The Stand

By:

Synopsis
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.From the Hardcover edition.
Copyright:
1990

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780385528856
Related ISBNs:
9780385199575
Publisher:
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Bernie Wrightson
Adult content:
Yes
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

Reviews

5 out of 5

By on

This was my favorite book of all when it first came out in its cut version. Then "Lonesome Dove," passed it by. Then came this version in 1990, and it left "Lonesome Dove," chewing Texas dust. This is the best book ever written, for my money. While many books have been written about the end of civilization, the author's take on what that end will be like is unique. While George Stewart writes of how people survive over almost 50 years after a plague in "Earth Abides," this book focuses on the first 100 days, and a supernatural battle of good and evil for the souls of what survivors remain. This book has caused me disturbing nightmares, and like all the Apocalypse books I've read, it makes me hope that if civilization ends, I'm one of the 99% taken out right away, and not one of the few survivors. In this book, even the minor characters are memorable, and the major ones become like close friends. Stu Redman is the hero. As the book opens he's a 30-something, underemployed Texas bum. With the plague raging, he finds he can kill if need be to preserve life and limb, and that those who can't may well find themselves dead or worse. After the plague, he finds love is still possible, but he finds that, as in the old world, claiming somebody else's woman is still a good way to land in bad trouble--killing bad perhaps. Larry is a singer with a record climbing the charts--and a mountain of climbing debt he owes to a particularly unforgiving crook. He flees California hoping to stay a step ahead-and lands in his Brooklyn home just in time to watch the Plague take his mother-and most New Yorkers. The good guys congregate in Boulder, Colorado, a city emptied out by a wild rumor that the Plague had begun there. In panic, the populace fled like the French fleeing the Nazis in 1940, leaving their city relatively empty, to become the Free Zone. The bad guys set up shop in Vegas, with Randall Flagg in charge. His unholy powers draw in the weak and the stupid: Lloyd Henried, armed robber and murderer; the Trash Can Man--the firebug to end all firebugs; and a host of other easily-led losers, loafers and general no-accounts. There are weapons in and around Vegas, which Flagg hopes to use to dominate what world still remains. This is not a light read. Take a month or two and truly enjoy this book.


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