"The Stand" by Stephen King

atwistedmind

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Anybody else read this (I ask this as if no one has)? i'm about half way through it, and man, this is a piece of work. I mean, i knew Mr. King enjoyed killing off a lot of characters in his book, but never would i have expected him to kill of 20 people in a matter of 3 pages! ("No Great Loss")
 

atwistedmind

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The movie is nothing like the book, Lords no! i've seen it, but the movie never caught my attention as much as the book did!
its great! (M-O-O-N thats spells Great!)
 

Grrarrgh

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I agree with Twistedmind. The book is fantastic; the movie not so much. There was just so much that had to be left out of it. Plus I really thought that a lot of the movie characters were awful. I hated the guy that played Randall Flag. He was so chilling in the book and just a cartoon in the movie. The movie had to cut the entire character of The Kid, who was one of the most entertaining in the whole work.

I admit that I'm biased; I'm usually disappointed by movies made from books. I tend to get really attached to the characters as I read them and envision them and the movies are just never right. Maybe if I start envisioning every character I read as an actual actor it would help. ;)
 

Cranky

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I'm with the other two.

And Molly Ringwald as Frannie? They couldn't have done much worse, I don't think. Zero chemistry between her and Gary Sinese, too, if ya ask me.

The book? Rawks. I read it at least once a year. :D
 

atwistedmind

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I agree with Twistedmind. The book is fantastic; the movie not so much. There was just so much that had to be left out of it. Plus I really thought that a lot of the movie characters were awful. I hated the guy that played Randall Flag. He was so chilling in the book and just a cartoon in the movie. The movie had to cut the entire character of The Kid, who was one of the most entertaining in the whole work.

I admit that I'm biased; I'm usually disappointed by movies made from books. I tend to get really attached to the characters as I read them and envision them and the movies are just never right. Maybe if I start envisioning every character I read as an actual actor it would help. ;)

lol, well, i'm not saying that the movie sucked, it mean, it was good. but the book, Sweet Flippin Jesus! If i could write something as good as that, i would sell my left nut.
Honestly, its the best thing i've read since, well... nothing actually. ("Cell" also by Stephen King, is a close contender, but The Stand blows it away by miles)
 

MaryMumsy

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I actually own two copies, the way it was originally released and the 'director's cut' which came out several years later. The publisher made him shorten it the first time. And then later, when he was LOTS more famous, they published the version he had originally wanted. I read it again every couple of years.

MM
 

sheadakota

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The Stand is, by far the best book i have ever read or probably ever will read- period.
 

childeroland

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If you think he's killed a lot of people at the point you've reached, wait till... Well, just keep reading.
 

ChaosTitan

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This is definitely one of my favorite King novels. I read it after I'd seen the miniseries, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of the novel. It's a fabulous read.

Re: the 20 people dead in 3 pages. I think he may have mentioned it in "On Writing," but King very nearly didn't finish this book. He'd reached the midpoint and was so frustrated by his huge cast of characters and their intersecting storylines that he tossed the book into a drawer. It occurred to him several months later that the best way to continue the main storylines and actually finish the book was to thin out the cast.
 

atwistedmind

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This is definitely one of my favorite King novels. I read it after I'd seen the miniseries, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of the novel. It's a fabulous read.

Re: the 20 people dead in 3 pages. I think he may have mentioned it in "On Writing," but King very nearly didn't finish this book. He'd reached the midpoint and was so frustrated by his huge cast of characters and their intersecting storylines that he tossed the book into a drawer. It occurred to him several months later that the best way to continue the main storylines and actually finish the book was to thin out the cast.
I read "On Writing", but i may have over looked that part :|

But yah, i can see why he would be frustrated, i'm utterly flabbergasted by the number of characters introduced every other chapter
 

Cranky

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Naw, Chaos, it's in there. I remember that part distinctly, because I remember wondering if the same approach would get me out of the sticky wicket I was in with my own book at the time.

Unfortunately, my cast of characters was too small to pull it off, lol. Also, he mentions that he came up with the idea while he was walking, and how that habit would come back to bite him later...tying that in with the accident that he was in that almost killed him.
 

childeroland

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Are you reading the original version or the uncut one?
 
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I've tried to read this several times. Just couldn't do it.

I think I'll put it on my list of books by which I refuse to be beaten. (The others being LotR, War and Peace and the Bible).
 

Susan Breen

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This is my favorite work by Stephen King and I've reread it a bunch of times. I'm surprised no one has remade the movie. I thought the old one was okay, but it could be great.
 

regdog

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I read this one and loved it. I'm not a big Stephen King fan but this one was excellent, movie ehh. And I completely agree with the bad casting call.

There is a similair book, Swan Song that uses nuclear war as the way most of the world is killed off and how the survivors battle each other in good vs. evil
 

kristie911

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I read this book at least once a year. It's my favorite book ever. Every time I read it, I find something new, it's amazing.

The movie? Meh. Not great.
 

josephwise

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This was the first King novel I read after being delighted by his short stories in Skeleton Crew and Night Shift. I was sorely disappointed in The Stand. It struck me as dull and utterly uninspired, compared to tales like The Jaunt, or One for the Road.

To this day I've not read a King novel that even remotely lived up to the promises made by his short stories. It seemed to me, he couldn't bring a relevant ending to anything over 150 pages? Or maybe his novels just aren't my style.

I've always wondered...are there two distinct types of King fans? Fans of his short fiction vs. fans of his novels?
 

ChaosTitan

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I'm an equal-opportunity King reader. I love his novels and shorts equally.

That said, I mostly read novels, so dipping into King's short story collections is a rare deviation for me.
 

atwistedmind

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This was the first King novel I read after being delighted by his short stories in Skeleton Crew and Night Shift. I was sorely disappointed in The Stand. It struck me as dull and utterly uninspired, compared to tales like The Jaunt, or One for the Road.

To this day I've not read a King novel that even remotely lived up to the promises made by his short stories. It seemed to me, he couldn't bring a relevant ending to anything over 150 pages? Or maybe his novels just aren't my style.

I've always wondered...are there two distinct types of King fans? Fans of his short fiction vs. fans of his novels?
GAH! BLASPHEMY! lol

yah, probably just not your style