The Stand

Pandemiegeschichten gibt es von vielen Autoren. Aber diese gefällt mir am besten. Schon im ersten Teil beschreibt King in vielen fantasievollen Details die letzten Tage der Opfer und wie sie alle versuchen, bis zum letzten Atemzug die Normalität weiter zu leben. (dies ist die Version in der die ursprünglichen Details wieder ergänzt wurden). Viele dieser Detailstories wären für sich allein schon fast vollwertige Kurzromane mit extrem schillernden Schicksalen. Spannender Lesestoff trotz Detailreichtum.

Oh boy, Stephen King can write. His style hits the message truely home. But he tends to droole on and on and on… Until I put the book down some ten years ago and just picked it up recently to finish the last couple of hundret pages. And oh my, it was an intense final stand. This book should have been at least two books. The first half deals with a deadly virus and its aftermath. The second half focuses on building a new society. Both parts are overshadowed by the struggle between good and evil, nature and technology, ego and community. I appreciatet a lot of ideas and the superbe writing style. Some scenes made me very uncomftable, which is fine and in tune with the overall tone. Some scenes could have been trimmed down or cut alltogehter without losing anything about the story. In my oppinion, Mr. King has a problem in handling female characters. In The Stand, the only role for all the ladies is to be desired and carry out the next generation. This upset me tremendously. After a long pause I finished the beast of a book and can recommend it to everyone who is into dystopien settings and needs to kill some extra time.