Horror Novel Month: The Stand by Stephen King

The Stand by Stephen King remains my all-time favorite book. I read the complete and uncut edition in the 1990's, and I remember not being able to get into the book until I was around 600 pages in. After that the book flew by. At times I wonder why I muddled through so many pages without giving up. Lord knows there are other books I've abandoned 100 pages in (though not many). Part of the challenge was there were so many separate stories going on, and until some type of connection existed among some of the characters, I couldn't put the puzzle together. Once the characters knew where they were heading, so did I.

While I consider this book much more post-apocalyptic fantasy than horror, the presence of the ultimate evil bad guy in The Stand gives it a foot in the horror category.

The premise of the story is that the government is working on a human-made biological weapon, a superflu, at a U.S. Army base. The superflu, known as "Project Blue" is released at the base, and a guard and his family escapes thanks to a security malfunction. Since they were already infected, this causes a pandemic that wipes out the majority of the human and animal population.

Those few that survive are called through similiar dreams to go on cross-country journeys where they end up either in Nebraska with Abigail Freemantle, a woman who becomes their spiritual leader that they call Mother Abigail, or in Las Vegas, Nevada with Randall Flagg, an evil man with supernatural powers.

The two groups work to recreate society as they knew it, but they are posed for an ultimate battle of good versus evil.

The Stand was turned into a television mini-series in 1994. Though I didn't care for some of the storyline changes, the superb acting on the part of Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, and others more than made up for the alterations.

I would read this book again if I had the time, but at well over 1,000 pages, it's not a book you tackle when your reading time is already committed.