Make your stand and read this review! (The Stand - Stephen King)

Member Name: charlieuk

Product:	The Stand - Stephen King
Date:	01/03/02 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highly original concept, Superbly written

Disadvantages: Finale marginally disappointing

The premise for this offering from King is that a superflu has supposedly been developed by the US Government - or has it? and is wiping out the population.

Our story begins when a military officer and his family escape from a compound which is about to be locked down - and end their journey crashing through the forecourt pumps of a small garage in a tiny village in Texas.
Yes they are dead, but not from the car wreck. A strange flu-type virus has claimed their lives, and it has unspeakably high communicable levels. A few locals investigate the crash, and the spread begins.

It transpires very quickly that a number of individuals are immune to the virus - I won't spoil the fun but this is a typically brilliant King novel - becoming the ultimate battle between good and evil.

We then commence a journey on paper during which we meet the key players of the apocalyptic struggle, those who have survived the plague.

So many characters are introduced yet King manages to keep it all together, the text flows very easily as the fast paced opening chapters of the book set the scenario and ultimately plot lines start to gel and mesh together, as characters meet, and friends and enemies are drawn. Indeed a less capable novelist may have produced a very disjointed script, but King's style and subject matter is so unique that he effortlessly throws the reader from pillar to post, keeping you hooked on every last word of print.

One of Kings earlier and better efforts, this novel is one book that you will read and delight in the way that he refuses to cut corners and offers the reader so much more by doing so. Indeed the man himself returned to this tome to restore previously cut parts of the novel to produce a more complete work. Do yourself a favour and don't be put off by the size of the text, this really should be top of your list if you have a remote liking of King's style.

Summary: