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!!!!!!

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.

goodness me, this book was a chore. it took me nearly a month to finish and by the 12 day mark i was really regretting reading the unabridged version. and along the way, i realised that this is a classic case of me liking the idea of the book so much more than the book itself, which is so unfortunate.

i thought the beginning started off really strong. i was enjoying seeing how the plague affected everyone differently and the lengths everyone had to take to survive the mass confusion and looming death. oh, and nick. nick is the best thing to come out of fiction since i dont know when. and although an attachment to a character is enough motivation to finish a book, its sometimes not enough to actually enjoy the book entirely.

what really made me check out was when the dreams started becoming a major focal point to the plot. i just could not get behind the whole mother abigail vs. randall flagg story line. i understand that stephen king has wonderful and deep messages in his books, but if im not really engaged with the story, then im not going to invest the extra time to try to analyse everything. so i know i missed out there, but i cant bring myself to care more about it.

so what began as an interesting story turned into a very religious subtext of good vs. evil. its an ambitious story, but one i just wasnt quite feeling by the end.

↠ 2.5 stars

Continuing my journey of reading SK's books in publication order, and arguable one of constant readers favourites.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It's well-paced, it's both character and plot driven, it's dystopian and it's dark. There is no question now that Stephen King is my favorite author. I would say I wish I had read this sooner but I'm glad I waiting this long, I couldn't have imagined reading this through the COIVD-19 pandemic.

This book centers around an unstoppable virus and it's survivors, if you can call them that. This is a really good book and therefore might not be the best introduction to Stephen King be it's a masterpiece. Every word read in this book is worth it and it never seems to slow in pace. I couldn't put this book down but of course I had to because it's to BIG.

So many characters in this book are stand outs: Stu, Nick, Tom, Randel Flagg and Frannie it becomes hard to pick a favorites. The climax of this book is outstanding and so clever King doesn't miss a trick here. Everything is described so well you feel like your right there surviving with the rest of the characters, the story progresses faultlessly. It highlight's all the rights in the human race and all the wrongs and which people turn to in catastrophic moments.

“That wasn't any act of God. That was an act of pure human fuckery.”
“He smiles a lot. But I think there might be worms inside him making him smile.”
“Love didn't grow very well in a place where there was only fear”

I could add so many quotes here because there were 100's of outstanding lines.

I don't think I have ever read anything like this book, the way it moved me, disgusted me and shocked me over and over again. There was never a dull moment. I read the extended version of this book and I think you can tell because the beginning of the book felt ever so disjointed to the rest but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you haven't read this book or feel intimidated by it please don't be take your time with it and enjoy the ride.

“None of us want to see portents and omens, no matter how much we like our ghost stories and the spooky films. None of us want to really see a Star in the East or a pillar of fire by night. We want peace and rationality and routine. If we have to see God in the black face of an old woman, it’s bound to remind us that there’s a devil for every god—and our devil may be closer than we like to think.”

A plague has escaped a lab killing most of the population, only a few, a mere fraction of the whole, has immunity or manages to survive being infected.

It is over in a matter of weeks. Civilization grinds to a halt, then collapses, and then falls into chaos.

A Mad Max world is born.

A virus that kills 99.4% of the people it infects is a very stupid virus. Even the Black Plague had a 20% survival rate, so for a virus to act this stupidly, it would have to be man made. The last thing any virus should do is kill the host. Death of the host leads to death of the virus.

n  ”Now most of the young folks and old folks were gone, and most of those in between. God had brought down a harsh judgment on the human race.”n

Invariably, we can’t help bringing God into any situation where we think a judgment has been handed down on humanity, but he/she doesn’t have anything to do with this. This is man destroying himself. Some would make the case that God could have interceded, could have saved us if we had been worthy, but then when have we ever been ‘worthy’? Since we are made in his image I do think sometimes what God, if he exists, likes least in us is what he likes least about himself. The whole theory of God is built on good and evil. If evil exists, then oddly God exists. The Vatican has been working relentlessly to prove for centuries that pure evil exists to justify the whole need for their continued existence.

The proof might be rising out of the ashes of this virulent plague. n  ”He was coming, Flagg was coming like some terrible horror monster out of the scariest picture ever made. The dark man’s cheeks were flushed with jolly color, his eyes were twinkling with happy good fellowship, and a great hungry voracious grin stretched his lips over huge tombstone teeth, shark teeth, and his hands were held out in front of him, and there were shiny black crow feathers fluttering from his hair.”n

The survivors are dreaming about the Dark Man, and they are dreaming about the old black woman in the cornfields of Nebraska. These dreams are as vivid as they are confusing. There is a battle for their souls going on. They must choose. Do they go to Randall Flagg, or do they flock to Abagail Freemantle?

You would think it would be an easy decision. Don’t most of us think of ourselves as good people? Of course, we would join Abagail, the self-anointed prophet of God. Except, maybe it isn’t so clearly cut; as the two groups grow, it is starting to look like an even split. Abagail brings her flock to Boulder, Colorado, wanting to use the natural barrier of the Rockies to be the dividing line between her “good people” and the evil people following the Dark Man.

Not to mention that she knows there has to be a reckoning.

But are they evil? When people from the Boulder Free Zone mingle with those from the Dark Side, they find them to be normal people, just like the people they left back in Boulder. The biggest difference is that they are afraid, and fear, as we know, is the most insidious and easiest way to control people. It becomes very clear that Abagail’s army is really only fighting one man, one man with supernatural powers. n  ”Nevermore. Tap, tap, tap. The crow, looking in at him, seeming to grin. And it came to him with a dreamy, testicle-shriveling certainty that this was the dark man, his soul, his ka somehow projected into this rain-drenched, grinning crow that was looking in at him, checking up on him.”n

So it is sort of interesting to speculate about whether there are truly evil beings like Randall Flagg in the world, waiting for their opportunity, waiting for people to need someone larger than themselves to lead. Their power grows as people choose to believe in them. As long as civilization exists and people are reasonably content, a person like Flagg is never given an opportunity to thrive.

We through our own discontent empower evil.

This novel is one of the King epics. A fan poll on Goodreads, The Best of Stephen King Poll, shows that his fans still believe this is his best book. My favorite book, and the one that I feel will be considered his masterpiece, is n  ITn, a book that I feel really brings together all of his best skills in building characters and shows off his gift for creating twisty, scary plots . IT is #2 on the Goodreads poll. Pennywise, in my opinion, might have had as large an impact on reading/watching audiences as Norman Bates in Psycho. Once you have been introduced to Pennywise try walking past a storm drain without giving it a wide berth.

The Stand has a large cast, and most readers will have a favorite character. I liked several characters, actually, and wondered if I was going to find myself in a George R.R. Martin universe where identifying with a character was tantamount to self-inflicted grief. I was fortunate to stick with Stu Redman. He is a hick from Texas who continues to show hidden depths as circumstances shape and reveal his character. He made me smile with the following response, when it looks like dire circumstances may lead to a slow death: “Ralph came over to Stu and knelt down. ‘Can we get you anything, Stu?’ Stu smiled. ‘Yeah. Everything Gore Vidal ever wrote—those books about Lincoln and Aaron Burr and those guys. I always meant to read the suckers. Now it looks like I got the time.’”

Gotta love the thought of a redneck from Texas reading the unabashed New York homosexual.

In the forward, Stephen King talks about the meeting he had with the publishing group about the size of The Stand. It was originally published at about 800 pages, but then when they decided to reissue the uncut version, he was able to put back in about 400 pages that he had been forced to excise. ”I reluctantly agreed to do the surgery myself. I think I did a fairly good job, for a writer who has been accused over and over again of having diarrhea of the word processor.” He agreed to the cuts because the publishing team made a compelling case. They were able to show him the sales from his previous four books, the profit margin, and if he sold the same number of books of The Stand, how much slimmer the profit margin would be, because of the cost to produce the 400 extra pages. So the cuts were not made for editorial reasons, but for common sense accounting reasons. King was very happy to have the orphaned material reunited with the rest of the book.

The book does bog down at times for me. I think that is inevitable with a book this size. King is taking on some larger themes here and for the most part keeps all the plates spinning in the air. I read a lot of post-apocalyptic books, and I’m sure if I ever let myself be put on a couch, a psychologist will explore those reasons thoroughly, but one thing I notice, while I am immersing myself in The Stand, is that I have a greater appreciation for my life and the cocoon that civilization wraps around me to keep me safe and provide me with the necessities so that I can have the time I want to read, putter, and write. Maybe I’m not as obsessed with the END OF THE WORLD as much as I am finding new ways to appreciate the wonderful life I do have.

I have to admit, though, that I had to agree with lifestyle philosophy of the sociologist Glen Bateman. n  ”But Bateman himself hadn’t wanted to get in on the ground floor of society’s reappearance. He seemed perfectly content—at least for the time being—to go for his walks with Kojak, paint his pictures, putter around his garden, and think about the sociological ramifications of nearly total decimation.”n

I would hope I could ignore the siren calls of the ancient, wise woman in Nebraska and the seductive pull of The Dark Man and just enjoy the peace and quiet of a more tranquil world without the constant noise of people talking on their cell phones, music blaring from cars, planes taking off from airports, and millions of electrical lines humming.

It is truly amazing any of us can think.

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And so the Apocalypse Trifecta is complete, with my one, true favorite End of the World book. I have no idea how many times I've read it now - I know the first time was in junior high school, though, and a lot of time's gone by since then. I also think I have about three different copies floating around....

It's hard to know where to begin when writing about this book, probably because I work under the assumption that everyone has read it. But I guess that's what everyone thinks about their favorite books, so I'll fill in those of you who haven't.

It's the end of the world. Not in the horrible confluence of blindness and carnivorous plants, or in the fiery desolation of nuclear war. The world dies in a more unpleasant way than that, and it all begins in Project Blue - a US military lab in the southwest. There they've built the greatest plague mankind has ever known, a shapeshifting flu virus that is 99.4% communicable and 100% lethal. Its intended use was probably against the Soviets or some other enemy state, but... Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, as Yeats said. And on June 13th, 1990, the superflu got out.

It was carried by Charles Campion and his family, spread throughout the southwest until Campion died in a gas station in Arnette, Texas. From there it hopped into the men gathered at the station, who passed it on to nearly everyone they met.

By June 27th, most of America was dead. And thanks to the final command of the man in charge of Project Blue, the virus was spread around the world as well. By Independence Day, the population of the world was reduced to less than the pre-plague population of California.

Of course, not everyone who was immune escaped unscathed. There were accidents, mishaps and murders that probably brought the number down, but not by much. Scattered survivors struggled to understand why they lived when so many had died, and started to seek out others like them.

And then came the dreams. An ancient woman, living in a cornfield. She radiates goodness and compassion (and still makes her own biscuits). Mother Abagail is the beacon of hope for those who see her in their dreams. And then there's the other, the Dark Man, the Walkin' Dude, whose shadow brings madness and whose gaze brings death. He is Randall Flagg, a man whose time has come 'round at last. Just as Mother Abagail attracts the good and strong, so does Flagg attract the weak and frightened. Around these two do the remains of America come together. And neither one can let the other exist without a fight....

What keeps bringing me back to this book? Well, a lot of things. For one, the writing. King has said that he's a little disturbed about The Stand being the fans' favorite - it means he did his best work thirty years ago. Not entirely true, I think, although I am hard pressed to say which of his other books exceeds it. King's sense of scale as a writer is outstanding. We get into our characters dreams, in their innermost secret thoughts, and then a few pages later are presented with an overview of what's happening around the nation. It's like being able to go, in Google Maps, from someone's bedroom all the way out into space. He dances between characters smoothly, so just when you get to the point where you're thinking, 'Yeah, but what's Flagg doing?" he brings you there.

And speaking of the characters, they're people who will stay with you long after you finish the book. The quiet confidence of Stu Redman, the single-minded madness of the Trashcan Man, Larry Underwood's late maturity, Lloyd Henreid's devotion, Fran Goldsmith's determination.... Each character rings true. Even the ones who really shouldn't have ended up the way they did - and I'm thinking of Harold and Nadine here - you can't help but find bits of them to love. Had they been strong enough, Harold and Nadine never would have gone as bad as they did, and I think even King kind of had a hard time making them do what he wanted.

Underlying all this, of course, is a kind of Old Testament religiosity. The God of Mother Abigail is not the kind and friendly God of the New Testament, He is the angry one of the Old. He is the God who will gladly wipe out nearly all of mankind to prove a point, and will make a 108 year-old woman walk into the desert by herself because she's getting a little too uppity. In this world, at least, God is most definitely real, even though His purpose is hard to understand.

I could go on. Thesis papers could probably be written about this book, and I reckon they already have been. But that's not why I do these reviews. I do them because I want y'all to know what's worth reading.

This book is worth reading.

Oh, and one more thing - if anyone wants to send me the DVDs of the TV movie that was made back in the 90s, I'd be your friend for life. One of my favorite college memories was getting a whole bunch of friends together in my dorm room to watch it when it was broadcast....

FULL REVIEW UP!
Laws yes, I finished this huge ass book!

I’ve been wanting to read The Stand for years. I put it off because of the sheer size of the book. I finally kicked my butt in gear and read this post-apocalyptic tale of good vs evil.
I love post-apocalyptic/dystopian plots and I knew I needed to read this. I'm so glad I did!

I went into this book not knowing much about the plot or characters. I did not watch the TV mini-series of The Stand which was produced back in 1994. I'm glad that I didn’t watch it or know what type of plot and characters that Stephen King was going to introduce me too!! I think it's better that way.

The Stand starts off with a deadly plague that kills most of the world’s population. I enjoyed reading about the trials and tribulations of the survivors trying to navigate in this new world. I loved this part of the book!

And because of the death and destruction that occurs, Randall Flagg, the Dark Man comes back for the remaining survivors. Dun dun dun!


I ended up reading the unabridged version of this dystopian tale. I do think that some of this “extra” of the unabridged version could have been cut out. I still loved the overall story though and have to give this book 5 stars because of the amount of world building and characterization that King ends up writing about.
One thing that I had issue with on the unabridged version was the Trashcan Man chapters. It slowed down the pace for me and made me miss the other characters.
Now that I’ve finished the book though, I understand why King wrote those chapters and wanted them in the book.

I absolutely loved the ending of this book! I’ve read some reviews that had problems with it, but it worked for me. I’m not saying more due to spoilers.

Last of all, some of the characters in this book will be with me for years. That’s the skill and brilliance of King when he writes a character driven plot.

Nick Andros, Tom Cullen and Glenn Bateman will always be my favorites.
And I will always hate Harold Lauder with a raging passion. What a weasel! Speaking of weasels…


And now thanks to King, I want an Irish Setter like Kojak. Fetch Kojak, fetch!

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!

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 am not a Stephen King fan. That being said this is one of a handful of works by him I enjoy. Mr. King seems to have a congenital inability to write an actual “hero figure”. The fatal-flaw motif is very evident in his protagonists. This will appeal to some readers, and they find it “a touch of realism”. There are times I wonder. At any rate that isn’t quite so evident here as in his other books. The main characters while definitely within the “feet of clay” school aren’t in general carrying around major crimes in their past.....not all of them any way.

The book opens up a lot of King's attitudes on God also I suppose, (of course I can’t be sure, but it seems so) in the development of the story and eventually (major spoiler coming )  the death of Mother Abigail. many Christians will see major flaws in this understanding of God I believe. Though I suppose the aforementioned view (the view Mr. King gives in the book. What I'd call the "legalistic" view of God, a failing to grasp grace) may be somewhat common as it shows up so often.

The plot develops well and the characters are real within their own story and the book's world. I think it stands to be considered a classic of it's type and will I believe be one of Mr. King's efforts that hangs around.

For those who read the Dark Tower Series (another set of his I read and reviewed) this book ties into the story in a peripheral way (as do many of King's works). It touches on Mr. King's larger mythology and "multiverse". It's quite readable with, however a large dash of “life’s crudities” evident.


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

Read the "extended version" of this book. Not a lot of difference. I actually think it dragged the story out quite a bit. Not much really different but "more of the same" to a certain extent. There are more accounts of events during the plague, more detail about later events a slight amplification of the end.

Still a good book.

Considering the popularity of this book, there'll be no need for me to make this long, so, just my feelings and impressions while reading this.

The first half of this reads like a classic Stephen King novel. All hell has broken loose and he has generously provided great exposition akin to a front row seating for anyone curious in observing how the world might end in a meticulously written high definition detail. A true class act indeed, nevertheless, I did find myself getting bored and/or transfixed with the world-building and character development in equal measures.

The second half deals with how the various remaining forces of good and evil have choosen 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. I'll still recommend this for both Stephen King die hards yet to pick this up and general post-apocalyptic fans out there that'll love a very interesting and immersive experience of world-building and character development of truly macabre tints.

2022 Read

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.