The Stand by Stephen King - WITH spoilers but ONLY up to where I’m reading 🤣🤣

[Taq]

I downloaded the book after recommendations here and I’ve got 8 hours left (out of 48!!!) to listen to.

It’s amazing but I can’t stand the emotional rollercoaster! I’ve just got to the part where that Julie girl recognises Tom Cullen in Vegas. If anything happens to Tom I might actually cry, I still can’t believe Nick and Mother Abigail died!
I am SO close to googling what happens to Tom but I wont.

Awful Harold and Nadine are on the way West, and so are the 4 from the committee (without Fran thank goodness).

I’m quite glad that there won’t be any committee meetings for a while, they were a bit too much like being at an actual committee meeting.

Anyway I just had to talk about it 🤣

Absolutely love this book, such a favourite.

Anyone who hasn't read The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin should check it out. Similar epic feel and amazing writing. I always recommend it to fans of The Stand

Re: the bulk of "tech" folk in Vegas, the experiences of Dayna and Tom both demonstrate most that people there are perfectly likeable and good at heart.

I think King was highlighting the separation between rational thinking and spirituality.

In Vegas everyone had assigned roles and they carried out their duties under penalty of punishment. There was no choice or free will but there was order, predictability, and progress. It would appeal to people who value logic and structure and clearly defined boundaries.

The Boulder community was a bit of a hippie clusterfuck, volunteering based commune. Plenty of free will, but towards the end you could see where that was starting to lead to unrest and vigilantism.

To me Stephen King is like the girl with the curl. His good stuff is incredible, but when he's bad, he's horrid.

The Stand is an outstanding book. Pet Semetary has the ability to get under my skin like no other. 'It' is entertaining if bizarre, and I love the father/daughter relationship in Firestarter and his ability to get into the mind of a child in The Shining. IMO King has an unusual talent for this.

King can make me feel I can actually see, feel and breathe the air of New England. And his books hit on some very American-specific anxieties: the post cold war as in the Stand, or those predicated on frontier narratives and Native American legend - thanks to The Sampson's the 'Indian' burial ground has become something of a trope.

Not one of the books mentioned above could possibly have been written in Britain, which is a reminder of how truly different our cultures are.

Might have to watch a film of The Stand now. Some of his adaptations have been worth watching - Pet Sematary was sadly abysmal even though it did feature the fabulous Herman Munster!

Trashcan Man was a great character imo. Talk about a wild card.

Love this book. I've read it every decade in the last 40 years. Fairy Tale is good too, and The Talisman (with Peter Straub) absolutely brilliant.

Really? I tried to read this & found the writing so tedious, long winded & boring. It's one of the very few books I've given up on & I've read some absolute shite over the years.

Not just me then. I actually cried when I got to the end of the first book of The Passage because it had been such a slog to get through it, I really didn't enjoy it at all, and it didn't actually end.

I first read The Stand back in the early 80s and, like a lot of pp it seems, it's my go-to read every few years. I didn't really like the newer film; Tom wasn't right and I really hated the depravity in Vegas. Nadine was all wrong too. As someone else said there is more nuance of character in the book than on screen.

I read the Stand many times when it first came out, I'd picked up a copy of Salem's Lot from a 2nd hand bookshop and I was hooked on Stephen King, bought every single book from then on. The only one I couldn't finish was Under the Dome.
@PrincessofWellies I've just started reading Fairytale. I've not got to the horror/scarey bits yet, but I always think he could just write non horror stories and I'd love them just as much.
Agree with pp saying that there's not many good films of his books, but has anyone read the Mr Mercury series and seen the TV series? I thought they were great!

I just finished reading Fairy Tale! It's so different to any of his other books. I really enjoyed it. It'd make a great first SK book for a young reader.

I should have proof read before posting, Mr Mercedes, not Mercury lol!
@wandawaves I'm definitely not a young reader but I've got out of the habit of reading and Fairytale is easy so far. And I'm reading at bedtime so don't want anything too scarey!

That's partly why I enjoyed Fairy Tale. I've found that as I've gotten older, some of SK's really gory horror stuff can give me nightmares lol

The Stand and It are King’s stand out (see what I did there?!) novels imo and both merit repeated re-reads. Ditto The Dark Tower series.

For me, it’s his characterisation and the relationships between them that’s his biggest skill. Look at something like The Langoliers - really well drawn characters even in a (long!) short story.

I was disappointed with Fairy Tale after a brilliant first half, but, like my mum says, would rather read a disappointing King than most other things.

Currently planning my next King tattoo! 😍

Eeee isn't that funny? I've read the trilogy twice, I loved the character development and dynamics, I loved the over-arching story of taking on a huge, seemingly impossible evil, the epic long journey elements... Different strokes for different folks 🤷‍♀️

I liked The Passage and the second one, but thought the third was dreadful. He’s got a new book either out or out soon.

I absolutely love The Stand but (controversially...) for me the balance of it is a bit off: I would have liked to have less build-up about people's lives before the plague, and more about how society worked afterwards, especially in Vegas. And more Randall Flagg!

I loved the Stand as well, Stephen King is my favourite author. I’m excited for the return of Holly in the new book in September - my husband knows that’s a couple of days when I won’t speak to him until I’ve read it!

I re read when covid hit too🤣

It really is an incredible book, listen to the audiobook every now and again. Probably time for a re-read.

Enjoy op, it is excellent from beginning to end.

One thing that irked me about this book. All male characters know how to ride a motorbike but all the females have to be taught.

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of any of his most recent books. If It Bleeds, I actually was annoyed at one of the violent acts in particular (and I've read all his others so not exactly easily offended), Fairy Tale I'm half way through with no urgency to finish and unlike most people I've not been that taken with Holly/Bill and I can't say I'm desperate for the new one to come out. The Institute felt like it was a first draft of much earlier stories cobbled together, lingering way too long on the suffering of the children.

I've enjoyed some of his more recent shorter works, but I think his last novel that did it for me was 22.11.63.

It pains me to say as I'm such a huge fan but at least there are so many books for me to reread from his earlier days. I feel like at one point he could take any genre and make it work, girl who loved Tom Gordon, Eyes of the Dragon, Gerald's Game. All so different but amazing.

It's not mentioned so often but Needful Things is one of my favourites, especially if you read The Dark Half first.

I totally agree UpToonGirl

I HATE Needful Things. That, Dolores C and Pet Sematary are three of his weakest imo.

I liked Pet Sematary. Found it really eerie.

Shameful admission: I found the Dark Tower novels a slog and wouldn't re-read them.

I love Needful Things! It was one of my first SK books.

I did not finish 11/22/63. Boring, just couldn't get into it.

I also have not finished the Dark Tower. I've tried twice, and lost interest both times.

Thats an interesting observation, the book was written early 80s I think. Personally I didn't know any women who rode a motorbike until well into the 2000s. I wonder how common it was.

Oh I do think you are right in relation to logic and spiritualality but ultimately those people all got blown up and left the B Ark to repopulate the world :p