By It is Monday morning and I have spent the past few hours getting through the last handful of pages of The Stand by Stephen King, which I wrote about briefly (the first half) about a week ago. I have been reading this thing day and night, and am happy to be able to move on.
As I had alluded to in my previous post, the first half of the book took a long time for me to get through– it just seemed so heavy and long; however, the second half moved quickly and I found myself getting through it with enthusiasm and interest.
The story is about a superflu epidemic that kills off most of America (and probably the world). Many thousands of people go to Boulder, CO led by dreams and meeting people on the road (this is the “good” group). The others, led by dreams of a dark man, end up in Las Vegas and are essentially planning on destroying the group in Colorado.
An old black woman guides a few of the key players to go to Las Vegas to fight the ultimate battle of good and evil. Spoiler alert: The good overcomes evil, shocking, I know. Lots of people die, there’s nuclear bombs set off, it’s what one might refer to as a shit show.
I did like the message at the end of the book, which culminates in the dark man, the evil dude, surviving and getting a group of Mexicans to start to worship him. Ultimately, nothing changes– there is still evil in the world, but it can be overcome from time to time.
I can finally say I have completed a Stephen King novel, which has been a long time goal of mine– I am all set with this genre for now. Amen.
Overall rating: 3.5/5 – I enjoyed it, but felt it was overly long (a common complaint of SK novels, how boring of me)
Open Arts Spring 2024 
Wow! Congratulations! I have never attempted to read a SK novel, and I may never, at this rate. But bravo for seeing it through! Clearly, SK believes that verbiage is good, and the more the better. I wonder how much per word his average pay for publication is–probably surprisingly low, which would indicate that he just loves to spin out those tales, no matter how many pages he writes!
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