The Stand

Complete & Uncut Edition, 1153 pages

English language

Published May 1, 1990 by Doubleday Books.

ISBN:
978-0-385-19957-5
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4 stars (229 reviews)

One man escapes from a biological weapon facility after an accident, carrying with him the deadly virus known as Captain Tripps, a rapidly mutating flu that - in the ensuing weeks - wipes out most of the world's population. In the aftermath, survivors choose between following an elderly black woman to Boulder or the dark man, Randall Flagg, who has set up his command post in Las Vegas. The two factions prepare for a confrontation between the forces of good and evil. ([source][1])

[1]: stephenking.com/library/novel/stand_the.html

57 editions

One of King's more ambitious works

4 stars

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, …

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

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.

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

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.

Review of 'Apocalipsis / The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

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...

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

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 …

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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.

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

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 …

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Like a lot of people, I went through a period of reading every book King wrote when I was in Junior High and High School. This one hooked me deep and hard. I've always had a thing for end of the world stories where most of humanity dies off and we get to follow those who are left. I think it comes from fantasies I had as a kid walking down the street where I had to escape from some mass murderer or live through a nuclear bomb and fend for myself.

Anyway, this one was so sweeping in its vision and so descriptive of the end of the world that I was fully caught up in it for days. God I miss the days when I could get through a 1000+ page book in a matter of days because I had nothing else to do. It was a true …

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Subjects

  • Biological warfare -- Research -- Fiction