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From the Paperback edition.
I first read the originally-published version of The Stand in 1984. I became so immersed in it that I would pause from reading, look up and around me, and for a long, unsettling moment feel that I was one of the survivors of Captain Tripps. I since read that version another time and then read this expanded version a few years later. I am about to read it once more. No other book calls for me the way this one does.
The Stand is an tale of the epic struggle between good and evil. It is God vs. the Devil. Liberal vs. conservative. It is the battle between the good angel and the bad angel that reside on your shoulders, whisper advice into your ears and use your mind as their battleground. One side will lose. In the end, we (the survivors, yes, you will be one too) learn that while we don't get what we want, we do get what we need. Where will you make your stand?
M-O-O-N. That spells The Stand.
48 out of 54 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Penrose
Posted January 27, 2009
I'm a huge King fan, but no book I have read of his has beat The Stand.<BR/><BR/>Now, in my opinion, the details and work that he puts into his characters in this book absolutely makes the book. I won't lie though, it's not for everyone. I've tried to encourage family and friends to read it, people whom I thought would have loved it, and it was just too long for them to get into.<BR/><BR/>If you're not used to reading 500+ page books, you may fall out of interest. For me, I personally wish the book was LONGER. I just get can't enough, and I've read it 3 or 4 times already, and am currently reading it again.<BR/><BR/>The Characters-<BR/>The characters feel real. They have weaknesses, faults, and real thoughts. King's usually pretty good with giving his characters real thoughts. You warm up to the characters, you start to LIKE them, to feel connected to them. And there's some great ones in here, especially if you get the expanded version.<BR/><BR/>The plot- <BR/>Why haven't I read anything quite like this before? I mean, sure, "the end of the world" stories have been played around with, but this is definitely more realistic than any of the other's I've read. The plot isn't perfect, but that's ok. It's engaging, and it's the kind of scary where you're just hoping that nothing like Captain Tripps (the virus) ever comes to your front door. Not to mention some of the most interesting antagonists I've ever met on paper.<BR/><BR/>I would definitely say that this is a MUST read for anyone who calls themselves a Stephen King fan. And for the rest of you, even though it's long, just stick with it. It's such a rewarding book to have read and I still think back to it when certain social situations and topics come up.
20 out of 21 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.As an avid Stephen King reader I may be biased, but this was one of the best books I have ever read. While the beginning of the book was a bit slow, its steadily increasing pace kept me intrigued the whole way through. The detailed character descriptions give you insight and help you understand the relationships between the characters. Each character has personality traits and flaws that make them seem like the kind of people you might find in your own town. Mr. King did an excellent job of taking a difficult topic to imagine, seem so real and ominous. This is an excellent book for a book club because its ideas on society, human nature and the battle between good and evil bring up many deep and thought provoking points. I have read this book 6 times and I still have trouble putting it down when I start to read. Its not a book that I would recommend for people with light hearts or stomachs, however.
12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.It may be massively long, but this book is worth every minute you spend reading it. The details with which King builds his characters never ceases to amaze me.
10 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 5, 2007
In this book of what could be a possible future a super flu, nicknamed the ¿captain trips¿ by those who survived, wipes out half of the human population. And then the survivors start having dreams that tell to come to Nebraska. But evil is growing as the heroes are regrouping and its getting ready to wipe every one out and rule what is left. And on top of that they have a entity known only as the ¿dark man¿ to deal with can the nine who survived make the stand? Find out in this book. Some of the things I liked about this book are the way the narrator changes after every chapter. And I was I intrigued by the sheer complexity of the story. Some things I didn¿t like was you would be getting in to one characters story and then you would get to a new chapter and you¿d have to get into the story again. Another thing I didn¿t like about this book was the way it ended. But overall it was a good book.
9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Doodlebug1071
Posted July 11, 2010
It seems like Stephen King spent A LOT of time focusing on characters and then realized by Book Three (close to 1000 pages in) that Uh Oh!! I've got to wrap this up. I also noticed he did the same thing in his most recent long book Under the Dome. In my opinon, he doesn't do well when writing books this long, he loses sight of the plot and gets caught up in characters.
8 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 25, 2010
The Stand, a book written by Stephen King, is about people who are trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic setting. They're attempting to survive after a very large sum of the population gets wiped out after a virus called the "superflu" infects them, but they soon find out there's more to it than just that. The Stand was directed to an audience of mostly older teens and adults. It was written to make people about certain possibilities and also to frighten or gross people out. I give The Stand four and a half stars, out of five.
The best thing about The Stand is that it has touches of romance, suspense, gore, realism, and parts that totally mind freak you. Parts of it start to drag on a bit but it always ends up being a good chapter. All the characters are interesting and make you want to know more about them and more about what happens to them.
In my conclusion, I think this book is great and I recommend to anyone. It's good for Stephen King fans and also good for people aren't fans of him. I've been a Stephen King fan for a while but this certainly one of his best books, in my opinion.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 2, 2006
Stephen King writes another outstanding book with everything. I wasn't born when the orginal can out and started to read King in 8th grade so I picked up The Stand Uncut. The book was a little slow but picks up quickly and slows down at some parts but I didn't mind. This book is not for everyone but if your looking for a detailed story and don't want to read a series, The Stand is a must.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Im a fan of SK but I dont understand what all the hoopla was over this book. I started reading this book a couple years ago and put it down after about 500 pages. I gave it another chance but this time I made myself finish it. The actual 'stand' left a lot to be desired and I am confused as to why anyone would request to read the 500 extra pages of jargon of the uncut version that could have been left out if you already read the cut version. Ahhh well. I suppose I was entertained to some degree.
3 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.David78TX
Posted January 2, 2010
I wouldn't say this book is bad, but I don't get why it is so highly recommended. Without going into a lot of detail, the characters seem to be observers of the plot, not drivers of it. As such, you don't care much about them, since they ultimately feel like they have little effect on any of the "events" happening around them. Not a bad read, but I think it could have been much, much better.
3 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 7, 2007
This book is horrible. It is too long and the story just kept going and going. I got lost in the story not too far in the book. Some of the story is unecessary. Not as good as I had thought it would be.
3 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 23, 2003
The Stand, in my opinion, is not one of King's masterpieces. It is downright horrible! Randall Flagg is the only good part of the book, and he's not all that great. The Stand lost my attention early, and not many King books do that, as I do love reading Stephen King. This doesn't even compare to his best work, IT. Now that is a true King masterpiece. So Be warned before you read 'The Stand'
3 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.One of the best post-apocalyptic works ever made and one of my favorite books written by Stephen King. Epic and shocking and masterfully-written - I've read it three times and it gets better with each read!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.If I told you the reasons why I didn't like this book, I would definitely spoil the story and I don't want to do that. It was a good read for the first few hundred pages, but the story got very unrealistic afterwards and that's why I think this Stephen King book is very overrated. I think "The Shining", "Cujo", "Misery", and "Carrie" is much better than this book.
2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.brebug13
Posted March 4, 2010
I loved the reality of this book. It is very touching but true. I loved this book all around. If you want a book that sucks you in and wont let you out, this is the book for you.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I just finished this book last night and I couldn't wait toe write a review. I totally loved this book and would reccomend this book not only to people who don't read the classics but want an epic book that could compete with books like "Lord of the Rings," but also to people who only read classics and feel that it's a waste of time to read a Stephen King book. First off, Stephen King, in my opinion, is one of the best writers of his "class." Furthermore, The Stand is the best work of his that I have read (I plan on reading the Dark Tower series soon which is also considered on of his best). This is an extremely long book (1,141 pages) but I just couldn't stop reading it and I finished it in about a week and a half. It had the classic "good vs. Evil" story going on and it had some of the best characters I have ever seen. All in all, evevery person who is literate should read this book(as long as they don't mind some cursing and some sex, but who doesn't).
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 28, 2009
Couldn't stay with the book, the parts that were good were really good. But the boring crap you had to wade through to get to the good parts was a chore. And Frannie Goldsmith made me never want to read this book again she was so annoying. This book turned me off Steven King books forever
2 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 27, 2009
Didn't think I would enjoy a "horror" book but a friend recommended it and I really enjoyed it.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Lorena64
Posted April 2, 2009
Amazing.Emotional.And well written. He took so many aspects of humanity and created a fantastic book. Because it is such a long book, it took me about 1 month to read the book. But when I finished, I wanted more! I cried, laughed, and thrilled. And I love the characters in this book, especially Nick Andros. Not to mention Stu Redman.Stephen King captivated me with his writing.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I can usually tell from reading the first 5 pages weather or not I will love the book; With this one I knew from the 2nd page. I was hooked and hooked bad! King drew me into the story and the more I read the more I felt as though I was Living the story (so much so by the middle of the book I felt as though the real world just a dream).
Absolutely Loved this book and I surely recommend it to everybody!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in ...