Year One, by Nora Roberts

If you've ever thought: Man, The Stand sounds interesting, but I'm just not into Stephen King's writing, congratulations, you're in luck! Year One is The Stand, as written by Nora Roberts.

Like The Stand, Year One opens with a pandemic that kills most of the world's population. After the dust settles, small groups of survivors attempt to make a life for themselves in this new world. Some embrace anarchic violence, others try to create an idealized human society. Evil religious figures and charismatic mystical figures rise to power. There's a pregnant woman carrying a Very Important Baby. Sure, Roberts tosses in a couple of original thoughts (the pandemic seems to have brought out latent magical talent in some of the survivors), but they're few and far between.

Normally, I'd complain vociferously about an author getting ripped off like this, but I've never gotten over Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, which as far as I could tell was a self-insertion fanfic based on Lars Von Trier's only watchable work. Hoist with your own petard, King! And Roberts is, as ever, a technically competent writer, so Year One isn't painful to read. If you can find it (deeply) on sale, and you have nothing better to do, and you haven't already read The Stand, go for it.