"The Stand" by Stephen King

I really liked The Stand at 800 pages.

Some things about the movie were really good. Matt Frewer as Trash Can Man. Gary Sinise. Kareem Abdul Jabaar as the 7-foot-tall, crazy street preacher predicting the end of the world in NYC. Even Rob Lowe was good.

But the best thing in the movie was the opening credits. A slow, endless pan through lab after lab full of dead people, scored by Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper." What a stunning, creepy, atmospheric start.

By the way, King quoted that song's lyrics in his novel.

I loved the first third, when everybody was dying, the world was falling apart, and the survivors had to band together.

The middle third -- I thought -- sucked. Too much on how to structure a society. I almost put it down. It read preachy and I wanted them to all die so the story would get moving again.

The last third, I liked.

Still, I'm not going to read it again.

I only read it once when I was 14 and I liked it better than the mini series.

Love it. My second favourite novel of all time. The first being Lonesome Dove by Larry Larry McMurtry.

I own it in hardcover, paperback and ebook.

Sarpedon said:

There was the 'magical black woman' cliche

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Stephen King is bad about this. There's a magical negro
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro) in The Stand and The Green Mile, too.

I liked The Stand, but it's overhyped IMO. Desperation is my personal favorite.

Loved it, one of my favorite King novels. The movie, not so much. I though it was really cool and scary the first time I saw it. Recently saw it again, and I was bored. It was pretty corny in spots.

I for one prefer his novels. Most of his short stories don't do it for me.

I was 18 when the first version came out. Forked over hard earned money for the hard back. Read parts of it under the influence of recreational psychedelics. Yeah! Bought the paperback a year later and read it to shreds. Bought the complete uncut in hardback when it came out. Read that. Bought the complete uncut a year later in paperback which sat on my bookshelf for seventeen years. So early this summer, thirty years older, I tried reading this behemoth. Just. Couldn't. Do it. WAY too much Larry Underwood. I mean, way too much. Started skipping entire pages of Larry Underwood. I Didn't even make it to Boulder. Book is now packed up in a box. That's one less book that I plan to reread in this lifetime.

Love the TV movie though. Watch it once a year. Always got time for a trip to Boulder with Mother Abigail. M-O-O-N, that spells Boulder.

Satori1977 said:

Loved it, one of my favorite King novels. The movie, not so much. I though it was really cool and scary the first time I saw it. Recently saw it again, and I was bored. It was pretty corny in spots.

I for one prefer his novels. Most of his short stories don't do it for me.

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Did you ever read his story story called 1408? About a haunted hotel room? That one's worth a look. Very, very spooky.