Book review: "Perdido Street Station" by China Miéville

I have finished reading China Miéville's "Perdido Street Station" almost two weeks ago, but I had so hectic last two week that I didn't have time to blog about it. I actually read this book a long time ago once, borrowing from the library. I had a notion that I remember this book quite well so I was reluctant to buy it, but I wanted to reread it before going to next two books ("The Scar" and "Iron Council"). So I decided to buy it after all - and ended quite surprised how much actually I have forgotten!

(for great fan-art, Google images for "Perdido Street Station")

"Perdido Street Station" is one of those books that are really hard to describe, especially their plot. Whatever I write, I will miss the point. But here is a try... "Perdido Street Station" tells a story set in very imaginative setting, the City of New Crobuzon, which includes magic, alchemy, science, science fiction, insect races, magical races, demons, spider-gods, cyborgs, artificial intelligence, flying people, oppression, horror, religion and education, among a bunch of other things. In the midst of it is Isaac, a underground scientist who, working on another project, happens to free a strange breed of gigantic moths that feed on people's conscience. Moths start to terrorize the whole City and Isaac becomes target to both the totalitarian regime the rules the City and by a drug-lord that was making money by moths, which forces him to try to catch the moths on his own...

I haven't read much books by Chine Miéville (only this one and "The City and The City"), but even I know that he is famous by his imaginativeness. And this is quite obvious here, especially in the first part. First part of the book especially, but also the book in whole is written in "look at my beautiful garden" form (I borrowed this from Jo Walton and her review of "Aristoi"), where Miéville plays and shows off his imagination. But this is a good thing because he builds a great setting - the list I mention in previous paragraph is only a part of it, notions I could describe in one word. He sometimes goes quite deep in details, like with descriptions of khepri's society, or with the handlingers. But here is also the problem of this book. Even to me, who like this kind of stuff, this wild and weird setting managed to become too tiresome on occasions. Imagination is good, but there has to be some boundaries. Luckily, this happened only few times while reading the book, so it can be forgiven.

It would take too much time to mention all great ides Miéville shows, but I have to note the Weaver and the daemons. I am really curious what more can he think of in the next two books with same setting to keep this level of freshness...

As with the setting, there is a bunch of characters in the book, but only two of them can be said to be main characters. Isaac is one, of course. He is an eccentric, a genius dropping out of college, hanging out with artist and working for the criminals. On the other hand, he is fat, clumsy, and not really someone you could look upon to. This is what makes him such a lovable and aspiring main characters. The other one is Yagharek. We don't get much from him, and I don't want to reveal spoilers, but those short intrusions with his POVs were really impressing. Miéville succeeded in giving him a very powerful voice, for all his tacitness. As I said, there is bunch of other characters, but with the exception of maybe Lin and Derkhan, they are not too important. But you can be sure that they are written in detail and flamboyant as the rest of this book.

His writing is very good. Although he can become tedious with the details, it can be forgiven. The book is violent, dark and graphic. And after finishing it, I realized that it is maybe a bit too depressing, with no happy end too much pain. Also, the book has a lot of morally questionable or rightly unfair decisions. A big example is with the sick old man in the end. The government, who is in the beginning described as comically evil, turns out to be the real villain.

Another thing I wanted to mention is my surprise with how much of this book I have forgot. When I started reading it, I had a misconception that I know it from the beginning to end, especially the plot. First I was surprised by the quantity of details I really had no recollection about. But the real surprise came when I finished two thirds of the book and realized that I have no idea how the book ends! The moth-hunting, I had no idea about it. I felt like I was reading a different version of the book, with the same beginning but a different ending. And to thing how much pride I put on my memory...

So, if you like weird books, a lot of details and imagination large as an ocean, "Perdido Street Station" is a book for you. You can think about China Miéville as a dark and gritty version of Terry Prachet, having fun on the tropes. Not a book I would recommend to exclusive fans of classical fantasy a la Tolkien.

Book review: "Iron Angel" by Alan Campbell

I was very busy this week (had two whole-day trips) so I didn't found time before today, even though I finished "Iron Angel" by Alan Campbell last weekend. This is the second book in trilogy called "Deepgate Codex", and sincerely, I haven't expected much from it. You know the drill: new author, first trilogy, second book - it usually ends badly. But "Iron Angel" just proved me wrong...

"Iron Angel" is separated in three parts. First part is what I expected - after defeating and killing god Ulcis, ex-Church angel Dill and ex-Spine (Church assassins) Rachel Heal are on the run from Deepgate. Even though they finally come on friendly terms with immortal and invincible Carnival, her craving for blood separated them, so now they are on their own. Chased be Spine, who took over things in Deepgate, they will soon learn that there are other enemies to consider. Rys, god of flowers and knives, had sent his elder brother Cosnipol, god of brine and salt, to investigate Ulcis' death and avenge him.

So far, if you have read enough books, this is a pattern you probably recognize - after defeating the big bad in first book or season, our heroes find themselves in trouble after finding out that big bad was only a captain. With defeating him, they just forced his superiors (real big bad) so turn his attention toward them. Another trope is when it is revealed that big bad was not so bad after all and he was actually keeping poor and weak people from the real big bad (e.g. "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann" in anime, or "Mistborn" trilogy by Brandon Sanderson in books). First part of the book follows the first trope, while second and third are closer to the second one.

Reading second part was like reading a totally new series. Only things connecting it to "Scar Night" was Dill as main character and seeing things from his POV. In third part we lose even that, although some old characters come back. Plot and setting expansion introduced in these two parts is quite big. As you noticed, I am trying to avoid spoilers, so you will have to believe me that they are both great. I am only sorry that I didn't reread "Scar Night" before reading "Iron Angel" (I didn't expect such turn-around), so I can't be sure if setting is consistent. I was especially surprised and delighted by resolution regarding PRC management - I am only sorry that the effect will be spoiled in my second reading. There are some real clever details that make this setting very complex. Plot in general is very interesting and completely unpredictable.

Pace of plot is very fast, maybe even a bit too fast. I wouldn't mind this book being a hundred or two pages longer (it is only 500 pages long) - but I am a fan of complex settings and I am always hungry for new details. But on the other hand, that would make "Iron Angel" less impressive book - such hard pace make it very intensive and it's not letting you relax. One of best points of this book was its description of Hell (whole second part) and characters connected to it. It was done really originally and the effect of it was surreal. Or maybe weird. In any case, it was great and unexpected. You should be warned that there is a lot of graphic violence, and even more blood. Blood is actually one of its structural elements.

Characters are very nicely written and interesting. They remain a bit mysterious because their reasons and motivations are left hidden. But when Campbell devotes himself to them, he makes them feel believable and real. There is a bunch of new and important characters: Hasp, Alice Harper, Mina Green, John Anchor... My only surprise was that Carnival was almost nonexistent in this book - but maybe she will have a larger role in the last book.

The biggest surprise comes at the end - and then book ends with an enormous cliffhanger. It almost made me immediately go to Amazon and buying its sequel, but I was able to stop myself.

"Iron Angel" was a terrific book introducing massive amount of new elements, a big surprise when I expected weak and tepid sequel. If last part, "God of Clocks", is good as this one, "Deepgate Codex" will be promoted to one of my favorite short series of all time. A recommendation to everybody who searches for a bit of unconventional fantasy.

Movie review: "The Hunger Games"

Last weekend my girlfriend and I had some plans going with another couple to movies. This friend was very hyped-up about "The Wrath of Titans" so we wanted to satisfy his wish and we complied with this choice. But when he called to say he can't go, we changed our plans and went to "The Hunger Games" instead.

This movie is not so familiar to general audience, at least here in Croatia, but I knew much because Tor.com put much attention on it. So I knew the plot in general, even few names and about the romance part, some background. Anyway, it sounded OK; except few reviews that branded it as "a new Twilight". While I don't hold any grudge toward "Twilight" series, I watched only movies and didn't find them very good. So these comparisons made be a bit suspicious toward this movie, but in the end this fear proved unnecessary.

"The Hunger Games" have quite good plot. It's SF dystopia. Some time ahead, USA ended in civil war which resulted in new oppression: the Capitol and 12 district. The capital is place of high-technology, easy living and full colors - people there live like nobility. Other districts are each poorer than previous, with District 12 being the poorest, a place of miners and poor villagers. There lives a girl in her teens, Katniss Everdeen. Every year, a festivity called the Hunger Games is held, where two people from each district, a boy and a girl, are chosen to fight to death. After Katniss' younger sister end elected, Katniss volunteers herself to replace her, alongside Peeta, who is chosen for male representative. The two of them then travel to Capitol to prepare for the fight of their lives.

Well, since this is a young adult film, you can pretty much guess the ending. But even so, this movie has enough qualities and twist to make its 2 and a half hours pass faster than expected. The dystopian part of the movie is done quite well. A bit exaggerated from the District 12 side, but it strongly expresses the difference between the classes. In district, everything is gloomy, dirty and quite, while the Capitol is full of colors, laughter and lights.

The training part was longer than I expected it to be, but this is not an objection. They used it to explain the setting in more details and they did a good job. Nothing was obviously wrong or unbelievable. I even got a wish to read the books ("The Hunger Games" trilogy) to learn more, although I don't see where I would found the time for it. And when fighting part started, it was constantly tense and full of action. Few possible ending were hinted, so you could not be sure what the final conclusion would be.

At acting part was done quite well, except one over-cried scene. There are even few stars: Woody Harrelson,   Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci and Lenny Kravitz. Interestingly, and I don't know whether this was intentional or not, when they put Woody Harrelson and Josh Hutcherson (plays Peeta) together first time, they had the same facial expressions that I was positive they are father and son.

I was quite interested to see how will they be able to make a main character, who is a gentle and obviously good teen girl, kill somebody without making her look bad. More so, kill somebody with such a violent weapon as bow. Although I think that their solution was at least partly a dirty trick, it was nevertheless done cleverly.

For conclusion, I can say that "The Hunger Games" were a positive surprise. An interesting and fast movie for all kind of audiences, with enough small details to interest those with higher expectations. Also, bear in mind that this is only first part in probable trilogy.

Anime review: "Steins Gate"

I noticed "Steins Gate" several times while searching for anime I could watch, but I didn't like the the fact that it was adapted from dating-sim, and I thought the premise too goofy (something about micro-wave and time-machines). Also, I wrongly understood that there was no overall story, but that it was episodic anime. But few weeks ago I didn't have anything else to watch and somewhere on AnimeNewsNetwork read something about "Steins Gate being the best anime of the season", so I decided to give it a try after all. And it was bingo!

Main character, one Okabe Rintarou, is an idiot, plainly said. He is an almost grown man, constantly wearing a lab-coat and hangs in some room he calls his laboratory with two his friends (male hacker Daru and female childhood friend Mayuri) where they "invent" useless and usually not-working gadgets. More so, he calls himself Houin Kyoma, a mad scientist and next evil overlord. When he is in public, he constantly talks to his turned-off mobile phone, pretending he is chased by some Organization and fantasying improbable scenarios. But what happens when one of his crazy theories turns out to be the truth, and a fixed-up microwave in their apartment is really a time-machine?

"Steins Gate" starts quite slow and nothing much happens in first couple of episodes, but after that it turns in one of the best time-travelling works I ever watched. Sure, if you are a moderate science-fan, you will be able to find holes and inconsistencies in their theories. But if you are able to go with the flow, you will find this a great anime about consequences implications of time travel. I really liked how they used modern and popular references, like CERN and LHC. What differentiates this anime from similar is that they really explore the implications of time traveling, not just as a instrument of plot, but from psychological and philosophical side - what happens to time-lines he travels from, how many times can someone watch the same bad thing happens, how lonely is to meet persons again and again when they have no recollections of you, and so on. This is a kind of animated mix of "Groundhog Day" and "Conspiracy Theory"

Story is quite good, fast and it changes several times. After initial slow start, you get several fun episodes where they discover abilities of their time-machine and here start the twists. Surprisingly, episodes after 10th become quite dark and serious, not something what I would expect at the start. My worst part of the anime was three or four episodes toward the end (where Okabe has to cancel the effects of his actions) - they are too much like dating-sim and not much happens. But ending itself, two last episodes, is simply great.

Of course, all characters are good, but Okabe is quite something. You just have to love his way of speaking - pretentious rambling, making up funny names for others (and usually guessing the right spot), his "mad scientist" laugh... On the other hand, during the course of anime he proves himself surprisingly grown up, serious and caring. But fear not, he doesn't lose his goofiness. He is the primary generator of humor and are quite many funny scenes. Most of the other characters (except Daru and one other guy) are of course young girls - this was made after dating-sim after all. They are not so much developed as Okabe and they are typical characters you would expect from such anime, but this doesn't mean they are bad - on the contrary.

Visual side of the anime is good, but nothing impressive. I did like the voices of characters, especially Okabe's.

In the end, I just want to say that you must not think less of "Steins Gate" for being adapted from dating-sim - it is one full-blooded seinen anime, with great plot and character development, suitable for anybody. Consider it especially if you like harder sci-fi.

Movie review: "Contagion"

Yesterday, unplanned, I went with my girlfriend to watch "Contagion" to movies. Thankfully, without 3D...

"Contagion", as the name says, is a movie about a deadly virus spreading uncontrollably and killing a large part of human population. There are lots of movies and shows about this topic ("The Stand", with fantasy-religious elements; "Outbreak", a more militaristic version; "I Am Legend", with zombies...), but for some reasons, they are always popular (actually, as all movie of catastrophe are). This version relies on very realistic approach and strong movie cast.

The movie follows the progress and events around new and unknown virus. It has several points of views on the same plot. We have the review of last days of life of first victim (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), moderately successful continuation of life of her husband (played by Matt Damon) and his daughter, who has tough time adapting to the necessary isolation. Then we have dr. Mears (played by Kate Winslet) who is primary in charge of the outbreak and bravely goes into the diseased population; her boss dr. Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) who is desperately trying to organize investigation of cure while being constantly pressed by public and military; dr. Orantes (Marion Cottilard), a WHO member who is sent to search for the source of the virus. We even have a "bad guy", blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law), who doesn't hesitate to use this catastrophe for his own promotion. These main stories are often interrupted with random inserts showing the degradation of society as the panic grows...

All in all, "Contagion" is very good movie, with obvious high budget and very good cast. It is easy to watch, but it has some depth on the other side. A very good way to spend two hours.

Movie review: "Daybreakers"

This week I am on vacation, so I hope I will be able to finish all the late reviews. One of them is about "Daybreakers" a vampire action thriller I watched last week. On IMDB I found out it is about near future where vampires are dominant and human almost extinct, so they are working on some cure to fix all that.

This is true: movie takes place in near future, after some outbreak where vampires conquered the world and society. Now we have vampires living in nice houses on suburbia, going to work during night, going out to coffee-shops to drink coffee mixed with blood and so on. For the richer, there is even a possibility of modding you car to enable you driving during day. Humans are almost gone: there are few out in wilderness hiding, but most of the remnants are used for blood-farms. World-building is actually quite good and it all feels natural. There are few nice quirks separating the movie from rest of the bunch: fashion based on first half of 20th century (coats, hats and so on), colors and the fact that everybody smokes (since vampires don't have to be scared of cancer). At first sight, it looks like a nice place to live (if you are a vampire). But not everything is so well in world: extinction of humans also means a shortage of blood. And few days of blood-shortage transforms a well-mannered vampire gentleman to feral blood-crazy monster with wings.

Edward Dalton (played by Ethan Hawke) is a talented scientist working on finding a formula for substitute blood. He is also hoping he will one day be able to find cure of those have been turned to vampires against their will (like himself). After chance encounter with some escaping humans, he will hear about someone who was supposedly been able to reverse the process. This will not sit well with his boss who is satisfied by status quo and having a monopoly on blood-resources.

First part of the movie is good and sets a high standard. As I said, world-building is very good and it makes a believable world. Unfortunately, the plot is not so good. After initial introduction, this turns to some action thriller with predictable outcomes. Also, the characters and the actors that play them are not interesting, either. We have a collection of totally bland characters, with almost no characterization or explanation why are they doing whatever they are doing. From the way film started, I hoped for something in direction of "Matrix", but what I got was nowhere it.

Also, effects are not exactly fantastical. This is especially true at the end of the movie, where we are having false blood splashing in liters.

In the end, I can't say that "Daybreakers" is totally bad and that you shouldn't watch it. Just be sure no to have very high expectations, especially if you are a fan of vampire movies.

Movie review: "Priest"

Yesterday I watched "Priest" over my friend's house. I haven't even heard about this movie before, so I didn't know what to expect.

It turned out that "Priest" is apocalyptic action western about vampires. After the movie it was revealed that it is based on Korean comic-book. Beginning of the movie, where they reveal the setting is quite good. It is an alternative future, where after centuries of war between humans and vampires, humans got the upper hands. All thanks to Priests, super-human-ninja clerical warriors. But now, last vampires are put into reservations and Priests are neglected, scorned by both Church that disbanded them and by society they don't fit in. Not that humanity is in some great shape. They are living in poverty in few last mega-cities, brain-washed by Church. Technology is similar to steam-punk: there are high-level computers and transparent displays, but on the other hand people still manually filling furnaces and using lamp-oils. The western part is presented by the Wastelands, where people live as first settlers and order is watched by serifs having old style guns. Instead the horses, they use motorcycles. Although this list sound stupid put on one place, it actually works very well in the movie.

Plot is starting when a young girl Lucy gets abducted by a pack of vampires, even though there shouldn't be any more of them in the while. Serif she was having a relationship finds her uncle, Priest, and two of them will go out to search for her, contrary to orders of Church. What they will find in the Wasteland is something nobody believed is possible.

Plot itself is not bad, but the realization of it is. Movie places too much in impossible actions scenes. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"-like impossible. Cutting bullets in half with throwing knives, flying/jumping and so on. Also, the last fight and resolution is totally naive and unbelievable. Too bad, because I really liked the first half of the movie.

Interesting how vampires are presented here. They are far from Ann Rice's Lestat or Twilight's Edward. Here they are something between wolves and aliens from the "Alien". They move on four foot, jump and run as wolves; they don't have eyes, have really big and slimy snouts and teeth and they excrete some sticky-looking glue they use to build their hives. And they are almost mindless. Something like zombies from "I am Legend".

There is also a 3D version of the movie, but I didn't watch it. Visuals are quite good. Paul Bettany plays Priest; rest of the cast is mainly unimportant.

One more thing: there is a large probability of sequel. The ending practically spells it, but I think it depends on the success the movie makes in cinema.

So, "Priest" is a not so good action movie with quite interesting setting. It is not something I would really recommend, but if you end watching it you will not be terribly disappointed. Even though I found the plot weak, I will probably watch the sequel if it ever comes out, but just for the setting.

Manga review: "Blame!"

I first noticed "Blame!" while reading "Right Turn Only!!" on AnimeNewsNetwork. It was described as hard SF manga and it ways "Reader's Choice" (don't know real significance, but stands for some kind of recommendation). When I confirmed it is not still coming out (because I already have too much ongoing manga on schedule) I decided to read it. It turned out as a great choice.

"Blame!" is a hard SF manga by Nihei Tsutomu. For me, hard SF imply that work's (be it movie, book or anything else) primary and most characteristic is science fiction, and that it wouldn't be the same with it. For example, Miles Vorkosigan series is set in science fiction setting, but it is primary detective/thriller action; you could change the setting and still have the same feeling. On the other hand, "Eon" by Greg Bear is primary SF, although it has elements of other genders. Manga is a bit bad medium for hard science fiction because it lacks the space for explaining the science and technology, but "Blame!" nevertheless has this feeling. Funny, I am already contradicting myself: "Blame!" could work in another setting, a fantasy one. But as Arthur C. Clarke used to say: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"...

The motto of this mange is "Adventure-seeker Killy in the Cyber Dungeon". Wikipedia also regards this as a cyberpunk manga, although to me it doesn't have the cyberpunk feeling I know from "Neuromancer" or "Snow Crash". I wouldn't go deep into the plot, especially since there is not much of it. Main character Killy is wondering trough mega-structure The City searching for people with terminal net genes. Problem is that there are not much people; most of them are dead from conflicts with hostile cyborgs and AIs or malfunctioning safety services, so most of his search consists of fighting them.

Things sometimes get very confusing, so I can't say that I really understood 100% of this manga. I think I would need at least one reread to get it completely. First two volumes are especially hard to understand, but when you start with third one, you will already be hooked up. The manga has 10 volumes.

Setting is really great. I am a sucker for mega-structures. Imagine this: you have a incredible large room you can't even see walls; there is 13 of them inside one structure; this structure is just a small part of one level; there are some 10 levels (I can't remember if it was particularly said how much there is levels)! The City if mostly empty, but there are still great numbers of peoples. Trans-humans, cyborgs, robots, crazy AI's, people reduced to animals...

There are not many characters. Main one is Killy, who doesn't talk much, but doesn't hesitate to fight. Scientist Cibo become his partner after he saves her from death. She is much more talkative and gives the most of explanations (not that they are always understandable). Except two of them, there are not many characters that last for more than one or two volumes.

I found ending especially well, although it stays both unexplained and unresolved.

For conclusion, "Blame!" is a very good SF manga, but I don't think it's for everybody. Often confusing, slow paced and lots of tech-speech makes it unsuitable for people who expect a light read, but if you like SF for itself, you will probably like "Blame!".

Movie review: "V for Vendetta"

Few weeks ago I decided to watch some of the "older" movies (up to ten years old) that I missed. There are lots of them, so I am currently using IMDB USA box-office archive. This week I watched "V for Vendetta". I didn't know much about the movie prior to watching it. I know it was an adaptation of comic and that main character wears some crazy mask (I checked Wikipedia, they say it is Guy Fawkes' mask; I presume that scene at the beginning of the movie depicts Fawkes' dramatized "execution"). I believed this movie would be about French revolution or something like that.

But, it turns out this is actually contemporary, alternate-history SF-ish movie. It lasts two hours and it really has a lot of plot in it. First part of the movie is confusing and intriguing at the same time. It takes some time to start rolling. We first meet Evey, while she wanders through some streets after curfew. She almost gets raped by some under-cover policemen, but in the last moment she gets saved by a guy in black, wearing (my first association) a musketeer's mask and wielding swords and knives. Man introduces himself as "V" and in flourishing language invites her to watch a musical performance with her. It turns out that this "performance" is actually bombing of British parliament. This starts V's terrorist activity against fascist and repressing British government.

There are three things that are great in this movie. First, the world-building. It is near future England and it is very dystopian. After some nuclear war that USA was involved with, England isolated itself from rest of the world, lead by charismatic and autocratic leader Adam Sutler. Regime is very racist and homophobic; government strictly controls media (especially television, where Evey works) and secret police is almost almighty. Worst thing about it is that people have grown with this situation and they consider it normal. That is the ultimate goal of V's anarchism: changing people conscience about them.

Second is the plot. For a comic-book adaptation, plot is marvelous and quite believable. V almost doesn't have any special powers nor is he some genius. Plot is very surprising, shown from multiple POVs and it is never boring. There are many funny scenes, especially at the beginning. But the movie overall is very somber. I especially liked the ending; it was very emotional and epic, on more than one level.

Third, the characters. Three main characters are V, Evey and Finch, the police inspector on V's case. During the movie, we know almost nothing about V. We find out a bit about his history, but we never really get to know him, his motivations and such. But we instinctively know he is the good guy. A bit twisted guy, especially shown in his relationship with Evey, but good guy nevertheless. Definitely very interesting character; especially the fact that he never, ever shows his face! Evey has some very traumatic experiences and she does a lot of growing up. In some aspects, she is the actual protagonist of the story. Inspector Finch is also a good guy, albeit on the bad side. We follow him as he realizes that, while unsuccessfully trying to stop V. Rest of the cast is also done very well.

Interestingly, I think this is the rare case where the adopted material is better than the original. I cannot be sure, of course, because I haven't read the original comic-book, but I've read a synopsis of it and it looks much more flamboyant than the movie.

Just to mention, movie has almost none special effects; it counts more on the inner quality then the visuals (even though the production is not bad in any aspect). And I mean this as a compliment.

"V for Vendetta" is a great movie. A combination of SF, thriller and drama, it asks for concentrated audience. But my opinion is that the movie is worth of it. Definitely a recommendation!

Movie review: "The Stand"

"The Stand" is one more "blast from the past" (1994, to be precise). Or so I thought before I started watching it. It is not actually a movie; it is a four-part miniseries (every part is about 1.5 hours long). I remember watching this series when I was a kid 10-15 years old and I remember enjoying it. I also remember watching only first two parts... Which makes the crucial difference.

Because the show sucks after second episode. Third part is only moderately good compared to first two parts, but last episode, and especially the ending, is really bad. Well, if I think about it objectively, it's not so bad, but when you consider the potential first two parts have, this is very bad.

Anyway, "The Stand" starts with the end of the world. Some kind of super-flu is accidentally released from US secret laboratory and it kills most of people on the world. It's not explicitly said, but I got an impression that there were only few thousand people left in America. During the chaos resulting from the virus, while fighting for survival, some of the unaffected people have dreams of an old woman, preaching about God and warning them to be careful of the "dark man" (or some other similar name, I'm not sure). After some time, people will divide in two camps: the good ones, joined around mother Abigail (the old woman) and the bad ones, led by Flagg (the dark man).

As I said, first two parts are great. The fear, the struggle, the confusion... Everything is represented superbly. Tension is present all the time. But, even during the second episode, you start wondering "When the action will start?". And the answer in "Never!!!". Show fails to develop this tension to some kind of plot. Instead, you get the characters wondering around all the time.

Second flaw is the characters: they are totally predictable and one-dimensional. Good guys are made halfway believable (thought, they are likable), but when you see the bad guys, you can't help wondering "Are you guys total idiots?!?!". And the main villain... Looks like somebody didn't read the Evil Overlord List...

Third flaw are special effects. If you can't do them decently, don't do them. Show does the same mistake as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind": it shows what should not be showed. There it was the aliens, and here is the main villain's true face. And when you see it, it ruins what's left of the movie.

Also, I didn't like the feel of religious fanaticism the show promotes. I remember Stephen King always being close to religion in his writing (e.g. the kid in "Desperation") but the end of this show is a bit too much.

So, in conclusion, it's not a show I can recommend to anybody. It had a nice potential, but it failed to deliver.