I know what you’re probably thinking. Why on earth is this guy reviewing a book that has been out for over 30 years? Well – this is my blog and I loved this book. So there! 
OK – all kidding aside – I would be remiss if I didn’t open my reviews of SK’s work with anything else. This is one of my favorite books of all time – maybe THE favorite. I am a notoriously slow reader, but I could not put this book down. It occupied my imagination to no end. It is basically a story of Good vs. Evil. Not a difficult concept to grasp, but the way the story is spun, it will keep you riveted.
A “superflu” plague wipes out most of the world’s population. Those who are left fall into two factions. The good become the followers of a righteous old lady named Mother Abigail and they settle in Boulder, CO. The bad become the followers of Randall Flagg, who is either a minion of the devil or the head demon himself. The evil one and his followers take over Las Vegas. OK – maybe that seems cheesy or even goofy, but it works.
There are a lot of creepy parts in this book, with one of my favorites being when Larry Underwood is in the Lincoln Tunnel in New York. The other creepy part was when the settlers in Boulder go into the church and find the bodies of people that had sought solace during the plague and ended up dying there. But the best part of this book is the part where Stu, Larry, Ralph and Glenn head out of Boulder to make the stand against Flagg. The parallels to “The Lord of the Rings” cannot be denied. A fellowship of good folks that goes on a quest to destroy ultimate evil – priceless. Only things missing were the elf, dwarf and hobbits – but I digress….
The original novel, released in 1978, was a scaled down (or watered down) version. The publishers originally felt it was too long, so they made SK do some major editing. Oh well, at least SK got his way in the end! Good thing too – I never have read the abridged version and frankly I doubt I’d want to now.
Bottom line – if there is anyone that is just now wanting to read Stephen King’s work, grabbing a copy of “The Stand” is a great starting point.
No comments:
Post a Comment