2012, according to some misinterpreted Mayan calendars, New Age prophets and Roland Emmerich, is the end. On December 22nd, we’re all going to brush up on our Katniss Everdeen skillz and fight our way into creating a new world which probably looks all shiny and clean, but is mostly likely corrupt and powered by forsaken children. Think of the children.

Nowadays, with the dystopia boom in literature and the news reports of everything from crashing financial markets to real life zombie attacks, it does feel like we’re living in the dystopia, but we just haven’t admitted it yet.

So what happens if something, like, say, one of those remaining smallpox vaccines just happened to get out into the world?

Stephen King’s The Stand wasn’t the first post-apocalyptic work I was exposed to, but I think it left a very lasting effect on me. It’s my favorite of all of his novels, to the point where I was reading it at least once a year. Which is saying something, as it’s over eleven hundred pages. With illustrations. But as much as I love this book, I haven’t sat down and given it a good read in a long time.

As part of a longer project, I’ve been rereading my personal library, but didn’t quite know how to retackle The Stand. I’ve loved following the various Second Time Around blogs here and the Mark Reads blog and thought “Why not?” It’ll certainly be an experience. Also, because I’m a masochist, I’ll be hitting three chapters in each review. This may or may not change depending on my schedule.

NOTE: I’m putting this out here now, I’m probably the only Stephen King fan who hasn’t read the Dark Tower series. I’ve read one story, and aside from the numerous characters who pop in and out of the ‘verse, that is the extent of my familiarity with it. I plan on getting to it one day, just not…soon. So, please, no major spoilers for the Dark Tower specifically. (All other King works are fair game and will be discussed. That may or may not also include Faithful.)