Stephen King's gritty post-apocalyptic novel The Stand is ranked among the author's best works.
It tackles the much-used theme of battling a catastrophic epidemic of an incurable infectious disease, which here takes the form of a “superflu” developed in military laboratories. However, the experiment gets out of control and the contagion wipes out almost all of humanity. The handful of survivors are divided into two groups – some take refuge with the kind Mother Abagail, who has spoken to them in their dreams, while the others head into the arms of the Dark Man. King's novel culminates in a classic battle between Good and Evil, in which humans are merely pawns on the chessboard in the game for the world. In the book, King plays with his favourite theme of predestination, which he also explored in other novels such as The Dead Zone, It, or The Dark Tower.
The novel was first published in 1978, but it was radically shortened by the author at the publisher's behest because it was only the author's fourth novel, and there were fears that its original length might deter readers. Over time, however, it became clear that the name Stephen King could successfully sell almost anything, so in 1990, a slightly revised and expanded version of The Stand was published at its original length. King is at the top of his game, and the thrilling narrative doesn't let the reader catch their breath for a moment.
