M-o-o-n. That spells a pretty good book. (The Stand - Stephen King)

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Product:	The Stand - Stephen King
Date:	07/03/01 (93 review reads)
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Advantages: A good story and well written characters make for what might be King's best work to date.

Disadvantages: The uncut version drags on for way too long.

An experimental and deadly virus has been accidentally released in a military compound. Attempts to contain the virus within the compound are thwarted by a lone soldier who sneaks himself and his family out. Little does that soldier know, but he just opened a big ol' can of whoop ass on the world.

Soon the virus affectionately known as Captain Trips has killed more than 90% of the population. The obligatory looting and mass religious hysteria go along with the rash of deaths. The military turns the nation into a police state, killing any one who tries to inform the people that something is wrong. Let's see, I can't stop coughing, my skin is turning black and my leg just fell off. I'd better turn on the radio to see what happened.

Once the virus has run its course, the survivors are faced with trying to re-establish some form of society. These survivors are our main characters.

Larry is a one-hit wonder singer whose chart topper becomes something of a running joke for King. He has various characters singing the catchy tune, not knowing the ditty's originator is standing among them. Larry has lived a hard life and lost his mother to Captain Trips. He leaves his home in New York and starts looking for other people.

Stu Redman is your basic blue-collar, red-blooded Texan (are there any other kind?). He and his friends are among the first people to encounter the soldier and his family, now near death as a result of the virus they have unleashed onto the world. When Redman does not go the way of the dodo like his friends, he is imprisoned at a research facility by the military who believes he might have the key to a vaccine. Those hopes are fruitless and after everyone else at the facility is dead, Stu also goes out in search of people like him.

Nick is a hearing impaired young man who makes up for his lack of hearing with smarts and guts. Tom Cullen is the mildly retarded man who befriends Nick. Togeth
er they cancel out each other's weaknesses and the bond they form is one of the more endearing parts of the book.

Nick, Tom, Larry and Stu are all being drawn to the same place. They and every other survivor are sharing the same vision. There is an old woman named Mother Abigail who is sitting on the porch of a rundown home somewhere in Nebraska. She is calling out to each of the survivors to come to her. No one knows why they must make the trip to Nebraska, but everyone is looking for the same thing; guidance.

Once people begin to reach Mother Abigail, she shares her plan. The survivors are to travel to the mountains of Colorado. There they will form a colony and attempt to re-establish the world that has died all around them. Once there power is turned back on. Homes are cleaned and repaired. The dead are cleared from the streets and given burial. A system of government is set up with Stu, Nick and Larry among the leaders.

All is not well though. Mother Abigail is not the only one calling people to her side. Further west a dark man is assembling those who are not pure of heart. He seeks out the people who have been rejected by society but have now outlived it. Randall Flagg is the devil incarnate and his plan calls for the extermination of Mother Abigail and her people.

Stephen King really shows off his talent here. He is able to piece together a large number of characters and tell a story from a variety of angles. The story is complex, but not difficult to understand. The characters are well developed and none of them is superficial. This novel almost reads like it was written by Tom Wolfe, on some strong acid.

Mother Abigail knows it is foolish to wait for Flagg and his people to make a move. A small group is sent into the desert to take the fight to Flagg's doorstep. Stu and Larry are among those who go out into the desert with the fate of the colony in their hands.

Now this being a Stephen Kin
g novel; it is reasonable to guess that there will be a happy ending, but not too happy. Not all of our characters will return home. Those who are lost will not go quietly either. The only questions are who will be lost and will their loss be completely in vain.

The first time I read this book I read the uncut version. Hard-core King fans will probably love the 500 extra pages. More casual readers should consider themselves warned. These extra chapters can be painfully slow, and could kill your interest in the book just when it starts to get really good.

The most notable of these extra pages is the chapter about Trashcan Man. Trashy is a follower of Flagg and really an interesting chap. He just can't seem to avoid setting fire to things. At one point he burns down an entire abandoned city. However, the chapter deals too heavily with his childhood fascination with fire. It really slows down the story and is right in the middle of the book, where it would be more prudent to speed things up than take them down a notch. I highly recommend reading this book, but one might want to find an edited copy.

There is a movie version of this book. It was shot as a TV miniseries and stars Gary Sinise as Stu and Rob Lowe as Nick. Unlike most other Stephen King book movies, this one is quite good. It is definitely worth a look if one has the time.

If the story interests you there are a brace of books with similar plots. Michael Crichton wrote "The Andromeda Strain" which is not nearly as good as King's work. More interesting is the novel by George Stewart, "Earth Abides." First published in 1971, it is the story of one man who believes himself to be the only man left on Earth. It is his struggles to get by in a human-free world and might have provided inspiration for Stephen King's own work. This one is worth your time.

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