Stephen King, The Stand

The Stand was planned by Kind as “the American Lord of the Rings” set in a contemporary setting, with Las Vegas cast in the role of Mordor, the land of shadows. The novel takes place in a USA decimated by a type of horrifying SUPER-FLU which wipes out 99% of the population. 

We follow our hero, a Texan by the name of Stu Redman, as he makes sense of the end-of-the-world and his role and responsibilities in this new landscape. He joins a small force of allied and panicky survivors who travel across the USA to face the “man in black”, Randal Flagg, in Las Vegas. Flagg is described as a type of timeless entity that stands for the evil that men do - a creature of chaos and technology. The Stand is written in classic Stephen King fashion, you will not be able to put it down.