A warning to all Scientists (The Stand - Stephen King)

Member Name: cjkace

Product:	The Stand - Stephen King
Date:	18/05/01 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliantly realistic, scary because of its realism

Disadvantages: Time consuming read

Before I became devoted to books in the fantasy genre, I was hooked on horror fiction, with Stephen King being the master in this field. In fact it was due to Stephen King that I took up reading fantasy fiction in the first place, when I read Eyes of the Dragon, a fairy story that he wrote for his children. I have read all of King's novels upto and including Insomnia, but the one that I believe stands head and shoulders above all is The Stand.

To put it simply, this book is about the battle between Good and Evil, at a time when the world has been devastated by mankind's own stupidity. The basic premise is that in a secret facility in the USA, scientists have been messing around with bacteria and virii, and unwittingly create a super-flu, which manages to be released into the wild. Because of the germs very nature, it cannot be cured and quickly devastates the world's population, with only a few people surviving, due to their natural immunity to the disease.

As they struggle to survive in this new post apocalyptic world they begin to have strange dreams, some about a dark menacing man (Randall Flagg - the Walking Dude), others about a gentle elderly black woman (Mother Abigail). This sees the survivors journeying across the United States to the camps of one or the other dependant upon what dream they had, before ultimately the two parties must settle it, with either good or evil triumphing.

That's the story in a nutshell, but to truly do justice to this epic would take up pages upon pages, just in this opinion, which I won't do. The way King writes makes you believe that the scenario is quite possible, and in some cases very probable. We all know that scientists are continually messing around with things better left alone (nuclear weapons, germ warfare, genetic engineering etc) and that is what makes this story so frightening. It is very believable (apart from the Good and Evil war).

Some readers have compl
ained that very little is mentioned about what is happening in other parts of the world, as The Stand is based firmly on US soil, but there would have been no way to describe other country's goings on, as all communication has been destroyed (or at least the operators have). The novel was later made into a TV serial of over 8 hours, but as with nearly all of King's work they do not transfer to the screen very well, due to his brilliant character writing.

Even if you have never read a Stephen King novel (or would want to) I recommend that you read this epic, but leave aside a couple of days as it is very long and very engrossing, and if it doesn't send a chill down your spine, then quite simply you don't have any imagination.

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