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Summary: THE STAND (The Complete & Uncut Edition)
Review: THE STAND is one of the best books I have ever read by Stephen King. The story is about a super-flu epidemic that is wiping out half of the world population and there are only a few survivors left. The survivors become seperated into two groups: one group is led by a gentle old woman named Mother Abigail, and the other group is led by an evil figure who calls himself Randall Flagg. Soon, the story turns into a classic battle between good and evil. Well that's all I want to give away for now, be sure to check out "The Complete & Uncut Edition" of THE STAND, because that's the only way to read it!
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Summary: Do People Ever Learn Anything?
Review: ...A good question, and one which Stephen King doesn't quite answer in this masterful, frightening, breathtaking, beautiful -- yes, I said beautiful -- novel. I've read both the original edition and the uncut version; I prefer the uncut. Not for what has been restored so much as for what those restorations have done for the overall novel. The restorations of the cut sequences add immeasurably to The Stand, bringing light to places formerly shadowed, expanding the vistas to a breadth and depth that is truly astonishing. In my review of Wizard and Glass I mentioned King's lyricism; I'd like to write about that again here, because The Stand is brimming with that lyric style (which seems to have deserted King in his last few novels, Bag of Bones excepted). His line about the clock in the parlor ticking off "segments of time in a dry age", and his evocative description of Kojak's journey to reunite with Glen Bateman are key examples of what I mean. When you read those lines and passages, they sing to you. Even the darker moments, such as Larry Underwood's harrowing jaunt through the Lincoln Tunnel, and Trashcan Man's mad, scary encounter with The Kid (who seems like a distillation of every early rock pioneer who ever scared your grandparents -- there's a lot of Jerry Lee Lewis in The Kid), vibrate and pulse with that plain yet elegant language which is King's true gift.The plot of the novel itself borrows from a few different sources (the novel Earth Abides, The Bible, T. S. Eliot, the stories about the SLA and livestock-killing chemical-weapon spills which were then current in the news), and weaves them into a new fabric. A deadly strain of the flu is accidentally unleashed on the world, by a series of mishaps that Rube Goldberg would have been proud of -- only a handfull of people are immune, and while they stare in wonder and fear at what is happening around them, we are treated to such delights (if that's the word) as mass hysteria, suicide, execution, and government-ordained slaughter -- vis-a-vis King's retelling of the Kent State tragedy, which some saw as a cheap shot at Uncle Sam, but which I feel was totally appropriate to the story. The survivors begin having dreams -- some dream of an old woman in Nebraska, named Mother Abigail. Others dream predominantly of an otherworldly, frightening personage with no face -- Randall Flagg, the Dark Man, the Walkin Dude...his name is Legion, as one of the characters later points out. The dreams call the survivors -- the good ones to Boulder, the evil ones to Flagg in Las Vegas. And from there, King leads his characters into a battle between the forces of Dark and Light Magic as has rarely been seen in the realm of fantastic fiction. The characters in The Stand are some of King's best; Stu Redman, Glen Bateman, Nick Andros, Tom Cullen, Lloyd Henried, the scarifying Trashcan Man, the Judaslike Harold Lauder and Nadine Cross...and of course King's finest creation to date, the deadly, destructive, Dionysian Randall Flagg. A word about the Walkin Dude: he's appeared in several of King's novels now, has come to be the villain of the Dark Tower series, and I would be hard put to find a character more evil, yet also more of a joy to read about, than Flagg. Like the Joker in the Batman comics, Flagg is a homicidal maniac -- but he's so damned happy about his work! There is a glee to him, a merriness that makes the character what he is. The sequence with Christopher Bradenton, is a great illustration of the Dark Man's wickedly funny menace -- ditto his first encounter with Henried in the Arizona jail. Flagg is fun -- but let's face it folks, he's also real scary. His "wedding night" with Nadine is the other side of his coin, and a more terrifying passage is hard to find in King's work. The female characters though -- and this is typical of early King -- don't fare so well. With the exceptions of Frannie Goldsmith and Mother Abigail (more on her in a second), they all come off subordinate to the men. King even tries to rationalize this chauvanism at one point, and it makes someone of my postmodern sensibilities want to cringe. But this is a minor issue, and I won't take King to task for it. Much. The subject of Abby Freemantle is another matter. King here has created a female counterpart to Jack Halloran in The Shining, a mystical "super-black" character whose job it is to show whitey what to do, then get the hell out of the way -- not unlike J. C. in The Green Mile, Mike in It, and (to a lesser degree) Odetta/Detta in The Drawing of the Three. This is not perhaps an awful thing -- certainly others have done it before and since (cf The Legend of Bagger Vance), but neither is it very noble, despite what must have been King's best intentions. It isn't precisely demeaning, but it is condescending...and it's worth noting that one of the book's few other black characters, Rat-Man, is a stereotypical urban hood-type, whose Stepin Fetchit patois which makes you wonder how far we've really come. King himself has said that he writes well for neither blacks nor women, though he has made some inroads with respect to the latter -- see Rose Madder and Dolores Claiborne. Even so, his treatment of ethnicities and gender here is wince-inducing at times. As to the question in the title above -- whose answer King never really gives, and rightly so -- I will say this: Maybe we never do really learn anything. After you live long enough, you see people, communities, and nations repeat the same mistakes so many times that you begin to doubt humanity's intelligence. Santayanna said that those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it -- and perhaps it will be required that God teach us a lesson as fearsome and unforgettable as the one in The Stand for us to ever accept Santayanna's thesis. I hope not. In the meantime there is King's tale of dark Christianity to do the job for us, to make us think about the consequences of all we do, to warn us of the dangers of pride, and to remind us who the future is really for -- our children. And that is a lesson worth learning, indeed.
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Summary: Amazing-The Best Book I have Ever Read!!!
Review: What makes this such a great book: I think what makes The Stand such a great book is his character development-you come to know and love the characters. King talks not only about what the characters are doing or saying, but what they are thinking and feeling. King gives you a background of their life and how that has affected their current personality. The characters don't seem black and white, and are not overdone either-they seem like people you would meet. I am sure Stephen has taken parts of his own personality or personality of those he has known or hoped to have known and put these characteristics into his characters. I can bet he has met a professor or pondered about society like Glen, felt insecure like Harold, and maybe met a Larry or Stu in his day. The over all plot involves a battle between good and evil in a Biblical sense, and the rebuilding of society revolving around the epic struggle between good and evil. These ideas might make it hard for some to swallow if that was all it was, but the meat and situations of the story and his characters make you wonder about all the "what ifs" the story poses. He puts people you might know, just ordinary people you might meet, and puts them in an epic tale-its perfect! In this book, Psychological Time is awsome: a short passage of time can seem like an eternity. I'm sure that is what Larry would have felt as well going through the Lincoln tunnel-every minute in there would have felt like an eternity. You get this feeling when reading the scene even though it is only a couple pages long, and the scene stays in your mind long after you are finished reading the book. There are many scenes in the book where psychological time worked so well for setting the tone; in fact time in general seemed to slow down after the plague hit. In this way, you can really experience more vividly what the characters are feeling. I think King is an excellent writer in this sense-he is quite crafty at this!!  The plot: When what is said to be a souped up version of the flu is accidentally released, Charles Campion, an army securtiy guard, notices the clock has gone red and escapes due to a glitch in the system, bringing his family with him. The virus begins to spread when Campion and his family travel to Arnette Texas -over 1000 miles from the flu's place of origin, infecting anyone they come into contact with. 99.44% of humanity is wiped out in a very short time span, killed by the government derived virus- the Super Flu, also called Captain Trips. In The Stand, Stephen King wipes the slate clean (or not so clean-there's plenty of evil around!) and shows what the world could look like if a plague were to spread and destroy most of mankind. Picture experiencing the deep silence that envelops the country as everyone around you is dead and you are all alone, and you hope to come across some survivors-and hope they aren't dangerous.  Society as we know it has been obliterated-turned upside down and inside out, and the survivors struggle to come together and rebuild. There is no government running to keep things in order, and everyone has their own ideas on how things should run.  King also deals with the practical and sociological issues in this book which makes it even more interesting-such as getting the power back on and the problem of weapons of mass destruction still laying around, and also maneuvering roads full of cars and traffic jams. And Glen Batemen, one of the main characters, is a sociologist, so you get a great perspective from his point of view. And this story has an interesting look at "Americana" and its influence on people after the flu has hit. You have to wonder how other countries were handling the outcome of the flu.  The good are led by Mother Abigail, a 108 year old woman and prophet, the corrupted by Randall Flagg-the dark man, the man with no face. After the main characters you come to love have formed relationships, and come together in Boulder with Mother Abagail, with Flagg's Las Vegas populated as well, there is a final stand between good and evil.
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Summary: King's Masterpiece
Review: Although I believe the Dark Tower series will be King's greatest masterpiece when its finished - it isn't bloody finished yet! Some of us have been waiting for quite some time for Mister King to finish said series...calm down. Sorry about that. So until then, the Stand will have to do. Of course the Stand is a fantastic book, easily one of the better books I have ever read. When I recently went on a trip for a month and only had packing room for three books, they were the Bible, The Once and Future King and the Stand in that order. The Stand is great for a number of reasons. First off it is King's grandest book - it is the battle between good and evil, between light and dark fought on a worldwide scale. Whereas most of his books have this battle, in the Stand it takes on a global sense. But the battle is also intensely spiritual - King in this proves that while he may not believe in Christianity - he does believe in something. Another reason this book is great is its plausibility. Although many people may not consider the existence of giant man eating spiders from outer space (a reference to one of King's other books but I shall not mention which) a reasonable villain (I certainly don't), the plague, Captain Trips that sets the Stand in motion is chillingly realistic. Most people believe that biological weapons on this order exist. King's characters are many and varied, the plot is great, this rambling novel touches on all parts of the human experience. It is long but doesn't seem it because so much happens. By three hundred pages in this novel begins taking your life which necessitates reading it when you have a good chunk of time to spare.
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Summary: King's Master Work
Review: This is King's finest individual piece, a chilling end of the world tale populated by some of King's most vividly drawn characters. Heavy on a very mystical take on Christianity, this book gives King's imagination a chance to go mad and kill off the entire population in preparation for an epic battle between good and evil survivors. Flagg, who recurs in books like The Eyes of the Dragon, and the Dark Tower Series (which may become King's greatest legacy), is the most viscious and deeply evil villain King has ever drawn, and the book takes on a menacing pace whenever he shows up. In all a brilliant study on humanity, and an interesting, disturbing take on the human race. the only way to get us to work together is to kill off 99 percent of the population. the ending of the originally published version, which was somewhat hopeful, is replaced here by the rebirth of Flagg, which had to happen since he has the connection into the Dark Tower books, is a far more fitting end to this chilling tale.
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Summary: long but really good
Review: This book was quite long, with over 1000 pages. But I enjoyed reading it. The story begins with a deadly superflu virus, aka "Captain Trips" being accidentally released from a government lab. This virus proceeded to wipe out most everyone except for a selected few that were to be summoned to either the good side or the bad side. The bad being of course, (the devil) Randall Flagg(aka "The Walking Dude") And the good (representing God) being "Mother Abigail", a 108 (I believe) year old lady that sat on her porch for the most part, invading the characters dreams with visions of herself as well did the Walking Dude contribute to their dreams as well. These dreams would come to the people in the form of the here and now and instructing them where they needed to go next and what they had to do. Scary stuff if you ask me. The good side met at Mother Abigails and the bad side met in Vegas. Eventually the good travels to Vegas to confront Randall Flagg and do the ultimate battle. Flaggs group was going to set off a nuke war head..and just as it was to blast off a very huge hand (being the hand of God)came down from the sky and suppressed it, thus destroying the bad. It made chills run up and down my spine. The main characters of this book were as follows:"The good": Mother Abigail, Stu Redman, girlfriend Frannie, Larry Underwood, Ralph Brentner, Nick Andros, Tom Cullen and Richard Farris. The most prominent characters of the bad was: Randall Flagg (The Walking Dude), Nadine Cross, which I suppose you could call his wife, if you will. A dude that was totally nuts and a pyro freak called Trash-Can Man and The Walking Dudes right hand man Lloyd. There were other characters though none as memorable as these. Flagg will just scare the pants off you with his changing features. Handsome at one point and then of course his "true colors" at another. Hideous to say the least. I would recommend this book (or the movie) to anyone that wants a little fantasy realism mixed with horror. The description of the effects that the virus had on people will astonish you with its vividness. The personal stories of each individual will make you feel as though you know them and are traveling right beside them. A book that is well worth the read.
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Summary: Incomparable
Review: By far, the best thing Stephen King has ever written and quite possibly one of the top ten books of all time. He goes from the horror of an epidemic that is more than a possibility to a good vs evil allegory. It covers all the bases. You really have to read the full uncut version to get the full effect. Many have noticed that the miniseries on TV was much more true to the original work than the abridged. I remember reading the abridged when I was in high school and it being great but awfully choppy. The uncut version solved that choppiness problem, and to me proved it was one of the great works of literature of all time (Intellectuals, be damned).
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Summary: Possibly King's Finest Moment
Review: The Stand is easily the best of King. It has a complex, intricate, and involving plot; realistic and believable characters; and exceptional prose. It may seem as an intimidating novel, and at over 1100 pages, the intimidation isn't entirely illogical. But don't let that fact stop you from reading this grandiose, epic novel. Even if you're wary of King due to some of his more recent work, you'll still enjoy this. And while you're at it, pick up the Dark Tower series and It, also by King, as those rank with The Stand as King's best.
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Summary: King's Royal work of art -- an epic masterpiece
Review: After having read many of King's books, some good, some great and some were, uh, well not exactly what I look for in entertainment. At the very heart of King's talent is the ability to breathe life into his characters...and nowhere does he do that better than in 'The Stand'. A friend of mine had been pestering me to read it for years before I finally got around to cracking the pages of this monster of a novel. I guess I was just worried that I may NOT enjoy it, even though I had heard over and over again that it was his crowning achievement...well I guess I can echo that statement, now that I have actually read the entire thing. It was no small undertaking, I can tell you that much. Talk about a story with meat to it! From the accidental release of a man-made plague that virtually illiminates mankind to the rise of an evil the likes of which our world has never seen. Now despite the killing of billions upon billions of people, the cast of characters in this novel is actually pretty big, especially for Stephen King...but don't worry, he handles them each with loving care--and keep in mind this is a big book, so he has the time to explore these people like most books can't. Here is something to think about: Do NOT let the size of this book keep you from enjoying the reading experience of a lifetime. Whether or not you have read King in the past and hated him makes no difference. This book will end all too quickly, no matter how slow you read. It is SO different from King's other novels that if you began this book without knowing who penned it, you would never be able to pick him as the author (similar with 'The Green Mile'). In short, 'The Stand' is not just good, but easily one of the grandest books written in the 20th Century, and although overall I enjoyed 'Misery' better, I rank this as a more important book, because the story will stay with you for a very long time. This book delivers.
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Summary: King's Best Book Because it's his Biggest
Review: I suppose that the word "epic" is routinely used for this book; and although that might elicit a snobbish response from some, this is one instance where the cliche is eminently justified. "The Stand" is just so darn big, it overshadows everything else King has done (and many other authors around him) - and yet, for all its grandeur, the contours of the work are intimately recognizable (you keep thinking, Yup, that's probably how America would break down). Just for kicks, he throws in a lot of profound ideas about good, evil, God (all the usual epic stuff): the damnation of one of the characters is all the more chilling for its being so convincing (i.e., consistently morally bad choices carried along in the stream of larger forces), and the chaos figure . . . well, he is (appropriately) beyond description. God himself is most forcefully felt by his maddening absence - but no less involved for it. In short, "The Stand" is almost dizzyingly huge, but somehow invites an intimate reading; somehow more intensely brilliant than real life could be, without being unfaithful to it.
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