You have to read The Stand. Itās my favorite King novel. Get the expanded version which I believe is 1300 pages. Iāve read that book at least 5 times. Funny that you mentioned Covid as a reason that you didnāt read it. Captain Trips is the virus in the book. Iāll say no more.
you and I have done the same thing. that book is excellent and the way king writes his characters means the book couldāve just kept going imo. heās excellent at making you care for fictional people.
imo he didnāt need a visual āhand of godā to set off the nuke. just have trash show up with it and have it with a switch he cobbled together to show off the big fire. have a one liner from the trapped heroes that god mustāve made him bring the weapon and then boom. the way it was written was like he had painted himself in a corner and just said F it the hand of god comes down.