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The Stand cover art

The Stand

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©1978 Stephen King (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

'As a storyteller, he is up there in the Dickens class.' ( The Times)

What listeners say about The Stand

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One of my favourites

This is one of my most played audiobooks, the narrator does the book justice and tells the story well. I struggled to read the book myself, now I know what happens.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Be prepared for it to get a bit supernatural.

For any Stephen King fan, my headline would induce eye-rolling with a bit of "well what did you expect?". I have never really been a Stephen King reader, and was under the impression that I was reading a plague survival story (and nothing more). I was not really looking for a supernatural story, and while I got a reasonable amount of enjoyment out of it, I wouldn't have purchased it if I had known beforehand. So hopefully this can act as a bit of a warning for the uninitiated.

The story itself was quite good, though at times it seemed a little tedious (you can see why they asked him to trim it by 400 pages from the original published version). Grover Gardner's narration originally got on my nerves, but I grew to really love the way he dealt with each of the characters and their various mannerisms.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Glitch in Chapter 3

During chapter 3, there is a moment where the narrator starts reading chapter 6.

Overall, the story and narration is great.

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15 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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FIX THE ERROR IN CHAPTER THREE!!

At almost three minutes into chapter 3, chapter 6 commences. Really confusing. Please fix. I’ve seen other audible reviews remark on this and it’s still not corrected.

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Hell of a journey

The quality of story and the writing ensured that the marathon length was not a drag. Book 2 was a bit labored - I was over the committee love in. But even when the story dragged a bit (and it has to at some point given the length) the quality of King's written carried you along. Presentation was outstanding. Don't be put off by the length.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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An epic well worth investing the time in!

I enjoyed this read immensely. The extended version adds worthwhile detail and I especially liked the trashcan man extended sections.

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Great story performance ordinary

Great story but narrator took some enjoyment of story away disappointed with most of the voices a lot of them sounded similar to me

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5 people found this helpful

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  • Sam
  • 10-03-2017

Brilliant story. Enthralling narration .

What a story! The series of events are told so well and the voices used by the same person are incredible. Massive thanks to SK for writing this epic and for selecting GG as the narrator.

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very long

It was long, which I don't mind but the end was not satisfying enough for a book of this length. It would be hard to recommend this book.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Has its moments, but its slow pace and length drag it back

Stephen King's books always have some good ideas and characters... it's just everything else that seems to fall apart. This book is no exception. It really does have some awesome, creatively written, and diabolically evil characters. It has great premise (super-flu epidemic), and it has a captivating supernatural-like good vs evil theme going on. Unfortunately, it is waaay too long. You will get bored. Probably. The book's first 6 hours serve essentially no purpose to the plot and drag the pace back, and the last 2 hours seem like unnecessary filler. Moreover the middle of the book is also a complete drag. Seriously Mr King? Y u no cut the boring bits out? The prose is average at best, there's little-to-no action, and nearly every female character seems really wimpy and cries all the time. I mean, it just gets a little irritating. But again, despite all that, there's still plenty to like about The Stand; it's just I feel it'd be twice as good in half the length.
The narrator does an excellent job, and his accent is pin-point perfect in evoking an image of rural America. He also is excellent in giving different accents for each character.

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2 people found this helpful

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