Rating: 
Summary: What Can I Possibly Say That Hasn't Already Been Said?
Review: I think the title of this review speaks for itself. I was able to get my hands on a hardcover copy of "The Stand" before Christmas last year; the copy is the Gramercy (Random House Value Publishing) reprint, having been published back in 2001. The retail price of the book lists for $45; the normal discounted price is about $20; Barnes & Noble offered its stock of the book for about $13, but I got my copy for $5--five measly dollars. The book is in like-new condition, but the dust-jacket is a little beat up, but for five bucks I didn't care. I must say, though, that the physical quality of the Gramercy reprinted book (binding and pages) is a little lesser than Doubleday's reprint of the book back in 1993 (the full-version novel was orginially published three years earlier, back in 1990).
After I got it, I put off reading this book for a while because it seemed intimidating (also, I'd been reading too many reader reviews); but then about a month ago, I told myself: I'm going to read this sucker and I don't care how long it takes me--turns out, about four weeks. I'm not going to endeavor to describe the story's plot, since several hundred earlier reviews attempt to do so.
"The Stand" is considered, by some, to be Stephen King's masterpiece; "The Stand" is considered, by some, to be, well, most certainly *not* a masterpiece. I have mixed feelings about the book--it's not the best book I've ever read, but it's not the worst book I've ever read, which is why my rating is three stars. However I have to disagree about the Gramercy publisher calling "The Stand" a Modern Classic. "The Stand" provides ample evidence of how much of an inconsistent writer Stephen King actually is. In the memoir/how-to book "On Writing", Stephen tries his very best to come across as an "authority" when it comes to novel-writing. Yet, "The Stand" shows that Stephen can, with a clear conscience, break almost all of the "rules and regulations" he provides in the writing book.
Also, the Complete and Uncut novel is almost too long for the story's own good--the story is too complex. There are some awesome parts/scenes in the book, but as a whole the novel is quite forgettable. Stephen employed way too many characters and the book's climax is sheer idiocy (after over one thousand pages, I guess I got my hopes up too high).
This book was the one that took Stephen over a year to write, due to a rather bad case of Writer's Block--and one aspect of the book that almost gave me a case of "Reader's Block" is this: the original manuscript of "The Stand" was written back in the '70s and was first published (in truncated form) back in 1978. But what made me confused, as I got more into the book, was separating the original time-frame with the updated time-frame. Before Stephen re-released the book in its full form, he updated the novel's time-frame to 1990 (and the first month of 1991); contrarily, there are some parts/scenes/whole chapters that retained that 1970s feel. Instead of having expanded the story, in which probably all the '70s manuscript remains, Stephen should have completely overhauled the novel for its re-release back in 1990--but, considering the bout of Writer's Block he suffered, twelve years later Stephen probably found overhauling the full-length story a bit to daunting of a task.
Overall, "The Stand" is, I feel, worth reading, if your attention-span/belief-suspension can hold out for 1,153 pages. Is "The Stand" Stephen King's masterpiece? Maybe. Is "The Stand" a Modern Classic? Nope, sorry, it's not.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, please!
Review: I see there are still people complaining about this book. Ha ha ha! You get the USA population (well almost 99.9% of it)wiped away (along with the rest of the world) there are two poles: Bad and good; there are several extremely likeable characters(I don't know why but Stuart is my all-time favourite hero); there are nightmares, there is crying (remember Larry losing his mother? Or Susan's death), laughter, dawning, betrayal, promises and broken promises, hope, humanity, insanity, cannibalism, other-worldly things, an epic journey, small-town nightmares, action packages full of vivid tales, several frights, even a nuclear bomb and a fantastic display of post-modern, capitalism-kneaded, material USA. And I ask you: What does a reader want more? and what's better is that this is served to you by one of the most talented figures in the 20th century.Respect please!
Rating: 
Summary: Throat clearing in civics 101
Review: My expectations when I picked up this book were high. It is one of the longest one its author has written and it is reputed to be the best. I haven't read them all, so I wouldn't be a good judge of that, but I can say it's not as good as The Shining. This is not because of the subject, which is nothing less than Armageddon, courtesy of a virulent strain of the flu ("Captain Trips") which, after having been unexpectedly released in an American military facility, proceeds to kill over 90% of Americans (and presumably, of humanity) within about a week. The small number of survivors is then assaulted by dreams, one of a positive and one of a negative force. Each force guides them to its respective stronghold, Las Vegas and Boulder. A bunch of survivors (an East Texas cowboy, a pregnant single woman, a rock semi-star, a sociology professor, a smart dork, a retard, a mute, a schoolteacher, an arsonist, a smalll-time criminal, among others) must choose to align themselves either with good or with evil. So what's wrong with this picture? Nothing wrong with the first part, the description of the end of civilization after disease strikes is very well rendered. The second part is perhaps too long: it also seems to contain King's political views (the good guys are virtually anarchist-libertarians, the bad guys are essentially fascists). Again, that's not necessary bad. The third part is just too short, and badly put together. The good guys manage to reach the evil city after hundreds of pages of scene-setting and then everything's over in the blink of an eye. The bad guy, Randall Flagg, had potential, but somehow failed to come together. King is always telling us that he can do this or that (give you prostrate cancer, or a head-ache, or a VD) just by looking at you, but as an evil presence he doesn't even approach the Overlook Hotel. I would have liked to have seen greater degeneration in the evil city. It comes across just as a place which is unusually orderly and well-functioning, but were people are scared. That's also a good description of Singapore, and I don't see that city as a terrible place to live. While I'm not Stephen King, I can easily imagine new dark rituals taking place in Las Vegas, awful, pre-Columbian monsters coming to life in the desert to guard the Eastern marches of the Devil's Kingdom, and a horrible damnation coming to all creation. Just reading about life in Nazi-occupied Ukraine is more terrifying, and it actually happened. Instead of this we get a smiling guy with a third eye who can levitate a couple of inches above the ground. Instead of devilish hordes of demi-humans (such as Lovecraft would have provided) we have just ordinary human beings who actually do nothing too terrible. Instead of a memorable clash between good and evil we get Civics 101 (including the Burial Committee and the Lampost Checking Squad). And although there are a few references to countries other than the USA, they are perfunctory. If we're dealing with cosmic evil, it should at least be global. I thought this was supposed to be "a tale of ultimate horror", like the sub-title says. It's not that none of the characters are likeable. Some of them are OK. Harold Lauder is not bad, although he should have done more things to show he was brilliant. We are always told he is, but he doesn't show us. Texan Stu is OK and Larry the musician is actually pretty good. Nasty slut Julie is actually excellent, really repulsive and quite real. Mother Abagail is OK, but she dies too quickly and doesn't give us enough fireworks: what use is being God's chosen if one can't even smite some hellspawn or call down the fire from the heavens? Even Moses had his serpent staff. Flagg begins well, but then he honors his name and flags down to just vaguely threatening. Since when does the devil need to negotiate everything with his followers? Since 1962 Marvels Comics we've known that the bad guy needs to be much stronger than the good guys in order for suspense to build up. As the end aproaches, Flagg looks actually weaker than the good guys and the end was, to me, very disappointing, The book is actually three stories. The first one, the end of the world, is pretty good. The second one, living after the plague is not bad, but full of padding. The third one, the confrontation between light and darkness, is a let-down. I'm not exactly sorry I read the book, but I would probably not have done so if I had read this review before. There's just too many good books around.
Rating:
Summary: My thoughts on Stephen King's The Stand
Review: I liked this book a great deal because of Stephen King's vivid character traits. His gruesome details really added texture to this novel in particular. The characters' emotions have a profound effect upon the reader. Stephen King inflicts sadness, anger, disgust, fear, and a wide variety of emotions. The best part of this book was the climax. The sides of "good" and "evil" are basically waiting for the other to make an offensive attempt at war. The tension is high, and you think that you have the ending figured out, but it comes as a complete and total surprise. The story takes several unexpected turns, and as all of King's novels it is shocking. The story elements in this book are excellently blended into a labyrinth of thought and a colorful tapestry of detail. The characters are distinct, and you soon believe that they are real. Theme plays a massive roll in this tale, and it is extemely possible that these events could happen. With this book i am singin nothing but praises
Rating:
Summary: Stands the Test of Time
Review: Uncut Stephen King--longer, scarier, better! If you've never read this version, grab it now. One major reviewer compared it to John Robert Marlow's first novel NANO (also terrifying).
Rating:
Summary: The Stand: Complete & Uncut
Review: Well, I safely say that I finally finished this one after a long, long year & eight months. This is a novel that will have an enormous impact on all of it's readers. This one is about a deadly virus, called the SuperFlu, that wipes out 90% of American. The ones who survived, Stu Redman, Frannie Goldsmith, Harold Lauder, Nadine Cross, Larry Underwood, Ralph Bretner, Glendon Batemen & his dog Kojak, Tom Cullen, Nick Andros, Richard Farris, Lucy Swann, & Dayna Jerggins, must come together and meet up in Nebraska, where Mother Abigail, the woman who has lived 109 years, has promised to help them in this whole ordeal. While all of this is going on, a black-hearted man by the name of Randall Flagg, is planning something worse than the virus, for he is planning to take over what is left of the world. From the master of the macabre, Stephing King brings you one of the most terrifying novels of all and this time, it is complete and uncut, giving you the chance to read every single word. Buy this amazing novel and you will never put it down again.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen King does it again.
Review: The Stand. Stephen King. New York City: New American Library, 1978. 1,141 pages. Over the years, we've come to expect a lot from the most successful writer ever, Stephen King. But many herald The Stand, one of his earliest works, as his best. Separated into three parts, it starts out with a disease that wipes out 99% of the world's population. The survivors soon band together and discover they have recurring dreams: One about a kind, 108 year-old women living in Nebraska, another about the Dark Man, whom none have seen but all fear. Led by the former, they attempt to reestablish society in Boulder, Colorado. But the Dark Man isn't ready to just let them start over, and campaigns to take down the peace-lovers. In the end, an apocalyptical battle between the forces of good and evil, God and Satan themselves at times, comes down to a showdown in Las Vegas. Though many believe this is the greatest book of all time, others have criticized it for its length. There are moments, however rare, when I agree and think it could have benefited from some trimming. But King for years wanted to make an epic like Lord of the Rings (it really shows in some aspects), which just can't happen if the novel's a mere 500 pages. Usually, I'm weary of someone who takes a pound of paper to spit his or her story out and usually, I'm right. Especially in J. R. R. Tolkien's, the tale kind of rambles on and on, with no interesting points at all. Entire chapters do nothing but add weight and label the author as "prolific". But not so with The Stand. King tells about nearly every single day from June to January, but makes it interesting. In the beginning, when just introducing the characters, it seems too much like a soap opera with all the emotion, but not for long. When the main characters meet, their problems and personalities seem to fit naturally with each other. The character Harold Lauder, the genius who begins to go mad, has a depth the likes of which I had yet to see. Ditto for the Trashcan Man, on of my favorites. While long, this story is definitely not boring. I should say now that the version I read was the unedited and uncut edition-meaning it had over 150,000 words that King wanted to include before, but couldn't. Since he became better known, he decided to re-release this with all the additions and none of the editing. I see where he's coming from, but the book could have been a good deal better if an editor saw it at least once. I'm speaking grammatically here, especially with the repetitiousness that distracts the reader. Particularly in the first half, I was tripping my way through every other sentence, rewording it in my mind so that it made more sense. Entire paragraphs would use the same style of sentence over and over again. If it weren't so flibbin' long, I'd read the edited version to see what that was like. There are some people who just don't like reading long books. Right away, they think, "Oh, it's going to be horrible because it's so flibbin' long." But, much like LOTR, it's really three different books in one. If he sold them that way, as a trilogy, then I think more people would have appreciated it for what it really is. In On Writing, a book to help other writers, King adamantly suggests a rule in which you write the first draft and then take out at least 10% of it for the second draft. He must not have thought so highly of that rule when writing this. It isn't the only rule he says yet refuses to obey, but it's the most obvious. If the goal of The Stand was to write a classic, then mission accomplished. Despite the many errors I saw, this is one of my favorite books. It's deeply religious, but also offers philosophy, sociology (what would humans do if 99% of them were wiped out? they'd start fighting again), romance, action, the whole shebang. If you look past the size, you're bound to find something you like. It has left almost nothing out, simply because of how much is written. In order to make it more acceptable to the public, another author would have skipped the whole first third, generalizing it in a paragraph or two. But not King, and that makes the characters so much more human. The only part of the plot you could find hard to believe is those who had immunity and lived through the epidemic: A deaf-mute, a famous singer, a borderline retard, and a pyro, to name a few. The fact that so many diversified people would come together in such a way suggests some belief requires suspension, but you could argue that that was all a part of God's plan- it was His strategy to let all of those people live, so they could interact the way they did. Some say yea, some say nay when it comes to The Stand; you either love it or hate it, because of how much is written. It's either a good thing that keeps on coming, or a bad thing that never seems to end. My belief is that the characters were very believable, the choices they made very realistic, and the action never-ending. All in all, it's a good book, one that should "stand" the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: The Stand
Review: I just finished the Stand and I'm pretty disappointed. I have read 3 other King books, IT, Salem's lot, and Pet Semetary. All I knew about this book was that it was as long as IT and that it had to do with a deadly virus that wipes out America. The first couple of hundred pages that deal with the spreading of the disease and destroying the human race were pretty good and the early parts where the major charachters are coming out and facing the new America was also a lot of fun. The killer of the book is the major plot of the book. The good people finding each other and chasing after an annoying old woman they see in their dreams while the bad people are getting together with the villian Randall Flagg and preparing to do battle. It is just waaaayyy to long and boring. Poor Frannie is crying about something every time she is mentioned in the second half of the book. The two sides prepare to face off and the book starts to pick up steam and move quick then ends anticlimactic. I was thinking I read 1000 pages for the battle to end like this???
Rating:
Summary: The Best From The Master
Review: I have always been a fan of Mr. King. Having just read this book again, I remember why. I have never associated with characters the way I did in the stand. The pages keep turning long after I would have stopped reading most books for the night. I still find new things every time. Truly Captivating. A Must read!
Rating: 
Summary: Its the End of The World as We Know It, And I Feel Fine
Review: Ah, lets get retrospective. 1978, a year that gave us Lynard Skynard, Stretch Armstrong, and most important, The Stand. After Stephen King released his classic novel The Shining, His Constant Readers were yearning for more, and they got their wish with The Stand. Although Mr. King was early on pigeonholed into the certain genre of horror, he showed he could flex his fingers and create a book so profound its hard to place it in a certain genre(But it still says Horror on the side of the book)). People gobbled up this new novel and it turned out to be his 1st #1 Bestseller(The first of many), surging him to the forefront of popularity and earning respect from his peers. Most critics hailed it as an epic novel and said it was basically An Idiot's Guide To The End of The World, while some critics(Namely Spider Robinson) abhorred this book and urged others to boycott it. But Over Time, People figured out Spider Robinson was an idiot, end of story(I mean, how many people have an insect everybody hates as their 1st name). Many fans hail this novel as Stephen King's greatest and most epic novel, his most imaginative and profound novel, and his most heartfelt and most realistic novel, and stuck in a blender you get one great book. Although The Stand was originally missing over 150,000 words from the manuscript, Stephen King re-released The Stand uncut 12 years later, adding new locales and characters, and further deepening our perspective of all the previous characters. Also one other note, ABC made a 6 Hour TV Miniseries out of The Stand(Starring Teen Idol Molly Ringwald) and I have heard its quite good and very true to the book. Here's an overview of the story and the writing of The Stand(Dont worry about Spoilers, I'm not giving anything away): Story: Imagine the Government has Secretly made a superflu virus that is capable of wiping out 99.4% of the population in direct violation of The Geneva Code and imagine the disease leaking out and slowly infecting the entire population of the earth with a disease that is impossible to cure. Even after millions of death, the government still denies any involvement in the superflu, all the way to their graves. Whole cities are totally deserted and the scattered survivors search for others with diminishing hope. Soon the survivors begin to have dreams, One of an 108 year old black woman named Mother Abigail, and another of A man shrouded in darkness and evil, named Randall Flagg. People from around The United States begin to flock towards one or the other figures in their dreams, Mother Abagail, a symbol of Love and Hope, or Randall Flagg, a symbol of evil and oppresion. The heroes of the book go to Mother Abagail in Boulder, Colorado, where they form a quaint community and try to rebuild their former lives. All the other people(Mostly criminals and egoists) flock to Randall Flagg in Las Vegas, where people who go out of line are crucified or worse. The Denizens of Boulder live in constant fear of The Dark Man and his plans of world domination, so they prepare for an impending attack from Randall Flagg's followers. Before Mother Abagail passes away to live with her all-important God, she sends 3 of our heroes to Las Vegas to make a last stand against evil. Stu Redman, Glen Bateman, Ralph Brentner, Larry Underwood, and the dog Kojak risk their lives on the faith that God will prevail with them and defeat Randall Flagg. Writing: Stephen King's writing starts off very placidly in the first 500 pages with his descriptions of the plague and its aftermath, briskly showing the Readers whats inside of his head. His writing can be very interesting and very inane at times throughout the first 500 pages, but once you hit 500 and meet Mother Abagail for the first time, Stephen King's prose seems to be miracurously changed for the better, as there are no boring moments and he writes with a flourish that can be found in novels like The Shining. Even though the book is a massive 1141 pages (In SUPER-SMALL print!) I wanted the book to be longer, as I thought some of the plots were unfinished. Stephen King really lets his readers feel for his characters, may it be pity, contempt, love or hatred, as he carefully molds his characters personas and devolops them throughout the novel. King imaginatively shows what peoples reactions to the End of the world would be and what they would do, and that makes the book even more plausible. But one major flaw that keeps nagging at me is the fact of how Randall Flagg is finally defeated, as the reader gets the impression the heroes are setting out on a quest of magic and faith, but instead they all die in a spur of the moment blast. I felt King could have tried harder on the ending. Bottom Line: I do not recommend this book to any people trying to get into Stephen King because of its length and overall complexity, but it is a very good addition to any King fans collection. This book gets 4 out of 5 stars only because of the at times flawed writing and the rather unremarkable ending. Overall a very good book and a great read, and this is perfect for anybody who thinks some of King's writing is TOO SPOOKY(Boo) to read.
"Once in Every Generation a Plague will fall among Us"
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