The Stand resides as one of the best written horror novels I have read. With its purposeful inundation of characters of all types, and its numerous story lines, The Stand comes together like a true life ride with the twists and horrors that few like King are capable of. While a very hefty book at around 1100 pages, it does not read like a drug out synopsis of the end times but rather like a finely formulated, character driven masterpiece that I argue may be one of the best 'End of the World' works in publication. ( )

bought this on impluse. Read the original when it first came out, and it had a huge impact. It's really dated now - no cell phones, no internet, no twittter. Hard to imagine shutting down towns today with no one knowing about it. However, within it's time period, it still works amazingly well. It's long and engrossing. If you don't know, it's when a superbug designed for germ warfare is accidentally leaked and 99.8% of America (and the world, but we don't follow them) dies of it. I think its the sort of book that each time your read it you could focus on a different bit of it, and still get something out of it. King wrote that its the book that most fans ask about how the characters are doing, as if he is getting postcards from them, and that about sums it up. You get very involved with these people and their compelling situation, and you wouldn't mind hearing more about them... it could be a teleseries... Anyways, I liked it. ( )

Great, great book. I have read it numerous times. ( )

King's best in it's original form before the slog was added back in. ( )

This is the story of the survivors of an accident that spreads a lethal virus and kills 99% of the population. They start to have dreams, and group in two "colonies": the ones guided by an elder lady that claims to receive messages from god, and the ones that follow the dark man.

The beggining of The Stand is quite slow, buracratic. All the inumerous characters are presented, one by one, with a lot of flashbacks and all that stuff.

When you reach page 250-300 it feels like there was no evolution. There is a lot of things going on, but you read an entire book (considering the number of pages) and you are still on the beggining of the story. It starts to be tiresome, but if you keep going, the story changes and get exciting. The characters gain depth (except for Fran, whose only role seems to be crying from the begging to the end) and the interesting sci-fi / apocalyptic / end-of-times plot gradually shows up.

The plot also gets a religious tone, about the contest of good against evil, verging the supernatural. It still seems that's a lot more to come when you reach around page 800, close to the conclusion. At this point most of the characters are captivating, and the turns of the story keep it exciting. Things that generally don't occur in other romances, in this one can and will happen, and you will keep hoping it all goes well till the end. Stephen King doesn't spare anyone, good or evil.

The last 15-20 pages are monotonous, useless from my point of view. ( )

This was my favorite Stephen King's book. I have read it twice. ( )

One of King's best. Flagg isn't my favorite King character, but he's the epitome of evil. King's books are profound. ( )

I would not exactly classify this as an "epic terror to chill your dreams," as proclaimed by the back of the book, but I may just be desensitized. Even without an obvious horror aspect, the plot was pretty good. The many characters were mostly distinct and believable. By and large, however, the whole thing was just too danged long. A story about a superflu that wipes out 99% of the world's population is interesting enough; was the supernatural element really necessary? I'm also surprised to learn that there is an "expanded edition" now available, which apparently contains more prose than the unabridged original version I just finished. This one was already pretty wordy and chock full of random asides that had little or nothing to do with the main plot. It wasn't a bad book, mind, just one that could have used a bit of trimming. ( )

Super spooky, with its rampant super flu that circles the globe. Those left behind must set up a new society, but who is this mysterious dark man they all dream about? This is my first Stephen King, and really quite interesting. It's one that I wish I had someone to discuss it with! ( )

Mr. King, in my experience of the guy, could overtell a trip to the restroom on a typical Wednesday night. The Stand, one of his more popular books, is the epitome of overtelling -- the details, as greatly drawn as they may be, are frequently boring and several hundred passages of descriptions of the plague dead are evidence of how over-indulgent King is when he's allowed complete artistic freedom to turn in an irrelevant 1100 page tome. I'm not a fan of his work because, when the story is all told, there's nothing but the details. Always the details. His fans love this and more power to them; King is nothing if not dedicated to pleasing his devoted readers. I think I'm done with him for the rest of my life thus freeing up an additional copy of all his unread works for those that can't get enough of what he so faithfully delivers. ( )

An epic tale with much detail and much satisfaction. ( )

"The Stand" is awesome. It took a couple of months to finish, but it was well worth the read. King's ability to craft "real" relationships between characters and their situation is just mind blowing. Honestly, I almost cried by the end. Each character plays a pivotal part, and each situation brings you to the edge of your seat, with your fidgety fingers waiting to turn the pages. ( )

For my money the best book of it's genre ( )

What does it say about me that about all I remembered from reading the shorter version was Franny's comment about Stu's "skidmarks" when she was doing laundry? This expanded version is incredibly rich in characterization, the extra 500 pages read like they are integral to the story. I have always been a fan of King's writing style and characterizations, just not of his subject matter (not a big horror fan), he didn't fail here. Don't be intimidated by the size of the book, it's well worth your time.

good v. evil. not too complicated. my tv replacement ( )

I love this book and it is ONE of my favourite Stephen King books.

It really is two books rolled into one - the first book, concentrating on the devastation of the spread of a deadly disease is purely terrifying in the respect that this is something that could happen if someone was careless enough.......

The second 'book' is the story of the plague survivors and is a typical good V evil story. This book succeeds because of the likability of the characters - in this case a team of main characters - they are so well written.

This is a massive book, but well worth the time (and believe me, this will pass more quickly than you initially thought) and effort. A book worth reading! M. O. O. N. spells read it now!!! ( )

A classic tale of good vs. evil set in post-apocalyptic America. King shows off his literary chops as he renders a spiritual journey of characters, rich and deeply detailed. The epic tale has developed a cult-like following that will continue to grow with time. ( )

LThis is the last time, as Waylon Jennings sings. I do not remember WAR AND PEACE being this time-eating. However, the only reason it didn't get a 5 star rating was (natch) the ending. It should have concluded with the atomic blast, but nooooooo, we have to go back and make everything nice and happy. The onle other thing is King makes his characters just too white or black. Ineresting things could have been done with Flagg's henchmazn, and that pun jujst before the grqand finale from trashman's gift: "you could say he never flagged in his detgermination." GIVE ME A BREAK! ( )

Great read!!! Makes you think about how you would handle yourself if the world came to an end. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1178339...

Stephen King may not be the best remedy for insomnia... I think the only one of his novels I had previously read was Hearts in Atlantis, which I very much enjoyed. The Stand drew me in but I am not sure if I really enjoyed it. The story starts off as a gripping disaster narrative, as most of humanity gets wiped out by a flu virus (developed, of course, by the US military) and the few survivors begin to cluster together. Then we take a turn to the fantastic, as everyone begins to dream about an old black woman in Nebraska and a sinister white man in Las Vegas, who represent the forces of good and evil. I must say I found this set-up rather unsatisfactory in terms of world-building; the means and motivation of both sides remained rather unclear, with both the evil white dude and the nice black lady (who is incidentally almost the only person of colour in a very large cast of characters, apart from some stereotyped tribesmen at the very end) able to call on supernatural powers, which in turn fail them inexplicably at moments convenient to the forward movement of the plot. The struggle of the good guys against the bad guys made for thrilling reading, but the payoff is that the bad guys lose due to their own internal division, and the efforts of the good guys actually had nothing to do with the outcome, so all that struggle as pretty pointless in anything other than character-building terms. The version I got is the expanded 1100-page edition, but I suspect I would have been just as happy with the 900-page original. Good for long plane flights and the subsequent jetlag. ( )

Unequivocally the best horror King served up - simple imagery that sticks with you years beyond the reading. A virus strikes claiming all but a few, as the survivors find each other, dark/light, good/evil are never highlighted as well as he does in The Stand - despite the length, you just cannot put it down. ( )

Gripping and Exhilarating. Bound to keep you up well into the night, a real page turner. A must read.

John K. ( )

I have a love/hate relationship with this novel. If I could go back in time to 1994 and keep myself from watching the miniseries until I had read the novel, it might be more love than hate. As it stands, there's no way around the fact that I can't imagine my own world within the story, and I will always see Stu as Gary Sinese (and he clearly isn't meant to be). Most importantly, Randall Flagg cannot be menacing to me because of Jamie Sheridan, who was not frightening in the least.

It shouldn't detract from the story for me, but it does. The characters and situations in the novel that weren't included in the movie kept me hanging on, and able to put some of my own vision into it. However, I found myself dissatisfied at the end. Flagg is "reborn" once again, and citizens of the free zone move on to start the process all over again. I feel as if it has rendered the last 400 pages pointless. ( )

Every time I read this, I feel as if I'm catching Captain Tripps. Unabridged is so much better, true to King's writing and far better characterization.

Way too long and laughable toward the end. I find that in general, the shorter the book, the better writer King is. Misery, for instance, is just about perfect. ( )