The Stand, by Stephen King

This is how the world ends, not by asteroid, or nuclear bomb, but a genetically engineered super-flu.

By far one of the best Stephen King novels. Its a love hate affair though, I loved it and have read it again an again. Its more than good vs evil, its the struggle for humanity in a post plague apocalypse. Each charater is fully formed, richly drawn, and bearing the best and worst qualities of mankind. To truly understand the novel you must read the unabridged (complete) version, those extra few hundred pages really make the diffrence. The Stand marks Kings progress from pulp horror to literature.

Classic good versus evil tale of a post-plague world. Bought because it was the fattest book on the stand at a London railway station I've read it over and over again. Focuses on several different characters who you really identify with.