Do you ever think about how magical books are? How they can transport you to distant lands, embed you deep within strange and unfamiliar minds, present you with novel and remarkable circumstances, make you feel connected to even the most flawed of characters, project the most vivid images of unexplored locations. The Stand does all of these things for me in ways that no other book has ever done.

This is my second read of this book, with my first coming last June, and I fell so, so deeply in love with it this time around. It not only became my favorite book of all time, but the story somehow haunts me in a way no other story ever has. These characters are etched into my consciousness and feed on my waking thoughts.

n  Character I Loved & Hatedn

I am a Larry Underwood fan. He’s perfectly imperfect, morally misshaped, and is to put it plainly, a self-absorbed ass. But I love watching his inner struggle unfold in relatable and altogether familiar ways.

I love every character in this book. Like every single one. Even those I despise. Harold I’m looking at you.

n  Themesn

This is the ultimate good vs evil story, but what makes it so beautiful and compelling is that there are very few characters who are completely congruent with either side. They all operate with the most human of nuance and moral dissonance.

This is also a story about the dissolution and reconstruction of American society itself, and an interrogation into everything that means. It’s a look into the American experiment in all of its beautiful complexities, the abhorrence of its evils and moral ineptitude and the freedom of spirit that unites us.

n  One Thing I’ll walk away withn

It’s nearly impossible to narrow it to a single thing, but what stands out to me the most are the indelible images of the Boulder Free Zone, an area I’m very familiar with and one that inundates me with nostalgia.

Update October 2018

I do like a good apocalypse! If that sounds like an oxymoronic thing to say then let me explain: what I really mean is that I really enjoy someone else’s apocalypse. In a bookshelf I’ve set up on this site I have listed sixteen books that I’ve read and deemed to be in this category. So what is it about the world as we know it ending that gets my blood flowing? It’s probably the fact that, like many people, I wonder what I’d feel and how I’d behave should this happen to me. And what would everyone else do, the ones still alive? Would it all descend into violence and anarchy or would the survivors manage to salvage some dignity and order from the doom and impending annihilation? After all, it’s the biggest story of all – The End.

I was early into reading Stephen King novels when I was persuaded to try this one out, nearly four years ago. I knew from the blurb that the tale would cause me to address my aversion to all things paranormal - I'm just unable to accept such things are possible – but such were the persuasive powers of friends who’d read this book that I gave in.

If I attempt a really long book, then my preference is to seek out an audio copy and as I’d decided to go the whole hog on this one – the full length version – that is what I did. And what an adventure it was. Looking back on it I still thing that it is a superb story that is somewhat spoilt by the inclusion of The Prince of Evil, but I know that many people will heartily disagree. Anyway, in my opinion it remains a great book with the upsides heavily outweighing the downsides. My favourite apocalyptic tale? No, I’m afraid not - good that this one is, that particular honour currently sits with either The Road or Station Eleven.

------------------------------------------

January 2015

The first thing I’d have to say is that this is not my usual fare. I’m not big on horror or tales featuring paranormal activity. The second thing is that this is a big book; I listened to this on audiobook – all 47 hours, and 47 minutes of it - brilliantly read by Grover Gardner. And the third thing is that it might take me a while to fully process how I feel about this tale. It’s an epic story that never once left me bored or wishing I were somewhere else doing something else, but there are elements I’m not so sure about.

A quick plot summary for those who haven’t come across this piece…

Set in 1990 (it’s a revision of the original version, which was set 10 years earlier) it tells the story of a group of characters who are amongst the 0.6% of the population of America left standing when a government facility lets loose a killer flu bug. That’s probably enough – I really wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone yet to experience this behemoth of a novel.

What I liked about it:

- Like every King novel I’ve read to date (a relatively small number, in truth) the characterisation is superb. Each member of the large cast is invested with a personality that is at once believable (well, mostly so) and possessing of enough individual characteristics to set him/her aside from the other members. To be able to sustain this for the length of this tome was some achievement. My personal favourite has to be The Kid - ‘Don’t tell me, Happy Crappy, I’ll tell you’ - whose spiel had me laughing out loud. Surely the best cameo performance in literary history!
- I liked the apocalyptic start to the story and for the first third thought this was how whole thing would play out; like a longer version of  The Road, but with a beginning and an ending… and with maybe a little  Random Walk thrown in for good measure.
- The introduction of a sociologist as a member of the cast was a masterstroke. Glen Bateman was a voice of reason. He was able to rationalise what was going on, to provide context to actions and to predict various scenarios, describing how things might play out. Moreover, as the story became increasingly biblical (yes, biblical - it’s been suggested that King’s story is based on The Book of Job or The Book of Revelation) he offered words of wisdom and provided one or two references, which ensured we didn’t miss the point.
- You have to admire the fact that the author was able to sustain a narrative and to hold the attention of the reader/listener for what amounts to, in written form, circa 1200 pages. Just incredible.

What didn’t sit so easily with me:

- There is a significant paranormal element to this book and, whilst I concede this is a very personal view, I had to battle to overcome a feeling that the whole thing was just too unbelievable. No matter how wild and wonderful the tale, I can normally adopt a stance of ‘yes, that’s possible’. Here I had to consciously refocus and press on despite my doubts. Perhaps I just lack the imagination or wit to be able to accept this component and move on. Maybe I’m just not tuned in to fantasy novels. Strangely, the only other audiobook I’ve listened to of a similar length is 1Q84 and I had no such problem with the surreal nature of this yarn.
- It felt a bit uneven. In places it got bogged down and nothing significant happened for quite some time. There came a point where I felt that the tension - essential to sustain the interest of the reader - had diminished and all but disappeared. However the penultimate section of the book was riveting and probably the best part of the whole thing. Then it slowed down again and somewhat drifted to the finish.

So what’s my overall verdict? I know the story will live long in the memory - it’s such a big, impactful piece. I can also see why it’s has such a cult following. It kept me entertained for weeks as I lived the adventure through the eyes of those involved. Yes, I do have some reservations, but I’d be amazed if any book of this size didn’t strike a discordant note or two. I believe the positives are many and the negatives are just a churlish reaction to reading a different kind of fiction. It has to be a 5 star show.

Un-[excuse my language] fucking - believable... I don’t think I should write a full review because I know that i’ll not be done by next week. Uncle Steve did NOT disappoint. This man knows how to write a good book, over and over again.

I bought The Stand a few years ago but i was never really interested in reading it. I was intimidated by the amount of pages it has. [Yes, i’m a fucking p*ssy alright]. I hate myself for not picking it up earlier but it is what it is. Anyway, I’ve FINALLY finished it. It took me a few months but alright lmao.

If you have never read a book by Stephen King before I highly recommend that you start with The Stand. You’ll not be disappointed, trust me, and please don’t be intimidated by the amount of pages like i was, i’m just a little bitch.

ANYWAY,,,,

i give this book

FIVE FUCKING STARS!!!!!!

A masterpiece of epic proportions. I will never stop rereading this book. This is my 4th-time with this story and honestly, it may be my favorite time.

I took the time to annotate it and picked up so many new things that I may have overlooked before, particularly in regards to our good friend, Randy Flagg.



There were things I had forgotten, and things I remembered, but was dreading revisiting. Most notably, everything involving the scouting trips to the West just tugged at all my damn heartstrings.

My most hated character: freaking Nadine Cross.



More thoughts to come...stay tuned!!!

n  Check out my YouTube channel where I show my instant reactions upon finishing reading fantasy books.n

3.5 stars. An entertaining book and a wonderful thought experiment, but was far longer than it needed to be with a rather disappointing conclusion to the story.

I was extremely excited to read this book, as I have heard over and over that this is one of Stephen King's (one of the biggest writers of all time) best book. Having had very little exposure to Stephen King, I didn't know what to expect when I started into this goliath of a book.

The premise of this book is wonderful, and something I have never read about before but have thought about plenty of times. But the ultimate problem with this book is it is far too length. And I don't say this because it takes too long to read, I have read books longer than this that I have given 5 stars to - but this book goes on, and on, and on, and on, AND ON about character development to a ridiculous degree. At some point you need to get to the plot, but I suppose this is just Stephen King's style.

I know there is a condensed version of this book, but honestly I don't even think that would cut this book down to what it would need to be in order to be appealing to me. While I did love the characters in this book, there was too much random stories going on that ultimately didn't help me appreciate this story any greater, and it felt like he was just writing stream of consciousness and trying to rack up as many pages as possible at points.

But once the plot really starts moving in the 2nd half of this book, my enjoyment skyrocketed. I loved so much about the conflict itself that I couldn't put the book down, and even given my dislike for the first half of this book I was planning on giving this book a 4 or 4.5 rating.

Unfortunately, the conclusion to this story is anti-climactic to say the least. For so much build up, I expected the most epic of showdowns, but what I got was a whimper not a bang. It's unfortunate, but ultimately I still did enjoy my experience, but I can confidently say that I will never re-read this book.

n  Check out my YouTube channel where I show my instant reactions upon finishing reading fantasy books.n

Still as brilliant the fourth time. Such fantastic characters and there's not much I don't love about the novel (okay maybe the final confrontation is a little short and stu is maybe just a little bit too perfect)

Easily in my top 10 books of all time

A rare example of a novel that's over a thousand pages long that I wish was longer

I’ve said before that romance fiction taps into a primal desire for comfort. It’s a fantasy, a snuggie to wrap up in 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:



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.

Cause 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!

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-Pressen


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


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 Roerichn


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:

Fantastic

The definitive apocalypse masterpiece, maybe until reality writes a better story.

Many different characters in slowly escalating situations of despair and tragedy.
With the extra King spicing of terror, torture, and horror, this makes one, or maybe the best, description of armageddon. And it´s not worldbuilding or über cool enemies, it´s this combination of crazy, not always good, protagonists, antiheroes, and great, sheer lunatics that make this unbelievable rollercoaster the best end time ever. Apocalypse rocks if the King is in the house.

Don´t trust the government
Seriously, it´s not as if anyone is still doing stupid things like that, but how it happened, how politicians and the military reacted, how they didn´t have any problem with mass murdering their own citizens to avoid a panic, censor the media, go full Gestapo mode and, of course, causing the whole mess with secret biological warfare programs is, well, completely realistic. They would have to do, because as long as it doesn´t escalate completely, it would be the only ethical decision to sacrifice some for the sake of the country, not just for patriots, but just following simple logic. Better lose some cities and dozens of millions of people than all of them. Although I guess if a resident evil style biological warfare project would go really wrong, or be used by an enemy, nothing would help.

Comparison of The Stand and It
It´s one of Kings´most complex, interwoven, and ultra many, often one time use, character spiked works, which is the biggest difference to the only real (single novel) opponent, It. It has its small crew and stays with it, close to no disposable sidekicks, and especially no big picture, meta, worldbuilding level. Probably that´s the reason why some prefer The Stand and King himself says too that his fans are often telling him that it´s their favorite, although he doesn´t understand why. It simply can´t reach the epic, big scale, world ending level, because Kings' intention was to write one of the best novels about childhood, wrecked American dreams, small town terrors, and the Lovecraftian, lurking evil inside all of us. Mission accomplished.

The Stand, on the other hand, is a battle of good versus evil, a dark fantasy horror milestone so intense, dense, and completely absorbing, because it combines the unbelievable characterization skills with a good, and that´s truly nothing King can always deliver because he is no plotter, story with a satisfying, credible end. And all the details, the world, the extremely slow beginning with the escalation towards overkill, all the crazy characters entering and leaving the stage, and, of course, many average people´s problems given to the mix. No matter how dead the world is, we still have freaking everyday issues and relationship problems.

Big city vs one horse town.
So good to live on the countryside… Sorry if this may seem insensitive, but the really brutally penetrated ones will always be the metropolitan areas, not just because the slums and hellhole district actually are already a nightmare, but because the collapse and chaos will be worst there. Maybe because it´s generally kind of incredible how these megastructures, these ape hive mind super colonies function, but are much more fragile than one might expect. Take away food and the possibility to escape and one doesn´t even need Captain Trips to get the population quite wacky.
King uses this difference to construct completely opposite kinds of fear, the seemingly infinite solitude of the wild with some grains of small towns and the disturbing rests of a megacity now populated by corpses, cannibals, and crazy people.

Characters and writers' block.
Many cool secondary and one time use characters, extra plotlines, and groups consolidating and escalating together.
The reason for the extremely dense atmosphere is the combination of different sets of characters, weirdo antagonists, and a perfect mixture with the stellar characterization and atmosphere King is famous for.
I do also get why he had his writers' block while creating this ingenious masterpiece, because he is no plotter and nearly scribbled his way towards an abyss because he had too much of everything for someone who didn´t know how it should end. Luckily, he found his way back, but just how he got until the point of hitting the wall without confusing the reader or himself, especially because, ahem, you know, booze and drugs and stuff, is amazing.

A grain of magic
There´s not really that much high fantasy or complex witching around system, one could also say plot over people focus, and that´s why it´s so absorbing, why having terrible, frightening, wonderful nightmare adventures together with the crew feels so damn good. Some psi, mind control, precognition, animal magic, elemental powers, but the real driving engine here is the madness, evilness vs goodness, and especially the shade of grey in between with protagonists switching sides, developing new disgusting goals, or refraining from doing necrophilic cannibalism and stuff. If there would be more, today (2021) standard epic fantasy with real überhuman god power magic, it couldn´t have such a unique, dense, and not really that action focused atmosphere, without any unnecessary words on freaking endless pages of pure ecstasy.

The real philosophies and ideologies behind the good and evil fractions are manifold, one could waste a great load of time overanalyzing it, but I´ll let everyone find her/his own interpretation and add mine to the mix:

The Lovecraftian big bad new government
The darkness of confused, evil souls who unite under a new leader who combines elements of many of Kings´most beloved big cosmic horror and barbarian human traits to mix the perfect, bloody cocktail. Could be seen as a homage to the inherent bad in all of us and systems constructed by mentally unstable apes, philosophically vivisected until regurgitation, or just appreciated at what it most likely is. One of the most realistic, without the demonic superpower elements except secret military research has already reached new levels, descriptions of how a collapse of civilization would most likely end in new dictatorships.

The better, progressive, eco and human friendly alternative
The good ones are seemingly helpless, just have their will, community, and some dream controlling power and soft psi magic to fight the armed to the teeth demonic hordes, but similar to many other deus ex machina solutions, the mind is stronger than tons of steel. What makes it especially satisfying is the multifaceted characters´ evolution towards good or bad and how extremely stylish and cool the real and mental confrontations of big bad and old as dirt good and their team members play out. Of course, in reality, our good team of friends would immediately be raped, tortured, and eaten, rape torture eat repeat style as some like to call it (and not necessarily in that order), but hey, even King has to integrate some optimistic moments to help his readers to better handle the horror. And to get a story too, of course.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

I read this over 20 years ago. This is Stephen Kings Magnus Opus. I think it is the book of the 20th century or a least modern times. I loved this book and still have this as my favorite Stephen King novel. It blew my mind. This would have to be in my top 10 favorite all time books.

I know a lot of people don't like the ending of the story the way King wrote it, but I for one think it's one of his best endings. It appears that we accept that forces of evil can use magic to influence events in most stories and that's okay, but we don't see much of the forces of good use magic to influence. Mother Abagail is a good angelic like person and she gathers people together, but she doesn't use any sort of magic really or power other than the dreams. Most books seem to take this approach. What I like about this ending is that good actually steps in and does help out the world. For the world Stephen sets up, I think it works rather well and it's unusual and rarely seen. In my view, it makes for a great ending. It might be a bit too far, but its still satisfying to read.

Well, I think I first read this back in the early 1980s as Stephen King started making a name for himself as a horror writer. I had read some James Herbert horror novels in the late 70s, most notably The Fog and decide to branch out a little although I was not a monster (pun intended) horror fan.
I ended up by investigating this American that had written a few horror books and even had a few turned into films. Of course I accidentally gravitated to his more sci fi orientated books than his horror ones and so ended up reading The Gunslinger and then this book.

It is down as one of my favourites of all time, simply because of the story and "world building" that it contains. The characters are recognisable as every day people, ones friends and acquaintances (in some cases unfortunately) from helpful older guys to precocious greedy kids, and I think that's part of its "charm".

Some of the things that happen in the book are inevitable and obvious and some take you by surprise, but isn't that what you want in a book, to recognise it as every-day but also out of this world.

I understand now that Mr King removed something like 300 pages when I read this in the 80s on the advice of his publisher and has now added those pages back in, hmm, well, when it comes to a re-read, and it has been 10 years, I shall continue with my small version if that is ok, I don't think 40% more would help or improve.

This review has been written in 2019 as part of my ongoing mission to bodly go, oops no, to write reviews for all the books that I have logged as read on GR, but have not written a review for.