The current media landscape is littered with nostalgia grabs like so many abandoned cars rotting on the road from Maine to Boulder. We’ve seen reboots of the movies we loved as children as well as do-we-really-need-this sequels that serve us the familiar, the comfortable, and the already-experienced. In the complicated world we live in, established and safe stories anchor us, welcome us, and don’t ask too much of us.
I would argue that The End of the World as We Know It, a collection of short stories in the world of Stephen King’s The Stand, provides another kind of nostalgia altogether.
A Familiar Apocalypse
Instead of using specific characters we learned to love (other than the archetypal forces of good and evil), these stories use King’s world as a canvas to paint wholly new tales. These range from straight horror to meta fantasy and provide answers to many questions left unanswered even in the unabridged version of The Stand. What happened in the world outside the United States? Did everyone have the dream of either Abagail or The Walking Dude? What happened to the immune after those 1,300 or so pages of the original novel?
If you haven’t read The Stand or watched one of the two television series adaptations, this collection might not be for you. But if you’ve experienced any version, or any recent apocalypse story, most of the stories will make sense. The important things to know going in are Mother Abagail shows herself in the dreams of the good, and Randall Flagg takes his dark steps in the dreams of the bad.
Nostalgia x 2
If you were to read a story about Hobbits set in the world of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, you’d get a dopamine hit as your mind walks barefoot through the Shire, smoking pipeweed. But in The End of the World as We Know It, not only do you return to that Captain Tripps-devastated earth, but to a time capsule of our world in 1990. Paper books, physical media, and analog everything are critical parts of the stories. Some characters even enjoy books and movies (if they’re lucky enough to have power) to pass the time—a nostalgia sandwich on nostalgia whole wheat.
Upon reading the stories in the first section of the book, which focus on the initial outbreak and survival, I enjoyed visiting a world that feels less complicated than our own. News came on the television and radio (until static took over), no one wore a smartwatch to track their steps, and paper maps helped survivors navigate the highways. I wondered, as these characters trekked toward Nebraska, Boulder, or Las Vegas, how this story could be told in our time. Would a seventeen-year-old boy know how to read a map without step-by-step spoken directions? Could electric cars make travel easier once all the gasoline goes bad? How many of us would simply fade away in our homes after complete withdrawal from social media?
A Pandemic of Talent
This is one of the best short story collections I have read. But that’s to be expected when the editors chose so many talented and well-established writers. Only a few of the stories left me wanting or disappointed, and many others will stay with me for a long time. A rich array of characters—good, evil, and everything in between—make truly relatable choices in a desolate world. Just like King’s own work, you feel that these are real people (and animals) with rich inner lives that you could meet on the street (pre-apocalypse, of course).
While I enjoyed the stories in all four sections of the book—the pandemic itself, the pilgrimages after, the future after The Stand, and beyond reality—my absolute favorites were both about the future. “He’s a Righteous Man” by Ronald Malfi channels human nature in a world where no babies are born immune and a new prophet walks the earth. “Came the Last Night of Sadness” by Catherynne M. Valente weaves otherworldly elements with a beautiful story-within-a-story about creatures other than the surviving humans.
A Bang, Not a Whimper
For the uninitiated who just enjoy great escapist literature about the apocalypse, The End of the World as We Know It is a master class in short story writing. For Stand fans, this is a welcome journey back to when we first walked that lonely, dangerous road and questioned our own worth along with Stu, Tom Cullen, and the rest, and became stronger for it.
Sadie writes science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories. She is currently working on a sci-fi novel. Some of her recent work can be found in Altered Worlds: An Altered Reality Anthology (https://bookshop.org/p/books/altered-worlds-david-gianatasio/e07a839a08160e6e?ean=9781957175263)
When not writing or working her day job as a freelance web developer, she enjoys gardening, absurd bumper stickers, and befriending street cats.
You can find out more about her on Bluesky (@sadieleewood.com) or her website (sadieleewood.com).