The Stand by Stephen King (Epub)

Description

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 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.

User’s Reviews

Review “A master storyteller.”–Los Angeles Times”[The Stand] has everything. Adventure. Romance. Prophecy. Allegory. Satire. Fantasy. Realism. Apocalypse. Great!”–The New York Times Book Review”As brilliant a dark dream as has ever been dreamed in this century.”–Palm Beach PostFrom the Paperback edition. Amazon.com Review 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 an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ This story is incredible. Five stars over and over again. The reason for this bad review is the defective binding. I bought this book a few months ago and just started reading it last month. Ever since I opened the book, the pages have been falling and peeling out. I’ve been trying to tape the pages back in, but more and more fall out when I read. I spoke with a customer service agent who didn’t once apologize for the defective product, but rather asked if I was aware of the return date. When I said I wasn’t trying to return, but would merely like a replacement book, after making me wait, she said she would make an exception and send me a replacement. I’m grateful to be getting a replacement, but this isn’t the service I’m used to getting from Amazon. Amazon really needs to take a hard look at the suppliers for this book. Obviously there is some sort of quality control issue here.

⭐ Ive been a Stephen King fan for 40 years. The Stand is and will remain my favorite of his books. I like all of them but I love a select few and The Stand is at the top of the list. If you are already a King fan and you haven’t read The Stand, you’ll love this book. The overall theme is Biblically related and he sticks close to details in well known Biblical stories. But, don’t get me wrong, this is not “Christian Fiction”. This is the best of Sci-Fi/Horror you’ll find in King’s books. The characters are fully developed and totally interesting. The dystopian story is compelling and believable. If you are a fan, since this is one of his earlier works, you’ll see familiar types of characters, ie..Randy Flagg and Tom Collin. If you’re a new King reader, you will get to know the characters and you’ll care about them. This isn’t a read in one sitting book. Rather, it is a day after day reading that you’ll enjoy and hate to put down. Though some may say King is extremely verbose, I think his detailed telling of the story connects the reader to the characters like very few authors are able to do. This is my sixth reading of the book and the first time I listened to the audio book. It was just as good this time as the last. With a hour long ride to work and back, my time in the car seemed shorter because of the quality of the reader and the quality of the story.I won’t give away anything, I’ll only say take your time and enjoy the ride with King’s epic. I loved every word.

⭐ The Stand is the ultimate Stephen King novel. Huge and spellbinding, it sucks you in and doesn’t let go. At the time of this review (3/23/20), the entire world is dealing with the pandemic Crorona Virus aka Covid-19. Thousands upon thousands of people have had it all over the world and unfortunately many thousands have died and there is no proven vaccine as yet. The world is freaking out over it.The current situation is unnervingly similar to the story I just finished re-reading for the umpteenth time. Thankfully Covid-19 isn’t a constantly mutating virus like Project Blue aka Captain Trips which had a almost total mortality rate. The book starts with an experimental manmade virus in a secret government installation on a military base accidentally exposed and unfortunately for the world a sentry manages to escape thanks to a delay in the system that is supposed to completely lock down the entire base and keep the infected area contained. He grabs his wife and baby and runs for it. Unfortunately, he had already been infected and it only takes seconds for the virus to be passed along. He crashes into a gas station in East Texas and passes the virus to the small group of men hanging out there. That starts the beginning of the end of almost the entire world. The story then deals with that situation and it’s aftermath. Good & Evil duke it out for pitifully small remaining survivors. You will not be able to quit reading until the end of this nail-biter. Enjoy the ride, I do every time I read it!

⭐ While repairing my mother’s Kindle, I noticed that she had a copy of The Stand installed, and after the repair was done, I felt kind of a duty to test the repair by reading a bit of her copy. My experience was that I wound up buying a copy for my own Kindle, and then spent an entirely inappropriate amount of my waking hours reading it.It’s totally engrossing, and very interesting in enough different ways that you just don’t get tired of working your way through all those damn pages. A great premise, great plot development, interesting and believable characters, and a scope that constantly reminds how transient we all are. Great stuff that got ME so involved that when I went to hospital for a relatively normal visit, I was ACUTELY aware of everyone who coughed or sneezed, and though I snickered at myself almost immediately for my temporary transportation from reality to plot, the snicker wasn’t quite as immediately convincing as it might have been. So, yeah, it was THAT engrossing.

⭐ I have a long commute to/from the office, so I wanted something nice and long to focus my attention on while riding the bus. The Stand is a classic that has stood the test of time. The audiobook is well read/acted without going over the top.I read the edited version when it first came out, and devoured the unabridged version when it was released a few years later. However, it wasn’t until I was listening to the book that I realized why it is so engaging and captures the imagination. Not only is it one of King’s most well-written works, it is also one of his most poetic. His ability to describe the most disgusting situations is unquestioned in any King book. However, in The Stand, he is able to describe elements of emotion in such a way that one is enraptured and engaged on a completely different level than you’d expect. I think this book stands (pun not intended) as King’s finest work. Even if you’ve read the book, do yourself the favor of ‘listening’ to it as well. You won’t regret it.

⭐ The Stand was epic in its original form, and this edition, with expanded story lines and restored cuts lives up to the original. All of Stephen King’s books are excellent, but this one is a parable for modern times of the age-old battle between good and evil. Read it again if you have read it before. And if you have never read it, be assured: this is a book you will never forget! I found myself cheering as favorite characters came into the story, and even though I knew the ending, I read faithfully onward through days and nights to the very end. I am not sure how many times I have read this book now–a dozen times? More? Yet, I know I will read it again in the future. It is not “The Good Book” but it is A Good Book, and a very good book, indeed! A+ +

⭐ I thought it would be ironic to read The Stand during the Coronavirus pandemic.The novel arrived in the mail on March 19, right when my state instituted a stay-at-home order. “That’s 1400 mass market paperback pages of pure entertainment, baby,” I told myself. I enjoyed the first 150. With each succeeding chapter, I noticed a burgeoning grass-is-greener complex taking hold in my withering mind. At first, the other novels lining the back of my desk stole my attention. I read a few short stories by Raymond Carver. Back to work, I thought. I read an additional chapter of King’s alleged masterpiece. Then I found myself electing to return to school texts before bed. After another chapter of The Stand, I read any surface with script to delay returning to King’s tome: a spent toothpaste tube on the floor next to my desk, the face of my watch over and over and over, a ketchup bottle my roommate left on the counter. I hate ketchup. Still, I fretted when the bottle’s ingredient list took a mere ten seconds of my time. “Must I return to The Stand?” I asked myself. No, I needn’t.I might contract COVID-19 at any moment. I may already have done so. I could die! We all could! Stephen, no offense, but I retired that mother after 350 pages. Reading The Stand felt like being cornered at a family event by my tall-tale-yarning, stereotype-espousing, hillbilly uncle

⭐ I’m fairly new to Stephen King, and I picked this book as my second due to all the glowing reviews. I’m not going to go into great detail except to say that this is definitely worth the read. The version I got had a preface about things King added back in after cutting the original release, so I was happy to have the complete version.I don’t understand the comments people leave about King being too verbose in certain parts. In my opinion, this is leading me further into the character’s state of mind and actions related to that. I don’t think it dragged at all, and I love all the characters.I would say that only one thing I would have liked a bit more on was the history on Randall Flagg from his own point of view. Other than that, it still gets 5 stars from me.

⭐ I’d read the originally published version of The Stand many years ago. I loved the characters and story even then, but somehow found myself wanting for a little more. I wanted to feel more depth for some of the antagonists. I felt like I should but I didn’t really have enough there to feel it. And other places where I wanted more depth or closure. This version did it! I wish authors could write all their books with no concern for length, but to tell the story they want to tell exactly as they want to tell it. Thank you, Stephen King, for creating, for yourself and all your Constant Readers, the opportunity to go back and tell us the rest of this story. That was a fabulous ride.

⭐ (Sorry, in advance.)I cannot understand how this book is (purportedly) the fifth most popular novel in the U.S…. I think a lot of people read King early in their reading lives? It was the 70s and 80s. He was a big deal, getting bigger. I did not read King early. I read a lot of great books, stories and writing styles (also a lot of terrible ones) before my first King book, which was that awful “11/22/63” thing a few years ago. He was never on a pedestal with me. He didn’t catch me when I was young or impressionable. I have read a few of his books now, most being hit or miss, and most having a few good elements but also a lot of bad.The best King book I’ve read was a Bachman, The Running Man. That one I loved. And, of course, it’s nothing like his usual fare.I typically have *that moment* when people tell me that King is their favorite author. It’s like when someone tells me that “how to lose a guy in 10 days” is their favorite movie. Seriously, what do you say?…I read an article last night (from a big google rabbit hole) where a guy wrote that “King is like America’s Shakespeare”… That made my brain hurt. King is notoriously overly wordy, and his stories and characters are pretty immature. Most of his characters are cheap stereotypes, and his worldview is extremely limited (which often makes it racist and backward, in a special ‘Maine white boy’ way). His novels have mostly reminded me of comic books set to prose.But, let’s be honest, the horror genre isn’t where you find your great works of literature. Or your best writers, characters, stories, etc. Horror in itself is kind of a lowest common denominator genre, so King can definitely be King of that. Although, the most horrifying thing about The Stand is its length. It’s not really a scary story at all. It does manage gross on occasion though.The Stand is King’s longest work, if I’m understanding correctly? The Stand also encompasses all of his shortcomings. It definitely has the overly wordy aspect DOWN. Clocking in at over 1,100 gloriously restored pages, it knocks overly wordy out of the park. (Hey, King, War and Peace called. They said you used all the words. You made James Joyce cry.) And, with characters like Flagg and Freemantle, it also aces simplistic, stereotypical characters, with a “magical negro trope” thrown in for good measure (another King standard use item, by the way – black people must have been very exotic to him at one time). The characters aren’t just cartoonish and stereotypical – It also has too many characters, in my opinion.The worst characters are:Monster-ShouterRagmanFlagg and FreemantleNickand T-O-(O)-M (boy was HE tiresome!)But The Stand does have some good points and some good characters. I think the story idea is a good one. It also has occasionally beautiful and wise observations and prose. I really liked the character Stu and enjoyed his storyline the most. I also like the characters Fran and her father, Larry and his mother, and I love Kojak (and that they named him Kojak – and that he lives! That’s a big deal for dog characters across all time and media.)And, one small bone to pick: Why didn’t they drive?… Going from car to car, to truck, to motorcycle, bicycle, etc wending their way across the country? On page 337, he has Stu *choose* to walk, because he likes it… but I really think it’s because King was trying to write some kind of epic Hobbit type story where the heroes have an old school walking adventure (yet more self-indulgence on King’s part).I *really* wanted to enjoy this reading experience, and had heard such good things. But, alas, now I have to go find a place on my shelves for this gi-normous two-star book brick…

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