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Summary: best book ever
Review: The Stand was the best book EVER (screw all who dissagree) im only twelve and for some reason my school librarian has trust in a 12 year old METALLICA-led zeplin-AC/DC fan to rent a stephen king book from a highschool i red it in two weeks, first stephen king book for me he's now my favorite author, when i recommended it to someone in my 6th grade class he tried it, got 20 pages into it threw it down infront of me and spat on it so i kicked him in the groin and got suspended (nother story) aparently having a 148 I.Q. means alot in your choice of reading ane way best book ever READ IT!!!
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Summary: The Stand - Uses of Symbolism
Review: In the novel The Stand, by Stephen King, the use of symbolism is prevalent throughout the story. The story is complex, with symbolism brought into play with many of the numerous characters that are introduced. However, its primary use is reflected in King's portrayal of the protagonist, Abigail Freemantle, and the antagonist, Randall Flagg. His use of symbolism with these characters augments the story's impact upon the reader to a point where without its use, the novel would seem to lose its purpose and meaning.
Freemantle and Flagg have spiritual powers and use them to attract people for their eventual battle between good and evil after a virus catastrophe kills off over 99% of the world's population. The survivors gravitate to one side or the other, with Freemantle attracting her followers to the good side, and Flagg attracting his followers to the evil side.
Abigail Freemantle is portrayed as a messenger or a prophet of God. She is a peaceful old woman who clairvoyantly contacts people through their dreams and attracts them to her, meeting in Boulder, Colorado. Once her people are gathered, she has a spiritual, somewhat biblical control over them. This is even more evident when she chooses four men to go on an apostolic journey across the wilderness on foot with only the clothes on their backs to defeat the evil side.
King portrays Randall Flagg as either a demon or Lucifer himself. He changes forms, and seems to have more supernatural powers than Freemantle, and uses them. He attracts the evil and troubled people either through dreams, voices, or sometimes suddenly appearing to them and tempts them with false promises. His side, the evil side, gathers in Las Vegas, Nevada.
An additional use of symbolism can be seen where Freemantle and Flagg choose to group their people together. Freemantle chooses Boulder, Colorado, a peaceful city, while Flagg chooses Las Vegas, Nevada, known for its corruption and vice. These two settings further illustrate the battle between good and evil that King writes about.
Although King uses symbolism in many other instances in the story, the characters of Abigail Freemantle and Randall Flagg reflect its most profound use. Through its use, King writes a very powerful story.
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Summary: Apocalypse now... or whenever
Review: Stephen King is a guilty pleasure; he writes for "the masses", which some snooty readers look down their literary noses at. But he is one helluva storyteller, as well as a more than passably good writer. "The Stand" is not his best book, but in a way it's more chilling than some of his better works like "Salem's Lot" or "Pet Sematary"; whereas nobody really believes in vampires or Wendigos, "The Stand" gives us a scenario that is all too believable. In a hidden laboratory in the Mojave Desert, the military is busy creating all kinds of nasty bugs to be used in bio-chemical warfare, in direct violation of the Geneva convention; and one of them is a spectacularly lethal, shifting-antigen virus called Superflu which has 99.4% communicability, which means 99.4% mortality. Simply put, almost everybody in the world will catch it, and everyone who catches it will die. When the virus breaks out of the lab,a technician bolts off the base with his family, carrying the Superflu virus with them, and a chain reaction is set in motion that will culminate in the deaths of billions of people. In a world gone insane with death, social breakdown and anarchy, an Antichrist figure appears named Randall Flagg, and the survivors of the Superflu epidemic will have to take sides in an apocalyptic confrontation between Good and Evil.The first 250 or so pages of "The Stand" are by far the best, as King spins the compelling story of how the Superflu escaped from the laboratory, its rocketing spread across the United States, and from there to the rest of the world, and the spiraling descent into anarchy as people drop dead like flies. Most of the survivors, including a lanky Texan, a young pregnant girl, a deaf-mute and his mentally retarded friend, a self-centered rock singer and others, gravitate towards their guardian angel, a 108-year-old black woman named Mother Abagail, just as others are drawn, in spite of themselves, to the Dark Man, some loyal to him for what he stands for, others out of fear (this dude has a habit of nailing people to crosses when he gets annoyed at them); everyone has to choose a side, no fence-straddling allowed. Sooner or later, a clash is inevitable, and when it comes, only one side will be left standing. King sometimes overwrites, and "The Stand" could have used some judicious pruning; but he knows how to keep the tension high and one has to give King his due, the tension never lets up in this book. One reads this book and wonders, even without the mythical figure of Randall Flagg, could it actually happen? In smaller ways, it already has: the plague epidemic in the 14th century killed a third of the populations of Europe and Asia, and less than 90 years ago, the "Spanish flu" epidemic of 1918 left 30 million people dead -- and this was before the age of jet travel. King's genius lies in producing spine-tingling shivers, but this time around he outdid himself; what he produced in "The Stand" is the stuff of nightmares.
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Summary: My favorite King novel of all time, next being IT!
Review: The Stand by Stephen King was ORGINALLY released by Doubleday in 1978 and it was 816 pages long, The Stand was rereleased in 1991 complete and uncut, but the orginial manuscipt was 1200 pages long, now The Stand is not 1200 pages long, but just 1,153 pages long. The Stand takes place in Nevada after a deadly virus is released, one of the watchguards then grabs his wife and two kids, and get out of dodge. But they are too late. In Texas, we run into Stu Redman and the local crew hanging out at the local gas station, and they see the soldier driving, and he crashes into the pumps, the soldier is sick, and his wife and kids are dead. He is then taken to the hospital where he dies before he reaches there. In Maine, we run into Fran Goldsmith who is pregnant with her boyfriends child, and she does not want his kid, so they break up. Now we meet Nick Andros, a deft-mute, but he can read lips, he gets attacked by the local bad boys and is rescused by the local sheriff. In New York, we meet Larry Underwood, a up and coming singer who has a hit single called 'Baby Can You Dig Your Man?' to escape the horrors back in California; drugs, parties, and drinking where he can clean himself up. Soon, the virus spreads thanks to travlers crossing the country when they stop to get gas at the station where the dead soldier crashed into the pumps. Soon the country goes into chaos, and two sides eventually come together in this chaos. The highways are crowded with dead drivers trying to escape the death of the big cities, and soon the world is wiped out, but the suriviors who survive face a new terror: the devil's imp who goes by the name of Randal Flagg, he gets his followers together in Las Vegas, and while Mother Abagaible who the other side of the survivors see in their dreams. So they meet up with Mother Abagaible and they head to Boulder Colorado.
Now, while they know the two exists, one of the followers goes bad and plants a bomb into a apartment trying to kill everyone where they are heading a meeting to restablish the Bill Of Rights and the Constitution, so one of the followers head to Vegas to take Flagg down. The Stand is by far THE BEST STEPHEN KING novel he has written in his 30 year career, the only best novel that can reach The Stand is IT. So dont be intimidated by the length of this novel, this novel would read through a breeze, and it very good. Defintely one of my favorite novels of all time, one of the being American Psycho, The Rules Of Attraction, The Rainmaker, The Firm, IT, The Cardinal Of The Kremlin, Patriot Games, and the list goes on. Read it, and you wont regret it.
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Summary: Feb 7, 2004 spoiles the ending!!!!
Review: Firstly, ignore this review if you've finished the book. I've already finished the book, so it didn't effect me, but if I read Feb 7's review before I finished the Stand, I would have been pretty mad at having the ending mostly spoiled. This book has an awesome ending if you don't know what to expect. The Feb 7 reviewer just spoiled the biggest surprise that this book has. Thanks, buddy.
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Summary: Awesome Book for anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I've been reading Stephen King novels for a few months or so, and they are great. Normally Mr. King's trademark of writing is his ability to make you turn a night light on. When I read The Stand I learned that Stephen King isn't filled with demented thoughts of evil demons, but actually a tale of grief and Christianity. Mr. King touches me so much in his novels. In the Shining he scared me out of my wits and in It I couldn't stand to see a clown(in my moms bedroom the doorstop is a clown). The Stand made me very sad and put me on the verge of tears(ive never cried in my life except as a baby) when Larry Underwood and Ralph made that heroic speech, then when they died from the Atomic Bomb. This is a gripping page turner please read this book whatever you do.
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Summary: Among the living, follow me or die! [no spoilers]
Review: This was the first Stephen King book I read 10 years ago. I'm not a large fan of his works or the horror genre but the premise sounded interesting and inspired me to read it. A compelling book about good versus evil on a social level and a personal level. Add fate, religion, and a little magic to help compliment the story and you receive a first rate novel. The writing is superb. For a novel this large, someone might fear a dragging story however about every chapter connects to the overall story without appearing as filler. Slow parts are appropriately placed. If you've travelled throughout the United States, the cities and highways are real with a few exceptions. Not too gory or graphically violent. Great characters. I recommend this for those who enjoy reading thought provoking stories on a higher level. One of the flaws are the few loose ends but I prefer to think of them open to reader conclusion/philosophy. Another of the flaws are spelling errors and misquotes. Considering how many different copies and prints have circulated through the years, these errors should be fixed. But these flaws are minor given the scope of the work and don't really detract much from the book. Someone else may have noted this fact but for me the song "Among the Living" by Anthrax took a more colorful perspective after reading The Stand. If they would write a song about what this book encompasses, they are well read. Cool song for a great book. If you're a fan of heavy metal, listen to the lyrics. Thank you.
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Summary: Among Kings Best
Review: I see that 764 other people have reviewed this book, so I highly doubt I will have anything fresh or original to say. However, I had to put my two cents in. Of all his books, this is one of the best. Period. You wont believe how quickly you can read a book this thick.
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Summary: baby can you dig your man?
Review: the stand was never going to receive the same amount of critical aclaim as some books, this is purely because of the sensational subject matter. kings narative is superb and the story sways slowly between the personal, believable nostaligia diplayed in each character and the overwhelming events that make the story. kings great acheivement here is the charater development, i dare say that the story, althought a good and horric scenario would not have been adequately explored without the characters. when reading the stand it becomes clear that you can either take it as it is (a book, fanciful and empty) or really try and understand and belive the plot, this is when king has the power to really frighten his readers. the whole part of the book where mother abagail and flagg are fighting it out, seems in my opinion to take a back seet to the horror displayed in the first part where he graphicallly describes the true nature of humans. totally scary. a horric and amazing acheivement from king, never cold always emotive and hugely nostalgic never pretentious just honest. five stars for the king of modern writing.
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Summary: Song Misquoted
Review: This is a great book. Perhaps Stephen King's best. However, on page xvii (the one with all the song quotes) is a quote from the song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by the Blue Oyster Cult that is a little off. "Come on Mary" should really be "Come on baby" per the CD booklet. I count three other small typos in the song quote. I realize that that's a really stupid thing to mention but knowing the right lyrics, it gets on my nerves. Also there's the word "realize" on page xii of the the Preface that is also mistyped as it appears "reaiise." I don't usually complain when I see typos in a book, but these two are right there in the first 10 pages of text. If there's somebody that works for the publisher that happens to read this review, then get on the ball. If not, oh well...
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