I read The Stand on the recommendation of others: readers who love Stephen King and cite The Stand as one of his finest creations. I feel like I wouldI read The Stand on the recommendation of others: readers who love Stephen King and cite The Stand as one of his finest creations. I feel like I would wholeheartedly agree if I had access to the original, edited, 1,000 page edition of this book. As it is now, the only copy I could readily get my hands on was the 1, 400 page version. I don't mind long books as long as they're good, but I can see where some editing would have helped this story move along.
Once again, King sets up a perfectly believable scenario: a man escapes from a military facility that is growing biological weapons, after there is a breach. He goes home, collects his family, gets in the car, and spreads a plague. A plague that will kill 99% of humans and their domesticated animals. This is the story of the plague's aftermaths and the 1% who do survive.
It takes awhile for the story to start moving - King takes the long-view of the plague and imagines different scenarios across the USA: military rule, citizens overthrow and rebellion, panic, mass deaths on the freeways, etc. go on for quite awhile before King zeroes in on the heroes and the literal demons in the plot.
The survivors are linked by a psychic thread: one path will lead them to Kansas and Mother Abigail, a 108-year-old woman, and the other leads to Las Vegas and the epitome of evil, Randall Flagg. The characters make their choices in sometimes surprising ways. The Mother Abigail group ends up settling and trying to build a society in Boulder, CO. There, in Boulder, they feel the evil growing in Las Vegas, which leads them to come up with a strategy for goodness to prevail.
This is a complex novel, and I can tell that King was trying to accomplish a lot in it, and he touches on a lot of issues without fully exploring them. The novel begins with an apocalyptic vision, and ends in a showdown of supernatural proportions. I was interested in some of the civilization theories that King started to explore, but abandoned in pursuit of the supernatural storyline. I kept trying to figure out which parts were edited out, and I have to believe that some of the city council meetings were, as there were quite a few of them and it didn't seem to have a point at the end of the novel, as it wasn't revisited.
I liked a lot of the characters, and King does justice to the reader by killing protagonists that were favorites. Even though it stings at the time, it mirrors reality closely this way. In time, I might look back at this book more fondly, but for now, the added length of it makes it feel like it was a bit of hard work to get through all of it....more
Truly one of the scariest books I've listened to. Kate Mulgrew's voice is haunting.Truly one of the scariest books I've listened to. Kate Mulgrew's voice is haunting....more
I had to see for myself what the hype around Freida McFadden is all about. I guess it's the propulsive nature of the narrative, and the ridiculous sitI had to see for myself what the hype around Freida McFadden is all about. I guess it's the propulsive nature of the narrative, and the ridiculous situations. You don't have to think about the story too much & it's like a Lifetime movie in book form. Glad for the experience, but not sure I would do it again....more
I know Paul Scheer first from The League, then from his movie podcast. He seems to be a funny, likable guy, and he is funny & likable in this book. ItI know Paul Scheer first from The League, then from his movie podcast. He seems to be a funny, likable guy, and he is funny & likable in this book. It was a little different from what I expected. It is light on the humor & heavy on his growing up in the face of abuse. He talks about how he was able to overcome some of the trauma he felt from that. I was hoping to get a little more insight into his professional career, but maybe he's saving that for another book. ...more
Sadly, this book was just ok for me; 2 1/2 stars is probably more fair. The narrators of the audio were very good, but I felt like maybe I wasn't the Sadly, this book was just ok for me; 2 1/2 stars is probably more fair. The narrators of the audio were very good, but I felt like maybe I wasn't the audience for this. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be more scary or funny, but neither one really worked for me. I also found it hard to care about either of the main characters....more
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