10 Best Unfinished Stephen King Novels

This story was written at the same time that King was writing Getting It On, which would go on to become Rage, published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The Aftermath, however, was less fortunate and did not receive a release.

It is a 50,000 word novella detailing the fallout of a nuclear war, suggesting that this war took place on August 14th, 1967. This would have been around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, wherein the world very nearly did come close to destroying itself.

While The Aftermath has yet to be released to the public, threads that exist within are evident in other works. Both The Dark Tower and The Stand deal with apocalyptic ideas, as does 11/22/63 and The Mist. The idea of humanity causing its own destruction also appears in many of his works.

At 50,000 words, it is one of the shorter works that he has produced and it would be quite something for it to see a general release. King being King, if he wanted to extend it, he could probably knock out another 50,000 words by dinner time and have it become a novel within a day. For the moment however, The Rage is the only public example we have of his state of mind while writing this piece.

Considering the content of The Rage, perhaps its best for The Aftermath to remain locked away.