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.
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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.
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.
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...
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 …
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 page turner. I'm not sure that I'd find it as good now as I did then. Whenever I try to read King now, I find it all a bit simplistic, but my memories of it are of an excellent read.
