Been a long long time since I read a book so engrossing.
Simliar to The Stand but very different in a lot of ways.
If you like a vampire type story that develops the characters and is beautifully written, check this out.
About 760 pages and it is the first of a trilogy. The next 2 books are due in '12 and '14.
Author is Justin Cronin.
Wiki link, Spoilers if you read too much:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passage_(2010_novel)