/lit/ - Literature

>>23203800
>I've never heard of the stand. Is it an overall good read?
The Stand is an apocalyptic epic about The United States with a large cast of characters and a good vs evil premise.

A superflu plague wipes out 99% of humanity. The novel details the collapse of society, which is pretty good though I think King's fetish for government corruption and cruelty maybe gets a little carried away. Once most everyone's dead, survivors adventure their way across the country, driven by dreams of a kindly old woman and an evil, dark man. Survivors coalesce on either side of the Rocky Mountains (good guy HQ in Boulder, bad guy HQ in Vegas). Next part dwells on how each side gets busy rebuilding society while worried about the other side. Finally there's a quest where Frodo and Samwise go to Vegas. Climaxes with Gollum rolling up with a literal nuke that God uses to destroy the whole city. Denouement is long and boring.

The good parts are all the details and backstories and personalities of all the characters and places. There's a great variety of characters, from a selfish former rock star to a pessimistic Martin-like professor. The villain is entertaining, and the post-apocalyptic adventuring is pretty well done. The book does a good job of conveying what it might be like to survive a plague (without zombie bullshit to contend with around every corner, just potentially crazy or dangerous people).

There's no great philosophical content. There's plenty to think about wrt rebuilding society, the scenarios presented are interesting but despite the "good" vs "evil" theme, the ideals embodied by the "good" and the "evil" sides are fairly pedestrian. But it's enough for a good story imho.