The Stand

Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil is a classic for our times. First came the virus. And then the dreams. A man escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out over 99 per cent of the world's population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge - the survivors must choose between them - and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity."[The Stand] has everything - adventure, romance, prophecy, allegory, satire, fantasy, realism, apocalypse, etc., etc... In many ways, this is a book for the 1990s, when America is beginning to see itself less and less in the tall image of Lincoln or even the robust one of Johnny Appleseed and more and more as a dazed behemoth with padded shoulders." - The New York Times Book Review"A masterpiece . . . King says in the novel's introduction that he "wanted to write a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting", and that's absolutely what he did . . . The Stand is dense and rich. Every character is full and alive." - The Guardian One man escapes from a biological weapon facility after an accident, carrying with him the deadly virus known as Captain Tripps, a rapidly mutating flu that - in the ensuing weeks - wipes out most of the world's population. In the aftermath, survivors choose between following an elderly black woman to Boulder or the dark man, Randall Flagg, who has set up his command post in Las Vegas. The two factions prepare for a confrontation between the forces of good and evil. ([source][1]) [1]: https://stephenking.com/library/novel/stand_the.html After the days of the plague came the dreams Dark dreams that warned of the coming of the dark man. The apostate of death, his worn-down boot heels tramping the night roads. The warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil. His time is at hand. His empire grows in the west and the Apocalypse looms... --back cover SUMMARY: When a man crashes his car into a petrol station, he brings with him the foul corpses of his wife and daughter. He dies and it doesn't take long for the plague which killed him to spread across America and the world. Ready Upoad : ? Hapscomb's Texaco sat on Number 93 just north of Arnette, a pissant four-street burg about 110 miles from Houston. June 16, 1985. That is when the horror began--the evil that started in a laboratory and took over America Reissue of the international bestseller in the dramatic new graphic cover style of No. 1 bestseller, CELL