Stephen King - The Stand

If he has never written a word, Stephen King deserves to be reminded of this fact, his contribution to the "Disaster Novel" genre. (Note: This review refers to the original version of the novel, not the "Special Edition")

It begins innocently enough, with an officer to escape from his base. But he left it too late, and he carries a new disease in the world. Begin to die in the coming months, the people, in small amounts at first, then in the hundreds, thousands andFinally millions.

The survivors, drawn in a very heterogeneous group from all walks of life to find her to make a choice, with the forces of evil in Flagg one of the best fictional villains (in living memory) or personalized to join a "stand" for a good, embodied by Aunt Abigail, an old skinny black woman with a fundamentalist approach to their faith.

Soon all the survivors are strung on one side or the other, and set up the final battle for their future fate is when theMain characters are taking their own "state"

The questions of faith posed by this, and how each of the protagonists make their choices form the moral core of this book, and the rigors of basic research, where the survival of our civilization is the backbone of the plot, but it's the characters that stick in You have done your head long after the reading.

King has always been good in the "land" types, but here he shows a sure hand with such diverse people as a deaf-mute, a rock star,A garage worker, a pregnant teenager and her admirer-from-afar neighbor Harold (a man so slimy you'll like under a shower after reading about him) feel

You feel rapport with these characters and they are soon to celebrate, and the king has managed to inflate into a streak of roles, and prevents play any character.

The book carries a strong moral tone throughout, and sometimes it seems almost biblical in its "fire-and-brimstone" intensity. In typical KingFashion, there are some startling set pieces, the collection of which is in a tunnel, from the dead and decaying bodies that must be navigated without light is full. Not for the squeamish.

Many people were intimidated by the sheer size of this book. On over 1000 pages, it is not read quickly, and in the early chapters, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of the large list of characters. King also seems to take some pleasure in slowing down and looking in great detailon some rather unpleasant deaths from the disease - a super-flu, which results in a particularly chaotic fluid expulsion.

But once Flagg appears and begins insinuating themselves into dreams of the survivors. the tension starts to crank and King knows how to keep you hooked, cheer the good guys with the denoument.

I will not spoil, by its end, but the last "state is" not quite as expected, and has some truly shocking consequences for theProtagonists.

For a jaded horror fan brought up on John Wyndham and John Christopher, this book has revived my interest again in the late 70s years. This was the book that I want to return to the horror, and made me to write it myself.

For that alone it has a lot to answer for.