Stand: Amazon.ca: Stephen King: Books

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In 1978, science fiction writer Spider Robinson wrote a scathing review of The Stand in which he exhorted his readers to grab strangers in bookstores and beg them not to buy it.

The Stand is like that. You either love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it. Stephen King's most popular book, according to polls of his fans, is an end-of-the-world scenario: a rapidly mutating flu virus is accidentally released from a U.S. military facility and wipes out 99 and 44/100 percent of the world's population, thus setting the stage for an apocalyptic confrontation between Good and Evil.

"I love to burn things up," King says. "It's the werewolf in me, I guess.... The Stand was particularly fulfilling, because there I got a chance to scrub the whole human race, and man, it was fun! ... Much of the compulsive, driven feeling I had while I worked on The Stand came from the vicarious thrill of imagining an entire entrenched social order destroyed in one stroke."

There is much to admire in The Stand: the vivid thumbnail sketches with which King populates a whole landscape with dozens of believable characters; the deep sense of nostalgia for things left behind; the way it subverts our sense of reality by showing us a world we find familiar, then flipping it over to reveal the darkness underneath. Anyone who wants to know, or claims to know, the heart of the American experience needs to read this book. --Fiona Webster --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Survivors of a chemical weapon called superflu confront pure evil in this updated and even more massive version of King's 1978 saga. "The extra 400 or so pages . . . make King's best novel better still," said PW. " A new beginning adds verisimilitude to an already frighteningly believable story, while a new ending opens up possibilities for a sequel . "
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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First Sentence
Hapscomb's Texaco sat on Number 93 just north of Arnette, a pissant four-street burg about 110 miles from Houston. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

797 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (797 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating is all I can say!, May 4 2007

By

Ali Siddiqui (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stand (Hardcover)

I have always been a bit wary of Stephen King's books so I thought why not plunge into one of his most revered/loathed books by reviewers and fans alike? I wasn't disappointed at all. King, pulls you into a World through the eyes of a few survivors of a devestating plague and how as the lone survivors have to live, work, and survive together without killing each other. As in any post-apocalyptic story we have individuals who now have no fear of authority go on a rampage killing and pillaging and the survivors who just want to live are holed away cowering behind their walls. However, King doesn't go along this route (when does he ever!?), instead he pits those who survived due to Good and Evil. Throw in a bit of religious intrigue and not only do you have a book where questions arise through the characters on whether or not they believe in a God or whether they survived through pure chance just to end up fighting the Evil that lurks just over the mountains.

The characters are complex, evolving, and so life like that they could be easily recognized and easily relatable to in real life. The scenarios really helps the readers to empathize, sympathize, hate, or understand why the characters are acting as they did/are. I actually ended up supporting characters at one point and then questioning how they could have done what they did to the others...only to realize later on that from their point of view they did that to survive...something I found so refreshing. I was absolutely astounded by the evolving characters since I expected to read a book with cliched archetypes, now I know better. There are points where you wished King hadn't done what he did to one character (you'll understand later on when you read the book) since you feel so damn awful about how he was treated before the apocalypse that you wished he would end up happier in the post-apocalypse World.

If the World does end tomorrow and I needed a guidebook to help me survive the turmoil that tragedy on an epic apocalyptic scale brings...I would take "The Stand".

If you love Stephen King...buy this. If you love post-apocalyptic stories...buy this. If you love watching ordinary folks being forced to work with each other when their lives are at stake...buy this. If you really love evolving characters with each their own personalities and goals...buy this.

For my first Stephen King book, I was very much impressed by this epic novel. I'm glad I took the plunge. This book now is firmly placed in my top 10 list of books to take with me on a desert island.

5 *****'s all the way. :)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Like good wine!, May 8 2012

By

Steve Grant (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (Mass Market Paperback)

The stand has aged well. The first time I read it was over 20 years ago (as a teenager), and the book had captivated me. I remember reading it in less than 3 days. The characters, struggling with their inner demons while coping with a hopeless situation, came alive and were real in every way.

As I read it again in my forties, I couldn't put it down. But where did I get the silly notion that Stu was too old for Fran...

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Stand, Jan 23 2012

By

J. Vu - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (Mass Market Paperback)

I bought the book because of the price and because it is considered Stephen King's magnum opus. A great read if you are into King's writing or the post-apocalyptic genre.

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