Yesterday, Random House Audio gave Stephen King fans everywhere a Valentine’s Day gift those fans have been waiting decades for: they released the uncut, expanded edition of The Stand in audiobook form. This special edition, which includes some 500pp more than the original release, was released in print over twenty years ago, but never before has it been made available as an audiobook.
Better still, this unabridged, 47+ hour digital download is currently available to Audible members for just ONE Audible member credit (a la carte price for members is currently $23.52, for non-members is $33.60, or new members can get it free with a trial membership). From Audible.com:
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 Abigail – 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 500 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 comlexity 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 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
If you’re an Audible member who’s also a fan of Stephen King, horror, or post-apocalyptic fiction, don’t hesitate to invest in this book at the bargain price of one Audible credit. If you’re not a member, get the book free when you start a trial membership.
Thank you so much for the recommendation of “The Stand.” I have been a Prime and Audible member for years, so had seen that the e-book and the audio book were available. “The Stand” was my first, and favorite, Stephen King book. I’ve read almost everything of his since then, and was debating using an Audible credit to re-visit it. I will do it now.