This is one of my favourite 'Stephen King' novels. I've read both the standard and the expanded editions of the book - but I preferred the expanded edition - as it gave more background on Fran's tumultuous relationship with her mother - and it had that creepy guy in it (The Kid), who was quite possibly more disturbing than Randall Flagg. Possibly. I think Trashcan thought so, anyway....should have kept walking. Talking of Flagg - I don't think he fully understood what Trashcan Man meant when he said: "My life for yours."

Anyway, it's one of those books that I'll revisit from time to time.

I'm sorry but I cannot, in good conscience, give this anything less than 5 stars. Even though there were a few parts that aggravated me--mostly in book 3--the good far exceeded the bad. It took me nearly three weeks to read this 1153 page monster, and amazingly I was never bored with it. Such an epic tale, biblical in scope, with some truly remarkable character development. I'll be remembering this one for a long, long time to come.

Another flashback Saturday and I’m holding unabridged author’s cut version which weighs in at 1141 pages. Yes I know, only holding a book that you started equals to about 5 hours training exercise is challenging thing and of course reading a book about highly contagious superflu which escaped from US Army biological weapons facility in the middle of the pandemic makes you think I’m out of my mind. ( Of course I am! If you check a few reviews of mine, you already found out my true mental state!)

I know I’m doing the wrong thing at the worst time but I honestly say: this is my favorite King book and at least rereading first 250 pages ( in my opinion those are the best parts of the book) made me remember why Mr. King earned his throne at the literature kingdom.

The first edition of the book was published on 1978 and at the new editions, the cultural references have been changed to connect with the new generation readers. ( I also read most of the editions) This is my routine at the 8 to 12 hours international flights: I cannot sleep during the flight so I carry another edition with me to enjoy my vacation accompanied with lots of Bloody Mary.

When I dive into the chapters and read about Texan Stu, very pregnant Frannie, chubby Harold, rising star Larry, I start to feel at home. ( I don’t know why a biblical story made me feel like that but this layered multi character driven story telling always help me get lost in the extremely creative taste of literature. )

This is a group of survivors’ story who are immune to the virus and suffer from strange dreams. At those disturbing Mother Abigail summons them or a very dangerous dark figure Randall Flagg wants to join him at the dark side.

Eventually as some of the dreamers join to Mother Abigail at Boulder Colorado who tells them, they’re chosen people, the others go to Sin City to join Mr. Flagg for his big annihilation plan.

I think the biggest challenge is not reading this book. The filmmakers who are brave enough to adapt this into series accepted the biggest challenge. After 1994’s series adaptation with Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, the producers have been working on a better version to adapt this masterpiece properly into 10 episodes streaming series.

From Ben Affleck, David Yates to Scott Cooper, too many directors wanted to be on board but later dropped out because of creative differences, schedule conflicts. And finally Josh Boone became a director and started to work on dreamy cast: Christian Bale as Stu and McConaughey as Randall Flagg. Yeap, unfortunately it didn’t happen but don’t worry we still have satisfying cast : James Marsden as Stu and Pennyweise’s real life brother as Randall Flagg.

I am curious about series even though I have questions about the challenges of adapting something so good and struggles to reflect those layered characters we read at the pages into scripts ( at least King’s young son Owen is one of the screenwriters) but before finding out, I guess I’m getting one more long ride with this apocalyptic, outstanding novel one more time!

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You know what’s really scary? Getting sick while you’re reading the first part of The Stand. Just try running a fever, going through a box of tissues and guzzling the better part of a bottle of NyQuil while Stephen King describes the grisly deaths of almost every one on Earth from a superflu. On top of feeling like crap, you'll be terrified. Bonus!

After a bio-engineered virus that acts like a revved up cold escapes from a U.S. government lab, it takes only weeks for almost all of humanity to succumb to the disease. A handful of survivors are mysteriously immune and begin having strange dreams, some of which are about a very old woman called Mother Abigail asking them to come see her. More disturbing are nightmares about a mysterious figure named Randall Flagg also known as the Dark Man or the Walkin’ Dude.

As they make their way through an America almost entirely devoid of people, the survivors begin to unite and realize that the flu was just the beginning of their problems. While some are drawn to the saintly Mother Abigail in Boulder Colorado who tells them that they have been chosen by God, others have flocked to Flagg in Las Vegas who is determined to annihilate all those who refuse to pledge their allegiance to him.

If King would have just written a book about a world destroyed by plague and a small number of people struggling in the aftermath, it probably would have been a compelling story. What sets this one apart is the supernatural element. Flagg is the embodiment of evil and chaos. He's a mysterious figure who has been giving the wrong people the push needed for them to make things worse for everyone, and he sees the plague as his chance to fulfill his own destiny as a wrecker of humanity.

And on the other side, we have God. Yep, that God. The Big Cheese himself. But this isn’t some kindly figure in a white robe with a white beard or George Burns or Morgan Freeman. This is the Old Testament God who demands obedience and worship while usually rewarding his most faithful servants with gruesome deaths.

King calls this a tale of dark Christianity in his forward, and one of the things I love about this book is that it does feel like a Biblical story, complete with contradictions and a moves-in-mysterious-ways factor. Stories don’t get much more epic than this, and King does a great job of depicting the meltdown of the world through the stories of a variety of relateable characters. (Larry Underwood remains among my favorite King creations.)

One of my few complaints is that this features a lot of King’s anti-technology themes that he’d use in several books like Cell or The Dark Tower series. We’re told repeatedly that the ‘old ways’ like trying to get the power back on in Boulder are a ‘death trip’. The good guys gather in the Rocky Mountains, but if they try to get the juice going so they won’t freeze to death in the winter, they’re somehow acting in defiance of God’s will and returning to the bad habits? Not all tech is bad tech, Mr. King. Nature is a bitch and will kill your ass quicker than the superflu.

Here’s another thing I’m not wild about. When this was published in the late ‘70s, the bean counters at King’s publishers had decided that the book as written would be too pricey in hardback and no one would pay a whopping $13 for a Stephen King hardback. So King cut about three hundred pages.

Around 1990 after it had become apparent that King could publish his shopping list as a best seller, he put those pages back in and released the uncut version. Which I’m fine with. The original stuff was cut for a financial reason, not an editorial one, and there’s some very nice bits of story added in. If King would have stopped there, we would have had a great definitive final version as originally created by the author.

Unfortunately, he seemed to catch a case of Lucasitis and decided to update the story a bit and change its original time frame from 1980 to 1990. I’m not sure why that seemed necessary to him. Yes, the book was a bit dated by then, but it was of its time. He didn’t rewrite the text (Which I’m grateful for.), but just stuck in some references to Madonna and Ronald Reagan and Spuds McKenzie.

This led to a whole bunch of anachronisms. Would students in 1990 call soldiers ’war pigs’? Someone in New York picks up a phone book to look up the number to call an ambulance instead of dialing 911? A song called Baby, Can You Dig Your Man is a huge hit? None of it quite fits together. There's also a layer of male chauvinism and lack of diversity that you can overlook in a book written in the late '70s, but seems out of place for a book set and updated for 1990.

The things that irritate me are still far outweighed by one of my favorite stories of an apocalyptic battle between good and evil.

I’m also glad to get a long overdue audio edition of this book. Great narration and 40+ hours of end of the world horror make for a damn fine listening experience.

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

I hope that Goodreads lets both of my star ratings of this book go through as I already rated The Stand Abridged years ago, but in case it doesn’t, I am 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 am a sucker for post-apocalyptic/dystopian). I don’t think The Stand is the best introduction a person could have to Stephen King (that lies with Salem’s Lot or The Dead Zone), but it is a great story of good vs evil that shows King’s writing chops to the extreme. Other than a slow spot in the middle  (Free Zone) , it is perfectly paced and un-put-downable.

That is where my problem with the Unabridged version lies – and I have seen other reviews complaining about the same thing; some even saying that the abridged version of The Stand is their favorite King book, and the Unabridged their least favorite. There is just too much extra!

I think the editors had it right when they cut down some of the extended scenes - they slow the pace considerably of what was a roller coaster ride of a book. There are extensive scenes at the beginning of the book and in the middle that felt like they would never end. The already slow part I mentioned above is now close to 400 pages – longer than most books I read! The best paced part was the action packed final 200 pages or so, and they were almost the same as in the abridged version. In fact, all the parts I enjoyed the most were there in the abridged version – and I don’t think I enjoyed them just because of familiarity.

Another thing that the extended parts caused was getting out of touch with the characters for a much longer time than before. Several times I found myself asking “Where is so and so – it has been forever since we heard what was going on with them”. It caused me to lose my connection with some of the minor characters because they are now overshadowed by the major characters. Also, most of the added parts related to the good guys, which made the story lines of the bad guys almost feel like an afterthought. Probably the best new part was  Trashcan Man and The Kid as it filled in the blanks for the Trashcan Man’s journey across America. However, it makes it more obvious that Trashy is barely in the rest of the book – which I don’t remember feeling when I read the abridged version .

In summary, I think if I didn’t have the abridged version to compare it to it may have been a 4.5 or 5 star book. But, with the 5 star abridged version out there, it is no contest. While it is interesting to learn more about the characters, it throws the pacing off and makes it more of a chore and less of a joy to read.

4.5 stars Whew! 1,200 pages in this complete and uncut edition of THE STAND, but a great story that had me hooked from the beginning to the point of feeling like I was catching the Super Flu myself. :)

A must-read for all Stephen King fans!

How am I supposed to write a review for this humongous masterpiece of a book? I honestly can't think of anything good or profound to say. It was perfect - period. Extremely entertaining and interesting; I didn't feel bored for a single second (and this is a huge deal, considering this book has over 1.700 pages). I loved all the characters (heroes and villains alike) and their different traits. I know I will never forget some of them.

This book definitely isn't for everyone. It's incredibly long and goes into lots and lots of detail. The story could have been told in far less pages, yes. But this is Stephen King we're talking about. If you love him and his writing style, then this is for you. If you want a quick and exciting read, you better choose something else.
For me personally, this is exactly the kind of book I love and adore. So I really have absolutely zero complaints.

Dear god this was a lot to get through but DAMN was it worth it. WOW

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

Στο πλαίσιο της πανδημίας του Covid-19 και των απανταχού προτάσεων για βιβλία ή ταινίες που πραγματεύονται δυστοπικές καταστάσεις ανάλογες με εκείνη που βιώνουμε (λιγότερο, ίσως, εμείς και περισσότερο άλλοι λαοί), η ανάγνωση του μετα-αποκαλυπτικού έπους που ο Κινγκ έγραψε και δημοσίευσε κάπου σαράντα χρόνια πριν έμοιαζε πλέον λογική επιλογή. Χρόνος για εννιακόσιες πενήντα σελίδες (φλυαρίας ή όχι) υπήρχε, κι από διάθεση άλλο τίποτα - πόσο χειρότερα μπορεί να σε κάνει να νιώσεις ένα βιβλίο; Καλύτερο τάιμινγκ αποκλείεται να ξαναέβρισκα, οπότε για το ογκώδες μαύρο βιβλίο που εδώ και αρκετά χρόνια σκονιζόταν στην βιβλιοθήκη μου είχε πια σημάνει η ώρα της ανάγνωσής του.

Μερικές ημέρες μετά, χωρίς να είμαι σε θέση να συμφωνήσω ή οχι με τους αναγνώστες του Rolling Stone που εν έτει 2014 το ανέδειξαν με την ψήφο τους ως το καλύτερο από τα βιβλία του Βασιλιά, αν με ρωτούσε κανείς ποια μόνη λέξη θα μπορούσε να αποδώσει πειστικά ό,τι διάβασα, θα χρησιμοποιούσα το επίθετο "μνημειώδες". Και ως προς τις επιβλητικές διαστάσεις του, αλλά και ως προς το αξιομνημόνευτο (για το είδος του) περιεχόμενο.

Στο Κοράκι όλοι οι εφιάλτες μας παίρνουν σάρκα και οστά: ένας εξαιρετικά φονικός ιός ("Captain Trips") λαμβάνει διαστάσεις πανδημίας και αποδεκατίζει το ανθρώπινο γένος, κι ένας σκοτεινός άνθρωπος ("...μια σκιά περνούσε από τα καλαμπόκια το μεσημέρι, ένα κρύο ρεύμα αέρα, ένα κοράκι που σε κάρφωνε με το βλέμμα του από τα καλώδια στις κολόνες του τηλεφώνου. Η φωνή του την καλούσε, μια φωνή που ηχούσε σιγανή, σαν το τικ-τακ του σκαθαριού του θανατά κάτω από τις σκάλες που μηνούσε ότι κάποιο προσφιλές πρόσωπο σύντομα θα άφηνε χρόνους• μια φωνή ηχηρή, σαν τον απογευματινό κεραυνο που βροντούσε στα σύννεφα που κατέφθαναν από τα δυτικά σαν ένας κοχλάζων Αρμαγεδδών...") αναλαμβάνει να αποτελειώσει ό,τι απόμεινε, επενδύοντας στον φόβο, την υποταγή και τα πιο ταπεινά ανθρώπινα ένστικτα.

Μοναδικό εντρύφημα στα σκοτάδια της φαντασίας και του τρόμου που κάποτε φάνταζε ανείπωτος.

"Tonight all is silence in the world/As we take our stand/Down in the Jungleland."

جالب ترین قسمت این کتاب اینه که وقتی در حال خوندن هستین، پیش خودتون میگین
بله! نسل بشر دقیقا همینطوری منقرض میشه
نه شهاب سنگی میخوره به زمین، نه صفحات درونی زمین زیر و رو میشن، نه کوه ها جابه جا میشن و نه عذاب الهیِ اقوام صالح و موسی و نوح نازل میشه
به قول خود کینگ این کاری که انسان با خودش و محیط اطرافش داره انجام میده هیچ ربطی به خدا نداره و یه کثافت کاریِ خالصِ انسانیه
جدا از این، کتاب در مورد نبرد بین خیر و شر هست که توی این زمینه یکی از شاهکارها به حساب میاد
فکر میکنم کینگ عقاید مذهبی خودش رو هم قاطی کتابش کرده، البته اگه از زمان نوشتن این کتاب تا الان عقایدش عوض نشده باشه
یه جاهاییش آدم حس میکرد که عمدا بعضی چیزا رو نوشته که کتابش طولانی تر بشه، ولی از شاهکار بودن کتاب کم نمیکنه
کینگ تو شخصیت پردازی و داستان سرایی خارق العادس
-----------------------------------------------
در مورد ترجمه ی نرسی خلیلی هم بگم که به لطف پایگاه شیطان صفت ارشاد کتاب پر از سانسور و تغییر جمله ست
البته جناب مترجم تا جایی که تونسته بوده منظور رو رسونده
اگه قصد خوندن نسخه ی فارسی دارید، نسخه ی انگلیسی رو هم کنارش داشته باشید چون تا جایی من فهمیدم نزدیک دو صفحه ی مهم کامل حذف شده

Full review now posted!
Original review can be found at Booknest.

Rating: 6/5 stars.

Yes, you read that right. Six out of five stars. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. M-O-O-N, that spells phenomenal.

Going into this book can be intimidating. It’s 1153 pages in its complete and uncut edition, making it one of King’s largest books. It is also considered by many King fans to be his best work. There’s disagreement, of course. Some swear by King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower, while others hale IT as their favorite book of all time, while still others hold up various of King’s other works as their personal favorites. I have yet to read The Dark Tower and thus might change my mind on this, but so far I’m firmly in the camp that The Stand is King’s masterpiece. Within this massive book mingle so many genres. The setting is an apocalyptic dystopia, but there is romance and adventure and humor and theology and satire and fantasy. If I could only re-read five books for the rest of my life, this would be one of those five because it gives its readers so much.

“Can you dig that happy crappy? Do you believe that happy crappy?”

There were some fantastically well-developed characters in this book, and they all joined the side of one of the two most charismatic characters of all: Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg. Mother Abigail is a 108 year-old black woman who has been appointed by God to lead the side of good. Randall Flagg is the dark man, the tall man, the Walkin’ Dude, and he is the face of evil in this brave new world that’s been wrought by Captain Trips, the worse plague to ever sweep the earth. With 99 percent of the earth’s population wiped out at the hand of man, those remaining face off as they try to remake the world, for good or for ill. Though Flagg and Mother Abigail lead their respective sides, their followers are just as well-developed, of not more so. Honestly, there are too many amazing characters to list. But I think that the star of the show is Tom Cullen, a mentally handicapped man who accomplishes more than anyone would have believed possible. Tom made my heart squishy with his innocence and his belief in his friends. Every character King crafted within this story felt special and real and relatable, but Tom shone.

One thing I really loved about this book was King’s decision to portray “good” characters and “bad” characters in such a human way. Those who sided with Flagg were still sympathetic and relatable, while those who sided with Mother Abigail were still fallible and petty at times. There were no perfect protagonists here, and no flat cardboard antagonists who are easy to hate. These were all people, real people, and I connected with them all.

Besides the characters, my absolute favorite thing about this novel was its religious commentary. There was a level of theological depth here that’s not present in most religious fiction. I knew going into this book that it was a post-apocalyptic war between good and evil, but I had no idea that it would impact my thinking this much. Take this quote from Mother Abigail’s thoughts, for instance:

"They filed in through the gate that Ralph opened and she felt her sin, the one she thought of as the mother of sin. The father of sin was theft; every one of the Ten Commandments boiled down to “Thou shalt not steal.” Murder was the theft of a life, adultery the theft of a wife, covetousness the secret, slinking theft that took place in the cave of the heart. Blasphemy was the theft of God’s name, swiped from the House of the Lord and set out to walk the streets like a strutting whore. She had never been much of a thief; a minor pilferer from time to time at worst. The mother of sin was pride. Pride was the female side of Satan in the human race, the quiet egg of sin, always fertile.”

See? That’s some deep stuff, man. And this book was chock-full of it! Characters who didn’t believe in a Higher Power at all were faced with His probability, and watching them struggle between the rejection and acceptance of that knowledge was fascinating. The theological debates between characters and within their own thoughts was incredibly thought-provoking, and I would read this book again just for that. But there were so many more facets to this story. I was actually even okay with the ending here, which is often lacking in King’s novels; I felt like this one delivered.
I highly recommend this book. If you’re going to read one Stephen King book, I wholeheartedly believe that this should be the top contender. It’s a commitment, true, but incredibly worth it.

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

My first buddy read with my wonderful friend Caleb!