|
This is the way the
world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense
Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that
form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the
bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its
institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A
world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides
-- or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail
shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail -- and the
worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal
smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.
In 1978 Stephen King published The Stand, the novel that is
now considered to be one of his finest works. But as it was
first published, The Stand was incomplete, since more than
150,000 words had been cut from the original manuscript. Now
Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by
plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good
and evil has been restored to its entirety. The Stand : The
Complete And Uncut Edition includes more than five hundred
pages of material previously deleted, along with new
material that King added as he reworked the manuscript for a
new generation. It gives us new characters and endows
familiar ones with new depths. It has a new beginning and a
new ending. What emerges is a gripping work with the scope
and moral comlexity of a true epic.
For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its
original version and wanted more, this new edition is
Stephen King's gift. And those who are reading The Stand for
the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily
plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues
that will determine our survival. |
|
Publisher's Weekly
Survivors of a chemical weapon called superflu confront pure
evil in this updated and even more massive version of King's
1978 saga. ``The extra 400 or so pages . . . make King's
best novel better still,'' said PW. `` A new beginning adds
verisimilitude to an already frighteningly believable story,
while a new ending opens up possibilities for a sequel." |
