The Stand, Parts I and II, by Stephen King

I've been reading this novel for what seems like forever. When your list of "to read" books turns into a pile (it stands at 36 as of now), it becomes difficult to read just one novel for so long. Though, I have made rather quick work of it. I decided to read this book for two reasons: (1) because everyone I know who has read it (even my mom) says that it's amazing and (2) as a writer I'm interested in how someone could spin one story out for so long in a way that would keep the reader interested. The only other thing I've read by Stephen King is the first book in the Dark Tower series (with the other six soon to follow) and I have to say that I'm actually impressed. Usually books that get sold in the magazine aisles at Walgreen's are there because those are the only places they will sell, or because they're so unanimously acclaimed that it's no shame to find them next to copies of Twilight and Nora Roberts novels.

I'm impressed by his writing style so far. His prose has a way of exuding intelligence while not coming off as arrogant in that "I actually studied literature" sort of way. And when he wants to be, he can sound pretty damn epic (though not as epic as a Matt Stover, I'm sorry to say). I've decided to break up my entry about the Stand into two parts, simply because it's so goddamn long. I've just finished Book II, and I have to say I wasn't as impressed with it as I was Book I. Book I surprised me in that it introduced what felt like dozens of characters, most of whom I was not bored with after a few pages. Generally when I read a novel that switched perspectives, there's always one or two story-lines that I'm less interested in. Not the case in the first half of the Stand. Characters are all introduced and given interesting backgrounds, and then the plague hits.

I loved all of the disturbing descriptions of an abandoned world where everyone has died. Larry Underwood walking the dead streets of New York City and Nick Andros watching the city of Shoyo die a slow death are of particular note. And of course anything involving the Walkin' Dude Randall Flagg was great to read. I'm always more interested in spending time with the villains than the heroes. Heroes are all fine and dandy but it's the villains that interest me. It's difficult to write an antagonist that doesn't come off as one-dimensional in their "evil". And while Randall Flagg is a, well, personification of evil without a speck of good in him, King manages to make him mysterious enough as to warrant interest. Everyone loves heroes - but I think they can be rather boring. How hard is it to make the decision to be a good guy? I'm more interested in what reasons the bad guys have for turning to the dark side.

Book II, sadly, I found rather tedious. It was well-written, and incredibly interesting to see how the plague survivors all find each other and reestablish society. All of the problems they faced seemed realistic and I have no problem with this chunk of the book in itself. What I did have a problem with is that there were no character shifts whatsoever for about three hundred pages. I last saw someone on the evil side (Trashcan Man, I believe) on page 615. I'm on page 915 and I think it's just about ready to give me what I want. Spending that much time with the good guys as they have meetings and get the power turned back on and take the trash out was causing me to start losing my interest. How much of this was cut out of the first edition of this novel I'm not sure, and I have no desire to find out.

I'm hoping that things really start to pick up with Book III. I've only got two hundred and twenty-something pages left, and I feel like in a novel of this length, that might not be enough time to pull of the climax I'm hoping for.