Meaty and rivetting (The Stand - Stephen King)

Member Name: doctordarke2389

Product:	The Stand - Stephen King
Date:	24/07/09 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots to get your teeth (!) into ..

Disadvantages: Geographically limited

For me, The Stand represents Stephen King at the height of his storytelling powers. Simple as that.

The narrative concerning the eternal struggle between good and evil, darkness and light, is as old as time itself. Almost. The Stand brings the ongoing saga firmly into the twentieth century, with a modern fairytale that casts a host of characters - some likeable (Mother Abigail, the so-called 'retard' Tom Cullen, etc) and some not (Randall Flagg as tortured arch antihero?; Trashman Man, etc) into an unwanted post-apocalyptic struggle set (inevitably) in the good ole USA. One presumes that the whole world is afflicted by the nightmarish Captain Tripps, but we don't find out.

This world squares up into two camps, set against a supernatural scenario centred in Boulder, Colorado (the goodies) and Las Vegas - where else? (the baddies). Whilst the tome is rather a meaty one, King justifies this by expending a fair amount of intellectual and creative energy on developing his characters to the point where they become 'believeable', which lends itself to a convoluted, complex plot moving towards the inevitable Armageddon-esque confrontation between ineffable good and incorrigible evil. 'nuff said. You find out how it ends ...

But, having just written that, I thinik this is King's best work by a wide country mile. A nice, satisfying read.

Summary: A classic piece of storytelling