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.
A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly
carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out ninety-nine
percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those who remain are
scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge: Mother Abagail, the
benevolent old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder,
Colorado, and Randall Flagg, the nefarious “Dark Man,” who delights in chaos
and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the
survivors will have to choose between them, and ultimately decide the fate of
all humanity.
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