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 … world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail — 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 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 And Uncut Edition includes more than five hundred pages of material previously 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 comlexity of a true epic.
For 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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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I read this book when it first came out. At that time it was food for thought, however, did not seem like something that would ever happen based on the knowledge the world has available to prevent something this tragic. Little did we know……
Seriously, for Covid-19 reading thi novel is a must!! Not only is it fully engaging with great characters, it reads like a survival manual!
My favorite book, and particularly scary right now!
One of my all-time favorite books by the KING of horror/fiction.
His absolute classic and his top favorite of mine. A battle of good and evil and how people reacted after 99% of the population died when a virus escaped a military site. Dreams drew the good and bad to the centers of their guides. The characters grew into believable people as they tried to live and survive. I loved the ending, teared up as favorite characters died during the story and rejoiced at every success. I must read.
This was the 2nd or 3rd Stephen King book I read. This book is on my favorites of all time list.
With what is going on around in this world with (corona virus or covid 19″, this book should scare the crap out of you. Of course with Stephen King, that is the whole point. I have a medical lab background so I understand the whiches and whys of what is going on, so this just scares me a little more. Watch “Outbreak”, and this should give you an incoming of what is out there in the science of it all. The supernatural aspect I’ll leave up to you.
I think one of his best works
One of the best King books I’ve read. Haunting, and so close to home due to our present coronavirus pandemia. Must read for fans of the author.
I read this book as a teenager and loved it. I read it again as an adult and still love it. Both times I read before bed until I could not physically keep my eyes open. There was never a “good” stopping point.
I think this is awesome, I have the two books the uncut version n the cut version I started reading n I couldn’t put the book down. I love all Stephen King’s
books he my favorite author, I have almost all his books
I recommend Stephen King in general. Picking up one of his books is like “Okay. Time for some fun!” And then you get engulfed in another world. The Stand was probably my favorite of all (maybe because of it’s length, I knew I wouldn’t be coming out of it for a while – and that’s a good thing). However, I’d like to note that of all of his books I’ve read so far, ‘Under the Dome’ is my favorite ending of all.
My favorite book of all time.
For a time, I didn’t read novels. I fell out of the habit. When I picked up this book, I didn’t want to put it down. It reignited my pass for novels and turned me into a massive Stephen King fan.
This is a very long book but it is excellent. I am a HUGE fan of Stephen King and have read/watched most of his books/movies. There are dynamic characters that keep your interest through every part of the book.
Stephen King has plenty of books to choose from but “The Stand” is by far my favorite. In a epic ‘good v. evil’ showdown, King keeps one guessing of who will be left and how it will end with very engaging characters. Truly a classic.
The best at between good and evil
Great read. The Kid is an unforgettable character
If he never wrote another word, Stephen King deserves to be remembered for this, his contribution to the “Disaster Novel” genre. (NOTE: This review applies to the ORIGINAL release of the novel, not the “Special Edition”)
It begins innocuously enough, with an army officer running away from his base. But he has left it too late, and he carries a new disease into the world. Over the next months people begin to die, in small numbers at first, then in their hundreds, thousands and finally millions.
The survivors, a disparate band drawn from all walks of life, find they have to make a choice; to join with the forces of evil, personified in Flagg (one of the best fictional villains in living memory) or to take a “Stand” for good, personified by Aunt Abigail, an old wizened black woman with a fundamentalist approach to her faith.
Soon all the survivors are lined up on one side or the other, and the final battle for their future destiny is set up when the main characters must take their own “Stand”
The questions of faith posed by this, and how each of the protagonists make their choices, form the moral core of this book, and the rigours of basic survival when civilisation has fallen forms the backbone of the plot, but it is the characters who stick in your mind long after you’ve finished reading.
King has always been good at “country” types, but here he shows a sure hand with such disparate people as a deaf-mute, a rock star, a garage worker, a pregnant teenager and her admirer-from-afar neighbour Harold (a gentleman so slimy you’ll feel like taking a shower after just reading about him)
You feel rapport with these characters, and are soon cheering them on, and King has managed to reel in his propensity for “bloat”, and doesn’t let any one character take over.
The book carries a strong moral tone throughout, and at times seems almost biblical in its “fire-and-brimstone” intensity. In typical King fashion there are some terrifying set pieces, the pick of which takes place in a tunnel which is full of dead and decomposing bodies that must be navigated without a light. Not for the squeamish.
A lot of people have been daunted by the sheer size of this book. At over 1000 pages, it is not a quick read, and in the early chapters it is sometimes difficult to keep track of its large list of characters. Also, King seems to take delight in slowing things down and looking in great detail at some pretty unpleasant deaths as a result of the disease – a super-flu which results in particularly messy fluid expulsion.
However once Flagg appears and starts insinuating himself into the survivors’ dreams. the tension starts to crank up and King knows how to keep you hooked, cheering the good guys along to the denoument.
I won’t spoil it by giving away the ending, but the final “Stand” doesn’t come quite as expected, and has some truly shocking consequences for the protagonists.
For a jaded horror fan brought up on John Wyndham and John Christopher, this book revitalised my interest back in the late 70’s. This was the book that brought me back to horror, and made me want to write it myself.
For that alone it’s got a lot to answer for.
One of my favorite books. It’s scary to think that something (virus getting free) could happen, some of the rest- maybe not so much. Worth reading- especially when you have a cold!