes it more obvious that Trashy is barely in the rest of the book, which I didn't notice when I read the abridged version.

In conclusion, I think if I didn't have the abridged version to compare it to, the Unabridged might have been a 4.5 or 5-star book. But with the 5-star abridged version available, it's no competition. While it's interesting to learn more about the characters, it throws off the pacing and makes it more of a chore to read rather than a joy.

I have a deep affection for this book. I read the uncut version several years ago when I resided in the States, perhaps around 2002. I adored almost everything about it, with the exception of the ending. I am a huge fan of Stephen King and possess 23 of his books on my shelf. It seems that Stephen King can only manage to pen a good ending to a book by chance. Having said that, the initial 95% of his books is generally so outstanding that I can overlook the ending.

One of the aspects I cherish the most about King's writing is the manner in which he infuses life into characters and everyday settings. For a horror writer, this is of utmost importance. You must make everything completely believable so that when the monster emerges and the stakes are heightened, the reader feels as if it is all real and cares deeply about what is at stake. The short story, "The Body," upon which the film "Stand By Me" is based, is a prime example of King's genius in creating complex, flawed, awkward, and real characters.

Anyway, "The Stand" is not a typical King work as the main core of it is an apocalypse, and the supernatural horror element is rather secondary and subdued for most of the story. The apocalypse is a believable one, a flu pandemic with a mortality rate so high that only a minuscule fraction of the population survives. King dismantles the world in a terrifyingly slow motion, playing on our fears of pandemics, and it is simultaneously horrifying, touching, and fascinating. King is extremely adept at gradually pulling apart everyday reality.

The cast of characters who survive this catastrophe is substantial, diverse, and captivating. There is a pyromaniac with a plethora of mental issues, a man with learning disabilities, a singer on the verge of achieving stardom, and others who are more ordinary but no less interesting under pressure.

The literary institutions of this world often look down on horror writers as much as they do on fantasy writers, but I find King's prose and insights into the human condition to be as potent as those in many of the more tedious works of literary fiction that I have read. Readers often fail to notice this because it is not what they expected. However, King is intrigued by people and how pressure affects them.

“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don't.” King showcases to us the inception of the disaster, plots its progression through his scattered and diverse cast, and slowly brings those characters together into two communities in the aftermath.

The two communities that we focus on center around the supernatural aspect of the book. One of them is the abode of the 'good' folk, and the other is home to the 'bad'. The bad camp is ruled over by Randal Flagg, who appears in quite a few of King's books, especially "The Dark Tower".

The book concludes with the battle between these two camps, and ultimately, the ending was a bit unsatisfying for me, although it was by no means terrible. The journey leading up to that ending, however, was a fascinating thrill ride and well worth the price of admission!

If you have never delved into Stephen King's works before, then this is an excellent place to start - but be forewarned, it is perhaps the longest of his books, with a page count that can rival GRRM at his most verbose.

Join my Patreon
Join my 3 - emails - a - year newsletter #prizes