The Stand

Stephen King

Feb 2012 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Grover Gardner

About this audiobook

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.

And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides--or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail--and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.

In 1978 Stephen King published The Stand, the novel that is now considered to be one of his finest works. But as it was first published, The Stand was incomplete, since more than 150,000 words had been cut from the original manuscript.

Now Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil has been restored to its entirety. The Stand : The Complete And Uncut Edition includes more than five hundred pages of material previously deleted, along with new material that King added as he reworked the manuscript for a new generation. It gives us new characters and endows familiar ones with new depths. It has a new beginning and a new ending. What emerges is a gripping work with the scope and moral complexity of a true epic.

For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are reading The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.

Cover artwork ©2020 CBS Interactive Inc.

Ratings and reviews

The hook at the end caught me by surprise, as did the clever twist on "they would never see Stu again." "It is always nice, to be caught by surprise," I thought just now, in the voice of the narrator. Personally, I had trouble reconciling the stubbornness faith took in the book. These characters wouldn't believe in God if Jesus himself took em up the staircase and back. But perhaps the setting is not America after all, perhaps the setting is hell. The imp is in a loop of sorts - and the imp was once a Marine. Perhaps his punishment is to suffer mission failure over and over again. Perhaps the others are sinners too. The narrator is really good.

Yes, the book is long. But then add the numbers of characters in the story line you have to have the back story. What scares me the most about Mr Kings books are indeed plausible. Mr. King one if the best writer, next Poe

Read this book when I was younger, and watched the movie when I got older. it's always been one of my favorite King novels. Now listening to the full version without all those edited cuts while in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic feels like if King is talking about right here and right now, it's a bit surreal but even more enjoyable this time around.

About the author

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are Full Dark, No Stars; Under the Dome; Just After Sunset; Duma Key; Lisey's Story; Cell; and the last three novels in the Dark Tower saga: Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower. His acclaimed nonfiction book On Writing is also a bestseller. In 2003, he was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2007 he received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.