Rating: 
Summary: Read to discover, not criticize
Review: I cannot say that I regret reading this book whatsoever. I discovered many deep truths about life in this novel and being only 14, I will read it again in a few years to see what I get out of it then. If you find it hard to concentrate and retain your patience when reading a long book, I will caution you to not read this book all at once. Read it over a month or so and you will avoid the migraines I was caused by reading so much at once. I admit that it is long and can be arduous to read at times, but I think that you will appreciate what you come away with after reading the book. The ending definitely could have been better, but I am rating this book on what I came away with and not so much on how it was written. After all, I think that the more important thing when reading is to discover something about yourself rather than focus on how the ending could have been better. Realism is a fact in these books and just enough fantasy to keep you reading.
Rating: 
Summary: the best King novel
Review: I couldn't put this one down. Good vs. Evil at it's most fascinating best. The end of the world as we know it after disease kills off most of the population. The "good" gravitate to each other and the "bad" do as well. What happens next is thought provoking, scary and surreal. The characters are rich and believable. This is truly one of those books where the book was so much better than the movie. Had me thinking for days after I finished. Thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: Best King Novel
Review: This is King's best novel. It involves a worldwide fatal disease, struggling survivors, and a wicked fellow who just may be the anti-Christ. King shines in this book with his well-rounded, believable characters and interesting plot. While the length may be daunting to some, for King fans and those who love apocalyptic stories this is a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Great but a few points
Review: The Good Let me just say that "The Stand" is a great book. The lanuage is vivid and it is indeed spooky. Mr. King has done some wonderful writting here and chreated great charecters.
Tom Cullin-The mentally challanged "Ace in the Hole" of the Boulder Free Zone.
Nick Adros-The deaf mute with a lot of ideas
Larry Underwood-Burned out musician stuggling to accept the reality that he has survived and move on.
And last but not least Randle Flag-The imp of the devil with that nasty habit of killing everyone. The bad The book is scary and kids shouldn't be reading it or watching the miniserise(I know this is a no-brainer but tell that to my little cousins).
The book is way TOO LONG King does a great job of creating this world and then wraps it up almost as an afterthought For my last beef some of the charecters have really really bad sexual idenity problems that part of the story is just not vital to the plot. Don't let all of my compliants take away from your enjoyment of an otherwise great book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: This book is exellent!! I could not put it down!!! I was done in FIVE days!!!! The charatcters are well devolped (Nick and Tom are my favorites). The ending was excellent, but the last 5 or so pages seemed tacked on, but they are overshawdowed by the rest of the book.A must read, unless: 1). You prefer light, non apocolptic books 2). You want less than 1000 pages 3). You enjoy self deprevation.
Rating: 
Summary: "Would you like fries with that...?"
Review: This is King at his most McCheesiest, and for this I've docked the book three stars. I then gave two stars back for sheer ambition. But then I took another away when I realized that if ambition really counted for anything, Bill Gates would be on the cover of next month's "Playgirl"....
Rating: 
Summary: Good and Evil for Dummies
Review: "The Stand" was a profoundly silly, specious, and annoying book. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite bad enough to discard. Stephen King is such a compelling writer that I couldn't put it down until I had read every cheesy page. Since other reviews describe the plot, I'll just say that it pertains to a government-created virus wiping out 99% of the population, and the survivors coalescing into two groups, "good" and "evil". While this idea has potential, and it's interesting/creepy that the book was written years before AIDS, Ebola, etc. were ever heard of, King's execution is badly flawed. He's a talented writer -- given the initial premise, he could have written a spellbinding, heartrending book. He didn't. Plotting is humdrum, characters are uninteresting and/or unlikable, illogicalities and implausibilities are explained away with "a wizard did it", and the climax... Worst climax ever! A few characters were well written. I liked both Lloyd and Harold, although they were obviously supposed to be "bad guys" in different ways. I couldn't help thinking that, if they hadn't been the kind of guys who had never caught one break in their entire lives, they might have turned out very differently. King even lets us glimpse that possibility (Harold respected by his Boulder co-workers, Lloyd actually becoming brighter when he gets a job). Larry was a sharply drawn portrait of a hard-nosed New Yorker (granted that's a stereotype, but I can attest to its accuracy), maneuvering to come out on top even in a conversation with his mother, yet paradoxically striving for integrity. Some of the minor characters were funny and rang true. But most were bland and dull. Stu, Ralph, Frannie's father, et. al., were simple country folk with untapped resources of down-home wisdom. Glen Bateman and Judge Farris were interchangeable old eggheads who get their comeuppance when they discover that science and education are not only less virtuous than superstition and mysticism, but also have less practical value. Tom was a mentally handicapped man who nonetheless managed better than many "normal" people. Note also (if it needs pointing out) the persistent anti-intellectualism in these characterizations. Randall Flagg is one of the weakest villains I've ever encountered. Sure, he's unpleasant -- but he's not especially scary. Poke Waxman and Trashcan Man, both of whom are clearly psychotic, are much scarier than Flagg. Heck, I've had *bosses* scarier than Flagg! By the way, if King is going to describe Flagg as "fishbelly white", and then send him to Africa, shouldn't he think of something to call him other than, "The Dark Man"? Then there are the women. King, already notorious for being unable to write believable or sympathetic female characters, hits a new low in "The Stand". Most female characters are one-dimensional, either too good to be true (Frannie, Lucy), or too bad to be true (Nadine, Julie Lawry). The few who are neither, who are strong (Dayna), or complex (Rita), or simply unglamorous (Larry's mother) invariably meet horrific ends. Frannie is the supposed heroine, but she was a whiny, self-satisfied, irritating nitwit. When we first meet her, she's berating her boyfriend for impregnating her, although their sex was consensual, and Frannie was the one who forgot to use birth control. When he offers to marry her or pay for an abortion, she angrily refuses to consider either possibility. Later, she berates Harold -- a twenty-year-old boy -- for not knowing how to perform an emergency appendectomy. I thought, "Hey, Miss Snottypants, are your hands tied? Why don't *you* whip out the pocketknife and start cutting, if it's so easy?" She hasn't an interesting thought in her head (or diary) all book. Her main virtue seems to be that, even after she gets pregnant for the second time in less than a year, her belly is "still perfectly flat". Mother Abigail is even worse. A borderline offensive Noble Savage stereotype who lectures on and on about her god, she's revered, if not worshipped, by all the "good guys", despite the fact that she's ignorant and bigoted. At one point, she says she's proud of having nothing to do with Catholics, whom she refers to as "mackerel snappers". Can you imagine a book where a Catholic woman refusing to have anything to do with "darkies" is portrayed as a wise old saint? Abigail also seems to be a mouthpiece for some of King's more ill-considered opinions, as when she says that the only thing dumber than a chicken is a New York Democrat. I had to wonder where a woman who's spent her entire life on farms in Nebraska would ever have encountered ANY New Yorkers -- Democrat, Republican, or otherwise. In fact, there's a disturbing and unfortunate reactionary subtext throughout the book. Aside from the anti-intellectualism mentioned previously, there's an underlying conservative bias, which subtly (or sometimes blatantly) equates "good" with patriarchal, right-wing christianity (patriarchy being particularly irrational in the society described, given its population deficit). The good guys are passive sheep who blindly follow orders from Abigail and her god, although when Flagg expects the same sort of groveling, he's supposed to be satanically evil. Harold, the lone anti-authoritarian character, who quite accurately points out that the people in authority were the ones who caused the problem in the first place, is depicted as crazy and physically repulsive, and eventually killed off in a gruesome and painful way. One of the ways we know that the Vegas folks are subhuman "bad guys" is that they (brace yourself) share child care. King at his worst (though this isn't his worst by a long shot) is still pretty gosh-darn entertaining. Reading "The Stand" is like binging on Cheez Doodles - you'll hate yourself, but you won't be able to stop. Although I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, give it a try if you're a King fan.
Rating:
Summary: The Stand
Review: Imagine three fouths of the worlds population being wiped out by the flu. All of your friends and family are gone. Where would you go? Who could you trust? In The Stand , Stephen King imagines just that.
When a glass jar containing a deadly virus is dropped at a government biological warfare clinic, people flee in terror. The super-flu, also known as Captain Trips, moves so fast that people in the clinic where it was dropped cannot even escape the building before it kills them. Within weeks, most of the population is wiped out.
The book then follows many people as they make their way across the US, in hopes of finding more people and forming a new civilization. One by one, the survivors come together, and start a trek to the west coast, where good and evil are being separated by super-natural powers. The good people are being drawn towards Boulder, Colorado where Mother Abigail awaits them. While the evil people are being drawn towards Denver, Colorado, by Randall Flagg.
You are then taken on a journey through the battle of good and evil. You witness first hand peoples natural instinct to form a government, and maintain order in a time of anarchy.
Stephen King has taken his best selling book and added extra commentary, character development, and side stories. Almost doubling in length, it adds an interesting twist to the book, as you become more and more attached to the characters.
I enjoyed the book, for the most part. Stephen King does a wonderful job of fully developing the characters lives, personalities, and relationships. The reader cannot help but become strongly attached to at least one of the characters. I thought the book had an interesting concept, and it made me think about what I would do if I was put in these peoples situations. The only criticism I have on the book is its tendency to ramble on. Since it was the uncut version, it was about twice as long as the regular version. I felt I would have enjoyed it much more if I were to have read the abridged version. Even with the rambling, I would still recommend this to any Stephen King Fans.
Rating:
Summary: his best book
Review: This is by far Stephen King's best book, though The Running Man under the non de plume Richard Bachman comes a close second. what excels in this story are the characters. he does a truly wonderful job paintbrushing a large canvas of very believable and well rounded characters. he also does a wonderful job going in detail about what could happen were such a virus present. this was also turned into a very well made TV mini-series--the only mini-series i actually enjoyed watching.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!!
Review: This book is the absolute best book i have ever read, I will remember it forever.
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