The Stand (1978)

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 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 original manuscript. Now Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil has been restored to its entirety. The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition includes more than 500 pages of material deleted, along with new material that King added as he reworked the manuscript for a new generation. It gives us new characters and endows familiar ones with new depths. It has a new beginning and a new ending. What emerges is a gripping work with the scope and moral complexity of a true epic. For the hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift.. And those who are reading The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.

Pretty much my favorite book.

One of the BEST EVER books.... and the movie isn't too bad either. I love watching it. But, the book absolutely kicks ass. I remember the first time I read those, what, 1100+ pages. It took me a weekend... and I wanted to reread it, immediately. I couldn't put it down.

Before Captain Trips hit, and Stu was at the gas station, just sitting around, it said that in the past, one of the guys there had paid him the ultimate compliment, calling him "Old Time Tough."

I have used that phrase in real life, telling people at work "I'm old time tough", and it always got the same response: Laughter.

Which is what I was shooting for, so it's all good.

It is King's finest work. It is still a great read, and it is one of my favorite books.

I have to read this book once a year. It's just THAT good!!!
I can't see me not ever NOT having this book. I cherish it.
Stephens BEST work, in my opinion. I don't think that he could top it.

I'm reading it right now. It feels like the world has moved on. The way he sets it up, it's like it really happens.

Exactly... it's so damn real.

The only part that bothered me about the entire thing was that it was all the US. I wanted to have it be a worldly scale, and see people coming from everywhere.

I love the book, except for 3 things which irk me.


1. The Dark Man went to that guys house, and made him give him keys to a car, and papers with his new name, Randall Flagg. By this time, the guy was pretty much dead with flu, and he had to torture it out of him.

The world was already gone.

why in the world would he need papers and a car? Didn't make no sense to me. Must be somthing I did not get.


2. The black dudes that executed the 60 plus people on live t.v.

I hate that part. So gruesome, so mericiless, so gory and horryifying. I skip those two pages everytime I read the book, it bothers me. It makes me sick to read it, so I skip it.


3. The whole KIDD scene where he does bizzare sexual stuff to trashcan man with his gun. I always skip that.



Other than that, the book is a solid read from start to finish. I think my favorite part of the book is Trashcan-man's step by step description of how he blows up those oil tankers. Awesome.

He was getting burned, his eardrums shot, and he was happy as hell. Sick sick individual there.

And I like all his crap he pulled at the end with the nuke.

True... some parts (Like the trashcan man and the sex) are just page skippers. But, for the most part, that is one solid, no-boring, story.

I didn't get the whole paper thing either. But, then again... Flagg didn't know what was going to happen, right? After all, he isn't god.