The End of the World As We Know It is a fully authorized short story anthology that serves as a companion to Stephen King's beloved post-apocalyptic novel

New Tales Of Stephen King's The Stand Preorders Discounted, Releases Next Week

Stephen King fans can save on preorders for the intriguing new companion anthology to The Stand, the horror author's masterful post-apocalyptic novel. The hardcover edition of The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand is available for $26.74 (was $35) ahead of its August 19 release. The short story anthology is fully authorized by Stephen King and features an introduction by the horror legend himself.

The 800-page anthology is edited by Bram Stoker Award-winning horror writers Christopher Golden and Brian Keene.

The Stand is widely regarded as one of King's best novels, and there are many constant readers who view the gargantuan tome as King's magnum opus. A sweeping masterpiece of post-apocalyptic fiction, The Stand has such a large cast of characters and stories to tell that King feasibly could have turned it into a series of novels instead. And that's perhaps why this anthology exists.

The End of the World As We Know It is pitched as "an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel." It features short stories by dozens of authors working in horror, thriller, dark fantasy genres today. Some of the stories take place during the events of the book, while others will take place after and probably before. Gallery Books has kept relatively quiet on the characters in these stories, but it seems likely that the anthology will feature existing and brand-new characters.

We do know the full list of contributors. Some of the standout names who wrote stories for the anthology include S. A. Cosby, Richard Chizmar, Caroline Kepnes, Catriona Ward, Josh Malerman, Ronald Malfi, Paul Tremblay, and Gabino Iglesias. Assuming all of the contributors wrote one story, you're looking at 35 new short stories, plus the introduction, foreword, and afterword.

Here's the full list of contributors:

• Stephen King - Introduction
• Christopher Golden - Foreword, Editor
• Brian Keene - Afterword, Editor
• Wayne Brady
• Maurice Broaddus
• Poppy Z. Brite
• Somer Canon
• C. Robert Cargill
• Nat Cassidy
• V. Castro
• Richard Chizmar
• S. A. Cosby
• Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes
• Meg Gardiner
• Gabino Iglesias
• Jonathan Janz
• Alma Katsu
• Caroline Kepnes
• Michael Koryta
• Sarah Langan
• Joe R. Lansdale
• Tim Lebbon
• Josh Malerman
• Ronald Malfi
• Usman T. Malik
• Premee Mohamed
• Cynthia Pelayo
• Hailey Piper
• David J. Schow
• Alex Segura
• Bryan Smith
• Paul Tremblay
• Catherynne M. Valente
• Bev Vincent
• Catriona Ward
• Chuck Wendig
• Wrath James White
• Rio Youers

Many of the contributors likely grew up reading Stephen King novels. Perhaps he's part of the reason why they wanted to become writers in the first place. For dozens of professional fiction writers to create new stories inside the world of The Stand demonstrates how influential the novel continues to be nearly 50 years after its original publication.

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At 800 pages, New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand is roughly the same length as the original 1978 hardcover edition of the novel. At the time, King was forced to remove roughly 400 pages from his manuscript due to printing costs. In 1990, Scribner published The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition with the unabridged text. Today, this definitive version of The Stand is 1,152 pages in hardcover.

We'd highly recommend reading The Complete and Uncut Edition before diving into the upcoming anthology. You have multiple different formats and editions to choose from.

The Stand by Stephen King:

• Hardcover -- $32.69 ($55)
  • Sold by Amazon -- $51.15 ($55)
• Trade Paperback -- $14.40 ($22)
• Trade Paperback (International) -- $24
• Mass Market Paperback -- $12 | August 26
• Mass Market (TV series Tie-in) -- $8 ($11)
• Kindle -- $10
• Audible Audiobook
• Deluxe Special Edition -- $400

For paper book enthusiasts, we'd generally suggest the hardcover edition for a novel of this size. Unfortunately, Amazon is no longer offering a great discount on the $55 book. For the past months, Amazon had been selling The Stand for around $25 in hardcover, but now it's $51.55. That said, you can purchase it for around $32 from a reputable reseller, and your book will still ship from Amazon.

The trade paperback edition, which is 1,200 pages, would be our second choice. The pages aren't quite as spacious. as the hardcover, but it's still easier to read than the mass market paperback editions. There is a pretty darn cool mass market paperback edition releasing later this month for $12. Just keep in mind this is 1,328 pages with small typeface. The cheapest mass market paperback edition has promo art from the 2020 miniseries. Like most film and TV tie-in editions, it's pretty ugly and has a CBS All Access (now Paramount+) advertisement at the top. Unfortunately, even the Kindle and excellent audiobook versions have this cover.

For existing fans of The Stand who want to splurge, check out the beautiful--and very expensive--new Deluxe Special Edition below.

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This stunning edition of The Stand is printed on thicker, higher-quality paper stock, so this would be the heaviest 1,300-page hardcover you own. The pages measure 7 x 10 inches, making it about a half-inch taller and wider than the regular hardcover edition. It has a fine binding and foil-stamped cover with brand-new artwork on the dust jacket. The jacket is protected by plastic, much like a library book. Artist Glenn Chadbourne created original illustrations as well as new endpapers and a black-and-white limitation page.

You can protect and display the Deluxe Special Edition with the custom-designed slipcase. The hardshell slipcase has a leather-like texture and features the author and title on the front.

The Stand: Deluxe Special Edition is part of Cemetery Dance's series of highly limited, lavish printings of King's classic novels. Cemetery Dance is a nearly 40-year-old publisher of horror founded by Richard Chizmar--the same Richard Chizmar who co-wrote (and published) the Gwendy Trilogy with Stephen King and is contributing to The End of the World As We Know It.

The Deluxe Special Edition of The Stand has been in the works for a long time. Cemetery Dance announced three different versions of this edition back in 2019: Lettered (52 copies), Limited (1,250 copies), and Gift Edition (4,000 copies). Those who preordered the Gift Edition just recently began receiving their copies. It was initially limited to 3,000 copies, but that number jumped to 4,000. Back in 2019, the price was $150, but as you can imagine, a lot of things can change in six years.

I recently purchased a copy on eBay for roughly $225. Just keep that in mind before you buy one from Amazon for $400. The $400 listing is official and is sold/shipped by Amazon, but it's possible to find a copy for considerably less (at least for now). Collectible editions of King's work almost always become more valuable over time.

Like other King limited editions from Cemetery Dance, The Stand: Deluxe Special Edition will never be printed again. Amazon lists two different dates on its store page, August 12 and August 19. The retailer doesn't offer an estimated delivery date, so we suspect it won't have copies available to ship until next week.

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Adaptations of Stephen King's The Stand

In June, Paramount Pictures announced a film adaptation of The Stand with Doug Liman tapped to direct. Liman is an industry veteran with decades of experience directing action films, including The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, and American Made. The adaptation is still a long ways off, as there isn't even a script yet. It will be interesting to see how Paramount approaches The Stand due to the novel's length.

The Stand has twice been adapted for TV, first by ABC in 1994 and again in 2020 by Paramount. The 1994 adaptation had four lengthy episodes totally just over six hours. Paramount split the 2020 miniseries into nine episodes with a total runtime of 8.5 hours. Even with those runtimes, the miniseries adaptations felt like small chunks of the story, so adapting it successfully to film is a tall task. Let's just hope The Stand's film adaptation is better than The Dark Tower movie.

TV Miniseries on Blu-ray

If you're interested in watching the TV miniseries, Amazon has a Blu-ray combo pack with both miniseries for $35 (was $45). Over at Walmart, you can get an exclusive Steelbook Edition of the 1994 miniseries for $20.

• The Stand: The Definitive 2-Series Collection (Blu-ray) -- $35 ($45)
• The Stand: 1994 Miniseries - Steelbook Edition (Blu-ray) -- $20 | Walmart Exclusive
• The Stand: 1994 Miniseries (Blu-ray) -- $8.75 ($12)
• The Stand: 2020 Miniseries (Blu-ray) -- $24 ($40)

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This story originally appeared on: GameSpot - Author:UK GAG