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Summary: King's THE STAND haunts me to this day.
Review: What can I possibly say about this book that 500+ reviewers haven't already said? Only that I have had more dreams about it than any other book I've ever read. It is an amazing experience, so expertly drawn, you'll feel as though you have walked through those empty, graveyard cities and down those endless, lonely highways, desperately looking for the last of humanity. Brilliant, moving, and awesome. Don't let the size of this book keep you from reading it. You'll never forget it once you do, I guarantee it.
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Summary: A novel for the ages!
Review: Stephen King's "The Stand" is a masterpiece. The characters are so richly woven and finely tuned that I find myself pulling my tattered old copy off the shelf just because I miss them. The apocalyptic battle between good and evil serves as the purpose of this novel, and King does an excellent job of giving us a taste of both sides. The reality factor of the virus makes the story all the more exhilirating. As usual, King proves he is the master!
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Summary: Classic and epic
Review: What do you say about a 1,000+ page book that is probably the most popular novel by an author who is possibly the most popular writer alive today? That it's good? Well, of course it's good. That it's destined to become a classic? That's probably true as well.Stephen King's "The Stand" is an epic for our time. It is haunting, exhilirating, romantic, fascinating, terrifying and charming. King always tells an interesting story, but no one creates characters quite as well. Frannie, Stu, Glen, Larry, Harold, Nick and others are remarkably real. Because they are so human, they (and their reactions) seem real, even in the most astonishing circumstances. In "The Stand," King plays a "what if" game and gets all the answers right. He shows both the positive and negative effects of the plague that has wiped out most of humanity. The survivors have everything they want free for the taking, but they lack electricity. Pollution and sprawl are ended, but millions of dead bodies are unburied. "The Stand" begins with a scientific assumption: that mankind can manufacture an alarmingly fatal virus that decimates the population. It quickly becomes a book with fantasy at its core: unified dreams, black magic, white magic, God, Satan, Randall Flagg and Mother Abigail. But King makes me believe that the fantasy elements are every bit as possible and real as the non-fantasy ones. The story stretches its way throughout the United States and doles out social commentary and humorous anecdotes. The epic scope and excellent characters and plot of "The Stand" make it a superb read.
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Summary: Its the end of the world as we know it, and i feel fine...
Review: A virus has been released from a research facility, and it spreads like a ... well disease. Pretty soon, everyone is coughing, sneezing and dying. 99.75% of the world population dies, and if the virus doesn't getcha ya, some crazy guy with a gun will. What emerges from the aftermath are a handful of people, who begin have dreams. One dream is a good-natured 108 yr old black woman calling them, and the other a dark-man with evil eyes. The battle-lines are drawn, and the survivors must choose who the will follow. "The Stand" is brilliant story about the lives following the virus of the survivors and how they make their way following their respective "leader" to a final showdown in Las Vegas. All the characters in the book are lovable, even the ones who follow the darkman such as "Trashcan Man" and "The Kid". The only dissappointment, is that after over 1000 pages of build-up, the final climax happens in one page. Having said that, the thousand page story is great, the cast has many adventures, romances, battles. When the dust settles and the end, you may be surprised who survives. And who knows, if we do blow ourselves up one day, "The Stand" may well be the survival manual of those left behind.
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Summary: the best book I ever read
Review: the stand is the most powerfull novel I ever read it has everything horor drama action religion and above all moral, the ultimate question we all have to ask ourselfs what would we do when judgement day will come how do we act, and stephane king brings up those question in a way that only he can.
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Summary: the best book ever
Review: I first heard about The Stand when it was on television, and I thought it was really good. But it was only til recently that I decided to read the book. I had glanced through it a couple times, but never read it from beginning to end. I read the entire thing in 8 days, and I couldn't put it down. I thought it was much better than the movie, but the movie was also really good. It has become my favorite book. And even thought i saw the movie first, I incoperated some elements from the movie into my thoughts as i read the book. Like the music for example. And the characters. For the most part, the actors in the film were very very good, so I see their faces when i read the book, all except Harold Lauder. I thought his character in the book was much more interesting, and scarier in a way. The movie only made this book better for me, but the book still beats the movie hands down. This is truly a wonderful book. Any fan of King who hasn't read this yet should do so.
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Summary: M-O--O-N spells Okay. Laws, yes!
Review: What I expected: The ultimate horror novel, something that would give you nightmares as long as you read it and would haunt you for the rest of your life. The ultimate story of good versus evil. The darkest, most terrifying piece of fiction ever written. What I got: The first part where Captain Tripps kills everyone off moved at a really fast pace. After that, it slowed down a bit. The committee meetings were too long. I want horror, not politics. There was no part in this book that really scared me. Shocked me, sure, but not scared. The ending was a real let-down. It just happens so fast that you feel cheated. I read several hundred pages for THIS! The end-end was sorta confusing. What happened? Beats me. Overall this is an okay book, not as tightly constructed as some of King's other works. Some of the characters in here are really good. Laws, yes! It could use an editing job.
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Summary: Up there with Absalom, Absalom! and Tom Sawyer.
Review: The Stand sits alone atop the hierarchy of King novels. In fact, it sits near the top of the hierarchy of all novels. Its 1200 page length could be considered a blessing except for the fact that even 1200 pages might not be enough. King has created one of the most fascinating scenarios and some of the most interesting characters ever to appear in literature, so every page is worthwhile. King's writing style is straightforward. He does not employ the range of literary techniques you will find in a work of Faulkner (but then again, who does?) or Twain, but that does not detract in the least from his ability to develop his characters to an extraordinary extent and weave them into a fascinating story. The plot has been summarized in numerous other reviews, so I will not spend a lot of time on that. Essentially, a government created virus escapes, people begin to get sick, gradually the American populace realizes that they are all going to die- and for the most part, they do, the survivors sort themselves out into two camps, and we conclude with a showdown between good and evil. The fascinating thing about this book, and what makes it so good, is that King takes the above story line, which is hugely ambitious, and instead of trying to streamline things, he instead embraces every detail. This book focuses on each moment as if what were occurring at that moment were the subject of the entire book. King pursues every possible story thread to the fullest, and in doing so creates a sense of vividness unmatched in any other work. King has fleshed out the backgrounds of even the most peripheral characters to a greater degree than other authors sometimes are able to do with even their main characters. Being not a science fiction fan myself, I can also offer this to potential readers- this book, while at times embracing the supernatural and religious, does keep its feet firmly planted in reality. The first part of the book in which the virus escapes and the populace succumbs is almost entirely devoid of any purely supernatural/science fiction elements and rather deals mostly with sociology (and is truly fascinating). And King does not leave 99.94% of the populace dead without examining some of the non-supernatural consequences, such as the lack of law, the absence of things such as electricity and hospitals, the fact that there are millions of dead bodies rotting across the U.S., and the question of whether offspring of survivors will be immune to the disease. Even after the two groups have split up for this oft-mentioned showdown, sociological elements prevail. In fact, a great deal of conflict occurs in the second half of the book as peoples' everyday sensibilities lead them to attempt to organize and re-formulate a society while at the same time trying to come to grips with a situation (the threat of the Dark Man, the Walkin' Dude, Randall Flagg) which they cannot understand and can only overcome by reliance on faith. One final thought on the uncut version. As I indicated above, the depth and fleshing out of every detail in this novel is what takes it to another level. A lot of this fleshing out is done in the uncut version. Most notably, Frannie's relationship with her mother is delved into more deeply, and there are also many more of those priceless vignettes of life in a collapsing society- snapshots of scenes taking place around the U.S. as the superflu takes hold. Oh, yes. And the uncut version is also the only one in which you will run across The Kid- a disturbing character, but one who alone is almost worth the price of admission. Don't tell me, I'll tell you.
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Summary: A many-layered epic with much to teach
Review: On one level, "The Stand" replays Mary Shelley's theme of the danger of science advancing without conscience to guide it, of dabbling with the unknown in nature. The virus that wipes out most of Mankind was cooked up in a Man-made lab. But this story goes much further than that theme. It is also a rich adventure tale filled with well-developed characters (I know these people!). It is the Apocalypse in a form not expected (although Plague was one of the Four Horsemen). It is a showdown between good and evil filled with archetypes. "The Stand" is good story-telling and epic adventure. It is what every writer wants to produce.
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Summary: An Epic Read
Review: This book is a shining example of what makes Stephen King so great. This is way more than a horror novel. King finds humanity and depth in his characters in his writing other writers can only dream about. M-O-O-N, that spells excellect!
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