The Stand

After a weaponized super flu wipes out 99.4% of the world’s population in a matter of weeks, the survivors find themselves drawn to one of two enigmatic figures. Abagail Freemantle, an elderly, spiritual, woman representing good, or Randall Flagg, a dark, sinister man representing a ageless evil. Those drawn to Freemantle eventually settle in Boulder, Colorado where they set about rebuilding society, but it soon becomes clear that a chosen few of their group will have to travel west to Las Vegas, and make a stand against the dark man.

King has stated that the book represents his attempt at “a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting.” To that end, the book is strongest in the first third, with King’s vivid characters making their nightmarish journeys across an apocalyptic America. Once they reach Boulder, however, the book stalls.

In On Writing, King reveals he almost lost the book here (after all, Frodo and Samwise never attempted to rebuild the Shire outside of Mordor) but a little bit of deus ex machina kick-starts the plot and starts things rolling again, right up to the ending.

Now, about that ending. Putting aside that the outcome would have been the same the heroes had stayed home instead of making to tortuous journey west to make ‘The Stand’, can anyone think of a more literal example of deus ex machina? That, combined with an epilogue that robs the story of it’s majesty by hinting that humanity is on a path to repeat the events of the book, left me feeling cheated.