The Stand is one of the most enduringly popular Stephen King books, and for good reason. The Stand is a fictional novel about a plague–near total death and destruction–brought about by our own American government’s tinkering with nature. Nearly 90% of the population of Earth is wiped out when a man-made disease, which spreads like wildfire and kills almost everyone who comes into contact with it, is inadvertently released from a US military installation in the barren Nevada desert. The few people who survive the plague must then learn to survive without modern conveniences. There is no electricity. There is no running water. There is no social structure from which to draw comfort or support. There is only each person’s own tenacity and determination to survive in a harsh world filled with rotting corpses and other survivors, some of whom are not only hostile but hell bent on destroying what’s left of the human spirit.

The Stand is a must read for any libertarian or free thinking individual. It’s a long read. The uncut version is over 1000 pages, but it’s well worth the time. The story examines human relations on the small scale as well as the larger scale of society as a whole. What the book points out through brilliant and entertaining storytelling is that society is not always arranged to facilitate the success of the individual, nor is government necessarily instituted to protect anything but itself. The survivors of the plague crave the order that organized society gives them, but they discover that by entrusting their lives to a higher social order, they are leaving their own destinies in the hands of others and setting themselves up for more devastation by allowing a society to determine their destinies instead of taking control of their own lives.

I’ve said little with regards to the actual plot of the book and I think it’s best that way. I was enthralled for the entire novel and I don’t want to say anything to ruin it for someone who hasn’t read the book yet. If you have trouble reading long novels, take The Stand in small doses. The story will keep you entertained and the libertarian undertones will keep you thinking on a higher level.