stand

The Stand is a post-apocalyptic fantasy/horror novel written by American author Stephen King and first published in 1978 by Doubleday. The plot centers on a pandemic of a weaponized strain of influenza that almost entirely kills the world's population. The few survivors, united in groups, establish a new social system and engage in confrontation with each other. In writing the book, King sought to create an epic in the spirit of The Lord of the Rings that was set in contemporary America. The book was difficult for King to write because of the large number of characters and storylines.
In 1990, The Stand was reprinted as a "Complete and Uncut" edition. King restored some fragments of texts that were initially reduced, revised the order of the chapters, shifted the novel's setting from 1980 to ten years forward, and accordingly corrected a number of cultural references. The Complete and Uncut edition of The Stand is considered to be King's longest stand-alone work. The book has sold 4.5 million copies.
The Stand was highly appreciated by literary critics and is considered one of King's best novels. It received a number of literary award nominations, including the Balrog Award, the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award, and was included in lists of the best books of all time by Rolling Stone, Time, the Modern Library, Amazon and the BBC. Reviewers praised the believability of the story, the relevance of the issues raised and the liveliness of the characters, but criticized the protractedness of individual episodes, the plot dualism and the deliberate denouement. A self-titled miniseries based on the novel was broadcast on ABC in 1994. From 2008 to 2012, Marvel Comics published a series of comics written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and illustrated by Mike Perkins. A miniseries to air on CBS All Access is in development.

View More On Wikipedia.org