The Stand

The first 200 pages of The Stand are Peak Stephen King, an astonishing display of narrative technique and storytelling ability as King describes in terrifying detail the accidental release of an Army-developed super flu, and the subsequent destruction of 99.4% of the human race. The rest of the book is nearly as good, as it shifts into supernatural fantasy territory with deeply religious and philosophical themes. If perhaps the characters in these later sections fall too simplistically into good guys and bad guys (and with some less than plausible plot developments), The Stand is nonetheless an enormously satisfying epic and arguably Stephen King’s masterpiece. (By the way, I much prefer the originally published 800-page version to the more unfocused “complete and uncut” 1,150-page version King would release in 1990.)