The Stand

by Stephen King

Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting—eerily plausible—as when it was first published. The New York Times called it "the book that has everything. Adventure. Romance. Prophecy. Allegory. Satire. Fantasy. Realism. Apocalypse. Great!"

Soon to be a limited series on CBS All Access
 
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 peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them—and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

(This edition includes all of the new and restored material first published in The Stand: The Complete And Uncut Edition.)

• ISBN10: 0307743683
• ISBN13: 9780307743688
• Publish Date: 28 June 2011 (first published 3 October 1978)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 11 October 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Random House USA Inc
• Edition: Complete and Uncut ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 1472
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leigha]

An epic battle between good and evil rages after a lab created super flu kills most of the world in this amazing adult science fiction novel.

How do I sum up a story that means so much to me? I loved the ’90 miseries growing up, and I’m beyond excited about the remake (although I’m side-eyeing some of the casting choices). For me, it was the first story I came across with a catastrophic event bringing together a group of survivors. It made an impression – what would I do in a similar situation? How – or who – would I survive with? I’ve tried over the years to read the book, but it wasn’t until COVID-19 sauntered on scene that I found myself falling into the story head first.

I’m not the biggest fan of Stephen King’s writing, but I do give credit to his ability to set the tone – the insidious spread of the super flu and the unraveling of society as we know it. It, quite frankly, was eerie to read as our current society fights a recently discovered illness and social unrest ignites across the world. The parallels are hard to deny, and it gave me a sort of way to deal with my own emotions about it all.

On top of tone, King excels at creating complex characters. Stu, Franny, Nick, Glen, Ralph, Tom Cullen (“M-O-O-N” that spells Tom Cullen!), and the rest of the Boulder free zone are absolutely precious to me. Their victories and defeats are my own. I even enjoyed the morally grey characters – Nadine, Harold (who had a surprisingly strong story line), Trashcan Man, and Lloyd. And, of course, the strong willed Abby Freemantle and anarchist Randal Flagg are perfection as the ultimate good versus the ultimate evil duo.

It is not a flawless story. Is it too long? Absolutely. Does the plot get murky in the middle? Indeed. Is it sexist? Yep – sorry, King, not every woman starts looking for a big, strong man at the end of the world. Does it appropriately address disabilities? I honestly could not say, but I’ll go on a limb and say no. But, despite its numerous flaws, it is a story that has stuck with me for almost 20 years.

Finally, I listened to the audio version – 47 hours and 47 minutes! My longest audio so far. While I think this story would be amazing with a multicast, the narrator excelled at keeping my attention. Was it me, or did he really sound like some of the cast from the original miniseries?

tl;dr The insidious tone, unforgettable characters, and parallels to our current struggles in the real world kept me invested from the moment it started to the moment it ended.

[ross91]

As always with Stephen King's books I really loved some aspects and really hated others.
In any case: wayyyy to long

[adamfortuna]

When I was in high school, they released a TV miniseries if The Stand that I watched. I always thought it was the best end of the world/virus take I’d seen. Not because it’s realistic or gritty, but because it frames the story with great characters battling good and evil.

When I read the book, I wondered how closely it would follow the miniseries. Turns out the show was a near scene for scene recording of the book (one of the bonuses of making it 6 hours).

What’s amazing to me about The Stand is that it follows so many characters storylines so well. It would be easy to get lost with that many characters, but somehow they fit together in a way that I didn’t feel overwhelmed. Add to that a story that had me on the edge of my seat and I see why this is considered one of the best sci fi books of all time.

[inlibrisveritas]

I made it to the end! I'm so glad this is over...so unbelievably glad. If this book wasn't a library copy I would have football spiked it into the ground after turning to the last page.

I don't even know if I'll bother with a full review because I want to be finished with this book forever.

[Melanie]

This is going back on the back burner. I got two review books that I've been waiting for, forever. I will be coming back to this one. I love it.

I'm finally getting back to this book.

[clq]

I was surprised to find that I hadn’t written a review for The Stand back when I read it early 2017. I feel like I’ve been reviewing this book a lot, but that might be down to having spoken to quite a few people about it. Or maybe I just felt completely exhausted after having finished 1300 pages of Stephen King. In any case, I have some time now, so I'm going to write up a review.

I chose to read the extended edition, and I’m kind of glad I did. While I’m not sure whether the extra 300 pages or so made it a better book, it did put the idea in my head that parts of what I read were things an editor would cut, but that an author would want to include. And if I’m going to read this many pages, I might as well read some extra pages to get the authors full intention.

And, make no mistake, The Stand is a slog – but in a way that didn’t really feel bad or annoying. It takes it’s time, a long time, and revels in it. There are parts that don’t relate to anything else at all, and the experience of reading some of it felt almost like reading disparate stories about disparate things happening to occur in the same universe. I feel like this is the kind of book an author could only write if they weren’t too worried about people liking it, and, as opposed to some books I’ve read that I liked, but that didn’t find satisfying, The Stand felt satisfying, even though there were parts of it that I didn’t really like. It’s tempting to compare The Stand to The Luminaries: the way I greatly admire that book, but didn’t really like it, I can see people absolutely hating The Stand, but I don’t think anyone could claim that it is a bad book.

And, considering how this book seems more of an experiment of revelling in a world rather than a story, the ending seems almost appropriate. The entire book felt like it was slowly building up to something really big, and then the ending doesn’t amount to much at all. I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t annoying, but it did leave me appreciating the whole body of the book more than I might otherwise have done – after all, as long as the ending didn’t amount to much, the rest of the book can’t be said to be an unnecessarily long build-up… right? Right? I’m not going to claim that I think it’s intentional, but I wouldn’t be incredibly surprised if it was.

In any case, on balance I liked The Stand. I wouldn’t recommend it without putting a huge disclaimer on it lowering expectations, but at the same time, anyone who picks up a 1000+ page Stephen King book should, by the time they do that, be aware of the risks. Or, to put it another way: anyone for whom The Stand would be a valid recommendation almost certainly already has it on their to-read list.

[nightingalereads]

I wasn't particularly fond of the writing style, but wow. Very impressive.