Stephen King

'The Stand is a masterpiece' -The Guardian

Set in a plague-decimated US, King's thrilling American fantasy epic, is a Classic.

First come the days of the plague. Then come the dreams.

Dark dreams that warn of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil.

His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms.

When a man crashes his car into a petrol station, he brings with him the foul corpses of his wife and daughter. He dies and it doesn't take long for the plague which killed him to spread across America and the world.

With 99% of the population dead from a killer virus, the survivors must choose between two very different leaders; King’s epic apocalyptic saga has become a modern classic of the dystopian genre.  

The Stand

Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by virus and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published. Soon to be a television series. 'THE STAND is a masterpiece' (Guardian). Set in a virus-decimated US, King's thrilling American fantasy epic, is a Classic. First come the days of the virus. Then come the dreams. Dark dreams that warn of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms. When a man crashes his car into a petrol station, he brings with him the foul corpses of his wife and daughter. He dies and it doesn't take long for the virus which killed him to spread across America and the world.

Justin Staack

Ryan Mateyk

How Stephen King continually writes 1000+ page stories is beyond me. This is probably my favourite King book. Simple story of good vs evil but populated with a huge cast of memorable characters and an absolutely terrifying villain (both Randall Flagg and the superfluous)

Über 1.500 Seiten Stephen King pur! In einem entvölkerten Amerika versucht eine Handvoll Überlebende die Zivilisation zu retten. Ihr Gegenspieler ist eine mythische Gestalt, die man den Dunklen Mann nennt, eine Verkörperung des absolut Bösen. In der Wüste Nevada kommt es zum Entscheidungskampf um das Schicksal der Menschheit.

Roman

The Stand - Das letzte Gefecht

Jannis M

** spoiler alert **
           Why would you spend 1000 pages of world building if you have the bad guys blow themselves up in the end?

I enjoyed the first and second part, but was kind of let down by the third one. It felt like he really struggled to resolve the conflict he was building up to.

Natasha Musa

I started listening to The Stand on audible in Dec 2018 and only finished it in June 2019. 6 months, 47 or so hours later, I FINALLY finished it. I love the characters in this book, the build up was also good but I’m still wondering why certain things happened and to be honest I’m not too sure if I’m in favor of the ending. I know The Stand is favored by many but it’s not one of my favorites books from Stephen King.

C Fernando Maciel 

Probably one of the best books I've ever read in my entire life! 
Its plot is very complete, intriguing, and catches the reader's attention.

the absolutely GOAT… if you read, read the unabridged version. the only book in recent memory that left me waking myself from a nightmare with my own scream. 

mina nayeri

Nate Niederkorn

** spoiler alert **
           Not sure if 2.5/5 or 3/5. The first half of the book is a 2/5 for me, felt like such a slog to get through. The back half picks up and is maybe a 3.5 or 4, but getting there was such a chore.

I enjoyed this book but couldn’t help feel like the ending was lackluster. Considering how long this novel was, I found the ending to be a disappointment. However, this was an enjoyable read and a good first King book to have read

Madison Storm

After the days of the plague came the dreams

Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil.

His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms...
--back cover

Wynter

People say that The Stand is King's definitive work - the monument to his genius as an author, his Magnum Opus. But I can't help comparing it to his other monster of a book, written sometime later - It, - and find it diminishing in its splendour. The quality of writing is top notch, but still does not evoke imagery as vivid and terrifying. The characters have their distinctive voices, but again, not as developed and complex. The motivations and prophecies are just not as effective in The Stand (at a few key moments I kept wondering if the setup was even worth the lackluster resolution). And the finale? It sort of fizzled from Deux Ex Machina kind of blunder and into an open-ended, "they all just went into the sunset" closing chapters. It's still a worthwhile read, and a fascinating story, but maybe a tad too bloated and cliched. 

My King project is finally gaining momentum again. It took me a while to master the courage to get to this one, due to its intimidating size, but now that The Stand is behind me I can't wait to pick up his following works. Next on the list are The Bachman Books - the collected novellas that King wrote under a pseudonym.

Anyaconda

I'm DNFing this at 30% because I won't keep torturing myself anymore.
I tried both audiobook and physical paperback but it's just sooo incredibly long and boring. The idea is fantastic, but I couldn't care less about the characters with the exception of Fran.
I don't have the energy for all this long-winded racist and misogynistic blabbering.
There are other books that deserve my attention far more than this pile of word-diarrhea 😑

Wow. I finished this two days ago, and am still recovering. I honestly don't know what to read next that won't fall flat after a journey like The Stand. Easily my favorite King book so far, and probably one of my favorite books ever. I started this book about a month ago, but read most of it in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, as I finally had the time to read in the 2-3 hour binge sessions this book really requires. I wasn't able to put it down. The Stand is really where Stephen King's character work shines. There are long stretches where nothing really happens (characters are walking, camping, debating), but I was still compelled by the inner monologues and/or dialogues that were on the page. The first 400 pages, where you see society collapse and the way this affects the characters, are probably some of my favorite pages in any book ever. That's not to say that the book took a dive for me after that; absolutely not. The characters coming together, discussing how to rebuild society, the weird mystical stuff around Flagg and Mother Abagail: everything hit just right for me. I've seen some criticism online that none of this stuff really mattered in the end, since the bad guys were just blown to pieces with an A-Bomb brought in by a wildcard character that wasn't part of the good guys' camp. I guess that's true, but for me that doesn't detract from the journey at all. King was going for a kind of biblical tale with The Stand, and such eucatastrophes (as Tolkien would call them) are part of that tradition. My favorite characters in The Stand were Stu, Larry and Tom Cullen, but there really weren't any characters that I did not enjoy reading about. The Stand gets a 10/10 from me, and I don't know what to do with my life now that it's over.

Stijn de Boer 

A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors who, while experiencing dreams of a battle between good and evil, move toward an actual confrontation as they migrate to Boulder, Colorado.

A Novel

I’m usually a huge King fan but this one just wasn’t for me.

Deborah Kerr

Jessica Lynn

DNF I have decided to give up because I think I actually fucking hate Stephen King and his writing style and weird descriptions of underage girls

James Eaton

What a ride. I can’t believe I waited this long to read this book.

Sian Wadey

** spoiler alert **
           The Stand by Stephen King

When I started this, I expected this to be my favourite King book, if not my favourite book of all time. I'd read Under The Dome first and the readers of that recommended this. I must admit, it took me a while to get into it. It seemed like the book started three or four times as it introduced all the main characters and I really struggled. However, as soon as I got over that hump I was in! The Stand just draws you in, you're completely absorbed in the storylines, the characters and the whole world that King creates. As soon as I finished it, the first thing I wanted to do was start again, but thanks to the growing heap of to-read books it'll have to wait. 
I found myself holding my breath and on the verge of tears, smiling at the characters' accomplishments. And for once there was a proper ending, which normally King doesn't do. Having read a number of forums and message boards I know a lot of fans want a sequel and I second that! For King addicts, this book is like a bible and I completely understand that. I'm now officially a disciple of Stephen King. It doesn't get better than this.
...
Reduced to 4 stars on my second reading. I don't often reread books but with the TV adaptation out, I wanted to refamiliarise myself with the characters and the story. When I read this last time, I was 19 and as I am nearly 10 years older (and hopefully wiser), there were some things that I struggled with. Unlike previous readings I actually enjoyed the beginning and meeting each of the characters. Unsurprisingly, Nick Andros and Tom Cullen still remain my favourite. Of course this time around I was also reading it during a pandemic so my view on Captain Tripps has changed somewhat. There would definitely be less hand holding and more sanitising. I found the middle dragged a bit, with there being lots of meetings and lots of applause, whereas I wanted to read more of Stu and Tom's expedition back to Boulder. I tried to read this reminding myself that it was re-released in 1990, and written before that, but I would have liked more women (that don't just make babies and become wives) and more diversity, and having witnessed how a virus affects people, some discussion on that. But in the end, the strong characters are always what brings me back to King, and my heart sings as they jump off the page. My one distinct memory is how much I disliked Nadine last time. This time I really wanted to Nadine to have her moment against Randall Flagg. This is still my favourite King book, and I still want a sequal.

Celeste Richardson

Full review now posted!
Original review can be found at Booknest.

Rating: 6/5 stars.

Yes, you read that right. Six out of five stars. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. M-O-O-N, that spells phenomenal.

Going into this book can be intimidating. It’s 1153 pages in its complete and uncut edition, making it one of King’s largest books. It is also considered by many King fans to be his best work. There’s disagreement, of course. Some swear by King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower, while others hale IT as their favorite book of all time, while still others hold up various of King’s other works as their personal favorites. I have yet to read The Dark Tower and thus might change my mind on this, but so far I’m firmly in the camp that The Stand is King’s masterpiece. Within this massive book mingle so many genres. The setting is an apocalyptic dystopia, but there is romance and adventure and humor and theology and satire and fantasy. If I could only re-read five books for the rest of my life, this would be one of those five because it gives its readers so much.

“Can you dig that happy crappy? Do you believe that happy crappy?”

There were some fantastically well-developed characters in this book, and they all joined the side of one of the two most charismatic characters of all: Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg. Mother Abigail is a 108 year-old black woman who has been appointed by God to lead the side of good. Randall Flagg is the dark man, the tall man, the Walkin’ Dude, and he is the face of evil in this brave new world that’s been wrought by Captain Trips, the worse plague to ever sweep the earth. With 99 percent of the earth’s population wiped out at the hand of man, those remaining face off as they try to remake the world, for good or for ill. Though Flagg and Mother Abigail lead their respective sides, their followers are just as well-developed, of not more so. Honestly, there are too many amazing characters to list. But I think that the star of the show is Tom Cullen, a mentally handicapped man who accomplishes more than anyone would have believed possible. Tom made my heart squishy with his innocence and his belief in his friends. Every character King crafted within this story felt special and real and relatable, but Tom shone. 

One thing I really loved about this book was King’s decision to portray “good” characters and “bad” characters in such a human way. Those who sided with Flagg were still sympathetic and relatable, while those who sided with Mother Abigail were still fallible and petty at times. There were no perfect protagonists here, and no flat cardboard antagonists who are easy to hate. These were all people, real people, and I connected with them all.

Besides the characters, my absolute favorite thing about this novel was its religious commentary. There was a level of theological depth here that’s not present in most religious fiction. I knew going into this book that it was a post-apocalyptic war between good and evil, but I had no idea that it would impact my thinking this much. Take this quote from Mother Abigail’s thoughts, for instance:

"They filed in through the gate that Ralph opened and she felt her sin, the one she thought of as the mother of sin. The father of sin was theft; every one of the Ten Commandments boiled down to “Thou shalt not steal.” Murder was the theft of a life, adultery the theft of a wife, covetousness the secret, slinking theft that took place in the cave of the heart. Blasphemy was the theft of God’s name, swiped from the House of the Lord and set out to walk the streets like a strutting whore. She had never been much of a thief; a minor pilferer from time to time at worst. The mother of sin was pride. Pride was the female side of Satan in the human race, the quiet egg of sin, always fertile.”

See? That’s some deep stuff, man. And this book was chock-full of it! Characters who didn’t believe in a Higher Power at all were faced with His probability, and watching them struggle between the rejection and acceptance of that knowledge was fascinating. The theological debates between characters and within their own thoughts was incredibly thought-provoking, and I would read this book again just for that. But there were so many more facets to this story. I was actually even okay with the ending here, which is often lacking in King’s novels; I felt like this one delivered. 
I highly recommend this book. If you’re going to read one Stephen King book, I wholeheartedly believe that this should be the top contender. It’s a commitment, true, but incredibly worth it.

"The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there … and still on your feet.”

My first buddy read with my wonderful friend Caleb!

courtney garrison

4.5

The Stand took me 18 days to finish. I started it on October 1st and finished it on the 18th. Let me tell you that this was mentally exhausting as my anxiety went through the roof for these main characters. The stand is over 1100 pages and a hell of a ride.

You start out with a man escaping a testing facility. He thinks that he has avoided catching the disease but sadly he has it and takes off across the country infecting his wife and child along with the entire country. Some are immune though and as the disease spreads more and more they start to have dreams. They dream of Mother Abigail and The Dark Man. Some are drawn to Mother Abigail while others go to the dark man and his chaos.

Throughout this story you get to see so many characters and their stories, but sadly you end up down to 4-8 main characters going back and forth. What fascinated me the most was the first of the book where king goes through and describes the disease and how it spreads. He shows how people have infected each other and how they die. He then goes on to the immune showing that even if they survived some of them would die. He showed that with no doctors and people going chaotic, there were still some who were going to die. I was amazed at the detail as he went through all of these people showing their stories, it showed how bad the world had gotten in the face of disease and no law or government.

Now onto the Characters, i won’t go into detail about whether or not they die. This is spoiler free but i wanted to give a little info on each one.

Mother Abigail – A 108 year old woman who has faith in God beyond anyone i have ever met. She was Gods servant through and through. She lead the group in Boulder, Colorado and guided them through the hardships they faced. She’s a true saint in my Eyes.

The Dark Man – The Dark Man is basically Satans Puppet. He wants to have everyone bow down and serve him or they die where they stand. He is the type to enjoy watching the world burn.

Nick – A Deaf man who finds a place in Boulder and a leadership position he didn’t expect. He is the leader they all need with his common sense approach to decisions the group faces.

Tom Cullen – Tom is special. (I believe Tom is Retarded, not sure. I don’t think the book ever said). Everyone underestimates Tom and his ability to get things done. Tom is an amazing character and towards the end he is one of my favorite. He has a heart of Gold and is just amazing. His faith in God never gave out.

Frannie – Frannie is a young girl from Maine who finding out she’s pregnant as the plague begins is left alone after her parents both pass. For being so young and pregnant Frannie pulls no punches and says what she believes right or wrong.

Harold – I genuinely dislike him throughout the entire book. Harold lives in the same town as Frannie and they set off to hopefully find surviors. He thinks because he loves Frannie he has some sort of control over her, that she belongs to him.

Stu – Stu is just a good ole Texas guy that has somehow found himself among survivors, immune no less. He is hard headed and wants somewhere safe. He does what needs to be done and takes charge when needed. The world may have fallen apart but it put Stu together.

Larry – Larry was a musician in the world before, but now he finds himself alone after the plague has taken everyone around him. Larry has always been told he takes and never gives anything. He uses people for everything there worth and then some. I personally hated watching him beat himself up. He was a hero.

Glen – Glen is a sociologist that helps the group gain order and he knows how to work a crowd. He helps the others where needed to get them back to a somewhat normal society. He gives them Guidance like Mother Abigail, but from more of a psychological point of view rather than faith.

Trashcan Man – He has somewhat of a mental problem, you can tell from his chapters. When he was young he set fire to things eventually burning down a church and being sent away where he received shock treatments that did his mind in worse.

Naide – She drove me nuts throughout the whole book. She has had dreams since she was young saying she should stay pure. She was reserved for the dark man. She is probably the stupidest character I have read about. Every Decision and thing she did was against what she wanted, but she did it anyway.

I fell in love with some of the characters. They turned out to be the unsung hero’s we needed. The whole book is Good vs Evil, God vs Satan. You had people who’s faith was inspiring and they never faulted, even in the face of death. You see the battle between them and it is teeth chattering anxiety wondering who will prevail.

I gave this 4.5 instead of 5 because of one aspect and I don’t see it as a spoiler but some do, so skip this paragraph. There is the whole aspect of being pure for the dark man and throughout the book it just became a bit obsessive and repetitive. I get why it was in the book, but to get that repetitive and have to read about it over and over became really annoying.

There are a bunch of triggers for this book that I will list below at the end of the review. This isn’t a light read by any means, it is super dark and chaotic at times. There are a few descriptive scenes of murder, dead bodies, suicide and rape. So I highly recommend going into this one cautious if you don’t want to read about these topics.

Overall I wasn’t expecting this one to be a favorite, but it is. I went into it knowing nothing more than it was about the super-flu and the majority of the population dying. I finding that i love apocalyptic books and the world falling apart. There’s just a part of me that wants to see the good guys win and see their journey doing it. Kings writing and explaining everything about the disease made it come all together. At the beginning i thought this is so long this could easily be shortened, but by the end it all had a purpose and place in the story. King truly is the King.

Triggers - Abuse, Use of the n word, Talks of abortion for and against, Death, Grief, Talk of rape, Rape, Murder, Graphic gun violence, Suicide, KKK mentions, Descriptions of dead bodies, Use of the word retarded, Suffocation, Shock treatments, Body shaming, Use of the word wetback, Use of the phrase red indians

Charles Siboto

Cams Campbell

I used to enjoy reading Stephen King a lot. I find his tales to be gripping and well written. I chose this book for my review of personal reading that formed part of my higher English exam. The theme was conflict. That was in 1991. 

I just listened to it again and enjoyed it once more. It's quite an appropriate tale for the current swine flu climate actually! It follows a bunch of survivors of a superflu virus, devised by the US Government, that wipes out the large majority of the US population (no other part of the world ever gets mentioned, a shortcoming of the book in my opinion; it could at least have been glossed over). The survivors split into two groups, the first gathering around Mother Abigail, the goody, and the Dark Man, the baddy. So you see the margin for conflict? 

Of course the goodies win, but it's SK's style and skill at character building and dialogue that makes the book worth reading. He's an astute observer of the human psyche and the characters are easy to relate to, even if they are all from a completely different culture to my own.

Sabetha Danes

I bet The Stand is in the top 5 books people lie about reading. 

This book is nothing to write home about and I question if all the hype I've read about it is really from people that read the whole book, or read the summary and then speak as if they've read it. 

I'll side step the fact that it was boring beyond comprehension. I only finished as a challenge to myself and the read along I did with other people. Had I just picked it up to read I would have stopped way at the beginning. 

The first 50+ chapters are set up for a big battle. They are like Part 1 of IT. Introducing you to a massive cast and giving you their life story and why you should care about them. This is where you make bets on who is going to make it to the end of the story. I'm giving it two stars because one of the two people I put bets on made it to the end, and one of the romances I called making it to the end worked out. 

All of the "action" takes place in 2 or 3 chapters, then it's just more boring wrap up. So if you want to do a shortened read of the book I would start around Chapter 50ish but even then you'll still be skimming some. 

The Stand is really Stephen King writing his version of Revelations. Those comparing it to COVID have not read it. This book isn't about what would happen if the "superflu" wiped out the world. King is using that term as a generic term that is a place holder for God picked his chosen ones, and the Devil picked his chosen ones, and everyone else died. It is the classic battle between good and evil, with all the clichés so it is predictable as possible. 

Unless you are challenging yourself to reading this or are a masochist, I suggest you spare yourself the agony and just read the summary and a few reviews then mark it as read. Pretend you've read it with the rest of the people that say this book is King predicting COVID or that it's a Must Read. *eye roll*

Katelyn Broad

I read this book during a pandemic and I think it made me enjoy it more than I would have before. 

When a man infected with a very strong, very mutated flu escapes confinement, the flu gets spread far and wide. With over 99% of the population gone, the survivors attempt to rebuild society. Dreams of two leaders start to surface, one representing good and the other representing evil. Inevitably, the survivors begin to take sides and make the choice between good and evil. 

Stephen King is an amazing storyteller. This book was long but I don't see how it could have been any shorter. It did take me a while to truly get into but once I got the hang of who the characters were, I was able to truly get invested in the story. It was interesting to hear the parallels between what's happening now with COVID-19 and what happened in the story. All in all, I really enjoyed it and would suggest it to anyone that doesn't mind a gory or long story.

Nick Bicko

4,5 Sterne.
Mein Corona-Projekt. "The Stand" hat mich mit seinen 1700 Seiten lange begleitet.
Ein richtiger Brocken an Geschichte, die von der Vielzahl an Figuren getragen wird, die alle auf ihre Weise besonders sind und wie von King gewohnt tief gezeichnet wurden.
Bis auf das dritte Viertel, das doch einige Längen ohne nennenswerten Forward Progress hatte, war es trotz der Länge überraschend kurzweilig, ich fühlte mich gut unterhalten und von der Geschichte um die Supergrippe in den Bann gezogen.

Lauren Attaway

This is a long, incredible, exhausting, traumatizing, and worth reading as everyone says it is. I am still deciding if it is my favorite King book, but it is definitely near the top of the list.

The Stand With 99% of the population dead from a killer virus, the survivors must choose between two very different leaders; King’s epic apocalyptic saga has become a modern classic of the dystopian genre.

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