The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’

For this chilling postapocalyptic anthology, 36 authors—including big-name horror writers like Tananarive Due and Chuck Wendig, and those best known for their work in other genres, such as S.A. Cosby—explore and expand the world of Stephen King’s The Stand, in which 99.8% of humanity has been killed by the Captain Trips super flu. The contributors approach this eerie setting with creativity and curiosity, perhaps none more so than Catriona Ward, whose “The African Painted Dog” explores how the pandemic affects animals in a zoo. C. Robert Cargill’s “Wrong Fucking Place, Wrong Fucking Time” follows two horror-film-loving survivors in Roosevelt, Tex., who’d always believed that it “would be a great town if it weren’t for all the people,” and whose taste in videotapes ends up being life-saving. In “Kovach’s Last Case,” Michael Koryta imagines a dedicated homicide cop who’s search for a suspected serial killer in the midst of the apocalypse places him in an ethical dilemma. Even readers unfamiliar with The Stand will find much to enjoy here, while fans will be pleased by the attention to detail. Every entry hits the mark, a tribute both to the editors’ selection process and King’s original worldbuilding. (Aug.)