# The Stand



## Metal Ken (Mar 31, 2007)

I got inspired to pick this up by Anthrax (Among the Living! -- I had to laugh when they introduced the Walkin' Dude in the book). 
I bought it yesterday afternoon, took a nap, and had to work, but despite that, i've read it through to about page 240. 
CANT STOP READING. Its the best book i've read in a LONG time, and i'm now seeing why King is so widely respected.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Mar 31, 2007)

I got in trouble for reading this book in grade 5. It is a really good read, long too, wish more people would write 1000+ page books.


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## technomancer (Mar 31, 2007)

The uncut edition of The Stand does in fact kick ass


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## forelander (Mar 31, 2007)

Yep read it, it's awesome. You also bought gunslinger? Walking dude remind you of anyone?


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## Metal Ken (Apr 1, 2007)

forelander said:


> Yep read it, it's awesome. You also bought gunslinger? Walking dude remind you of anyone?



i heard they mention him in dark tower, but i havent started on gunslinger yet.


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## distressed_romeo (Apr 1, 2007)

JJ Rodriguez said:


> ...wish more people would write 1000+ page books.


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## Metal Ken (Apr 1, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


>




I was like "Damn, this one is like, 900 pages, this is gonn take forever",(I Have an original version. I wanna pick up the unabridged one later) but i'm almost a 3rd of the way through it in just 2.5 days. Its just SO fucking good.


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## distressed_romeo (Apr 1, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> I was like "Damn, this one is like, 900 pages, this is gonn take forever",(I Have an original version. I wanna pick up the unabridged one later) but i'm almost a 3rd of the way through it in just 2.5 days. Its just SO fucking good.



If you like epic horror, check out Storm Constantine's 'Grigori Trilogy' ('Stalking Tender Prey', 'Scenting Hallowed Blood' and 'Stealing Sacred Fire'). You'd love 'em, trust me, and they'll keep you occupied for a good few days!


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## Metal Ken (Apr 1, 2007)

I'll keep that in mind \m/


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## Naren (Apr 1, 2007)

I started watched the TV mini series version of "The Stand" a few days ago. So far, it's been really interesting. The reason I started watching it is because I've been reading through the Dark Tower series and supposedly the worlds from "The Stand" and a bunch of King's other books appear throughout the series. I'm sure the book is a thousand times better than the TV mini-series, but I wouldn't even bother reading "The Stand" until after finishing the Dark Tower series.


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## Metal Ken (Apr 1, 2007)

Naren said:


> but I wouldn't even bother reading "The Stand" until after finishing the Dark Tower series.



Thats the thing, i'm finishing The Stand before i start Dark Tower. Sure, the first book i bought from Dark Tower is way shorter, but there's several other books in the series, thus making it longer overall, so i want to get all stand-related readings finished first.


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## Naren (Apr 1, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> Thats the thing, i'm finishing The Stand before i start Dark Tower. Sure, the first book i bought from Dark Tower is way shorter, but there's several other books in the series, thus making it longer overall, so i want to get all stand-related readings finished first.



I wasn't interested in "The Stand" at all when I bought "The Gunslinger." I'd wanted to read The Dark Tower series since almost 7 years ago, but it was such a long series, so I never bought it, but after reading the "Dark Tower" thread, it inspired me to go out and buy it. I never thought about reading "The Stand" because I had absolutely no idea what it was about until reading about it in/around The Dark Tower. Besides, I'm halfway through the Dark Tower series right now. 

Even though "The Gunslinger" is only 300 pages long, each book in the series gets longer. "The Drawing Of The Three" is 500 pages long. "The Wastelands" is 600 pages long. "Wizard And Glass" is 700 pages long. I don't remember how long the next 2 books are, but the last book, "The Dark Tower," is over 1000 pages long.


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## Metal Ken (Apr 1, 2007)

i got interested in THe Stand from listening to Among the Living on repeat


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## Naren (Apr 1, 2007)

I know that "Among The Living" is about "The Stand" ("captain trips," "walking dude," etc. etc.), but how did you know that if you didn't know anything about "The Stand"?


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## Metal Ken (Apr 1, 2007)

In the booklet for the album it says:



> 1. The lyrics to "Among" are inspired by Stephen King's
> briliant novel, "The Stand". The album cover is inspired
> by the character "Randall Flagg", a man(?) that definitely
> stands out "Among The Living".
> ...


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## Naren (Apr 1, 2007)

well, that pretty much explains it.


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## JJ Rodriguez (Apr 1, 2007)

Anyone ever read The Eyes of the Dragon? There's a guy named Flagg in that too, I always wondered if it could be related to The Stand.


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## forelander (Apr 1, 2007)

Yep I've read eyes of the dragon - it was pretty cool. Flagg, and many variations of him show up through several king books.


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## Alex-D33 (Apr 1, 2007)

King is the man when it comes to good books .
have anybody picked up Storm of the Century . awesome book


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## irg7620 (Apr 1, 2007)

you know, i don't particularly like Stephen King books. Don't know why. I don't find them as scary as some other authors I have read. he's a good writer and all, i just don't find the subject matter to be scary enough for me. maybe it's because i haven't read many by him. i've read some of insomnia. that's an ok book so far. maybe i need to try a little harder with his stuff and see if any of it really hits me.


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## 7 Dying Trees (Apr 2, 2007)

The stand has a very cool beginning, but i remember when i read it the middle got a little tiresome, but it is still an awesome book


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## forelander (Apr 2, 2007)

I've never found anything of stephen king's scary per se, just cool all round. The only thing he wrote that gave me the creeps was pet semetary.


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## Naren (Apr 2, 2007)

forelander said:


> I've never found anything of stephen king's scary per se, just cool all round. The only thing he wrote that gave me the creeps was pet semetary.



I also have never really found any of Stephen King's books (or movies) scary, but I've always enjoyed them purely because they tend to be so interesting. I'm a big fan of horror movies and I've always loved really scary movies, but I've never thought any of the movies based off of Stephen King books were scary ("It," "The Shining," "Carrie," etc. were not scary at all), but a lot of the movies based off his books are interesting. And the books themselves are always a lot lot lot more interesting. The guy has a great skill for character development and coming up with good stories. Now obviously a guy who's written over 40 novels would have a few stupid books in there, but that's to be expected. And the percentage of good books to bad books is quite good, I think (same with his short stories. Some of them are really interesting and some of them are incredibly inane. As a writer myself, I wouldn't claim that I haven't written any stupid stories).

Never read pet semetary (or seen the movie)


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## Alex-D33 (Apr 2, 2007)

forelander said:


> I've never found anything of stephen king's scary per se, just cool all round. The only thing he wrote that gave me the creeps was pet semetary.



A good book doesn't has to be scary in order to be good :


You take Clive Barker for instance ..His writing is awesome .the way he pulls you in the story from the moment you the read the first pages . and not all his books are scary .

King has a different style but very unique . Suspense can sometimes be as bone chilling as a good horror (gore) story .IMO


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## Metal Ken (Apr 3, 2007)

yeah, i don't think the stand is really scary at all either. Its more of a thriller kind of thing. I really appreciate the fact that the characters aren't at all idealistic and very human. Like, doing things i can imagine people doing if they were in the situation. I also liked the fact that he didn't make up names for stores and places, and used actual brands. that made it more relatable. IE, Cpt. Trips got spread from some dude who escaped a military base and crashed at a Texaco. So and so went to Dairy queen, Harold drinks coca-cola, etc.


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## String Seraphim (Apr 3, 2007)

I think King is much better at suspense espcially when it comes to fight scenes or scenes of confrontation. Although what we think of as horror and suspense are sometimes the same.


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## Naren (Apr 4, 2007)

forelander said:


> Yep read it, it's awesome. You also bought gunslinger? Walking dude remind you of anyone?



The walking dude from "The Stand" is the ageless stranger from Dark Tower. The line that gave it away for me was near the end of "The Wastelands" where the Ageless Stranger says that an old friend of his used to say "My life for you." Also, the stupid puns and jokes he makes in such a sinister manner are just like the walking dude.


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## Metal Ken (Apr 5, 2007)

finished it today. it ruled \m/


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## The Dark Wolf (Apr 5, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> finished it today. it ruled \m/



Did you ever see the movie/miniseries? It rocked hardcore.


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## Metal Ken (Apr 5, 2007)

Nah, just heard the Anthrax song and read the book


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## Naren (Apr 5, 2007)

The Dark Wolf said:


> Did you ever see the movie/miniseries? It rocked hardcore.



I watched that about a week ago. It was pretty cool. And they did it the length that most long books should be (altogether it was about 6 hours long. Much better than converting a 1100 page book into one and a half hours). The actors did pretty good jobs portraying the characters. There were some weak spots in the special effects in some places, but it was actually pretty sweet for something made for television. 

Right now I'm reading "Wizard And Glass" which has had several parts that tie into "The Stand" so far.  Shocking!


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## The Dark Wolf (Apr 6, 2007)

Naren said:


> I watched that about a week ago. It was pretty cool. And they did it the length that most long books should be (altogether it was about 6 hours long. Much better than converting a 1100 page book into one and a half hours). The actors did pretty good jobs portraying the characters. There were some weak spots in the special effects in some places, but it was actually pretty sweet for something made for television.


Yep, I completely agree with that. It was made for TV, so not exactly The Lord of the Rings. But for what it was, I enjoyed it immensely and thought it was, like you, very well done.


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## Metal Ken (Apr 6, 2007)

Naren said:


> I watched that about a week ago. It was pretty cool. And they did it the length that most long books should be (altogether it was about 6 hours long. Much better than converting a 1100 page book into one and a half hours). The actors did pretty good jobs portraying the characters. There were some weak spots in the special effects in some places, but it was actually pretty sweet for something made for television.
> 
> Right now I'm reading "Wizard And Glass" which has had several parts that tie into "The Stand" so far.  Shocking!



Which version of the book is the miniseries based on? Cause my copy of The Stand was the original. I picked it up from a used bookstore. its dated 1980. it's only 817 pages long. i know he released the UNCUT!!! version in about 1989 or 1990... i think that was like, 1300 pages? he said there was about 500 more pages on it. So it'd be a bit more reasonable if it were based on the original version...


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## Naren (Apr 6, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> Which version of the book is the miniseries based on? Cause my copy of The Stand was the original. I picked it up from a used bookstore. its dated 1980. it's only 817 pages long. i know he released the UNCUT!!! version in about 1989 or 1990... i think that was like, 1300 pages? he said there was about 500 more pages on it. So it'd be a bit more reasonable if it were based on the original version...



Well, Stephen King wrote the script for it himself (and he actually acted in it as one of the people following Mother Abigail, a bigger role than he normally does in his films) in 1994, so I assume he included material from both the original and uncut versions as suited him. If you look at the front cover of his books where it says books he's written, it has a section of screenplays/teleplays and "The Stand" is under there. Screenplays obviously have to be treated in a completely different manner than a novel and I think it's usually best when the writer him/herself gets to write the screenplay/teleplay that the film is going to be based on.

And, yeah, I think the uncut version is around 1300 pages. Most people have told me that the uncut version is a lot better than the original. I guess I just have to take their word for it.


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## Vegetta (Apr 7, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


>



GEt the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson
Quicksilver
THe Confusion
THe System of the World
Linkage

3 volumes 1000 pages each

And it kicks much ass (historical Fiction) 

I love Kings earlier stuff and IMO the Stand is his best work


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