When I saw that there was a book by Stephen King on the Top 100 Reads list, I was slightly concerned. I associate him with horror, and that's not a genre of book that I would ever choose to read after scaring myself silly reading some James Herbert novels in my youth. However, within a couple of minutes of starting The Stand in audio format, I was hooked. It is an action-packed thriller ( I think dark thriller, rather than full on horror) which has incredibly deep themes - life, death, good, evil and the frailties of humanity. Disaster befalls the world when a deadly man-made super flu is accidentally released into the atmosphere. What follows is a nightmare of cataclysmic proportions - with a 99% infection-rate, with nobody surviving once infected - within a few short weeks, the population of the USA (in which the book is based) is devastated. You cannot get comfortable - victims of the flu are introduced and bumped off in quick succession. Finally, we start to get to know a few people who seem to be immune - Stu Redman, Larry Underwood, Fran Goldsmith and to name a few. They are spread all over the country, and have watched all those around them die a horrible death. Society completely breaks down - there is no-one left to keep the power on or to keep the water supplies clean! Apart from their immunity, the survivors start to experience the same dreams. One features a kindly old lady sitting on her porch playing her guitar, and the other features a shadowy, faceless, threatening figure - variously known as the dark man, or the walking dude. Those who feel the pull of the old woman (Mother Abigail) and her inherent goodness, start to travel to where she lives, pick her up and end up in Boulder where they try to form a new community of survivors. Those who feel the pull of the dark man congregate in Las Vegas and also start to organise themselves into a community. On the surface, the two might look similar, but life in Vegas is full of fear, mistrust and painful deaths. The Boulder community feel that the dark man is gathering his forces on the other side of the Rockies and will bring destruction to them sooner or later - and start to realise that they must make a stand, and try to put a stop to the tide of evil that threates to overwhelm them. This is a book that will keep you guessing and it is hard to know who will ultimately triumph. Relentless and exhausting at times, this is ultimately a very satisfying read ... all 47 hours and 47 minutes if it!
My STAR rating: FIVE.
Length: 1344 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; ebook.
You deserve a medal for lasting the distance ... 47 hours! Think I'll wait for the film, though it does sound a great read ... I wonder if Audible have done an abridged version ;)
ReplyDeleteThat does sounds exciting and tense - end of society as we know it is quite a common theme for writers and movie makers with mixed results. I would have been wary of Stephen King but this sounds good.
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