One of his best (The Stand - Stephen King)

Member Name: roger_smith

Product:	The Stand - Stephen King
Date:	21/02/01 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: exciting and gripping

Disadvantages: Too many characters at the start

I couldn't help but think about "Captain Trips" and Stephen King's The Stand as we approached the year 2000. All the "doom and gloom" of Y2K made me think about King's prediction of the end of the world. Once you've read The Stand you will never think of the end of the world in any other way. You will become paranoid during cold and flu season, too!

There are some very colourful and memorable characters in this book. Of course, Mother Abigail and The Dark Man represent the good and evil of mankind. The Dark Man is very scary, he has eyes that glow red in the dark, and he can change himself into animals (his favorites being wolves and ravens). He has a powerful and evil hold over his people. Mother Abigail is also a timeless soul; she has been around for 108 years. She has a maternal nature, the wisdom of her years, and a belief that good can defeat evil, on her side.

There is Nadine and Harold who team up and create a lot of stress and chaos for the other characters. They go with the "good" people, but their allegiance lies elsewhere. Stuart Redman, who is one of the first characters introduced, is from a small town in Texas. He is a simple, small town man, who has wisdom and strength of his own. He has a calming effect and is a leader of the "good" people. There are criminals and psychopaths like Lloyd Henreid and The Trashcan Man who are entertaining in an evil sort of way. There are characters who may not have lived a life of virtue, like Larry Underwood who was a cocaine-sniffing rock star, but the good in him prevails.

And two of my favorite characters are Nick and Tom. Nick is a deaf-mute and can only communicate by writing on paper. Tom is a retarded young adult. The two characters hook-up on their journey to Nebraska to meet Mother Abigail. Nick takes Tom under his wing and tries to protect him. The relationship is very endearing and sometimes comical. Nick has alway
s had trouble communicating with the speaking world, but his patience is really tested trying to communicate with someone who has an I.Q. of about 80, and cannot read. The only word Tom knows how to spell is "moon", and that is how he spells everything; throughout the book he says things like, "M-O-O-N spells Tom!".

This book was very suspenseful and thought provoking. King used one of the most common themes, good versus evil, but put a spin on it that only he can do. The only bad thing I can say about it is that in the beginning there were so many characters to get to know and keep up with. The first 150 pages or so, I had to go back and re-read some of the character introductions to keep them straight. But by page 300, I felt that I knew them all personally.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has not read it, unless you are squeamish. True to King's style of horror, there are definitely some tense and morbid moments. I have read all of King's books, and this one is by far my most favorite.

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