The Stand

Digital Audio

English language

Published Feb. 14, 2012 by Books on Tape.

ISBN:
978-0-307-98758-7
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
1056983047

View on OpenLibrary

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.

And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides--or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail--and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.

In 1978 Stephen King published The Stand, the novel that is now considered to be one of his finest works. But as it was first published, The Stand was incomplete, since more than 150,000 words had been cut from the …

47 editions

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Storygraph'

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'

This is the first Stephen King novel I read. It is quite an enormous book with very good character development and loads of suspense. I liked all the travels that the characters had to make, that was enjoyable and the first half of the book was excellent. That's about it and if all of King's novels are like that it is probably going to be my last. As soon as the book took a sharp turn into parapsychology, hypnosis and telepathy I stopped enjoying it and I was only reading it to know what will happen to the protagonists. I don't have anything to add to what others here have said in regards to the racist parts in the book, problems in the female characters and the two-dimensional and comical representation of evil characters.

Review of 'The Stand' on 'Goodreads'

This was another re-read of mine. My third time reading it, actually. My first time was the original edition from the late 70s, and then the uncut version when it was first released. This was the uncut one again.

The Stand is a book in 3 parts, and to this day I feel Book 1 is by far the strongest. The descriptions of how life falls apart under the reign of Captain Trips is captivating and truly horrifying. It could happen, you know. It surely could.

The middle stretch is a bit on the dull side, and the end is a bit too open-ended for me.

Nevertheless, this is my favorite Stephen King, with compelling characters and a story with a vast scope. A King classic, would read again and likely will.

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