The Stand for a new generation – Gone by Michael Grant

The Stand was and is one of my favorite books of all time. But I’m scared to read it again for fear that it won’t live up to my adolescent high school memories of it (just ask George Lucas about going to the well one too many times).  Fortunately, there are new books and shows out there that are influenced by Stephen King’s greatest book.  Gone is such a book.  This book takes the framework of The Stand and rolls it all up with TV shows like Lost and Heroes, comics like the X-men and sprinkles just a little Lord of the Flies into the pages to top it off.  With such a mishmash, one worries that it might be too scattered, but Grant is able to maintain a coherent story with strong character driven events that draw the reader in.

SPOILERS AHEAD: The book opens with a typical high school classroom.  Typical, that is, until the teacher disappears.  The students immediately realize that something is very wrong.  All the adults have vanished and they are on their own.  Who will make decisions for the remaining children?  Will the school bullies control the town?  What about the private school, Coates Academy, on the outskirts of town where the troubled kids were sent?  Many of the kids look to Sam as their leader, yet Sam desperately plays down their expectations because he knows they would fear him if they knew about his special powers.  Yet is Sam alone in these powers or is something changing the creatures and children in the FAYZ?

Gone has a great set up and Grant makes it pay off for the first half of the book.  Tension mounts as roles are defined and sides are taken.  The book takes a turn once the Coates kids show up.  Before long, this is less a struggle about survival and more a battle between good and evil with super powered individuals.  All of this works, but some strange plot points threaten to derail the otherwise compelling tale.  Talking animals and Astrid’s power to tell an individual’s potential by touching them strain credibility.  Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that the major dilemmas are not brought to a conclusion by the end of the book.  Grant is angling for a sequel and I’m sure he’ll get it, yet this is a tale that could have been nicely wrapped up in the 550 pages.  It’s a great read, but it could have been more.  And now we have to wait for the sequel to find out what happens to Sam, Astrid and the others.