a day late...the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get...
"Grace" by Tim Lennon (from The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand, edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, 2025)
Most of us know the basic background of King's epic 1973 (expanded edition, 1900) novel. A [pathogen created in a government lab has been released. I spreads virulently across the globe, killing more than 99% of the world's population in the most horrifying way. A few people, for reasons unknown, are immune. The disease, known colloquially as "Captain Trips," sets the stage for the ultimate (for now) battle between good and evil. Many of the survivors begin having dreams -- some of a kindly, aged Black woman in rural Nebraska, known as Mother Abigail; others of the mysterious dark and menacing figure of Randall Flagg, known variously as the Dark Man, the Traveling Man, or the Gracious Man. Abigail is telling those she contacts to travel to Nebraska to meet her;. Flagg, meanwhile, is using his influence over the weak, the evil, and the twisted to get together and torture, kill, and sometimes eat the other survivors, as Flagg leads his followers to congregate in Las Vegas. Abigail wants her followers to head to Boulder, where a final (for now) showdown between good and evil will take place between the two cities. Abigail is the Moses figure, over one hundred years old and frail, fated to lead her followers out of Egypt, but also fated never to see them reach the Promised Land.
The End of the World as We Know It is a massive book -- more than 760 pages containing 34 stories. It is divided into four sections: the first, taking up close to half the book, concerns the early days of the plague; the second, the trip to Boulder and Las Vegas; the third, what happens there; and the fourth, the aftermath. Almost all of the 36 authors (there are two collaborations) are well-known and respected authors in their field, and every story is a gem. But the strictures of King's novel and of this anthology introduce a sameness in many of the tales, even though the characters and the locations and the details vary widely. For that reason, this is anthology to dip into, not to race through.
One story, "Grace," however is unique in its setting -- a space station orbiting Earth. Five astronauts were aboard the station when the plague hit. The pilot then committed suicide, slicing his wrists. In a effort to stop; him, another astronaut was killed when the knife sliced his carotid artery. And now there are three: Matt, who feels guilty about his wife and children left on Earth; Lizzie, who has been having vague dreams from Mother Abigail; and Gemma, who was unsuspected of her father's murder when she was a teenage, and is now going under the influence of Randall Flagg. The plague has wiped out Kennedy Space Center, and with no pilot, the three survivors have no way to get home...thier mission was supposed to last only a few days, but now, with severe rationing, they can last for maybe twelve days. After that, they will die.
Sooner than that, actually, Under Flagg's influence, Gemma kills Matt and tries to kill Lizzie, who managed to get away to a separate compartment. Gemma locks Lizzie in and enter the command module. Flagg has told Gemma to crash the ship into Earth, aiming at Nebraska where Mother Abigail is. Gemma does not know how to pilot the ship but Flagg assures her that he will guide her. No matter what happens, Lizzie faces certain death. She must stop Gemma somehow but she is locked in a separate compartment and has no way to do that...
An interesting, suspenseful, and sorrowful take on the battle between good and evil.
Lebbon is a best-selling British author of horror and dark fantasy. He has won the Stoker, British Fantasy, Dragon, and Scribe Awards. Several of his works have been filmed. He has written fifty novels, one multi-collaborative novel, and eight short story collections.
No comments:
Post a Comment