Rating: 
Summary: An All-Time Favorite Of Mine
Review: This was the first King book I read and I fell in love with his writing style. This is one of the few books I've read repeatedly.
Rating: 
Summary: An amazing novel
Review: I want to write three things immediately and then continue with my review. I read this book because I heard it had a connection with King's Dark Tower Series. Second, I have never read the original version. I think parts of this book were dull and progressed very slowly. Finally, King writes a note at the beginning of the book warning readers that this is an expansion of the orginal book; providing more detail into the lives of the main characters. I read the note, and thought, "Stephen King can't write a dull book." I proceeded to read the novel thinking his author's note was worthless. I was wrong. But the meaning of my third point is: If you have read the original, you will probably love the uncut version. If you haven't read the original, you will probably think King is leading you in many worthless directions that do not pertain to the story.I feel the Stand has definite potential. It was a great plot, but the uncut version was one of the longest novels I have read- 1140 pages in paper back. I am not scared of long novels, I read War and Peace for fun. But most of the first eight-hundred pages weren't that good. Sure there were two-hundred pages of great stuff, stuff that won't let you put a novel down. But then there were six-hundred of semi-pertinent information. The Uncut version goes from ten pages of amazing writing, to thirty pages of in depth character analysis. I am sure if I had read The Stand before, I would have found the additional information interesting. But since I started with the uncut version, I was disappointed. The novel has a great plot. The story about the germ spreading, and the military's reaction were good. The superflu spreads, killing 99 percent of the world, and our military manages to cover it up for weeks. That was what I expected from King, exciting and suspensful writing. Then the story dredges into the lives of each main character. I think I could tell which parts were needed and which parts King added for the Uncut version. The lives of Frannie Goldsmith, Stuart Redman, Nick Andros, and Larry Underwood are essential, but all the detail is not. Then the plot heats up when the survivors begin accumulating under Mother Abigal in Boulder and under Flagg in Las Vegas. The ending was a little weak, but was still a good novel. Maybe I was disappointed because of my motivation for reading the book. I wanted to learn about the thinny in Roland's world. I wanted to know who Mother Abigal and the Walkin Dude were. Why was Kansas dead, what was the superflu? I found all those things out, and that was good. One of King's strengths is his continuity throughout his novels. I first read about Flagg in the Eyes of the Dragon, then in the Dark Tower Series, and now in The Stand. Flagg is interesting character, I encourage anyone who hasn't to read the other novels. So in my Dark Tower withdrawal, I read the Stand and found it was not a Dark Tower Series book. But I finished 1140 pages, I think that speaks enough for the novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Monumental History Making Horror Novel For All Time
Review: There's obviously nothing I can say that hasn't been said before about this wonderful book except to once again echo the sentiments of so many others in urging you to read it. If you're not a Stephen King fan, this is a good one to start with. If you already are a King fan and haven't read it......well, you've got issues! Right off the bat I can tell you what I liked best about this. King didn't waste time or a quarter of the book in the destruction of the population of the world. He takes care of most of us wham bang and moves on to the real story.....good and evil doing the dance one last time. This is a moving and (dare I say it?) spiritual novel that goes to the heart of who we are, what we're made of (or not made of), and what we hold dear. The characters are believable, and the story never lags. Sadly I must leave the road always travelled by King fans and say this is NOT his best work. Yeah, it's way up there but he has matured much as an author since this was written. Excellent in every way, to be sure, but for his emotional best read Bag of Bones and for the ultimate scare, well that's IT!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Classic King, but not his best
Review: I picked this book up last week because, as a life-long King fan, there's no book that stands out on the bookshelf more than this 1100 page epic. Mammoth in scope and length, it was one of King's first, and one of his most beloved. Set in 1990 (futuristic for when it was written, 1978), The Stand tells the story of an ensemble of people - Larry Underwood, a musician; Franny Goldsmith, a pregnant woman; Stu Redman, a southerner; Nick Andros, a deaf-mute; and many more - as they deal with a man-made plague that whipes out 99% of the world's population. The survivors are summoned together in two groups - by Mother Abigail in Boulder, and by Randall Flagg in Las Vegas - for a final showdown between good and evil. I liked a lot in the book, but I liked the smaller things. I liked Frannie's introduction, and the struggles she has with her unwanted pregnancy before the plague. I liked Larry's struggles to appease his mother after having left her to pursue stardom. I liked Harold's identity crisis, and the way I was never quite sure whether he was siding with the good guys or the bad guys, or where he would end up. Every character has a story, *is* a story, and seems somehow real. It's a quality few writers has mastered as thoroughly as Stephen King. And I liked the fact that Stephen, like always, didn't shy away from having these stories potentially cut short and incomplete by disaster. Let's face it folks - sometimes stuff happens and life doesn't give us the answers we were looking for, and nobody recognizes that quite like Stephen King. It's meant to make you upset that there is no resolution to the conflicts introduced before the plague: there was no resolution for the characters, and that's reality. (He excels also in showing the potential sex frustration of people in this apocalyptic setting. It may be unsettling to some, but I couldn't deny how *real* I thought it felt. I imagined myself in those people's positions, and I began to wonder what I would do . . .) But the BIG issues aren't as deep as you might want (in my opinion, anyhow). There isn't really any insight into what composes "good" and "evil", why some people choose one, while others go the other way. (The best commentary on this comes from Harold's inner struggles, which is one thing I would have liked to have seen resolved.) Other than that, everything just simple *is* good or evil, and we're never allowed to speculate as to *why* this is. And, surprisingly given the premise, there is very little insight into man's ability to destroy itself, no look at what we've done commentary. It's not The Chrysalis, where you're continually wondering *how* this could happen. You just sort of accept that it has happened, by some fluke accident, and humanity has moved on to its next conflict. So, if you're looking for something profound on that level (as I was) . . . well, you're probably not going to get it. Maybe I missed the "point", as it were (although King admits in On Writing that even he didn't think there really was one), but I didn't feel any more inspired about the issues of good, evil, destruction, etc., after having read this story. It's just a story. And what makes this story good, if overlong, is the characters. The story seems at times just like a vessel for them. It's almost like King just arbitrarily picked the apocalyse as the setting so he could get Stu Redman, Harold Lauder and Frannie Goldsmith together and depending on each other. Or Nick Andros and Tom Cullen, the mute Nick needing to write things down to communicate, and Tom unable to read. These are the interesting struggles, and they're the ones that form the crux of the story. Welcome to the twisted mind of Stephen King. Characters are what he does best, and this is exemplified with this work. Matty J
Rating: 
Summary: Long.
Review: Several people insisted that I give this book a shot. Well, I did and man, I'm disappointed. I'm not a huge King fan to begin with and this read did not improve my opinion on his works. I found The Stand to be long and well... dull. I didn't enjoy it all that much. I know I'm totally in the minority with this review, but that's just how I honestly felt about The Stand.
Rating:
Summary: Alec
Review: Great book.
every time i sneeze, i wonder... hehe
really a great book, read it
Rating:
Summary: A Warning
Review: It is a great book. The plot is amazing, the charectors are great and it is as scary as a good book by Stephen King should be. But more than anything, it is a warning. this book, written before AIDS was a well known disease, King is describing the possibilty of a plague that is killing most of the humanity, a doom's day version of the 1918 flu. And the worst thing is that this virus is men-made. From the terror, groups of survivors that are immune to the virus, start to regroup. Some are choosing the way of good, others the way of evil. As in any of King's book, there are many supernatural things in it, but I think they are less important. Like the story of the Easter Island this book warns us. It warns us to make sure that whatever demons we are messing with in science, we must keep them locked. It warns us that the crazy armor race that is going on, might one day do what it's meant to do and destroy us. It warns us that our uncontroled scientific and technological development might turn against us, and it reminds us how small we are actually, in the end of the day, when the lights burn out and all that's left from our science is the same primitive life form that we were 15,000 years ago. And yet, it is a message of hope. It shows the greatness of the human soul, and the human ability to survive against all chances. And it shows us that mother nature, after all, is the best scientist.
Rating:
Summary: Great characters, artificial plot
Review: For the first 350 pages or so, I really liked this book. The characters were rich, varied, and had intense relationships, and the crisis was harrowing. It disappointed me that all the characters involved in the intense relationships were dying, but I still liked the book. Then, boat heels clocking along the blacktop, then came The Walkin' Dude. Suddenly I realized Stephen King was introducing the "big bad dude" along with the plot. Suddenly I realized it sucked. The bad guy is pretty much a flop, and the entire plot is terribly artificial; all the important decisions and actions are made because of a sort of divine gun to the back. And for me, the idea of blindly following anything is evil. Still, I liked the book, and if you're interested great character portraits delving deep into the human psyche (Harold) then you could do worse than The Stand.
Rating:
Summary: King's best novel to date.
Review: I've been a big Stephen King fan for as long as I can remember. I'm only 18, but I know what I like, and I love Stephen King's work. Last October, I posted about "The Stand" on DVD. That was before I was able to get a copy of the book. I finally did, though, about a month later and just now got around to writing my review. So here's what I thought of the book. "The Stand" was amazing, for lack of a better word. The scenes that King couldn't fit into the teleplay are totally awesome. I almost always prefer the book to the movie, and with "The Stand", there is no doubt that the book is better, although the movie was excellent. I don't really know how to describe it. I have about half of King's novels and one of his screenplays, (Storm of the Century), and so far, "The Stand" is my favorite. It has surpassed "It", which was an old preference. The way that King intertwined all of these people, good and bad, was superb. Taking Stu Redman to Atlanta, then to Stovington, then to Glen Bateman; sticking Fran Goldsmith and Harold Lauder together in the small coastal town of Ogunquit; everything that Larry Underwood went through while he tried to get out of New York; and Nadine Cross's struggle between what she knew was right and what had been chosen for her... Bringing all of the good people to Mother Abigail, first in Hemingford Home, then in Boulder, and all of those with something to prove to the Walkin Dude in Vegas... I feel that the novel is so much better than the film because it shows everything from every perspective as it is happening. What I mean is that, in a movie based on a book, things are not only cut out, but they have to be left out. There is no way to show what the person is thinking, unless you want to do something cheesy, like a voice-over. That's why I think books are usually better. If you've never read a King novel, read this one. But only start it if you have the patience to read it all. I've had my copy for between six and eight months. Usually, in that time period, I'll read a new book once or twice, and they don't end up dog-eared until I've had them for about a year and a half, maybe two years. My copy of "The Stand" is almost falling apart. This book is just amazing. I don't know how else to describe it.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite.
Review: 700, 800, 1100 pages... so what. Get over it and read the book. This is the best story I have ever read. The scariest thing about it is the possibility of it. No monsters, no ghosts, no rabid dogs, and yet it still may keep you up nights. The character development is key. All those pages are necessary to become intimate with the characters. A classic good vs. evil story with modern flair. (even though it was written in the 70's) His absolute best book. If you only read King once, this should be it.
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