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Swan Song

4.29 of 5 stars 4.29 · rating details · 17,662 ratings · 1,214 reviews

In a wasteland born of rage and fear, populated by monstrous creatures and marauding armies, earth's last survivors have been drawn into the final battle between good and evil, that will decide the fate of humanity: Sister, who discovers a strange and transformative glass artifact in the destroyed Manhattan streets; Joshua Hutchins, the pro wrestler who takes refuge from t...more

Paperback, 956 pages

Published June 1st 1987 by Pocket Books (first published 1987)

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Mar 15, 2013 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: end-of-days-dystopian, re-read-list

An epic story it made me reminisce of other epic stories with similar good versus evil characters, like those of Lord of the rings and the dark tower series.
The black Frankenstein, is what he used to be called in his wrestling days, known as Josh and the Bag lady known as Sister creep are two memorable characters that are courageous with plenty of heart. They really made the story that much more great, and obviously Swan a young girl who is a main character through the whole story. She can right...more An epic story it made me reminisce of other epic stories with similar good versus evil characters, like those of Lord of the rings and the dark tower series.
The black Frankenstein, is what he used to be called in his wrestling days, known as Josh and the Bag lady known as Sister creep are two memorable characters that are courageous with plenty of heart. They really made the story that much more great, and obviously Swan a young girl who is a main character through the whole story. She can rightful be placed in the hall of fame of young gifted courageous girls like that of Matilda and the girl from the Firestarter by Stephen King(seen the movie not read yet).

The story starts of with a bang literally, two nations engage in a war and cross a point of no return, that results in mass destruction and annihilates most of the country into apocalyptic status.
In the post apocalypse setting a band of pilgrims, survivors of the destruction are put to the tests of their lives. They are set out on a journey, a few groups are to cross paths and their destinies intertwine together. Swan a girl that sees the kindness and beauty within all ugliness really gives the dispirited souls and destroyed hearts hope for a better and prosperous future. Will the world blossom again and plant life once more spurt out it richness and fill the stomachs of the starved?

There is a dark evil force still present, evil started the ball rolling and it won't leave until every soul is wiped from the earth and the land totally destroyed. This evil does have many faces.
Good and evil cross paths many times in this story, war and death is still ever present after the great destruction as groups fight for control and power over land and food. There will be more blood, will there be peace?

Finally I completed this novel i was holding off this novel for a special time for some time, it is lengthy but every page worth it. I even listened to this simultaneously via audiobook so that's twice I covered the story.
Even more of a great reason was my interview with this humble writer Robert McCammon.
Visit my webpage to read the interview during March 2012 >>>>http://more2read.com/review/interview-with-robert-r-mccammon/(less)

30 likes · like · see review

Apr 13, 2012 I, Curmudgeon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, colorful-supporting-characters, dystopian, good-read, inspiration, military-science-fiction, post-apocolypse, really-good-read, recommended, science-fiction, horror, strong-roles-for-female-characters, thriller

Swan Song by Robert McCammon

Every now and then, you come across a book where it seems that the complexities of life have been disassembled from reality and reformed within the pages and text. A story that, sometimes in its simplicity, captures the moving parts and varying angles of spirituality, psychology, physiology and sociology like a prism, separates them by colour, strength and depth. Then uses the differing colours to paint a kaleidoscopic tableau that opens our minds to that which is kn...more

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May 13, 2011 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

What if the apocalypse that befell the poor souls in The Stand was nuclear instead of viral in nature and the whole thing was written in a style more like Richard Matheson's than Stephen King's? Well, you'd probably have Swan Song.

Comparisons with the Stand are inevitable. Both are about the survivors of an apocalyptic event and both have a devil type figure walking around stirring things up. Swan Song doesn't have that final battle between good and evil thing going like the Stand did, although...more

59 likes · like · see review

Apr 28, 2013 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror

Well, I approach this review with some trepidation. A large number of readers here love this book, including a "Goodreads friend" whom I usually agree with...(sorry Stephen, Stephanie, Rose). But I just didn't care for it. I found it a "poor man's The Stand". The book is full of stereotypes, cliches and tropes. There are old hackneyed ideas "guns are BAD", if you look nonthreatening your less likely to be threatened, war is evil...on and on. Some of the story telling put me in mind of the old "w...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Wesley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reading-challenge, solo_favorites

Okay, I get that book started off with roughly 4-5 stories, which quickly got down to 3 for majority of the book with it all coming together. Also if you consider my previous statement a spoiler, then you’re a butt face. Even that though, this book was long. I say this when Atlas Shrugged is probably my favorite book, ever. I like long books but there was a lot of PREDICTABLE gobbled goop. That being said I minus 1 star, but that’s it. This is a 5 star book for me.

I loved it, subside from Mr. F...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: award-nominee-bram-stoker, award-winner-bram-stoker, multiple-award-nominee, award-nominee-world-fantasy, award-nominee-locus, angels-demons-heaven-hell, post-apocalypse, epic, science-horror, 1980-1989

4.5 to 5.0 stars. I am a big fan of The Stand by Stephen King and I thought it was the "standard" in apocalyptic fiction...UNTIL NOW. Swan Song is THE BEST apocalyptic science fiction book I have ever read. At over 950 pages, this book could have been a chore to get through but that was not the case at all. I flew through it and never found my attention wandering or my interest waning. A truly spectacular novel with a superb cast of really good peeople and REALLY BAD PEOPLE!! Highest possible re...more

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Aug 07, 2010 MK (Consultant, Corporal Therapist) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror-monster-creature, chubby-chunkster-500-pages-plus, horror-apocalyptic, readers-challenge-complete, author-robert-r-mccammon, books-read-2010

A massive journey you’ll end up loving or hating. Robert McCammon does not waste time padding his chapters. He sets a rapid enough pace with a story that needs to unfold rather quickly. Characters that need to be introduced and understood fairly fast. Granted, this was written in the 80’s. So no cell phone, iPODs or Internet. Yet he still maintains a vivid connection between characters, worlds’ away.

The beginning is the end and people are bracing nuclear war. Fallout shelters are built, the Pres...more

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May 14, 2007 Brady rated it 5 of 5 stars

Did you ever read the Stand? When it was over did you want to punch your self in the head hard enough to forget you did? Or were you even a little disappointed?

I remember when I read it I was really disappointed with the end, but so proud of my eighth grade butt reading a 32,000 page book that I didn't tell anybody.

Robbert McHammond has (unintentionally I think) chosen a lot of the same horror staples as Legendary Hack Steven King, and every time he makes King look like nothing more than a mar...more

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Jan 19, 2011 Maciek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, own-in-paperback, big-tomes, read-in-2011, reviewed, journeys-and-quests, post-apocalyptic

Now this was a big monster of a book. Swan Song is huge, huge like the Xbox. My copy spans 850 pages and is hard to carry around because of its size - it'll never fit into a pocket and will take significan space when deposited in a bag (why it was released by a publishing house named "Pocket Books" then?).
It's about the end of the world. Written in the 80's, when words like Cold War were used often, it's no wonder that in the novel the relationship between Soviet and American governments has det...more Now this was a big monster of a book. Swan Song is huge, huge like the Xbox. My copy spans 850 pages and is hard to carry around because of its size - it'll never fit into a pocket and will take significan space when deposited in a bag (why it was released by a publishing house named "Pocket Books" then?).
It's about the end of the world. Written in the 80's, when words like Cold War were used often, it's no wonder that in the novel the relationship between Soviet and American governments has deterioriated. Soviet and American submarines play cat and mouse, India and Pakistand destroy each other with nuclear weapons, and when reports of more and more Soviet submarines reach the Americans every base swtiches to DEFCON 1, and then everything goes to hell.

And I mean literally. Swan Song opens with wild, vivid descriptions of the end of the world. And the world ends with a BANG. Everything explodes, buses with charried bodies fly through the air, DJs at radio stations scream into their mics as cities become obliterated. Borders disappear, and the whole of America (because that's where our story is set) becomes one big wasteland.

Obviously, there are survivors. The picture looks grim, but cockroaches aren't going to rule because few of our kind are still walking. The characters that we met seem to be tad a little too banal and stereotyped, but the adventure, the adventure they set on is grand. Similarly to The Stand, a group of people needs to contact another group of people, while trying to stay alive and not fall prey to scavengers and the lone Dark Figure, which seems to relish in destruction that just took place.
McCammon is a terrific writer and the pace he sets up is an achievement in itself, as there's no stale moment in the first section. His imagination is broad, and he shares it with us generously. His prose is unpretentious and delivers exactly what it promises - a gorgeous painting of a postapocalyptic America, and the people and creatures that inhabit it. The story just mounts an mounts and mounts, and although there are cliches and a few schmaltzy moments McCammon pulls no punches and there are shocks that put a succesful shadow on any eye-rolling moment.
HOWEVER, in approximately half of the text, the novel takes an unexpected jump of seven years to the future. And it never really regains the thrills and sheer imaginative achievement of the first part, though it keeps a steady level of suspense. But the outcome becomes more and more predictable, and the suspense slowly starts fizzling and gradually disappears completely. The ending reaches just a bit too far into feel-good territory for me, and was a culmination of all those moments of schmaltz which I disliked.

If I were 13 and haven't read The Stand - which has to be named here, and I'd say why in a moment - I would have loved this book. Loved it! But now aspects of it irritate me, especially considering the writer's talent and skill at constructing and pacing his tale. As for The Stand, aside from the basic premise - survivors of a nuclear holocaust try to live in the charred world, and there's a Big Evil Guy to stop them - the similarities are largely superficial, and save for a few scenes Swan Song is a much different work. Much more...optimistic, much simpler in characterization. It's not bad, it just didn't meet my expectations, as I've read that it's a favorite among the author's fans. McCammon is a terrific writer, and both Boy's Life and Gone South are gorgeous efforts. Blue World is a great collection of short tales with one sublime novella. Swan Song was his breakthrough novel from the horror genre, and it is an impressive achievement when you consider the theme and the size, but in the end it went out with a whimper, not a bang, and I don't think a re-read is in order.(less)

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May 04, 2010 Eva Leger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Eva by: Felicia A

Shelves: b-fiction, end-of-the-world

I was really expecting to think this was too long. I haven't read a book nearly this long in a lot of years and fully expected to wish it had been a few hundred pages shorter. That was the case at all - everything felt just as it should be.
The really scary thing, for me, is that it seems like McCammon actually pictured all of this. The way us non-authors like to imagine every book is written but we know isn't the case. I have no doubt at all that he saw every single thing in the book in his mind...more

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Jan 16, 2009 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I picked up this book I was filled with the expectations that this would be like Stephen King's "The Stand." Well after the first few chapters nearly all the simliarities melt away. To me this book is much more brutal and real. Of course the book does have its fantasy aspects but the overall setting of a post nuclear American seems very realistic. The characters are very well developed and likable. The book is very fast paced especially for one that is 950 pages or so. I never once thought...more

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Nov 17, 2008 Yael rated it 5 of 5 stars

I wish you could add stars to the maximum 5 this site gives you for reading -- something like 20+ stars would be no more than this legendary breakthrough novel by R. R. McCammon deserves. First published in 1987 and never long out of print since, SwanSong is the story of World War III, and of three groups of survivors of that hellish war into whose hands has been thrust the fate of the world. Taking place over a span of seven years, the story sees Swan, a young girl who may be the salvation of t...more I wish you could add stars to the maximum 5 this site gives you for reading -- something like 20+ stars would be no more than this legendary breakthrough novel by R. R. McCammon deserves. First published in 1987 and never long out of print since, SwanSong is the story of World War III, and of three groups of survivors of that hellish war into whose hands has been thrust the fate of the world. Taking place over a span of seven years, the story sees Swan, a young girl who may be the salvation of the world go from a traumatized 9-year-old whose mother had just died, a victim of the Bomb, to a stunningly beautiful young woman with the power to give life where universal death had ruled. Her allies are a middle-aged woman who, fleeing the radioactive devastation of America's East Coast, has carried with her all the way to the deep South, where she first meets Swan, a Magickal tool for good of enormous power, and a former wrestler nicknamed Black Frankenstein whom the Bomb transmuted from a tired, defeated, divorced man with growing middle-aged spread into a tall, handsome man gigantic in both stature and the power of love. Her enemies include Death's own avatar, the Man of Many Faces who is the perfect stand-in for the Devil himself, and the Man of Many Faces' would-be apprentices. In the end, Life, through Swan, triumphs, and evil is defeated, but at the cost of countless billions of humans and countless other creatures. McCammon clearly researched this novel right down to the quarks; its portrayal of the likely shape total thermonuclear war would have taken during the closing years of the Cold War is both mind-blowing and accurate. It's not a nice world out there -- but at least, thank heaven, it never fell this far! This novel, which has already become an American classic, is also a recapitulation of Dante's Divine Comedy: First, you fall down a hole. Then, climbing up out of it, as three different groups of main characters in this novel do, you encounter the Inferno, then Purgatory, and, finally, redemption and Paradise. Around 2087 universities will be including this novel in the rolls of must-read works of literature, right up there with Melville, Poe, and Lovecraft.(less)

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Jul 31, 2009 ♥ Marlene♥ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, sf-fantasy

Loved it. It was huge and had a lot of resemblance to The Stand but I don't care. Give me more books like this.

I want to read more books about after the Apocolypse. Books like The Stand and Swan Song. Anyone has any recommendations? would be very much appreciated.

I know I am going to re-read this book in 10 years from now. :)

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 21, 2013 Dani rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, emotionally-disturbing, horror-thriller, nc-17, sci-fi-supernatural, suspense-mystery

So... this was really good! I have no idea why I hadn't read this before. I do have to say, though... that it does sort of bring to mind "The Stand" quite a bit... like... a lot... but that's okay. It's of that genre/era. It's the first non-King horror novel I've read in quite some time that I felt was actually as good as King. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is a post-apocalyptic one... Russia nukes the world near the beginning, and then we follow the few survivors to see how society might r...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Miss Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Post Apocalypse Fans

Shelves: apocalypse-now, horror-or-mystery, 2011, ubs, fantasy, doorstops, favorites, keeper

Warning: there may have been wine involved (imbibed)during the writing of this review.

First off, there are a ton of 80’s references in this book that I loved. I grew up in the 80’s, and it just grabbed me. None of these were out right specific, but I felt them.

• Nukes! Fear them every day
• Russians are BAD.
• The movie Red Dawn
• Mad Max
• Kmart
• Nukes!
• Terminator
• Of course I must mention King’s The Stand

I loved this book! I put off reading it for a while because I hold The Stand so dear to my h...more

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Aug 21, 2008 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 21, 2011 Gertie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: enjoyers of: SF, apocalyptic fiction

Shelves: post-apocalyptic_fiction, favorites

This is one of very few books I have actually bothered to reread; it is a LONG book at around 900 pages, but it whizzes by because of a constant desire to see what develops next.

I really enjoy apocalyptic fiction (what's up with that, anyway?), and this one is one of the most entertaining ones I've read. It is not particularly realistic, as it has some supernatural elements, but the characters are quite interesting, as well as their storylines, and the characters you don't love, you love to hate...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Cyneva rated it 5 of 5 stars

Whew, this was one long, LOOOOONG book. Initially, I was a bit impatient at how long it took for everything to transpire - but the further along the story took me, the more I realized that it wouldn't really have worked well otherwise. For a novel of this magnitude, for readers to truly feel *involved* with the characters and be invested in what happened to them, the lengthy nature was necessary. The author did an excellent job on character development and the plot was well-executed. I'd like to...more

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Jan 30, 2009 Mischelle rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who loves action, horror

Recommended to Mischelle by: Sisters

Shelves: favorites

I love this book!! I still have the copy so that I can read this again.
My sister read this when it first came out and she told me all about it. At that time, I didn't think to read it because she told me the whole story. So, in 2004 I picked it up and loved it. If I read this in the 80's while the U.S. was in a Cold War with Russia, I would have been really scared. I am always thinking about how the world end. How the earth would be destoyed and all that kind of disaster. I read this book as if...more

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Dec 16, 2012 R. Vialet rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror-fantasy

Exciting and addictive book! Great characters, fast-moving but never rushed action, and a detailed story.

The sad thing is that it will always be compared to Stephen King's superior novel, THE STAND. Anyone who says that this novel isn't uncomfortably similar is in serious denial. SWAN SONG does stand on its own merits, but there are still way too many close similarities to ignore. I mean come on, don't try to deny that the harrowing trip through the Holland Tunnel out of New York wasn't EXTREMEL...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Jennifer | Book Den rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, horror

Here's the bottom line: Swan Song is one of my favorite books of all time. It stills impacts me every bit as much as the first time I read it.

Swan Song is very dark, and it's scary, but it's also one of the most beautiful and hopeful books I have ever read.

Weighing in at 956 pages, it's a huge story in every sense of the word. There are characters you will hate and fear as well as characters you will fall in love with and care about long after you've finished reading. There is magic, evil, goodn...more

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Dec 12, 2008 Teresa rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is always compared to The Stand I am a diehard Stephen King fan...... B U T..... as much as i hate to admit it, I liked this better.

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Mar 26, 2009 Waven rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, horror-sci-fi

It seems most reviews for this book are practically glowing but I can't say I really enjoyed it. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great, either. I read it a few years ago and was so completely unimpressed I forgot all about it until I ran across a mention of it in relation to another book. (And I certainly make no habit of forgetting books I enjoy.) If you're stuck on a trans-continental red-eye flight and need something to read, this would suffice for sheer length, but try not to buy it in the...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Roberta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007

Robert McCammon è un famoso autore americano di romanzi horror. Questo Tenebre è stato paragonato a L’ombra dello scorpione di King. Da un certo punto di vista il paragone regge, ma lo stile dei due è alquanto differente. Se la prosa di McCammon è sicuramente più “lucida” e diretta allo scopo, King del resto affianca ad una trama più complicata un affresco sociale mirabile, come in tutti i suoi romanzi.

Tenebre ci propone gli Stati Uniti devastati da una guerra nucleare contro gli Stati Uniti. Tu...more Robert McCammon è un famoso autore americano di romanzi horror. Questo Tenebre è stato paragonato a L’ombra dello scorpione di King. Da un certo punto di vista il paragone regge, ma lo stile dei due è alquanto differente. Se la prosa di McCammon è sicuramente più “lucida” e diretta allo scopo, King del resto affianca ad una trama più complicata un affresco sociale mirabile, come in tutti i suoi romanzi.

Tenebre ci propone gli Stati Uniti devastati da una guerra nucleare contro gli Stati Uniti. Tutte le grosse città sono state spazzate via, il sole è coperto da un denso strato di nubi che non accenna a dileguarsi, l’acqua è inquinata, la terra è arida e la vegetazione morta. Nonostante tutto alcune persone sopravvivono all’olocausto, fra di loro i personaggi principali: una bambina con un particolare tipo di pollice verde, un “gigante buono” ex wrestler, una vagabonda in possesso di un oggetto con strani poteri paranormali, un militare schizofrenico con manie di grandezza e un ragazzino che lo segue come un Dio…
E' l’ennesima lotta del bene contro il male, che punta però più sulla ripresa della vita su una terra devastata. Alcuni elementi soprannaturali vengono delicatamente inseriti nella storia senza prevaricare quello che è fondamentalmente la lotta fra due diversi tipi di società che prendono lentamente forma.

La psicologia dei personaggi è abbastanza approfondita da non farci venire a noia i protagonisti, ma non particolarmente sviluppata. Il merito di McCammon è soprattutto quello di giocare con le svolte non inaspettate ma particolarmente soddisfacenti a livello emotivo: come i migliori fumettoni Tenebre soddisfa i nostri desideri di vedere accadere le cose “giuste”, e lo fa in chiave horror, creando un gradevolissimo romanzo che, fra l’altro, ha vinto il Premio Bram Stoker 1988 come Miglior Romanzo.

Al momento il romanzo è fuori stampa, ma dato che la casa editrice Gargoyle ha ripubblicato già due dei suoi romanzi, speriamo che si decida a ripescare anche questo.(less)

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Jan 05, 2011 Brian rated it 2 of 5 stars

6/27/2004 - 5/10

Swan Song was very similar to Stephen King's The Stand. Both are about most of the Earth's population dying, a supernatural evil trying to destroy everything, and groups of people congregating to rebuild society or destroy it. Swan Song was an easy reading page-turner, but it didn't live up to expectations. The set-up of nuclear aftermath had a lot more potential. I thought the plot wasn't great, it was kind of schmaltzy at times. The whole thing about 'true faces' was pretty stu...more

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May 18, 2013 Michaelbrent Collings rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the all-time great post-apocalyptic novels. The other one is Stephen King's THE STAND, and both come to largely the same moral conclusion, though by following completely different roads.

In Swan Song, the world has been obliterated by nuclear war. It is never clear whose "fault" it all was, nor is that really of import. What matters is what happens to the survivors, small groups of people who gradually draw into two types. And unlike most post-apocalyptic novels, it isn't so much the "good...more One of the all-time great post-apocalyptic novels. The other one is Stephen King's THE STAND, and both come to largely the same moral conclusion, though by following completely different roads.

In Swan Song, the world has been obliterated by nuclear war. It is never clear whose "fault" it all was, nor is that really of import. What matters is what happens to the survivors, small groups of people who gradually draw into two types. And unlike most post-apocalyptic novels, it isn't so much the "good" versus the "evil" as it is the "barely surviving" versus the "evil." Evil here is in the form of armies that march across the land, raping and pillaging in order to maintain their own forces. One of them in particular, the Army of Excellence, is at the core of the story. Run by a has-been Air Force colonel who found a second chance to matter when the hail of fire fell from the sky, and a young man with a warped sense of reality (he basically believes he is living his own version of a Dungeons and Dragons game), it epitomizes everything wrong with the world, not just now, but all the bad choices that led to the nukes in the first place.

Then there are the others, those who go from place to place, hoping desperately to find somewhere untouched by the nuclear winter, a place with good water and food to eat. And all in vain.

Or so it seems. Because one of the itinerant scavengers is a girl named Swan. And it seems she not only may have the power to save herself, but to bring the world to rebirth.

Of course, because Swan is essentially a Christic figure with no observable character flaws, so author McCammon heightens the stakes by giving her a Devil to contend with: a thing that looks like a man, but can change his shape at will, has super-strength, and a host of other powers that enable him to walk the world, spreading hopelessness and crushing the will to live wherever he finds it.

Swan Song, without becoming preachy, becomes a treatise on the forces of good versus evil, on the powers of light and darkness. There are a few problems with the technical side of the writing - not least of which that McCammon switches points of view often and seemingly without reason or rhyme, leading to some confusion to readers - but they are easily forgiven in light of the book's overall value as a story... and more than that, as a Tale. Adult content, so be warned, but HIGHLY recommended.(less)

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Apr 16, 2013 Emmaline Westlund rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is my favorite book. Hands down, game over, nothing else need ever apply.
It took me more than two weeks to finish, and that was only because I had to stop every so often just to go WOW.
The characters are described so well, the plot moves along so smoothly, the pacing is perfect... Everything about this book just makes me want to read it again and again and again until the end of time.
You start out with these characters who seem disjointed and maybe even a bit unlikeable, but by the end, w...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was first introduced to the writing of Robert McCammon a few years ago. His novel, Boy’s Life, came highly recommended . I thoroughly enjoyed the coming-of-age story and have been meaning to pick up another McCammon novel for quite some time.

Swan Song is the second novel by McCammon that I’ve read. It is often compared to Stephen King’s The Stand, both being post-apocalyptic epics that feature survivors in grand battles of good versus evil. Both novels take care to have characters from diverse...more I was first introduced to the writing of Robert McCammon a few years ago. His novel, Boy’s Life, came highly recommended . I thoroughly enjoyed the coming-of-age story and have been meaning to pick up another McCammon novel for quite some time.

Swan Song is the second novel by McCammon that I’ve read. It is often compared to Stephen King’s The Stand, both being post-apocalyptic epics that feature survivors in grand battles of good versus evil. Both novels take care to have characters from diverse walks-of-life and feature a supernatural element that provides a path for good to conquer evil. Despite their similarities, Swan Song is far from a derivative of the more popular novel, The Stand.

Swan Song takes place in a very near future after the United States and the Soviet Union engage in a devastating nuclear war. Every major city, military base, and even rural areas of the US are destroyed, leaving the country in a radiation-filled nuclear winter.

There are several thousands of survivors (though likely not millions) and there is a mass hoarding of gas and food with the country’s entire infrastructure torn to threads. There is no electricity and many of the survivors begin to die from radiation poisoning. Those left, while not immune to the radiation, have a higher tolerance and some begin to exhibit sores on their faces that grow into a hideous cocoon that becomes known as “Job’s mask.”

A homeless woman named Sister survives the nuclear holocaust and while scavenging for goods, comes across a glass crown (ring) with spikes resembling those on the Statue of Liberty. It illuminates with her touch and she begins to see visions through the power of her artifact.

The girl she sees visions of is named Swan and Sister believes she is the key to the country’s survival. Swan survives the attacks in the company of a large pro wrestler named Josh. Commonly known as “Black Frankenstein,” Josh is a giant, but loving man and is told through a corpse to protect the girl. He travels with Swan across the country to find a new start at life. It doesn’t take Josh long to realize that Swan has very special powers.

There are also those who seek to stop peace — Colonel Macklin, a Viet Nam vet who heads up an army to gain control of the country by force. Roland Croninger serves as his hand, a brilliant young mind that is even more conniving than his maniacal leader. Then there’s Lord Alvin, a crazy, but intelligent villain who later joins forces with Macklin. But the biggest threat to the survivors isn’t any of these men. It’s a man with no name. In fact, he isn’t even a man at all.

I wasn’t certain how I was going to review Swan Song. There is a part of me that was very frustrated with the novel. In The Stand, the survivors are truly immune to the epidemic that strikes the country, but not so with Swan Song. It is snowing in August and several people don’t even have gloves. They are eating the radioactive snow and dying due to the nuclear fallout. Why aren’t people hiding out in silos or multi-level basements like in Hugh Howey’s Wool? Or why aren’t they traveling toward the equator for warmth and to escape the radiation like in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road? It makes no sense that people would be randomly roaming the country east and west when it is a well-known fact that they are contaminating themselves.

But I put all of that aside, because McCammon has done a magnificent job of creating rich characters that intertwine in wonderful ways. Like Frodo of Lord of the Rings, Sister has an object that she must protect from the hand of evil. Her mission is not to destroy the ring, but to bring it to Swan, who in many ways resembles a messianic character. The spikes on the ring are like a crown of thorns and Swan brings life to the landscape like a root out of dry ground. She is a healer and ultimately the fate of humanity rests on her shoulders.

The biblical imagery runs deep in this novel. It is not a Christian novel, but rather focuses on the age-old theme of good versus evil. Swan, who bears gifts that require responsibility, does not desire to be a leader. Others, such as Macklin and Lord Alvin are maimed (physically and mentally), but covet the highest power. They want to be worshipped like gods.

Swan Song is a great story that builds upon a classic theme. The characters are likable and the story always kept me wanting to read more. Post-apocalyptic fiction has been done many times before, but this is definitely one of the better ones and while somewhat dated, the heart of the story remains timeless.(less)

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Dec 31, 2012 Spiro rated it 1 of 5 stars

I think it's been a while since I've read a book with such wonderfully uninteresting and uninspiring characters. One was a bag lady, one's a random girl, one's a wrestler, and a few other random nobodies are thrown into the mix for padding.

I wouldn't even file this book under Horror. There was nothing horrific about it. Even the moments that could have been horrific, like one woman who was effectively raped and forced to submit to douchebag characters was glossed over because she had been forced...more I think it's been a while since I've read a book with such wonderfully uninteresting and uninspiring characters. One was a bag lady, one's a random girl, one's a wrestler, and a few other random nobodies are thrown into the mix for padding.

I wouldn't even file this book under Horror. There was nothing horrific about it. Even the moments that could have been horrific, like one woman who was effectively raped and forced to submit to douchebag characters was glossed over because she had been forced into prostitution in a previous life to support her drug habit.

The whole book is coloured by McCammon's very obviously biblical worldview. The "ancient evil" -- which is the devil, yeah big spoiler -- is treated like a pathetic buffoon who acts very much like a human. Any time his powers are referenced, they're only added for colour in the background, never for his actual actions. He's just a muppet.

The blurb also falsely stated that this ancient evil was searching for the young girl, Swan. But he doesn't even find out about her until near the end of the book.

And that crown that Sister Creep is taking with her? That doesn't get used *at all* in the final showdown. McCammon builds it up like it's something of immense power, but it's nothing more than a plot device to help two protagonists find each other. Whoopdeflippingpoostacks.

There was so much missed potential in this book, and to say that for a near 1000 page novel is tragic. I mean, we, as readers, expect to take a few things for granted in a fictional story. But that doesn't mean things can't make sense within their developed world. eg; the growths on people's faces, which is only used so that they can magically fall off to reveal a person's "inner face" or the face of their soul? Yeah, dumb. Of course, if you're dumb enough to believe the Bible literally, then nothing is too ridiculous, and that's probably McCammon's target demographic.

If you're expecting a horror novel, you'll be disappointed.

If you're expecting a grand good vs. evil story with strong characters, then you'll be disappointed.

If you're expecting a book that's nice and easy to read, contains nothing scarier than a pizza with anchovies on it, then this is your book. (less)

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Nov 02, 2012 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the highlights of my teenage reading. My memory of books and films tend to fade away with time, which helps because I regain at least some of the sense of excitement when rereading books or watching films again. This is one of those books which will always stay with me. I have lost my dog-eared paperback copy of Swan Song more than 10 years ago (lent it out, got passed around almost all my friends, never got it back, heh). Yet I still vividly remember Swan, Sister, Josh, everyone.

I also p...more One of the highlights of my teenage reading. My memory of books and films tend to fade away with time, which helps because I regain at least some of the sense of excitement when rereading books or watching films again. This is one of those books which will always stay with me. I have lost my dog-eared paperback copy of Swan Song more than 10 years ago (lent it out, got passed around almost all my friends, never got it back, heh). Yet I still vividly remember Swan, Sister, Josh, everyone.

I also preferred this far more than The Stand, and I'm a big fan of Stephen King. I know that the similarities between the two is quite superficial, but everyone keeps comparing them, so I will too.

This was shorter (relatively, given that it's nearly a thousand pages in length), simpler; but it was grittier, more brutal. The devastation more horrific. .

I guess, it has to do with the fact that the apocalypse in The Stand was by pandemic, rather than by nuclear war as in Swan Song. There's no real danger other than human insanity and supernatural evil in The Stand. In contrast to Swan Song where almost everything is deadly - nuclear winter, starvation, disease, mutated animals, people doing unspeakable evil because of desperation, etc. in addition to human insanity and supernatural evil. It makes simple things like altruism or people trying to regain what was lost seem more poignant in contrast.

The Stand's characters are also somehow flimsier. More dependent on their supposed goodness and godliness for survival. Mother Abigail as a messianic figure pales in comparison to the simple innocence of Swan. Even more so given the fact that Mother Abigail idiotically kills herself at the time she is most needed. She worries that she had become "prideful" but there's no greater act of pride than consciously choosing to become a martyr for no reason at all. And let's face it, the ending of The Stand simply sucks balls. A convenient and completely out-of-the-blue divine intervention.

Swan, in contrast, is a child, thrust into horrors no child should ever witness. She is no leader. She has powers, but nothing that can actually save her life if needed. She doesn't know anything about the who's or why's of her power or their journey. She's as lost as anyone else, and that makes her a more effective character to latch your sympathy on.

There's also the fact that Swan Song is basically a road trip novel by a ragtag band of survivors. Losing friends, gaining new ones along the way. It's a journey, rather than the static settlements of The Stand.(less)

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About Robert R. McCammon

Robert R. McCammon was a full-time horror writer for many years. After taking a hiatus for his family, he returned to writing with an interest in historical fiction.

A new contemporary novel, The Five, was published in May 2011 by Subterranean Press.

The Hunter from the Woods, a collection of novellas and stories featuring Michael Gallatin, the main character from The Wolf's Hour, was published as a...more

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Quotes from Swan Song

“You know, I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody else didn’t realize we lived in that web of magic, connected by silver filaments of chance and circumstance. But I knew it all along. When I was twelve years old, the world was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow I saw the past, the present and into the future. You probably did too; you just don’t recall it. See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God’s sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they’d allowed to wither in themselves.

After you go so far away from it, though, you can’t really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it’s because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they’re left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm.

That’s what I believe.

The truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us. We get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good. Things happen to us. Loved ones die. People get in wrecks and get crippled. People lose their way, for one reason or another. It’s not hard to do, in this world of crazy mazes. Life itself does its best to take that memory of magic away from us. You don’t know it’s happening until one day you feel you’ve lost something but you’re not sure what it is. It’s like smiling at a pretty girl and she calls you “sir.” It just happens.

These memories of who I was and where I lived are important to me. They make up a large part of who I’m going to be when my journey winds down. I need the memory of magic if I am ever going to conjure magic again. I need to know and remember, and I want to tell you.” — 159 people liked it

“After years of having a dog, you know him. You know the meaning of his snuffs and grunts and barks. Every twitch of the ears is a question or statement, every wag of the tail is an exclamation.” — 84 people liked it

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