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.
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.