Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in a basic struggle between great and evil is a classic for our times.
First came the virus. And afterward the dreams. A man escapes from an organic testing office, unconsciously conveying a lethal weapon: a transformed strain of super-influenza that will clear out north of the vast majority of the total populace within a couple of weeks. Those who remain are scared, baffled, and need a pioneer. Two arise - the survivors must choose between them - and eventually determine the destiny of all humankind.
[The Stand] has everything - experience, feeling, premonition, moral story, parody, dream, authenticity, end times, etc, etc... In various ways, this is a book for the 1990s, when America is starting to see itself less and less in the tall picture of Lincoln or even the robust one of Johnny Appleseed and that's just the beginning and more as a shocking behemoth with cushioned shoulders. - The New York Times Book Survey
"A masterpiece . . . King says in the original's presentation that he "needed to compose a fantasy epic like The Master of the Rings, just with an American setting", and that is absolutely the very thing he did . . . The Stand is dense and rich. Each character is full and alive." - The Gatekeeper