First came the days of the plague. Then came the dreams. Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms.

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 listening to 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.

Listening Length

47 hours and 47 minutes
Author

Stephen King
Narrator

Grover Gardner
Audible release date

19 July 2012
Language

English
Publisher

Hodder & Stoughton
ASIN

B00Q1O48CU
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	47 hours and 47 minutes
Author	Stephen King
Narrator	Grover Gardner
Audible.com.au Release Date	19 July 2012
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00Q1O48CU
Best Sellers Rank	360 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 3 in Ghost Horror Fiction 4 in Ghost Stories 216 in Teen & Young Adult (Books)

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
4 star		18%
3 star		7%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Amazon Customer

Wow..just wow!

Reviewed in Australia on 15 June 2020

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Thi book in the beginning had started with a lot of different people and groups i feared i wouldnt be able to keep track of them all, but with effort managed to put all the jigsaw pieces together to let the book tell its story. Obviously written by a seasoned writer, first time reading a Stephen King book. I admit if it wasnt one of his i would have given up. I enjoyed it, but almost feel like the whole book had this huge buildup...with an anti climactic ending.

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Ellie Humphris

Fantastic book

Reviewed in Australia on 20 July 2020

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This must be the 10th time I have read this book and it took on a whole new meaning during the Pandemic that is COVID-19. Outstandingly written.at times so heartbreak that you almost just want to put it down...but the book compells you to finish. I honesty wish it was longer and had more detail to those after "The End". Stephen King is like crack, one taste and you just keep coming back for more.

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PamR

... read The Stand when it was originally released and loved it. With so many Stephen King novels being ...

Reviewed in Australia on 20 August 2017

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I first read The Stand when it was originally released and loved it. With so many Stephen King novels being made into movies once more, I thought I would revisit my favourite. Big mistake. I couldn't even finish it. It was boring, slow and got caught up in the tedious aspects of building a new community at about the half way mark. I still enjoyed the progression of the Captain Trips pandemic and the journeys each of the POV characters took, but ultimately, I just ran out of steam. I suppose my taste in novels has changed over time. I'm giving it 3 stars because I did love it at some point and still enjoyed some aspects of the novel.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

A good overall effort worth watching

Reviewed in Australia on 19 February 2021

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I wasn't such a fan of the flash back format, but overall I enjoyed this series. I liked the parts where they stayed true to the novel, but not when they basically changed some things completely. Lloyd henreids change of heart at the end especially. They also skipped some pretty important storylines completely, especially the whole Harold, Stu and Frannie scenario, if you hadn't read the book or seen the 1994 mini series, how were you supposed to know where Harold's hatred came from. Also grannies attempted suicide in my view weakened her character a bit. The final episode I think was good but they basically completely ignored the whole Tom and Stu dynamic especially Stu's fight for survival. Even though it ran longer than the original mini series, I think they told less of the story. Overall though I really enjoyed it.

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Trillianx

I think I’d rather read it

Reviewed in Australia on 10 August 2021

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Did not like the narrators icky irritating voice. It’s just wrong for the genre and length of the book. A deep smooth voice would have been better. The slightly different intonation for the characters has much of a sameness to it. Without the help of paragraphs it’s hard to know who’s speaking.

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Bartlett

makes you feel like you are there

Reviewed in Australia on 17 February 2018

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The amount of detail King uses is what makes his books well worth the cost of money and time. He describes not only his characters, but the countryside, the roads, the everyday items and in doing this, makes you feel like you are there. I first read this book about 25 years ago. I had a massive dose of the flu when I started to read it. This book scared me so badly, I put it down and didn't pick it up again for about 5 years!

2 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Awesome read..30 years after the first publication..still a must read..

Reviewed in Australia on 23 April 2021

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Steven King at his greatest..The plot is so believability true and never more so in 2021 with the aftermath of Corvid 19..the story was not fanciful in the 80's and 90's but in a world of increased tensions with the the old Soviet Block and the rise of the Red Dragon all it take is a tiny "small" mistake and the story will be no longer fiction! !
Recommend your next read "Battlefield Earth" by L Ron Hubbard..

One person found this helpful

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Michelle Cruse

A long tim fave!

Reviewed in Australia on 30 March 2020

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I have read this book ?3 or ?4 times now. Ghe best thing about NOT being a photographic memory reader is that you can enjoy the same bood a thousand times. And still find something new in it. Thankyou!

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Bill

The best End of World Post apocalyptic novel of the genre

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2019

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This is the #1 bestseller in th Post Apocalyptic genre. I read this book when it came out in 1979, and have read it every 3 to 5 years since. You may ask, why leave a review now, well Amazon wasnt about then, think I bought it in WH Smith. Then I bought and read the complete and uncut edition. And the Audible edition a couple of years ago. I simply love this story, as do millions of others who love the PA genre .

So as regards a review, I'm going to rip off the synopsis from Stephen king.com

One man escapes from a biological weapon facility after an accident, carrying with him the deadly virus known as Captain Tripps, a rapidly mutating flu that - in the ensuing weeks - wipes out most of the world's population. In the aftermath, survivors choose between following an elderly black woman to Boulder or the dark man, Randall Flagg, who has set up his command post in Las Vegas. The two factions prepare for a confrontation between the forces of good and evil

Go ahead and read it, if you like it, welcome to the throng of millions who also like it.

If you dont like it, well - maybe the best in the genre is not for you, try Swan Song by Robert R McCammon, similiar plot , characters and timeframe, or Earth Abides by George R Stewart written in 1948 - a gentler take on the theme .

Sorry, why am I writing a review now, borrowed out my dog eared copy of the complete and uncut edition to God knows who, was enraptured to learn the Kindle version is that version, so my 15th and subsequent rereads will be on my Kindle from now on.

88 people found this helpful

Simon Edwards

M-O-O-N, that spells epic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 June 2020

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Back in 1978, Stephen King was well on his way to becoming the biggest selling author of all time. On the back of three great classics that were Carrie (1974), ‘Salem’s Lot (1975) and The Shining (1977), King had already established himself as the Master of Horror, a title to which, even today, he has become a bit tired with. He had now hit the big time, didn’t need to worry about money or work again – he had achieved his lifelong dream (becoming a full time writer). The Shining had become his first bestselling hardcover novel, perhaps influenced by the fact that Brian DE Palma’s 1976 adaptation of Carrie had become a box office success, allowing audiences to discover King in a new medium that they might not have done so had it not been for the movie.

His first three published novels had been hard-core horror novels, all three contemplating his status as the King of Horror. King’s next novel would be a change of pace. It would still include elements of the horror genre, a genre in which he had spent his entire life surrounded by, even as a child, but his next novel would also have elements of science fiction and would actually become a sociological look at the human race. But first, he would have to kill them all.

On the heels of the Shining, King had been inspired by the Patty Hearst case (a case that involved both kidnapping and terrorism), to write a novel surrounding these events, but not long into the novel, he gave up, after having seen on the news, a chemical spill that had happened in Utah. Not long after this, King’s mind started working overtime and he came up with a novel about something similar that would wipe out the human race, allowing only a few remaining characters to be left behind and deal with the tragic events that had been enforced upon them. Wanting to write an epic on par with Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, King went about creating a vast landscape in which he left nothing out, allowed nothing to bypass the story – this would become the ultimate epic novel.

The Stand begins with this primary thought. The basic premise of the novel is that a government research facility, after having spent time creating a super flu bug (Captain Trips as it is known in the novel) to be used in biological warfare, is accidently released on to the base. Everybody dies except for one man, Charles Campion, a security guard, who grabs his family and evacuates that base, heading across Northern America, unaware that he has the flu like virus, infecting everyone he comes into contact to. So King weaves out his tale, introducing us to a multitude of characters, some good, some bad, showing us the effects of Campion’s actions, watching minor characters contract the flu, watching them suffer through the eyes of our main characters, all of diverse backgrounds. King is clever in letting us see how the virus takes hold, how it acts as a chain mail across all of America, letting us get to know the characters, watch the human race become extinguished through their eyes, letting us see their pain, letting us get attached to them so that we can go on the journey that they will inevitably have to take.

King is a genius at creating a wide variety of characters, and not since Dickens, has any writer ever managed to capture a whole society of characters that all can be identified by the reader. Of the good, there is Stu Redman (an everyman from East Texas, the main character pretty much of this large epic), Fran Goldsmith (a young pregnant girl from Maine, who becomes one of the main heroines of the piece), Larry Underwood (a singer from New York), Nick Andros (a deaf mute who passes through Shoyo, Arkansas), Glenn Bateman (a retired college professor that taught sociology and is one of the characters that King uses to speak his own thoughts on society and bring about theories of what will likely happen now that over 99% of the world’s population is dead), Tom Cullen (a man who is more like a boy due to a very low IQ. He develops a great relationship with Nick, learning new things through Nick’s teaching. He spells every word M-O-O-N), Ralph Bretner (a farmer who always seems to see the lightness in everything, never thinking himself superior to anyone, he ends up becoming one of the main heroes of the peace) and Mother Abigail (a 108 year old from Nebraska, who still makes her own biscuit. The main characters dream of her, using her as a guiding force of help along the way. She is a prophet of God and for a short while leads them until letting them make it on their own). There are also plenty of main characters who are on the side of evil: Lloyd Henried (a killer/robber who ends up in prison as Captain Trips spreads across America, being left to die until he is saved by his new leader), Harold Lauder (a friend of Fran’s. Before the flu hit, Harold was the butt of jokes, hated by everyone, even his own parents. He has a crush on Fran and loves her, and becomes jealous and full of hate when she revokes this love and ends up with another of the main characters instead), Nadine Cross (a school teacher who has visions of the Dark Man, visions that they would become lovers and eventually married. She loves Larry also, but can’t allow herself to act upon this love as her heart and mind belongs to the Dark Man), the Trashcan Man (a psychopath who has developed an obsession of burning everything in his path. He is one of King’s most interesting and memorable characters. His loyalty to the Dark Man knows no bounds “my life for you”, yet he ends up becoming something of an anti-hero), Randall Flagg (the Dark Man, the Prince of Evil, the antithesis of Mother Abigail, he is gathering his troops to Las Vegas and trying to create an army that will eventually wipe out those that stand against him. He is one of the greatest villains in the King universe and has appeared in more than one of his novels).

Had this been a book written by any other writer, the premise of the novel would probably have been the characters get together, stand against the Dark Man and his minions and save the day. But this is a King novel, a novel of epic proportions. We don’t just see the Stand that will ultimately take place, we see a large cast of characters coming together, creating a new world together, creating a new life together and King shows every single point of this. The world building in this novel is fantastic, on par with the greatest of fantasy novels (including Tolkien). You really get to know the characters, to love them and hate them, feeling like they have become a part of your family. You feel enriched by them, allowing yourself to be taken on this journey with them, fighting for your own survival as well as theirs.

When King first wrote this back in 1978 and sent it to his publishers, they were shocked by the size and scope of the novel. They replied back to him, saying they would have to cut the book by about four hundred pages in order to sell it. King was distraught by this, but as he was still establishing himself as a bestselling writer, he felt he had no choice but to succumb to Doubleday’s wishes and so he himself cut over four hundred pages out of the book, missing out a lot of what made the book very important. The Stand was eventually published in 1978 and quickly went on to become King’s masterpiece, the book all fans seemed to love and say was his best. King has actually gone on record as saying “to some fans, I could have written nothing after The Stand, and they wouldn’t have cared.”

Fast forward to 1991 – King was toying around with the idea of releasing The Stand as it was originally intended. After receiving permission from Doubleday to go ahead with this idea, King began working on an updated version of The Stand, changing the premise of the book from the late seventies into the early nineties, including new background like HIV/Aids, changing the sociological background of the characters, without allowing them to change in anyway. As he says in his forward to the new version, “you won’t find the characters behaving any differently or going down roads and on journeys that they never went on before”. It was the same story but it was bigger and it was allowed to become complete. And so The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition was released in 1991 and this is the version fans say is the one to read. Not having read the original edition, I can only go on hearsay that this is the version that is far superior and much more enjoyable. This is the one I have read four times.

Is The Stand King’s greatest book? In my opinion, it isn’t. As far as I’m concerned, King would go on to write even greater books, but this is definitely one of his most memorable, most exciting works. It is also, along with The Dark Tower series, the one book that seems to have a lot of fans in such diverse thought – some say it is a book that is a work of genius, an epic masterpiece that flows high on every level (I am of this thought) and some say it is too long, not worth the hype, boring and they couldn’t get through it. Whatever your way of thinking becomes, it is most certainly a book you have to read at least once in your lifetime. Despite its length, I would go on to say that it is a perfect place to start for readers just getting into King. It includes all the elements that make him one of the greatest writers of all time – fantastic, realistic characters, a great premise of a story, writing that takes you in, grabs you and doesn’t let you go, and great world building that allows you to feel that you are actually there with the characters, going along with them for the journey.

While this book is not my all-time favourite of King’s (that says more about the brilliance of his future works than about this actual novel), it is definitely in my top ten and one I enjoy coming back to again and again. For me this really is the perfect five.

28 people found this helpful

King's best book and my favourite of all time.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 December 2017

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If you know Stephen King then you know what you are in for with this, in my view his stand out piece of work. Lots of reviews criticise the first part of the book as taking too long to develop but I don't agree. I've never read 1400 pages so quickly and I think the extra detail he puts in over the original version only adds to the colour and texture of the storytelling.

The book tells the story of the end of the human race as we know it, brought about by a deadly flu strain, developed by the US military. The social science is a bit simplistic but the quality of the storytelling and character development are both excellent.

55 people found this helpful

Sarah Gordon

My favourite Stephen King Novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2019

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I couldn’t put this book down. I was hooked from the first chapter and didn’t want it to end (except for the fact that I really needed to start conversing with my friends and family again, before they started to worry!) I have never read the original and downloaded the long version by accident, but wasn’t put off when I read the preface - I love long books!

Unusually for a Stephen King book, The Stand was not too scary for me to read at bedtime, but this did not detract at all from the suspense. It kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and I feel like it tuned right in to my own fears about the future of humanity.

Maybe a few politicians ought to read this and then gave a long, hard think...before it’s too late!

29 people found this helpful

Another Avid Reader

A Timeless Classic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2019

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I remember the first time I read this book during my early teens, seeing for the first time all of the different levels within the story. On the surface it’s a post apocalypse tale, underneath it’s so much more the eternal struggle of good v evil. This is one of the books that epitomises the human condition, cheer the triumphs, laugh with friends, cry for the losses. Between this book and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings it set me on a literary path that I’ve enjoyed for many years.
So if you want to be entertained with a story that has meaning then read on. Even if you don’t like anything else by the author (unlikely I know) then this one is worth it.

21 people found this helpful

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