Yet another Stephen King book for this update, one that is fresh in my memory, and one of the books I will remember my entire life.
The Stand is the ultimate fight between good and evil, happening in a post-apocalyptic America, after a horrible disease known as Captain Trips, made by the American government, have plagued the earth. You are introduced to some people that were immune to this disease, which some you follow through the entire Epic. Yes, this is no ordinary book, it's 1300 pages of Epic writing. Of course, with good comes evil, and evil often seems to be more powerful than the forces of light. Much of the book is dedicated to telling about what happens before, during and shortly after the plague strikes, but no one can give such life to a couple of people walking as Stephen King can. Definitely worth reading, the Stand should be in the shelf of any fantasy and/or apocalypse fans. Biblical stories is also something I'm not a fan of, but God seems reasonable (however just as unintelligable as usually) in the book. As with other Stephen King books, you live in the story, you would want this apocalypse to happen just to be there, in the company of Larry the Rockstar, Tom the loveable retard, Stu, Frannie and all the others from the Boulder Free Zone. So the good folks are all trying to make society work again, while the forces of Dark and Evil are of course preparing for something else entirely. But even in the end, you start to like some of the bad guys; get sympathetic with them. Well, maybe not the antagonist which is more like an anti-christ but you get the deal.
I will not spoil anything else from the book, but if you are interested a plot summary from Wikipedia can be found here.
It exists a small series of TV episodes featuring the Stand, but I have not seen those. It lasts for 11 hours as far as I'm aware of anyway.
The Stand deserves its title of an Epic, though it might be a little slow to read at certain points. So I rate the Stand 5 out of 6 possible stars, and reccomends it to everyone.
If you are interested, you can buy The Stand on Amazon in paperback or for a Kindle.
Other Information about The Stand:
Author: Stephen King
Country: United States
Language: English
Publication date: November 1978
Pages: Varies. The newest paperback had ~1300 pages, but it is revised. Originally ~800 pages.
