The Stand by Stephen King (4.5 stars)

I have to admit to picking this book up because it was really long. I got it at a tiny English-language section in a book store in Lima, Peru. I knew I wasn't going to find English books again for some weeks and didn't want to be caught with nothing to read. At 1320 dense-font pages it certainly served me well in that regard. Unfortunately it has meant my reading numbers are down a bit from last year :(

I really enjoyed this book, and despite the length I was engaged for the entire story and didn't find it a drag. Not many books attempt to cover pre-apocalypse, apocalypse, and post-apocalypse in any detail, but this one succeeds at the task. I haven't read any other King novels, apart from The Green Mile, and was pleasantly surprised to find this one wasn't a horror story, but a novel about a germ-warfare outbreak apocalypse, with a creepy supernatural good vs. evil flavour.

The original edition was published in 1975, and the one I read was the extended version published in 1990. I found it interesting to think how much the world has changed since 75. There is a large chunk of the book at the start of the Captain Trips outbreak where the government effectively controls the media through force, presumably to stop mass panic but also to cover up their colossal screw-up. That sort of action would just not be effective these days, with so much information available so quickly via the Internet.

I liked a number of the characters in the book, but I think Harold Lauder's character was brilliant. He reminded me of Ignatius J. Reilly, in his verbose high-minded criticism of the world and his extremely awkward attempts at seducing Frannie.

I thought King's portrayal of the struggles of the survivors post-apocalypse was fantastic. I have to admit to being a little disappointed by the ending, after such an amazing build-up it seemed too obvious and neat, with a smell of deus ex machina.

A long ride, but a good one.

4.5 stars.

Update: I finally got around to watching the 1994 four-part miniseries with Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald. It is terrible - Randall is an 80s cowboy with big hair and is a completely implausible bad guy, lacking all of the sinister presence Randall has in the book. I'd love to see the Cohen Brothers take a crack at a really dark re-make of this series.