paperback, 1200 pages
English language
Published Aug. 7, 2012 by Anchor Books, Anchor.
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 need of a leader. Two emerge—Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado;and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the pe:aceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them—and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity. --back cover
Ausführliche Rezension unter downatharrys.de/stephen-king-the-stand-hoerbuch
I think when Stephen King wrote this, it was meant to be his magnum opus: the ultimate battle of Good vs. Evil, fought over 1,400 pages. What could come after that? Obviously, though, it was only his fourth novel, and there were many still to come.
The story is not too complicated and moves along at a steady pace (though the “uncut” version this review applies to really takes its time). Of course, the ending is unbelievable and for many readers ruins the book – though if you take the theme as directly as it is surely meant to be taken, it strangely fits: everyone has arrived at their destination, and everything is prepared. Why draw it out? Why not be done with the obvious symbolism and take it at face level instead?
It remains one of King's more ambitious works, and if you want to analyse his life achievement, …
I think when Stephen King wrote this, it was meant to be his magnum opus: the ultimate battle of Good vs. Evil, fought over 1,400 pages. What could come after that? Obviously, though, it was only his fourth novel, and there were many still to come.
The story is not too complicated and moves along at a steady pace (though the “uncut” version this review applies to really takes its time). Of course, the ending is unbelievable and for many readers ruins the book – though if you take the theme as directly as it is surely meant to be taken, it strangely fits: everyone has arrived at their destination, and everything is prepared. Why draw it out? Why not be done with the obvious symbolism and take it at face level instead?
It remains one of King's more ambitious works, and if you want to analyse his life achievement, this might very well be a pivotal piece.
Been interesting reading this a few years after the COVID-19 pandemic first began in 2020.
All in all I felt this book was twice as long as it really needed to be. I stayed up all night plowing through the final 1/3 of the book because I wanted to get to the resolution and I found myself skipping entire chapters of meaningless exposition. As a fan of Stephen King I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. Maybe I’m just anxious to get through this Man In Black character development so I can continue on my Dark Tower Extended Reading journey. I miss the gunslingers.
Same style as American Gods by Neil Gaimen
Bueno. Ya se terminó. Esta novela (versión extendida de 1440 páginas) me ha tenido secuestrado durante semanas, pero no me quejo. Puro entretenimiento, este hombre sabe narrar magníficamente y hacerte olvidar todo lo demás. Ahora llega la hora de mirar algún periódico a ver qué ha pasado durante este último mes.
¿Podría haber sido más corta? Por supuesto. ¿Lenguaje más cuidado? Sí, pero no me hagas tragar 1400 páginas de prosa barroca por Dios. ¿Abusa del diccionario al meter palabros raros que no encajan nada bien? Pecata minuta. ¿A veces es un pelín ñoño? Sí, y también todo lo bestia que se puede concebir. En resumen: déjense secuestrar, no se arrepentirán.
Me extraña que todavía no hayan rodado una serie de siete temporadas, tienen material y personajes de sobra.
The book has its problems that can be seen easily in the light of 2022; a white guy wrote some sterotypical characters and plays into those stereotypes. As a scientist, I'm also endlessly irritated by the idea that scientists (even army scientists) can and would make something so deadly. Nature can be deadly on its own too. All that said, the overarching story is still incredible, with some great twists. I read the uncut version, and found that although there were some sections that could have done better with a little editing, the pacing was good and engaging and I thought it was an easy read with a satisfying ending. Was Kojak my favorite character? LOL. Probably.
Как дед это делает вообще (ладно, он тогда как раз совсем не дед был).
Entré a la obra de Stephen King por los márgenes, primero unas notas biográficas sobre el oficio de escribir, después un policial contemporáneo. Recién este año me siento preparado para encarar uno de los clásicos y, siendo que gira alrededor de una pandemia de gripe, Apocalipsis/The Stand parece el candidato ideal. Seguir leyendo...
After years of watching the series, from it's original first airing on TV back in the mid-1990s I've always said I wanted to read the book version. With the new series airing this year I decided to finally do it. There original series got about 70% of it and it got the major themes but the book has a lot more detail about side characters and events. It definitely goes further into the timeline than the original series too, although the new series covers a similar path. I can see why this is the highest rated King work. I've only read Mist, Cell, and now this. This was by far my favorite but perhaps that was because I had so much mental imagery to work with from my time watching the series. Worth the read for sure.
This must be the fourth or fifth time I've re-read it and it seems even more timely. Not just related to the current situation with Coronavirus but the polarization of humans to charismatic leaders, each promoting fear of the others. We may not all be having dreams about our leaders that make us feel an affinity for one or the other, but we're still taking in information - a shared subconscious, if you will, made up not of dreams but of social media posts.
This was a very long book, but it was very consistently good. Not great, not bad; but good.
I kept waiting for the blond guy with the sword to fight the alligator-faced man with the scythe. There’s nothing wrong with this not happening, I just don’t understand why it was the original cover art.
I'm doing an experiment where I'm trying to understand what people see in Stephen King. So I'm reading the Dark Tower (the series he considers his magnum opus) and connected books. Since The Dark Tower and the Stand contain the same big bad, it seemed like a book I needed to read. The Stand has not convinced me that the man can write. This book was more of a mishmash of lazy cardboard cutout characters interacting than an actual story. The edition I have is the newer version with over an extra 100,000 words, but the book could easily be cut down from 1300+ pages to under 700 without changing anything important. It could probably be cut to 400 pages and become a better book in the process.
This is obviously one of his very early works, so he hadn't honed his craft yet. But I feel like I might …
I'm doing an experiment where I'm trying to understand what people see in Stephen King. So I'm reading the Dark Tower (the series he considers his magnum opus) and connected books. Since The Dark Tower and the Stand contain the same big bad, it seemed like a book I needed to read. The Stand has not convinced me that the man can write. This book was more of a mishmash of lazy cardboard cutout characters interacting than an actual story. The edition I have is the newer version with over an extra 100,000 words, but the book could easily be cut down from 1300+ pages to under 700 without changing anything important. It could probably be cut to 400 pages and become a better book in the process.
This is obviously one of his very early works, so he hadn't honed his craft yet. But I feel like I might have lost a few IQ points just from having read it. Definitely not recommended.
I have mixed feelings about Kings books and find myself enjoying some of the supernatural elements but disliking the book overall.
Like most of Kings books, this one could have ended 200 pages earlier. Just finish the book! No need for long epilogues.
This book probably works as a litmus test for Christianity. Did the Stand actually change the results or would "evil" have taken care of itself without the pilgrimage? I bet the religious would feel it made a difference while I did not.
Do you love this flu-kills-humanity setting? Read Earth Abides. Probably the best post apocalyptic book ever written.
I just give up.
The beginning was a lot of fun. King laid out a very believable apocalypse, of a military experiment that got out of hand. This let loose an unspecified sickness that had a nearly 100% contagion rate and a 100% fatality rate. Told from the point of view of many (many many many) characters, some who survive and some who don't. The feeling of dread and apocalypse was well chronicled.
But the story got bogged down in way too many details. And most of the characters were unsympathetic, so it was even more dreary reading about their backstories. I complained a few times while I was reading it that maybe I shouldn't have gone with the newer, expanded version, although I'm not sure if all the parts that bored me to tears were newly added parts or not.
But he skipped right over the actual collapse of …
I just give up.
The beginning was a lot of fun. King laid out a very believable apocalypse, of a military experiment that got out of hand. This let loose an unspecified sickness that had a nearly 100% contagion rate and a 100% fatality rate. Told from the point of view of many (many many many) characters, some who survive and some who don't. The feeling of dread and apocalypse was well chronicled.
But the story got bogged down in way too many details. And most of the characters were unsympathetic, so it was even more dreary reading about their backstories. I complained a few times while I was reading it that maybe I shouldn't have gone with the newer, expanded version, although I'm not sure if all the parts that bored me to tears were newly added parts or not.
But he skipped right over the actual collapse of society somehow. You'd think in the 700 pages or so that I did read, I would have gotten something about the collapse of (American) society, but it went from incoming doom, to highways strewn with cars and dead people before I even knew it. Then it became on of those books I am coming to truly abhor - a travel book.
For way too many sci-fi and fantasy books, the trope is to send your characters on a quest. From [b:The Hobbit|5907|The Hobbit (Middle-Earth Universe)|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1372847500s/5907.jpg|1540236] to [b:The Passage|6690798|The Passage (The Passage, #1)|Justin Cronin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327874267s/6690798.jpg|2802546], the author sets up the story, then sends them on a meandering quest to finish up the story. To me, it just seems boring, because the actions that happen on the way have little or nothing to do with the actual story, just, as one film reviewer of The Lord Of The Rings put it, "one damn thing after another".
And that's what happens here. And for hundreds of mostly boring pages, with boring characters, they head out for Nebraska due to some odd "visions" they're all having to meet some old black woman on a porch. Meanwhile, there's some nefarious Man In Black who draws others to him. Oddly enough, almost nothing happens during the quests, just more chances for back stories.
One group, with the old black woman, just began another quest and I stalled out. I then read some reviews here and all the non fan reviews complained of the same things for the rest of the story- wandering around some more, setting up two communities that represent Good and Evil, and have Good triumph through some kind of deus ex machina or something.
So I decided then and there to just give up. I didn't need more questing, I was already tired of the Good/Evil stuff that was going on, and I certainly wasn't looking forward to a WTF ending. Life's short, my To Read list is approaching 1,000(!) books and there are far more interesting ones I've already started.
So another King try ends up abandoned and cold by the apocalyptic wayside. I'll give it two stars because it did keep me interested for a couple hundred pages. But bored for 400 more, with a staggering 650 left. I better hit Save now before I change it down to one star...
