''THE STAND is a masterpiece'' (Guardian)

Stephen King''s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by virus and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.

First came the virus. And then came the dreams . . .

A man escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out over 99 percent of the world''s population within a few weeks.

Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge - Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the ''dark man'', the apostate of death, the warlord of the charnel house and Prince of Evil.

Now the survivors must choose between them - and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

''A masterpiece'' GUARDIAN

''His work plumbs, with unnerving accuracy, the hopes and fears of an entire nation'' OBSERVER