This was an epic and truly great story.

The story commenced with the leak of a weaponized virus from a Department of Defense laboratory situated in northern California. One of the security personnel, completely unaware of his infection, casually sneaked off the Army base along with his family just before the lockdown procedures were activated.

Subsequently, the highly contagious virus spread like wildfire throughout the rest of the world, ultimately resulting in a post-apocalyptic setting.

The story began with this incredibly suspenseful opening and then transitioned to various characters and how the virus spread to wreak havoc and devastation on the world. There were multiple key players, each with their own backstories.

Initially, they could seem quite overwhelming and at times left me wondering 'Where is this going?' However, as the story progressed, it became evident that they were all interconnected.

The aftermath brought to the forefront themes of good versus evil in the people and their interactions. These opposing forces clashed throughout the book, creating a truly captivating and cool story.

Stephen King did an outstanding job of skillfully weaving together human character and emotion, horror, suspense, all manner of violence, tragedy, and dark fantasy.

I would highly recommend this book, but one must be patient while reading it. Thanks!

The Stand is a captivating novel that explores various themes in the aftermath of a devastating pandemic. The story begins with the development of a highly contagious and lethal influenza strain as a biological weapon in a secret U.S. Department of Defense laboratory. After a security breach, Charles Campion manages to escape with his family, carrying the virus with them.

The novel delves into the lives of the survivors, highlighting their struggles and the new normal they must adapt to. It presents a systematic dualism, with many characters mirroring each other in unprecedented ways. The characters are also driven by their conflicting dreams, one involving an old woman in Nebraska and the other, the mysterious Randall Flagg.

The importance of individual will is questioned, as the survivors grapple with the arbitrary forces embodied by Abagail Freemantle and Randall Flagg, and the role of chance. The novel also explores the concept of belonging to a community and the challenges of recreating society.

While the novel has its strengths, such as well-developed characters and a steadily building suspense, it also has some shortcomings. The female psychology could have been explored more deeply, and the preaching at the end of Book 1 and the beginning of Book 2 can be a bit dull. Additionally, too much description of Randall Flagg is given too early, perhaps undermining the build-up of the character.

Overall, The Stand is a thought-provoking and immersive read that offers insights into human nature and the resilience of society in the face of disaster.

\\n  “The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there...and still on your feet.”\\n

Soundtrack:
Sad But True - Metallica



\\n  Times Square, April 2020 - Angela Weiss Agence France-Presse\\n


\\n  A homeless person pushes his belongings through a deserted Times Square in Manhattan, New York, March 23, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri\\n


The story in short:

An extremely contagious and lethal strain of influenza is developed as a biological weapon in a secret U.S. Department of Defense laboratory in northern California. Following a security breach, sentry Charles Campion manages to escape before the facility is locked down. He takes his family out of the state. Along with the superflu. The story deals with fate of the survivors of this ghastly pandemic : the actual focus of the novel is not on the pandemic, but on how people cope with the new normal.


De triomf van de dood (The Triumph of Death) - Pieter Bruegel the Elder


1. Systematic dualism

Many characters in The Stand happen to... mirror one another. To the point it is actually unprecedented in any book I have read so far:

Tom Cullen - Trashcan Man
Randall Flagg - Abagail Freemantle
Leo - Dinny
Stu Redman - LLoyd
Frances - Nadine


2. Rationalism/Irrational

The characters in this story are driven by their dreams. Conflicted dreams at that: one about an old woman living in Nebraska, another one involving the multifarious, shapeshifting, faceless, thousand-named Randall Flagg.


The Demon Seated, Mikhail Vrubel, 1890

“He walked south, south on US 51, the worn heels of his sharp-toed cowboy boots clocking on the pavement; a tall man of no age in faded, pegged jeans and a denim jacket. His pockets were stuffed with fifty different kinds of conflicting literature – pamphlets for all seasons, rhetoric for all reasons.”

At some point, the survivors question the fondations of rationalism. Reason came out of the epidemic as severely unravelled, if not frayed.

As a reader, I have to wonder what is the importance of individual will, compared to the arbitrary, embodied by Abagail Freemantle and Randall Flagg, and relatively to happenstance?

“What we do and what we think ... those things are often based on arbitrary judgments when they are right. I can't get over that. It's like a block in my throat, how all true logic seems to proceed from irrationality. From faith. I'm not making much sense, am I?\\"

\\"The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance ... or change.”

\\n  Magician, 1943 - Nicholas Roerich\\n


3. Belonging to a community

'Recreating society by means fair and foul'

“Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.”

“We're a bunch of survivors with no government at all. We're a hodgepodge collection from every age group, class group, and racial group. Government is an idea, Stu. That's really all it is, once you strip away the bureaucracy and the bullshit. I'll go further. It's an inculcation, nothing but a memory path worn through the brain.”

4. Eternal return

“'It's been suggested by colleagues even more fanciful than I that Western Man needs an occasional high colonic, a purging, and this occurs at the end of the centuries so that he can face the new century clean and full of optimism.”

5. Shortcomings of the novel in my opinion:

M-O-O-N. That spells Terrific

I have had this book sitting on my shelf for what seems like an eternity. In fact, based on a receipt I discovered stuck within its pages dating back to May 1984, I believe I began reading it but never completed it. With the COVID-19 pandemic persisting, it appeared to be the perfect moment to unearth this book and give it a proper read. Comparing Stephen King's apocalyptic portrayal to the actual events unfolding around us is quite an interesting exercise.

In the novel, a man manages to flee from a government biological testing facility, leading to the dissemination of a mutated strain of the flu. This flu has the devastating potential to eradicate 99% of humanity within just a few weeks. The survivors are then left to grapple with the arduous task of rebuilding society. Besides having endured this flu, they share another commonality - they all have dreams. They dream of a 108-year-old woman who implores them to establish a new community in Boulder, Colorado. This is Mother Abagail, who emerges as their kind and benevolent leader. They also dream of Randall Flagg, also known as The Dark Man. He embodies evil and is in the process of constructing a community in Las Vegas.

It is not difficult to draw parallels with the Bible. Even the survivors can be considered sinners, and it seems as if God is angry. However, there is still hope. It is a classic tale of good versus evil. Fortunately, COVID-19 is nowhere near as catastrophic as the pandemic that Stephen King unleashed in this story. I truly hope that we will all emerge victorious and that things will eventually return to normal, whatever the new normal may look like.

It's widely regarded as the greatest novel of all time. The story within its pages has the power to transport readers to a different world, filled with vivid characters and captivating plotlines.

Every time I have the pleasure of revisiting this novel, it's as if I'm reuniting with old friends. The characters are so well-developed that they seem to come alive in my imagination. I find myself completely invested in their lives, sharing in their joys and sorrows.

The author's writing style is truly masterful, painting a detailed and immersive picture that keeps me hooked from the very first page. It's no wonder that this novel has stood the test of time and continues to be beloved by readers of all ages.

The Stand is truly one of my all-time favorite books, and I firmly believe it to be the most unforgettable. It has a unique charm that draws readers in and keeps them hooked from beginning to end.

If you are a die-hard Stephen King fan, then this book is an absolute must-read. It showcases King's remarkable storytelling skills and his ability to create complex and engaging characters.

Moreover, if you have a passion for stories that explore the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, The Stand is the perfect choice. It delves deep into the human psyche and presents a vivid and thought-provoking picture of the battle between the forces of light and darkness.

In conclusion, whether you are a SK enthusiast or simply a lover of great literature, The Stand is a book that you cannot afford to miss. It will leave a lasting impression on you and will surely become one of your most cherished reads.

I’ve said before that romance fiction taps into a primal desire for comfort. It’s a fantasy, a snuggie to wrap up in while curled up with hot chocolate and toasty roadhouse cookies. The Stand falls squarely into that category, and adds hot rum to the mix as well.

The subtitle of The Stand really should be A Very Norman Rockwell Apocalypse. It’s a political fantasy set in the aftermath of a GM plague: a mutating flu virus with 99.4% transmissibility. Needless to say, 75% of the world’s population dies. Well, as far as we know, since the novel is set in the US, and except for maybe two widely separated sentences in its 1000+ pages of text that tangentially mention the spread of the virus to China and Russia, the rest of the globe is one huge blank.

It is not only a political fantasy, but it is a particularly American political fantasy. The trajectory of the novel could be described by this triptych of American Gothic. First picture: Standard American Gothic; Second picture: American Gothic zombified; Third picture: American Gothic with Uncle Sam and the Statute of Liberty.

The crux of the conflict is between the good guys (who proceed to set up a Kumbaya egalitarian republic) and the bad guys (who run a pseudo-religious dictatorship/cult). The good guys are gathered in by Mother Abigail, an African-American woman (and the only significant person of colour in the entire book I believe), who plays the obligatory role of Virgin Mary/Mother Goddess/Earth Mother. The bad guys are led by Randall Flagg, a persona of pure evil, the Antichrist in all but name.

Now I’ve nothing against comforting fantasy. It’s clearly hit some kind of sweet spot with a lot of Goodreaders. Good wins out, of course, and if you think that this is a spoiler, well then you’ve been living under rock for a century (this is Stephen King for crying out loud, not Thomas Mann).

But what made the whole thing an indigestible corn syrupy mess for me is that it’s essentially founded on the idea that Bad People do Bad Things Cause They’re Possessed by the DEVIL. Seriously. Randall Flagg has this weird power over people where he takes over their minds. Yeah, it’s true that bad people are attracted to him even if they also find him repulsive. But King makes it clear that Flagg has some kind of occult power to influence them.

Now, if this was ultimately about Flagg getting into a fisty-cuffs with Mother Abigail, with her using her own weird (but good weird) occult power to control her minions in some kind of heavenly smack-down, I would be okay with that. But it’s not. The forces of egalitarian righteousness are Good Simple Salt-of-the-Earth folk exercising their God-Given Freewill, laws yes they are! (One of them talks that way, I kid you not.) The spineless terrorised people under one Flagg are, on the other hand, mindless zombie spawn about to unleash nuclear Armageddon on the US of A.

And that just really pisses me off. Because in all of human history, it’s always been the rallying cry that the Other Side are in league with the Devil. That’s what makes it okay to rip out their guts, rape their wives, and bash out their babies’ brains. Hey, cause they’re not people, like us. When really, all it is is that that they aren’t people like us.

That they aren’t people is such a sweet little fantasy. And one of the most vile and deadly ones too. It's sad to see it be perpetuated here. For shame, Stephen King! For shame!

Considering the popularity of this book, there is no need for me to make this overly long. Therefore, I will simply share my feelings and impressions while reading it.

The first half of this book reads like a classic Stephen King novel. All hell has broken loose, and he has provided a great deal of exposition, similar to having a front-row seat for anyone curious about how the world might end in meticulously written high-definition detail. It is truly a class act. However, I did find myself getting bored and/or transfixed by the world-building and character development in equal measures.

The second half deals with how the various remaining forces of good and evil have chosen to remake the wasteland of the world in their respective images. I think my problem with this read was that I went into it with expectations of mythic proportions. Nevertheless, I will still recommend this for both Stephen King die-hards who have yet to pick this up and general post-apocalyptic fans out there who will love a very interesting and immersive experience of world-building and character development with truly macabre tints.

2022 Read

Unbelievable! I don't think I should write a full review as I know I won't be done by next week. Uncle Steve did not disappoint. This man truly knows how to write a great book, time and time again.

I purchased The Stand a few years ago, but I was never really keen on reading it. I was daunted by the number of pages it had. [Yes, I'm a bit of a coward, alright]. I loathe myself for not picking it up earlier, but that's just the way it is. Anyhow, I've finally finished it. It took me a few months, but that's okay, lol.

If you've never read a book by Stephen King before, I highly recommend starting with The Stand. You won't be disappointed, trust me. And please don't be intimidated by the page count like I was. I'm just a wimp.

ANYWAY,,,,

I give this book

FIVE FUCKING STARS!!!!!!

The Stand by Stephen King is a book that left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, it has some of the elements that make King's work great, like real and relatable characters, underdogs, and minute details that add a sense of nostalgia. However, on the other hand, it was a 1,400-page journey that I found mostly boring.

The opening, which focused on the start of the flu, had potential but felt underdeveloped. I would have liked to see more of the panic and chaos that would have ensued. Instead, it was just hinted at, which was a letdown. The Satan versus God war also felt like total bullshit, and I think King does better with general Good Vs. Evil stories.

Randall Flagg was another disappointment. He seemed lame compared to other King villains like Brady Hartsfield. The book also had consistency and continuity errors, and the ending was hugely unsatisfying. Many character arcs were never given legitimate conclusions.

Despite all this, there were some high points. The chapter that glimpsed the second wave and the non-survivor types was absolute gold. The Kid was also a highlight, and I'm baffled as to why he wasn't in the original. But overall, The Stand didn't live up to my expectations.

I don't know if it's a matter of the book not aging well or if I just didn't connect with it. Maybe I would have liked it more if I had read it 30 years ago when it was first released. But as it stands, I was disappointed.

“In America even scummy douchebags like you should be able to catch a cold.”

M-O-O-N, that spells unpopular opinion. I do have oh so many of those. Laws, yes.

2.5 stars rounded up to three. I don't want to write this review. Really I don't. I don't want to say that this is far and away my least favorite King book ever. I don't want to tell you that the Satan versus God war was total bullshit, or that King does much better when he writes general Good Vs. Evil stories.

I don't want to tell you that Randall Flagg is totally lame. That Brady Hartsfield would bend Flagg over his knee and give him a fucking spanking and send him off to his room without supper.

“To be polite, she sipped a little more of the dreadful Kool-Aid.”

But I have to say these things you see, because The Stand is 1,400 pages of boredom. I did not drink the dreadful Kool-Aid.

I have been thinking long and hard about this. Pretty much ever since the book started. (That was on April 15. Laws, yes, almost two weeks ago.) And I can't precisely articulate what exactly it is that I find so boring about it.

“That was the whole world, after all, nothing but thoughts and plots.”

Maybe because so much time was spent on the opening, on the beginning of the flu. Was the flu horrifying? Yeah, in a “Oh God what if this happened for real?” sort of way… Could King have done more with it? Why, Laws yes, I think he could have. I would have liked to see the panic overtake the cities, the mass exodus, the cars crashing, the people stomping each other into the dirt and turning ugly in a fight for survival, the panic power of a single sneeze in a crowded room.

King, your Constant Reader knows you are capable of this. Instead I was given passing references to the military blocking off roads and shooting people down, a code name for a super secret evil government plan that didn't seem like it ever manifested. It was all hinted at. I don't like you when you're subtle Steve. I much prefer when you take all the ugly people are capable of and slap me across the face with it. That's just the kind of girl I am. Maybe I've got a little R.F. on my shoulder.

“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.”

But that's not all. I was more than a little annoyed at the hints of brilliance, being reminded of what was to come. I saw the beginnings of Cujo in there, The Kid trapped in a hot car surrounded by evil wolves. I might have glimpsed pieces of Dreamcatcher. The beginnings of Under the Dome, little ideas sprinkled all around. All these quotes I've included? I highlighted 30 others, and will cherish them all. But a 1,400 page book has to be more than a string of good quotes. Maybe it's a matter of not aging well, I don't know. Might I have liked this if I had read it 30 years ago, when it was first released? Yeah, maybe. As it stands, I was disappointed, and maybe that isn't fair, but it is what it is.

All my favorite things about King's work are there. The characters being real people, average Joes and Janes. The underdogs. The minute details, the Baby, Can You Dig Your Man's? The pure nostalgia of his work. And somehow they didn't come together in a way that made me love any of it. Did I love Glen? Sure. Nick? Sure. Tom Cullen? Yes. Kojak? You can bet on it. But Larry, Stu, Ralph, Joe, Lucy, Abagail? I really didn't care. They were, to quote the book, No Great Loss.

“The flu didn't just leave survivor types, why the hell should it?”

I think my problem, in the end, was the distance between the good and the evil here. There's something wildly impersonal about this story. Randall Flagg wants to be evil just for the sake of being evil. Brady Hartsfield is the same, but he's not afraid to do his own dirty work. In fact, he wouldn't have it any other way. Mind-fucking people into being bad for you just doesn't carry the same weight as Brady throttling a car into a crowd of people in need, just because he can. Just because he wants the world to suffer with him.

There were some high points. That chapter that glimpses the second wave? The non-survivor types the world left behind? Absolute gold. As far as I'm concerned, it was the best chapter in the book. That, was what I wanted more of. If we're going to use third person omniscient, we should be using it for exactly this. The Kid? From what I understand, he wasn't in the original, which baffles me, because he too, was one of the highlights. Like a Junior Rennie with his brain fully intact.

“That was an act of pure human fuckery.”

There were consistency/continuity errors. The ending was hugely unsatisfying. Many character ARCs are never given legitimate conclusions. I now understand why people thought King couldn't write women. At one point the Stu offers to get Frannie a washing machine. A washing machine, for when the electricity comes back on so she won't have to break her back doing all the laundry. And what does she do? She throws her arms around him and kisses him. Uh-uh. Not in my house Stu Redman. You better get yourself a goddamn washing machine or you better find a fucking time machine and travel back to 1958.

Beyond all that, it was incredibly messy for a King book. There were the bizarre alternating timelines spliced into the middle, sudden in their appearance and just as sudden in their disappearance.

“After all, the only practical compensation for having a nightmare is waking up and realizing it was all just a dream.”

The foreshadowing and the supernatural didn't jive with the ending we were given. Minor spoiler: at first it seems like the people who are immune to the flu are the ones who dream, and people who aren't regular dreamers, die. Kojak, one of the world's only surviving dogs, is a dreamer. Later, it's explained that children who are the product of two immune parents are also immune. Well which of these is the determining survivor factor, genetics or dreams? I'll accept either answer but I won't accept both. Either the dreams make them safe or they don't. If it's not the dreams, those shouldn't have been happening until after the plague had done its work. If it's genetics, then in theory wouldn't any survivors also have to have surviving family members? The whole premise fell apart because the book couldn't decide if it wanted to be fantasy or science fiction.

I just can't express it any clearer than to say I was disappointed. When society caves in on itself, and King writes books about it, I expect the worst of his characters. I expect there to be Johnny-do-good types with questionable pasts. I expect there to be charming, cunning, wolves in sheep's clothing, who mostly win, until they don't. Instead I got a world full of mostly decent people who do bad things with one oddly levitating demon pulling their strings.

“‘The Lord is my shepherd,” he recited softly. “I shall not want for nothing. He makes me lie down in the green pastures. He greases up my head with oil. He gives me kung-fu in the face of my enemies. Amen.'”

God bless Tom Cullen, Laws yes. That's all I have to say about that.

This review originally posted at Hamlets & Hyperspace

Fantastic!

This word truly captures the essence of something extraordinary and wonderful.

When we encounter something fantastic, it has the power to amaze us, to leave us in awe.

It could be a breathtaking natural景观, like a majestic mountain range or a绚丽多彩 sunset.

Or perhaps it's a remarkable work of art, a painting that seems to come alive or a piece of music that touches our souls.

Fantastic can also describe an experience, like a once-in-a-lifetime adventure or a magical moment shared with loved ones.

It's that feeling of excitement and wonder that makes us believe in the possibility of the extraordinary.

So, let's keep our eyes and hearts open to the fantastic in the world around us, and let it inspire us to dream big and create our own moments of magic.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there...and still on your feet.

How is it even conceivable for me to distill my thoughts on The Stand into a single review? I really have no idea. But I will give it my best shot!

Overall, my reread of The Stand was an absolute delight. Revisiting these characters was like reconnecting with old friends whom you haven't seen in ages. You don't fully realize how much you've missed them until you lay eyes on them again. And for me personally, it's the characters that make The Stand so truly epic.

However... I'll get this out in the open early - it didn't manage to crack my top 10 King books. Yes, I have a deep affection for it, but some parts are excruciatingly painful. That first section is mostly amazing. I thoroughly enjoy reading about the outbreak of Captain Trips, a deadly flu that wipes out 99.4% of the population. But there are certain chapters that are a real slog. The Trashcan Man, for instance. Yes, he is a vital character, but good heavens, reading about him in the first section is简直 like pulling teeth.

But truly, what would The Stand be without its epic cast of characters and the terrifying villain? My top 3 favorites are Stu, the ordinary man who emerges as a leader in such challenging times, Tom Cullen, a sweet and innocent character who is impossible not to love, and Kojak, the kindest dog I've ever encountered in literature. But there are just so many others that are fascinating to read about - from Harold to Nadine to Fran to Glen to Mother Abigail to the main man himself, Randall Flagg. And let's not forget his rather scary penis. But a special mention must go to the often-overlooked Dayna Jurgens. She is the very embodiment of a BADASS.

The Stand is the ultimate battle of Good vs Evil, accelerated by a terrifying pandemic. It was rather spine-tingling to read during the COVID era, and I can only be grateful that things never got quite this bad!

M-O-O-N spells EPIC. In my humble opinion, it is the greatest post-apocalyptic novel ever written.

Reread: March 2024. I still have a deep love for this book, but there are simply too many dull parts that pull me out of the story. 4 stars.

No one can fathom what occurs within the transformation from the person you once were to the one you become. No one can plot that desolate and blue expanse of hell. There are no maps to chart this change. You simply emerge on the other side.
Or perhaps you don't.
...

The place where you took your stance never held significance. Only that you were there... and still upright.

For evident reasons, I dedicated a substantial part of 2020 to reading books centered around plagues and/or various forms of apocalypses: Cold Storage, The Andromeda Strain, The Andromeda Evolution, The Seventh Plague, Severance, Zone One, The Loop, World War Z, The Cabin at the End of the World, The End of October, Permafrost, The Arrest, Malorie, Leave the World Behind.

Throughout the year, I pondered, "Why am I skirting around the periphery when the granddaddy of plague-based apocalyptic fiction is right here waiting?" So, I ultimately resolved to conclude this Year of the Pandemic appropriately by re-reading one of my all-time favorite books, The Stand.

If by some chance you have never read The Stand, cease wasting time on this review and go read it. I mean, right now. I'll wait.

[Pause]

Great, now that you've read it, you're aware that the overarching plot of the story is astonishingly straightforward. A superfluously nicknamed Captain Trips escapes from a government lab, decimating over 99% of humanity within weeks:

Captain Trips brought bales of bedrooms, with a body or two in each one, and trenches and dead pits, and finally bodies slung into the oceans on each coast, and into quarries, and into the foundations of unfinished houses. And in the end, of course, the bodies would rot where they fell.

The survivors (in America, at least) are summoned through their dreams to either gather in Boulder, Colorado around Mother Abagail, a seemingly virtuous woman, or to journey to Las Vegas to be with Randall Flagg, a seemingly malevolent man, in preparation for some sort of confrontation between the two sides.

However, while that plot serves as a solid framework, it is the extraordinary detail, characterization, and storytelling that elevate The Stand from good to legendary. With over 1150 pages at his disposal, Stephen King weaves intricate backstories for at least a dozen memorable characters: “East Texas” Stu Redman, Frannie Goldsmith, Larry Underwood (“Baby, can you dig your man?”), Nick Andros, Lloyd Henreid, Harold Lauder (“The business of virgins is always deadly serious—not pleasure but experience”), Glen Bateman, Tom Cullen (“M-O-O-N that spells Tom Cullen”), Nadine Cross, Mother Abagail, and last but not least, the Trashcan Man (“I brought it … I brought you the fire … please … I’m sorry ….”). But none are more memorable than Randall Flagg, a supernatural force of evil who makes appearances in numerous King novels:

There was a dark hilarity in his face, and perhaps in his heart, too, you would think—and you would be right. It was the face of a hatefully happy man, a face that radiated a horrible handsome warmth, a face to make water glasses shatter in the hands of tired truck-stop waitresses, to make small children crash their trikes into board fences and then run wailing to their mommies with stake-shaped splinters sticking out of their knees. It was a face guaranteed to make barroom arguments over batting averages turn bloody.
...
He looks like anybody you see on the street. But when he grins, birds fall dead off telephone lines. When he looks at you a certain way, your prostate goes bad and your urine burns. The grass yellows up and dies where he spits. He’s always outside. He came out of time. He doesn’t know himself. He has the name of a thousand demons.

King tells story upon story, fleshing out not only the characters but also this entire post-apocalyptic world, delving into the details of how humanity might crumble and then commence rebuilding its society. But all the while, these characters are being developed and positioned like pieces in a game of chess. And once the reader is fully invested, the pieces are gradually brought together, and there are clashes, and sacrifices, until the Armageddon-level endgame.

King has described The Stand as a tale of “Dark Christianity.” Excluding Flagg, all of the characters are flawed yet redeemable, provided they are willing to select the correct path. Even the characters who opt to side with Flagg do so cognizant that they are doing it for the wrong reasons: loyalty, anger, jealousy, fear. The story posits that even evil serves the purpose of God, regardless of how unfathomable. And while humanity is depicted as being on an endless cycle of making mistakes that lead to these confrontations, there is an optimism that goodness will prevail because enough people will choose light over darkness to make a difference.

This was my third encounter with The Stand; I read the original version once and have now read the Complete and Uncut version twice. And while nothing can match the shock of the first time (including the line that I believe is the single greatest misdirection in the history of literature), I've probably derived more enjoyment from the book each time because the better you know the story, the more you can simply immerse yourself in and appreciate the incredible writing and storytelling. When people inquire about my favorite book, I respond that I have approximately 35 books on my Favorites shelf. But when pressured to choose just one, I've been stating The Stand because “it has everything you'd desire in a story: action, drama, horror, comedy, and romance, all set against the backdrop of a good v. evil battle for the fate of the world.” As one-sentence justifications for a book's greatness go, I believe that description still holds true. An absolute must-read!