This is how the world ends: with computer error in a Defense Department lab, and a million casual connections that make up the links in a deadly chain letter.
Here is the desolate landscape the next day: a new world with all its institutions destroyed, and 99 percent of the population dead. A world where a few terrified survivors take sides—or are taken. A world in which hope survives on the fragile shoulders of 108 year old Mother Abigail—and the greatest evil of the darkest nightmares is manifested in Randall Flagg, the dark man with inconceivable power and a deadly smile.
Originally published in 1978, The Stand is widely considered among Stephen King's greatest novels. However, it was incomplete—more than 150,000 words had been edited out of the original epic manuscript.
Now King's post apocalyptic tale of a land ravaged by disease and caught in a fundamental battle between good and evil is available in its entirety for the first time. The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition features more than 500 pages of previously deleted material, plus new material added by King as he reinvented his epic story for a new generation. New characters are introduced, and familiar characters are brought even more vividly to life. The beginning and ending are both new.
This new edition is King's gift to the countless fans who read or listened to the original version and wanted more. Those who are listening to The Stand for the first time will find an imaginative and haunting apocalyptic epic that tackles the issues that will determine the survival of mankind.
Stephen King is the author of more than fifty worldwide bestsellers. In 2003, he received the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives with his wife, novelist Tabitha King, in Bangor, Maine.
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 Abagail—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 five hundred 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 complexity 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 reading 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.
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