15 Stephen King stories ranked from heartwarming to horrifying

The Stand (Cover image via Doubleday)

7. The Stand

Flagg was first introduced in The Stand, Stephen King’s 1978 mega novel of a worldwide apocalypse with mystical circumstances. King was obliged to cut a significant amount of material after editors and printing presses balked at the load. When it was re-released in 1990, he was able to add back in the lost texts. This brought the novel from its initial 823 pages to a whopping 1,152.

The Stand follows a group of people as they pick up the pieces after a devastating worldwide flu pandemic. More than 99 percent of humanity has died thanks to the “superflu,” leaving behind a tiny, scared, and confused smattering of survivors.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is any ordinary post-apocalyptic epic, however. For all of these survivors come together thanks to a kind of mystic sense of purpose and a semi-messianic woman known as Mother Abagail. They are to unite in the mountains of Colorado to stand against the forces of evil.

And this is not just ordinary post-apocalyptic warrior evil, but the kind of overarching, mind bending darkness that has a far deeper source. They’re going to fight Randall Flagg.

You didn’t think we were done with him, did you? You see, while Mother Abagail has gathered people around her in Colorado, Flagg has established a dystopian, Thunderdome-style settlement in Las Vegas (of course it’s Las Vegas).

The Stand is sufficiently epic to keep you engaged for weeks. It’s also decidedly dark, though the inhabitants of Abagail’s “Free Zone” are enough to keep you from totally giving in to despair.