Just finished it... (SPOILERS)

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alligatoruk

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Jul 13, 2014
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It took me the whole of my week's holiday to read it (I normally read 3 or 4 books in that time!) but I got through it.

I'm in two minds about the book - from what I've seen The Stand seems to be regarded as one of (if not THE) best Stephen King novels but it left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled. Firstly, I must say I read the longer uncut version and that could have been part of the problem because it ended up with the novel feeling like two separate books - the initial one about the characters and how they are affected by "the flu", which I really enjoyed. The destruction the flu caused and then the "journey" that each character went through was really compelling to read. I found the main characters (aside from Frannie, who was a bit annoying) to be interesting and well drawn.

However, when I got to the second part, which was the classic King battle between good and evil, I just didn't enjoy it as much - I felt there was too much exposition and description of dull events (like the committee meetings - yawn). I also felt that the climax didn't really work at all - what was the point of sending Stu, Larry, Ralph and Glen to Las Vegas? They didn't actually do anything - Trashcan would have ended up doing what he was did anyway. I expected at least for them to have some influence on events of finishing off Flagg.

I also thought the endings for both Harold and Nadine were quite weak - Harold was probably the most interesting character in the book (I think I would have preferred some redemption for him to be honest) and yet he died off in quite a boring way - ok this was supposed to show that he was of little interest to Flagg and could be easily gotten rid of when he had served his purpose but from a viewer POV, I think we deserved something more exciting. Same with Nadine - even a minor character like Dayna had a better ending than she did.

Finally, Stu being rescued by both Kojak and Tom was a bit twee - I get that it was supposed to be God's will to keep him alive but I would have preferred it to be Larry, who had actually undergone some kind of change in personality and in his morality. Stu started out as a fairly boring but good guy and ended that way! Having him and Frannie being the only survivors of the main core group was quite disappointing.

The final thing that annoyed me was the left storyline regarding Joe/Leo - it kept hinting at him having some kind of second sight and I thought this might come into play later on but it didn't really go anywhere. If they had perhaps had him be the one who had the vision to get the committee out of the house where Harold's bomb was, that would have made more sense or if Nadine had a moral battle over him in the end (like Flagg had kidnapped him or something and she sacrificed herself to save him)

All that moaning aside, I can't say I didn't enjoy the book, it's just that I found it quite hardgoing in places and from everyone saying it was the best one, I think I expected more from it (it didn't compare to Desperation for instance, which was much more concise and dark and exciting). As above, I liked the first half and I wish he had continued with the more human themes and not gone the way of the supernatural or expanded that side more earlier on, so we could have had a real climatic battle.

In the end, I think adding back in the extra 400 pages was probably detrimental to the pacing of the book. I don't know what parts were actually added back but I could definitely suggest some areas that could have been cut.
 

doowopgirl

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Aug 7, 2009
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The Stand is my all time favorite SK book and it is the same for a lot of people. That said it is flawed and it isn't a favorite with everyone. I always felt sorry for Harold.He could have changed, he just felt he had gone too far. Nadine got what she deserved. The commitee meetings were to get the spirit of community back. IMO. The people that were sent west were a test and to bring attention to the people of LV that things weren't right the way they were. IMO. Mother Abigail always annoyed me and I wasn't surprised that she sinned in pride. To me the extra pages fleshed the book out the way it should have been. I don't know if you read the original version,but there were things that didn't make sense in it. For me, I loved the extra bits of people dying from secondary causes after the flu burned itself out. Anyway, keep posting.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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...I echo 'girls comments, and that's from having read both versions multiple times over the years....also, I don't disagree with some of the OP's feelings...however, I remain a staunch fan of the flu apocalypse....several elements were annoying, and character development was weak at times-but given such a large "cast", it was a damn fine(enormous)effort...
 

alligatoruk

Member
Jul 13, 2014
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The Stand is my all time favorite SK book and it is the same for a lot of people. That said it is flawed and it isn't a favorite with everyone. I always felt sorry for Harold.He could have changed, he just felt he had gone too far. Nadine got what she deserved.
Hmmm, as much as I actually rooted for Harold and felt sorry for him , I think that HE more than Nadine got what he deserved - he made a considered choice to go to the dark side (although in my version, I would've liked Harold be the one who delivers the Nuclear Bomb in a final redemptive (dying) action). Unfortunately for Nadine, it seemed pre-destined that there was no choice for her - she didn't get the Mother Abagail dream and when she eventually gets to Boulder, Abagail doesn't try to reach out to "save" her. Also, she had been a kindly schoolteacher and she tried to look after Joe/Leo but whatever she tries to do, she is plagued by her destiny to end up with Flagg.

The commitee meetings were to get the spirit of community back
I didn't mind the big community meeting, it was the committee ones in private that were boring!

IMO. The people that were sent west were a test and to bring attention to the people of LV that things weren't right the way they were.
I think that part should have been fleshed out more as the final scenes in LV and where they are in front of the MGM are quite rushed after all the build up. I guess it's supposed to be a bluff, so the reader thinks something more will happen involving them, not suspecting the "hand of god" ending but after a 900 page journey to end up there, I felt disappointed. Also, as I enjoyed reading Larry's character development, then him dying for no good (narrative) reason, seemed a shame. For Stu to end up as the 'hero', when he actually did very little, didn't sit very well with me.

To me the extra pages fleshed the book out the way it should have been. I don't know if you read the original version,but there were things that didn't make sense in it. For me, I loved the extra bits of people dying from secondary causes after the flu burned itself out. Anyway, keep posting.
To be honest, I don't know which were the bits that were added - it sounds like it was more regarding the flu and its effects - if that's the case, then I actually enjoyed those parts (at the beginning) but perhaps adding them in and it being good, only served to make the ending look even weaker.

Another thing I would add is that I think they should have brought the dreams in earlier. Having seen the mini-series, I was quite surprised to not get to that part until at least half way through the book. It was at that point I felt the tone changed from being more "reality" to supernatural, which gave it the disjointed feeling.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
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Yikes. I know the book is well read and older. Mayhap a spoiler in the thread title?
My thread title is "just finished it", so no spoilers in the actual title, surely anyone clicking in would know spoilers might be contained in the discussion though?!

No problem, can I change the title somehow to add "spoilers" to it?
I would tend to agree, that anybody entering a book/movie thread entitled "Just finished it" might assume that spoilers will follow. (this is why I didn't add it to the title, or use spoiler buttons in the initial post. But I have now amended the title, just to be sure.)
 

doowopgirl

very avid fan
Aug 7, 2009
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Hmmm, as much as I actually rooted for Harold and felt sorry for him , I think that HE more than Nadine got what he deserved - he made a considered choice to go to the dark side (although in my version, I would've liked Harold be the one who delivers the Nuclear Bomb in a final redemptive (dying) action). Unfortunately for Nadine, it seemed pre-destined that there was no choice for her - she didn't get the Mother Abagail dream and when she eventually gets to Boulder, Abagail doesn't try to reach out to "save" her. Also, she had been a kindly schoolteacher and she tried to look after Joe/Leo but whatever she tries to do, she is plagued by her destiny to end up with Flagg.

I didn't mind the big community meeting, it was the committee ones in private that were boring!

I think that part should have been fleshed out more as the final scenes in LV and where they are in front of the MGM are quite rushed after all the build up. I guess it's supposed to be a bluff, so the reader thinks something more will happen involving them, not suspecting the "hand of god" ending but after a 900 page journey to end up there, I felt disappointed. Also, as I enjoyed reading Larry's character development, then him dying for no good (narrative) reason, seemed a shame. For Stu to end up as the 'hero', when he actually did very little, didn't sit very well with me.

To be honest, I don't know which were the bits that were added - it sounds like it was more regarding the flu and its effects - if that's the case, then I actually enjoyed those parts (at the beginning) but perhaps adding them in and it being good, only served to make the ending look even weaker.

Another thing I would add is that I think they should have brought the dreams in earlier. Having seen the mini-series, I was quite surprised to not get to that part until at least half way through the book. It was at that point I felt the tone changed from being more "reality" to supernatural, which gave it the disjointed feeling.
For me the mini series was terrible. Disjointed and confusing. Terrible casting. IMO Stu didn't end up a hero, just a survivor. The others were a sacrifice. No narrative reason needed. Perhaps the LV scenes could have been fleshed out a bit, but there we part company. Each to their own.
 
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Sunlight Gardener

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Jul 22, 2013
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You summed up my feelings on the book almost exactly. First half with the flu, the immediate aftermath, each character's initial story, their journey to find others......riveting. Once that part is over and the flu becomes a complete afterthought in the mystical battle of good and evil I lose all interest. It's almost as if the flu is the main character in the story to me. Once it's all but erased from the story, I don't seem to care what happens all that much.
 
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Pucker

We all have it coming, kid
May 9, 2010
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There is a lot in the original post with which I agree.

Poor Frannie. She just can't catch a break. But I'll say this about her:

If I met someone like Frannie in real life I would not like her much, but as a character in a story she serves a very useful purpose (and after much thought, I've come to the conclusion that this is true of Stu Redman as well). Frannie is selfish. Jess is perfectly fine for fooling around with, but he won't cut it as a father for her baby. Harold is clever and seems to care, but Frannie can't wait to get out from under his "protective" thumb and does so the first time another man (any other man) shows up. I have no doubt that -- had the opportunity arisen -- she would have thrown Stu over as well, if somebody "better" had presented himself.

As for the sacrifice of the three pilgrims, it should be noted that the sacrifice itself is not what's important, but the pilgrims' willingness to trust Mother Abigails "killer god" (Frannie's words).

I could have done without a lot of the committee stuff, too, but there is some wonderful irony in the Free Zoners deciding that partisan politics should be one of the first things "brought back."

I liked Harold a lot, too, and while I don't know that I was necessarily looking for "redemption" for him, I wonder if maybe some kind of confrontation might have been better than simply dumping him over the guardrail. As for Nadine, I didn't think the payoff was all that great, given the build-up, but you could argue that Flagg is actually defeated when he throws Nadine off the roof (else, why is she so important?), and the rest of it is just "clean-up."

I don't know.

It's a great story, and I can live with a few annoyances in service to the greater good. Sure, there's a lot in the unabridged edition that we could do without . . . but then you don't get to meet The Kid, and just think how empty your life would be.

; )
 
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OldDarth

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Interesting perspectives. While the first half is definitely sexier and more fun to read - seeing people make the same decisions and mistakes over again that led to the creation of Cap'n Trips in the first place - make the second half a compelling horrific read for me.
 
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RichardX

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Sep 26, 2006
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I've been reading a lot of Robert McCammon recently including Swan Song, which is his equivalent to the Stand, and enjoy his books a lot. But they suffer from the same repetitive problem as King. In the end there always has to be the predictable trip to Dracula's castle for the showdown between the good and bad guys. You can see it coming from page one. The ending of The Stand was particularly disappointing because God could have saved everyone a lot of time by stepping in much earlier and saving the day. I'm not sure what the alternative is but it gets old. My other increasing plot annoyance is THE IMPROBABLE COINCIDENCE but that is for another day.
 
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