The Stand

Author: Stephen King

Pandemic story. Virus alert! Accidental release of the pathogen, failure to contain spread through a single uncooperative human, who spreads the plague and soon we have the terminal pandemic. Bird Flu, eat your heart out! Society disintegrates, and martial law, censorship and authority-driven violence fail to contain or improve the situation. The novel follows several strands of individual tales that eventually interweave into a clash, which mixes mundane post-apocalyptic elements with mysticism and even a touch of dark magic. In the end, nothing much happen to the world at large though and there's no hint that there's a way to drag humanity out of this mess. Like ever! Why it's on the list: Well, it's Stephen King, who usually manages to suck you into a story that has so many unbelievables and mixes the weirdest genres together, so you end up wondering how you could ever have gotten sucked into it as you have, despite major serious suspension-of-belief issues. Me, I prefer my 'virus' apocalypses and their consequences to remain mundane, with animated zombies being at the fringes of what I can accept. But King sucks me in anyway. Damn him! Ratings: Grimness: 5, Bizarreness: 3, Hope: 1, Fun-factor: 2.