Even though it is considered fantasy, The Stand is not easily classified. It is an epic, surely, but it is not an epic fantasy in the way the Lord of the Rings or the Song of Ice of Fire are epic fantasies. What it is closest to is supernatural thriller, but thrillers are usually short in length with non-stop suspensful action. But in a book of 500,000 words, non-stop suspensful action would get tiring. So, no pun intended, I’d say The Stand stands on its own. As a lot of good novels do.
I’ve always liked the novel format because it can be of any length that makes the story work. But even The Stand could have been longer. You see, there are actually two versions of The Stand—one published in 1978 and one published in 1990. The one published in 1990 restored some uncut material and updated when the story took place from 1980 to 1990. The 1990 version is 40% longer than the 1978 version. Why the change? Believe it or not because of a cost-benefit analysis of production costs to sales. That’s right. They wanted to cut the “cost of goods sold” to ensure a good profit margin. In other words, it was just too damn expensive to make a book that big. And, apparently, dividing it up into the three books that are there was, for some reason unknown to me, not a viable option.
Because of it’s length, it can feature a myriad of fun, interesting and complex characters, some of whom develop (especially what you could call the main character, if you could call anyone that, Stuart Redman) and mature, and others that are just exciting (like Trash Can Man). The antagonist, oddly, is one of the least interesting characters in the novel, but we really don’t care about that. The novel isn’t about him. It always about how the characters react to disastrous circumstances. And I won’t give away why I think Redman is the “main character” or the “protagonist,” but I also won’t give away why you can make an equal argument that he is neither of those things. Suffice to say this is an epic, and there really is no one protagonist, or two, or three…maybe six. Yes, you might say there are six protagonists.
The Stand is divided up into three books, each of which follows an Epic structure, alternating between different character points of view to tell many simultaneous stories. The main driver of the first book is an accident at a U.S. government lab that unleashes a deadly virus on the world. It’s more of a horror thriller that shows the death of modern society as the world descends into chaos. Everyone is just trying to survive. The second book is about re-building society, while the third book is fighting a threat to the new civilization. So it is both apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic. The first book is “ordinary horror” while the second and third books are “supernatural.” Like in The Green Mile, the supernatural element is introduced more than one-third of the way through the novel.
I’m sure it’s no accident that there are no wealthy characters in this book. And after society collapses, it wouldn’t matter anyway. Well, there is one wealthy character that dies early on choking on her own vomit. Yes, lots of people die in a plethora of disgusting ways. Maybe I’m too macabre, but I found that a great romp. Then there’s the psychotic arsonist (the aforementioned Trash Can Man). While this character is not explored in-depth, he is nonetheless a horrifyingly fun character, and towards the end you find yourself cheering for him. And then there’s the deaf mute. He writes down everything he says, but somehow King writes it as if he actually talks. Kinda unrealistic, but I understand why he did it that way. And finally, I have to mention the feeble-minded Tom Cullen, who when you first meet him you would never think of him as the hero he becomes.
If you are a Stephen King fan you will not be disappointed in the least.
If you aren’t a King fan, but you either enjoyed a book or two, or haven’t read anything of his, I heartily recommend this novel. The length shouldn’t scare you away too much. If you’re a light reader, what you’ll find is that you’re reading it more and more just to find out what happens next. When you will be disappointed is when it’s all done. You’ll have invested a great deal of your life into this book and you will suffer from withdrawl when it is over. And if you don’t read much, then you don’t really care how many books you read, anyway, do you? If it takes you a year to get through it, so what? How much you enjoy it as opposed to other books you could be reading should be what matters. And most people will enjoy this book. As long as you enjoy reading about people dying in gruesome ways, that is.
