I do remember Stephen King’s The Stand as being one of my favorite novels when I was going through my early phase of reading only Stephen King books, like I was in some kind of obsessed cult. It was a novel of post-apocalyptic survival and this book is being hailed as not only a return to form after King has been writing books that have been way under par compared to what he wrote in his youth but also a spiritual successor to The Stand.
It shares many similarities, not least the size of the thing which is enough to prop up any amount of heavy items, and the whole survival thing. Whereas The Stand was about surviving in a world gone to hell this about surviving being trapped in your home town, a hell in itself. It’s set over just a week in which time things go from bad to worse for the cast of the book after a dome comes over the town, trapping them inside without now how or why. Suicides and homicides, rape and generally bad stuff happens and it is obvious, to me at least, that King is trying to show how social conventions go straight out of the window when people are forced into a box, something that is always interesting but, somehow, feels unrealistic. Would all these things happen in a week if people were forced into a situation like this? I don’t know, I don’t think what happens in the book is what would happen in real-life but I do think there’s a possibility for anything in this planet.
When a book opens with a map of the town and a glossary of main characters who would outnumber the cast of a typical fantasy trilogy then you know its going to be a big book and this is no exception. The book is a feat and I did forget many characters as it came back to them and there were time when I thought those characters were actually really another character and it was all very confusing. It took me a good two-hundred pages before I settled into the rhythm of things and by then I did mostly remember who everyone was without having to glance of list of characters at the beginning. The cast is huge and is hugely daunting at first but once you get into it everything seems to fall all into place and you enjoy the journey of a town falling into chaos
Is it King back on form? Well I tried reading his two previous novels, Duma Key and Lisey’s Story and found them to be self-important tripe, work from a man who appeared to losing it artistically (although his short story collection Just After Sunset I thought was truly excellent) so I didn’t have much hope for this one, especially when seeing the gargantuan size of the thing which usually makes me thing that their editor is giving the author far too much leeway but I was pleasantly surprised by the book which I enjoyed throughout so I just hope that King can keep up the momentum for future novels.
