Rating: 
Summary: Good stuff.
Review: Just finished Stephen King's 1420 page monster. It was a pretty satisfying read, and the good parts were very damned good, most if not all of those in occur the earlier stages of the book. The opening sequences as the virus takes hold are the scariest pages I've read (newspapers excluded) for their vividness and plausibility. I remember walking through the train station picturing just how easily a flu of this kind could spread. Still, I don't think The Stand anywhere near King's best work, and it surprises me that King fans cite it as his best. Christine, Misery, Firestarter, The Shining, Tommyknockers, Bag of Bones, Dream Catcher and From a buick 8 are some that beat it, off the top of my head.
The waffling on about the committee and the meetings, prior to Harold Lauder's bout of pyrotechnics, was one 'stage' where the book really suffered. If anything I could only chalk it up to a lack of plotting; he seemed to plow away hoping the story would emerge, but it took a while to do it. Harold was the sole saviour of this whole passage of the book in my humble unpublished-novelist opinion.
As an end of the world scenario, Lucifer's Hammer by Niven and Pournelle, beats it hands down (having said that, Lucifer's Hammer is in a class of its own.)
Trashcan Man was a great character, and I can't believe the original edit of the novel left his cross-country journey on the cutting floor.
I don't entirely see why fans of SK see this as his best. I think he didn't do a 100% job on the start he made, and yes, the religious themes were too heavy handed for my liking, but again that's just my personal prejudice. It seems that perhaps the burden of making this a hands-down stunner was too heavy. He probably had to lighten the load a bit, be content with how it was coming out, or else it wouldn't have come out at all ... if writing a long novel can be likened to marching up-hill with a sackfull of boulders (and it can), King just had to toss a few back down there to make sure he could make it up to the top. After all, he had other books to write (and I'm glad he did.) The Stand might have taken decades if he'd milked it for all it could have offered (but boy, would *that* have been a novel.)
SK doesn't generally plot his books, if he can avoid it, preferring 'organic' plots that arise from characters and situations. That's good policy, I reckon, but this one needed a little plotting in the middle chapters. Otherwise, this is justifiably a popular read- hats off once again to Mr. King.
Rating: 
Summary: My All-Time Favorite Stephen King
Review: "The Stand" had me hooked from the first sentence. It was mysterious, touching, scary, confusing, and sickening. I read this book late into many nights.
As the book begins, a virus is being spread throught the U.S. (unbeknownst to anyone). People begin dying left and right, and the rest of the book follows the travels of those who survive. The survivors wander around looking for others like themselves. This was the most interesting part of the book.
The last part of the book becomes a quest for good vs. evil, as the survivors try to make some sort of "law system" for themselves and run across evil that is not from this world.
Bottom Line: This is one of the best books I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Who is Spider Robinson?
Review: According to Amazon.com's editorial review of "The Stand," Spider Robinson, in his 1978 review of the original version, actually begged consumers not to purchase the book. I guess Mr. Robinson didin't consider "The Stand" to be on the same level as his own classics like "Lady Slings the Booze" or the "Callahan's Place" series. You've never heard of them?
No kidding. Nobody has to beg consumers not to purchase Spider's books because, well...nobody purchases Spider's books to begin with.
"The Stand" is a good book; maybe great. Mr. King at his best is possessed of a certain folksy, sitting-around-the-campfire style that most readers are likely to find engaging, and that style shows itself most strongly in this and a few of his other works. I've heard it suggested that such a style isn't really "literature." The next time someone tells me that, I'm going to smack them with a copy of "Huckleberry Finn." Hard.
The post-apocalyptical theme has been popular in literature for, oh, the last two thousand years or so, although it's often badly mishandled. Mr. King manages to make the end of the world both spectacular and tragic, as well as creepy and sordid (not to give it away, but everybody gets the flu and dies...). Of course what happens afterward is the real meat of the story.
The bad guy is very, very bad. King imbues him with an almost endearing charisma of the darkest vein, and at times you almost don't want the good guys to win, because whatever this guy's got planned is bound to be just...really cool. And really evil.
The protagonists (and it's a long list) are all well-drawn individuals, rather than an interchangeable ensemble. A story of over a thousand pages leaves plenty of room for character development, and Mr. King makes the most of it; the reader is left feeling as much for the character's small failings as he is for their larger trials and tribulations.
The book is not without its failings, however. I've only read the "uncut" version of the stand, (re)published sometime around 1990. I don't even know if the original story was set in the 90's or the 70's (when the book was originally published). Either way, the purpose of releasing the "uncut" version was ostensibly to update the story for a new generation of readers, and in this I'm not sure Mr. King is entirely successful. There tends to be an inescapable zeitgeist to good stories; it's part of what makes them good. The original story was written in the late seventies (maybe early eighties). The updated version of this book doesn't really FEEL like a story taking place in 1990--too much of the backdrop is 1970's all the way: the slang the characters use, their manner of dress, the vehicles they drive. One of the main characters is an almost-famous rock star whose one hit is titled "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?" That probably wouldn't have knocked Nirvana out of the top spot on MTV in '90. I think the story could have stayed safely in its original "when" and still been just as (if not more) relevant than the updated version.
It's still a fantastic story; the kind you'll be sad to finish. Rarely is such a large cast of characters handled so fluidly and engagingly; rarely is a bad guy so bad and simultaneously so endearing. I don't know if this is really "horror" or not, but it's a great American story.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much.
Review: I can't say that I'm a fan of Stephen. I can say I am a fan of horror books - and I read alot, so with that said I have read some of his many books. The main thing that bothers me is the fact that he tries way too hard to create an atmosphere that makes me go "who the hell cares who once bumped into the main character and said "sorry," in a way that made the main character wonder about where the man came from...?" He talks about a thing that is irrelevant to a thing that is irrelevant to the thing that matters. That truly makes you lose interest in the thing that matters.
He gets many nice ideas, like in The stand, but how he handles them in this huge book is a shame.
What I think is a tallented writer is when a person writes a novella that has so much of a world of its own, in its few words, that it can't be filmed, with the true meaning intact; like A clockwork orange, Invisible monsters, A scanner darkly, The dream quest of unknown Kadath... - and many other books could never be portrayed in a worthy manner, other than the original.
To sum it up: The stand is a really long book that could have been a nice novella (or a soap opera script).
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book EVER!
Review: I love this book. And to be honest I'm not much of a King fan. I read a few others of his, but this just blew me away. Years after reading The Stand I still think about the characters. If there is a God in heaven, King will write a sequel to this.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece!
Review: I read the original (cut) release, soon after it hit the shelves. It knocked my socks off. Death, revenge, betrayal, mysticism, and the eternal struggle between good and evil, all set against the backdrop of the apocalypse. I remember thinking that Stephen King had nailed it down. It couldn't get any better.
When the uncut version came out, I was skeptical. The book didn't need anything. The additional pages couldn't possibly add anything substantial. I reminded myself that they had probably been cut for a reason. But I eventually broke down and bought the uncut version. I half expected the story to bog down under the weight of additional pages. It didn't. The story was bigger and richer, but not at all weighed down. Contrary to all my misgivings, the missing pages brought depth and detail that threw this powerhouse of a story into even sharper relief. I was wrong, and so were Stephen King's editors. If you're going to read `The Stand,' this is the only version you should touch.
Jeff Edwards, Author of "Torpedo: A Surface Warfare Thriller"
Rating:
Summary: Classic King, Very Involving and Very Long
Review: I really enjoyed this story. It is a fascinating story and well told by King. It is very long, but if you are a King fan you will not get tired of it. I actually re-read the book when he released the un-cut version because I wanted more. This is an apocalyptic story with a religious aspect which is important to the stroy, though not central to it. I would recommend this to any King fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Waste of time
Review: I won't give too much info of the book but Chapter 58 really MADE ME MAD. One of THE main characters, I won't say his name (he was introduced in Chapter 9) DIES before the climax even started. A character, that we spent over 400 + pages reading about, just dies like that. WHAT THE HELL? Who cares if that woman (Starts with an S) dies, or the others, but HIM?!?!? He was my favorite character and he died like a sucka! This dude was a VERY important character... I just wasted 200-400 pages on a character that dies before the climax even starts.... :( King should've left out (him) so we don't have to waste 200 pages on him. ARGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If he would've died, AT LEAST in honor or something, or near the end, I wouldn't be so mad. But he does when there is only 260 (+) pages left?!?!??!? WHAT THE FUGG??!??!?!?!?
I gave it a 2 instead of one star because up until Chapter 58, the book was fugging great!
Rating: 
Summary: Making my Stand!
Review: The Stand by Stephen King has been considered by many to be one of his greatest works. Sadly in my opinion this is very far from the truth. The enormous novel starts off as a simple story of catastrophe. The human race is infected by a plague is is quickly dieing at the waysides. Without giving too much away, this does not remain to be the main premise of the book and eventually it shifts to a story about the battle between the force of God and an a dark force led by "the walking dude".I will get the good comments out of the way to begin with. The original premise of mankind dealing with a horrible plague is quite terrifying and Stephen King does depict this quite well. The does make the first 400 pages of the book go by quite fast. His character development is phenomenal to the point of pain, giving long-winded chapters describing characters that end up being unimportant and "short" living. That is my biggest complaint, the story was simply to long. Comprised of three books ranging from 200 to 500 pages a piece, it seems as though King cannot decide what story he is trying to tell. He pulls in new characters whenever he pleases and then just as quickly trows them into the trash bin. King makes the reader watch character after character grow and change and work , only to see them die abruptly and accomplish little to nothing. He spends hundreds of pages on seemingly pointless details, only to have major plot twists whizz by in a page or less. I found the ending most discouraging, which left the reader with the vague feeling that nothing of any significance had occurred in the last 1150 pages. Simply put, I would not suggest this book to anyone who I cared for in the least bit. I found it time consuming and pointless, and the only redeeming quality I have unearthed is that I managed to read five other books while trudging through this monstrosity. So if you wish to read King, I would suggest the Gunslinger instead.
Rating:
Summary: A classic for all times
Review: The Stand is an absolute giant of a book, but it is so good you read it without caring about the lots of pages it contains. A classic end-of-the-world, good- vs. evil novel, full of incredible scenes and characters. The ending is great, especially in this uncut version. This is indeed a classic for all times.
|
