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Stephen King

The Stand 01 Edition, Kindle Edition

by Stephen King (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

18,645 ratings

Part of: Signet (63 books)

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Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by virus and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.

Soon to be a television series.

'THE STAND is a masterpiece' (Guardian). Set in a virus-decimated US, King's thrilling American fantasy epic, is a Classic.

First come the days of the virus. Then come the dreams.

Dark dreams that warn of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil.

His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms.

When a man crashes his car into a petrol station, he brings with him the foul corpses of his wife and daughter. He dies and it doesn't take long for the virus which killed him to spread across America and the world.

ISBN-13

978-1444720730
Edition

1st
Publisher

Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date

11 Dec. 2008
Language

English
File size

4487 KB
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Product description

From the Back Cover

The tie-in edition of the nine-part CBS All Access series starring Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgard, and James Marsden. When a man escapes from a biological testing facility, he sets in motion a deadly domino effect, spreading a mutated strain of the flu that will wipe out 99 percent of humanity within a few weeks. The survivors who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge--Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them--and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Amazon Review

In 1978, science fiction writer Spider Robinson wrote a scathing review of The Stand in which he exhorted his readers to grab strangers in bookshops and beg them not to buy it.

The Stand is like that. You either love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it. Stephen King's most popular book, according to polls of his fans, is an end-of-the-world scenario: a rapidly mutating flu virus is accidentally released from a U.S. military facility and wipes out 99 and 44/100 percent of the world's population, thus setting the stage for an apocalyptic confrontation between Good and Evil.

"I love to burn things up," King says. "It's the werewolf in me, I guess.... The Stand was particularly fulfilling, because there I got a chance to scrub the whole human race, and man, it was fun! ... Much of the compulsive, driven feeling I had while I worked on The Stand came from the vicarious thrill of imagining an entire entrenched social order destroyed in one stroke."

There is much to admire in The Stand: the vivid thumbnail sketches with which King populates a whole landscape with dozens of believable characters; the deep sense of nostalgia for things left behind; the way it subverts our sense of reality by showing us a world we find familiar, then flipping it over to reveal the darkness underneath. Anyone who wants to know, or claims to know, the heart of the American experience needs to read this book. --Fiona Webster --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Synopsis

When a man crashes his car into a petrol station, just north of Arnette, he brings with him the foul corpses of his wife and daughter. He dies and it doesn't take long for the plague which killed him to spread across America and the world. Material edited out of the first edition is restored here. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Stephen King is the bestselling author of more than fifty books. His novels include Carrie, The Shining and Revival. His novel Under the Dome is now a major TV series. His novel 11.22.63 won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller as well as the Best Hardcover Book Award from the International Thriller Writers Association. Many of his books have been turned into celebrated films including Misery, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Over the years, King has had various cameo roles in film adaptations of his books as well as playing rhythm guitar in the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock and roll band made up of some of America's bestselling and best-loved writers He was the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives with his wife, novelist Tabitha King, in Maine, USA. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Book Description

Reissue of the international bestseller in the dramatic new graphic cover style of No. 1 bestseller, CELL

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

The Times

‘As a storyteller, he is up there in the Dickens class' --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

The Sunday Times

‘A writer of excellence...King is one of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel' --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

First came the days of the plague. Then came the dreams.

Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil.

His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms.

When a man crashes his car into a petrol station, he brings with him the foul corpses of his wife and daughter. He dies and it doesn't take long for the plague which killed him to spread across America and the world. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

The Times

‘As a storyteller, he is up there in the Dickens class’ --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

A master storyteller.
--Los Angeles Times

[The Stand] has everything. Adventure. Romance. Prophecy. Allegory. Satire. Fantasy. Realism. Apocalypse. Great!
--The New York Times Book Review

As brilliant a dark dream as has ever been dreamed in this century.
--Palm Beach Post

"An undisputed master of suspense and terror."
--The Washington Post

"King is one of the most powerful storytellers we have. His work satisfies on first reading and is even better the second time around."
--Chicago Tribune

"Crackling . . . with explosive climaxes."
--The Boston Globe

"[For] those who like their horror on a humongous scale."
--Los Angeles Times

"Peerless imagination."
--The Observer (London)
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Observer

‘His work…plumbs, with unnerving accuracy, the hopes and fears of an entire nation’ --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Stephen King The Stand Cell IT Sleeping Beauties Under the Dome Dreamcatcher Needful Things

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0037TPMP4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder & Stoughton; 1st edition (11 Dec. 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4487 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 1348 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 4,700 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 6 in Horror Fiction Classics
- 8 in Classic Horror
- 23 in Ghost Horror

Customer reviews:
18,645 ratings

About the author

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Stephen King

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Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King's books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald's Game and It.

King was the recipient of America's prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.

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Customer reviews

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3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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Bill

The best End of World Post apocalyptic novel of the genre

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2019

Verified Purchase

This is the #1 bestseller in th Post Apocalyptic genre. I read this book when it came out in 1979, and have read it every 3 to 5 years since. You may ask, why leave a review now, well Amazon wasnt about then, think I bought it in WH Smith. Then I bought and read the complete and uncut edition. And the Audible edition a couple of years ago. I simply love this story, as do millions of others who love the PA genre .

So as regards a review, I'm going to rip off the synopsis from Stephen king.com

One man escapes from a biological weapon facility after an accident, carrying with him the deadly virus known as Captain Tripps, a rapidly mutating flu that - in the ensuing weeks - wipes out most of the world's population. In the aftermath, survivors choose between following an elderly black woman to Boulder or the dark man, Randall Flagg, who has set up his command post in Las Vegas. The two factions prepare for a confrontation between the forces of good and evil

Go ahead and read it, if you like it, welcome to the throng of millions who also like it.

If you dont like it, well - maybe the best in the genre is not for you, try Swan Song by Robert R McCammon, similiar plot , characters and timeframe, or Earth Abides by George R Stewart written in 1948 - a gentler take on the theme .

Sorry, why am I writing a review now, borrowed out my dog eared copy of the complete and uncut edition to God knows who, was enraptured to learn the Kindle version is that version, so my 15th and subsequent rereads will be on my Kindle from now on.

82 people found this helpful

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King's best book and my favourite of all time.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 December 2017

Verified Purchase

If you know Stephen King then you know what you are in for with this, in my view his stand out piece of work. Lots of reviews criticise the first part of the book as taking too long to develop but I don't agree. I've never read 1400 pages so quickly and I think the extra detail he puts in over the original version only adds to the colour and texture of the storytelling.

The book tells the story of the end of the human race as we know it, brought about by a deadly flu strain, developed by the US military. The social science is a bit simplistic but the quality of the storytelling and character development are both excellent.

53 people found this helpful

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Simon Edwards

M-O-O-N, that spells epic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 June 2020

Verified Purchase

Back in 1978, Stephen King was well on his way to becoming the biggest selling author of all time. On the back of three great classics that were Carrie (1974), ‘Salem’s Lot (1975) and The Shining (1977), King had already established himself as the Master of Horror, a title to which, even today, he has become a bit tired with. He had now hit the big time, didn’t need to worry about money or work again – he had achieved his lifelong dream (becoming a full time writer). The Shining had become his first bestselling hardcover novel, perhaps influenced by the fact that Brian DE Palma’s 1976 adaptation of Carrie had become a box office success, allowing audiences to discover King in a new medium that they might not have done so had it not been for the movie.

His first three published novels had been hard-core horror novels, all three contemplating his status as the King of Horror. King’s next novel would be a change of pace. It would still include elements of the horror genre, a genre in which he had spent his entire life surrounded by, even as a child, but his next novel would also have elements of science fiction and would actually become a sociological look at the human race. But first, he would have to kill them all.

On the heels of the Shining, King had been inspired by the Patty Hearst case (a case that involved both kidnapping and terrorism), to write a novel surrounding these events, but not long into the novel, he gave up, after having seen on the news, a chemical spill that had happened in Utah. Not long after this, King’s mind started working overtime and he came up with a novel about something similar that would wipe out the human race, allowing only a few remaining characters to be left behind and deal with the tragic events that had been enforced upon them. Wanting to write an epic on par with Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, King went about creating a vast landscape in which he left nothing out, allowed nothing to bypass the story – this would become the ultimate epic novel.

The Stand begins with this primary thought. The basic premise of the novel is that a government research facility, after having spent time creating a super flu bug (Captain Trips as it is known in the novel) to be used in biological warfare, is accidently released on to the base. Everybody dies except for one man, Charles Campion, a security guard, who grabs his family and evacuates that base, heading across Northern America, unaware that he has the flu like virus, infecting everyone he comes into contact to. So King weaves out his tale, introducing us to a multitude of characters, some good, some bad, showing us the effects of Campion’s actions, watching minor characters contract the flu, watching them suffer through the eyes of our main characters, all of diverse backgrounds. King is clever in letting us see how the virus takes hold, how it acts as a chain mail across all of America, letting us get to know the characters, watch the human race become extinguished through their eyes, letting us see their pain, letting us get attached to them so that we can go on the journey that they will inevitably have to take.

King is a genius at creating a wide variety of characters, and not since Dickens, has any writer ever managed to capture a whole society of characters that all can be identified by the reader. Of the good, there is Stu Redman (an everyman from East Texas, the main character pretty much of this large epic), Fran Goldsmith (a young pregnant girl from Maine, who becomes one of the main heroines of the piece), Larry Underwood (a singer from New York), Nick Andros (a deaf mute who passes through Shoyo, Arkansas), Glenn Bateman (a retired college professor that taught sociology and is one of the characters that King uses to speak his own thoughts on society and bring about theories of what will likely happen now that over 99% of the world’s population is dead), Tom Cullen (a man who is more like a boy due to a very low IQ. He develops a great relationship with Nick, learning new things through Nick’s teaching. He spells every word M-O-O-N), Ralph Bretner (a farmer who always seems to see the lightness in everything, never thinking himself superior to anyone, he ends up becoming one of the main heroes of the peace) and Mother Abigail (a 108 year old from Nebraska, who still makes her own biscuit. The main characters dream of her, using her as a guiding force of help along the way. She is a prophet of God and for a short while leads them until letting them make it on their own). There are also plenty of main characters who are on the side of evil: Lloyd Henried (a killer/robber who ends up in prison as Captain Trips spreads across America, being left to die until he is saved by his new leader), Harold Lauder (a friend of Fran’s. Before the flu hit, Harold was the butt of jokes, hated by everyone, even his own parents. He has a crush on Fran and loves her, and becomes jealous and full of hate when she revokes this love and ends up with another of the main characters instead), Nadine Cross (a school teacher who has visions of the Dark Man, visions that they would become lovers and eventually married. She loves Larry also, but can’t allow herself to act upon this love as her heart and mind belongs to the Dark Man), the Trashcan Man (a psychopath who has developed an obsession of burning everything in his path. He is one of King’s most interesting and memorable characters. His loyalty to the Dark Man knows no bounds “my life for you”, yet he ends up becoming something of an anti-hero), Randall Flagg (the Dark Man, the Prince of Evil, the antithesis of Mother Abigail, he is gathering his troops to Las Vegas and trying to create an army that will eventually wipe out those that stand against him. He is one of the greatest villains in the King universe and has appeared in more than one of his novels).

Had this been a book written by any other writer, the premise of the novel would probably have been the characters get together, stand against the Dark Man and his minions and save the day. But this is a King novel, a novel of epic proportions. We don’t just see the Stand that will ultimately take place, we see a large cast of characters coming together, creating a new world together, creating a new life together and King shows every single point of this. The world building in this novel is fantastic, on par with the greatest of fantasy novels (including Tolkien). You really get to know the characters, to love them and hate them, feeling like they have become a part of your family. You feel enriched by them, allowing yourself to be taken on this journey with them, fighting for your own survival as well as theirs.

When King first wrote this back in 1978 and sent it to his publishers, they were shocked by the size and scope of the novel. They replied back to him, saying they would have to cut the book by about four hundred pages in order to sell it. King was distraught by this, but as he was still establishing himself as a bestselling writer, he felt he had no choice but to succumb to Doubleday’s wishes and so he himself cut over four hundred pages out of the book, missing out a lot of what made the book very important. The Stand was eventually published in 1978 and quickly went on to become King’s masterpiece, the book all fans seemed to love and say was his best. King has actually gone on record as saying “to some fans, I could have written nothing after The Stand, and they wouldn’t have cared.”

Fast forward to 1991 – King was toying around with the idea of releasing The Stand as it was originally intended. After receiving permission from Doubleday to go ahead with this idea, King began working on an updated version of The Stand, changing the premise of the book from the late seventies into the early nineties, including new background like HIV/Aids, changing the sociological background of the characters, without allowing them to change in anyway. As he says in his forward to the new version, “you won’t find the characters behaving any differently or going down roads and on journeys that they never went on before”. It was the same story but it was bigger and it was allowed to become complete. And so The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition was released in 1991 and this is the version fans say is the one to read. Not having read the original edition, I can only go on hearsay that this is the version that is far superior and much more enjoyable. This is the one I have read four times.

Is The Stand King’s greatest book? In my opinion, it isn’t. As far as I’m concerned, King would go on to write even greater books, but this is definitely one of his most memorable, most exciting works. It is also, along with The Dark Tower series, the one book that seems to have a lot of fans in such diverse thought – some say it is a book that is a work of genius, an epic masterpiece that flows high on every level (I am of this thought) and some say it is too long, not worth the hype, boring and they couldn’t get through it. Whatever your way of thinking becomes, it is most certainly a book you have to read at least once in your lifetime. Despite its length, I would go on to say that it is a perfect place to start for readers just getting into King. It includes all the elements that make him one of the greatest writers of all time – fantastic, realistic characters, a great premise of a story, writing that takes you in, grabs you and doesn’t let you go, and great world building that allows you to feel that you are actually there with the characters, going along with them for the journey.

While this book is not my all-time favourite of King’s (that says more about the brilliance of his future works than about this actual novel), it is definitely in my top ten and one I enjoy coming back to again and again. For me this really is the perfect five.

20 people found this helpful

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Sarah Gordon

My favourite Stephen King Novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2019

Verified Purchase

I couldn’t put this book down. I was hooked from the first chapter and didn’t want it to end (except for the fact that I really needed to start conversing with my friends and family again, before they started to worry!) I have never read the original and downloaded the long version by accident, but wasn’t put off when I read the preface - I love long books!

Unusually for a Stephen King book, The Stand was not too scary for me to read at bedtime, but this did not detract at all from the suspense. It kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and I feel like it tuned right in to my own fears about the future of humanity.

Maybe a few politicians ought to read this and then gave a long, hard think...before it’s too late!

25 people found this helpful

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Another Avid Reader

A Timeless Classic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2019

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I remember the first time I read this book during my early teens, seeing for the first time all of the different levels within the story. On the surface it’s a post apocalypse tale, underneath it’s so much more the eternal struggle of good v evil. This is one of the books that epitomises the human condition, cheer the triumphs, laugh with friends, cry for the losses. Between this book and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings it set me on a literary path that I’ve enjoyed for many years.
So if you want to be entertained with a story that has meaning then read on. Even if you don’t like anything else by the author (unlikely I know) then this one is worth it.

20 people found this helpful

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Tracie

My Favourite Stephen King book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 December 2018

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I've been wondering whether to buy the Kindle version of this book for a very long time (own it in paperback) and im so glad I did! This is the authors extended version - so probably had at least another 100 pages (difficult to tell in kindle to paperback). Most of the extras are nearer to the beginning, so you feel like you get to know the main characters even better. If you like The Stand, you need this version in your life!

17 people found this helpful

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The Stand 01 Edition, Kindle Edition

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Stephen King

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