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Swan Song

Robert R. McCammon

4.28 · Rating details · 48,098 ratings · 2,823 reviews

An ancient evil roams the desolate landscape of an America ravaged by nuclear war.

He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, a malevolent force that feeds on the dark desires of the countless followers he has gathered into his service. His only desire is to find a special child named Swan -- and destroy her. But those who would protect the girl are determined to fight for what i ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, 956 pages

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

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Sep 29, 2016 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror-etc, own

$1.99 on Kindle today 6-10-17

Once again, thank you to goodreads friends for finding me another book to love!

There are so many people I fell in love with in the book. Also, Mule and Killer! Let's just begin. . .

The book is about us stupid humans trying to bomb each other into extinction, but I digress.

I fell in love with Sister Creep, Swan and Josh. I also loved Artie and Paul and Mule and Killer and . . . . there are so many.

We start out with each person's story, where they are in the world ...more

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Mar 21, 2018 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is one of the darkest post-apocalyptic books I've read in a while... totally satisfied that craving.
I may have had a few bad dreams about it!

What I would have liked knowing beforehand:

- Nuclear war with Russia
- There are fantasy elements in here
- Yes, it's long...
- There's a war going on so if you're not really into military fiction... won't be for you!
- Overall it was almost too realistic...
- Did I say it was really dark?

I would recommend it!

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Aug 22, 2008 Dan Schwent rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror, kitten-squisher

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

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Oct 03, 2008 Stephen rated it it was amazing

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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Dec 08, 2008 Becky rated it it was ok

Shelves: apocalyptic-types, 2014, audiobook, bad-shit-and-atrocities, horror, reviewed, the_south

Taking a quick glance through reviews of this book, they seem to have two things in common. One, they all start with a reference to the book's size. And two, they all remark about the comparisons to The Stand.

And now mine is no different.

Holy SHIT, this was a long ass book... but it doesn't at all compare to The Stand, in my opinion.

Was it good? Yeah, good, but for a book this ambitious and huge, I expect more than just good. Part of that is that I think I'd have appreciated it a lot more had ...more

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Dec 11, 2014 Fabian rated it liked it · review of another edition

Percentage composition of previous or later works of postapocalypse (of a sort) in the DNA of R. McCammon's enormous horror epic "Swan Song":

41% The Stand novel
10% The Road novel (which is actually, in itself, like 7% Mad Max--a source which must NOT go completely ignored)
10% Blood Meridian novel (so about 60% of S.S. can be found in King & McCarthy alone)
10% Lord of the Rings (6% Two Towers battle + 4% magic ring emblem)
5% Lonesome Dove novel
5% Dawn of the Dead films (mall battleground, mot ...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Bark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, favorites

I read this book back when it was first published in the ‘80’s. I was still in high school, had big frizzy hair, wore too much blue eyeliner and pretty much hated my life. I spent most of my free time haunting the local Osco drug for the newest horror paperbacks to escape it all. When I saw this huge tome (900+ pages) I scurried back home with it thinking I had just hit the jackpot. And I had. It turned out to be one of the best horror novels I’d ever read and I was reading a lot back then. This I read this book back when it was first published in the ‘80’s. I was still in high school, had big frizzy hair, wore too much blue eyeliner and pretty much hated my life. I spent most of my free time haunting the local Osco drug for the newest horror paperbacks to escape it all. When I saw this huge tome (900+ pages) I scurried back home with it thinking I had just hit the jackpot. And I had. It turned out to be one of the best horror novels I’d ever read and I was reading a lot back then. This is why I was hesitant to revisit it, some 26 years later, afraid I’d tarnish my memory of fiction perfection.

But I did it anyway. I can’t read 900 page tomes anymore because my brain shuts down at the thought but I can read them on unabridged audio. Swan Song became my driving companion for over three weeks and now that I’m finished I already miss the soothing voice of Tom Stechschulte. I’ll have to snap up something else he’s narrated. Maybe “The Road” if I can bring myself to listen to it.

If you’ve read this you already know it’s one of the best end of the world novels ever written, if you haven’t read it yet and you’re a fan of the new apocalypse books flooding the shelves, you really need to do yourself a favor and read this one. It is set in the 80’s and we are at war with Russia, trigger fingers set off nuclear bombs and kaboom the world as we know it is gone. The rest of the book focuses on a cast of characters as they make their way in this entirely new world void of all creature comforts like fresh water, sunshine, and warmth. But out of the destruction, a little magic blooms too. Two camps basically evolve. There are the murdering, raping pillagers and the decent people who want to restore the earth and rebuild. The two have an epic, classic collision of good vs. evil. Those are the bare bones of the story but it’s so much more than that. It’s heartbreaking and full of loss as well as hope and it so worth your time.

A few notes that you should be aware of before digging in:

1. The book doesn’t start with a huge bang. There’s enough setup and character back story here for 3 or 4 modern day books. Woo hoo for me because I can never get enough of that stuff (when it’s good) but maybe not for everyone?

2. The action takes a little bit to get going but once it starts there is a lot of it and it’s described in vivid detail. I’m not a huge action fan and I admit I did doze off when the military maneuvers went on (and on).

3. The book skips around from group to group. There are a lot of characters to wrap your head around and I was a little confused here and there but eventually you get to know most of them very intimately. Many of them are flawed people and they’re all changed by their time on the road. I think I enjoyed that aspect most of all. Be warned though, some of these people who you will grow to love will die and you will probably cry. Maybe for a few days.

4. This sucker is a 34 hour listen. I thought the narrator did a fantastic job with most of the characters. For the most part, he gave them distinctive voices with the exception of the villains at the very end (to me they all sounded the same screeching out their scratchy-voiced commands). You may want to find a sample online and give it a listen before committing. 34 hours is a long freaking time if the narrator isn’t working for you.

5. There’s a hell of a lot of violence and it’s not the prettified, glossy kind. Be prepared.

6. There is a strong, 50ish female character as a lead. Where can you find that nowadays? If you find one , tell me so I can buy it.

7. There is even a little smidge of a sweet romance amidst all of the chaos.

See, there’s something for everyone! Now go read it. ...more

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Dec 12, 2014 Joe Valdez rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi-apocalyptic, paranormal-general, paranormal-psychics

The next stop in my end-of-the-world reading marathon was Robert McCammon's post-apocalyptic epic Swan Song. Published in 1987, nine years after Stephen King's The Stand, the story follows two bands of survivors -- one representing good, the other evil -- as they make their way across what used to be America while a supernatural being no less than Old Scratch himself seeks to undermine the good souls and shift the battle onto the side of evil. Yes, kids, eeriely similar to The Stand. More on tha ...more

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Sep 29, 2018 RedemptionDenied marked it as to-read

The Kindle edition is currently on offer: £2.05p in the UK, possibly $1.99 in the States (it's showing as $2.69) - and $1.99 in Canada Considering the price it's usually going for - the current price is more than copasetic.

I bought it eons' ago, and still haven't read it, yet. I'll have to rectify that, sometime, soon. Hopefully.

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Aug 07, 2011 The Pirate Ghost (Formerly known as the Curmudgeon) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-reads, audio-book, colorful-supporting-characters, dystopian, good-read, inspiration, military-science-fiction, post-apocolypse, really-good-read, recommended

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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Jun 21, 2010 Mike (the Paladin) rated it it was ok

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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Feb 14, 2017 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-shelf, fantasy, sci-fi, dystopia-yes-pls

Maybe if I'd have read this one before I had read The Stand or Lucifer's Hammer, I might have given this a full five stars, but epic length and nuclear holocaust doesn't automatically make a perfect book.

However. If you like your dystopias full of a long buildup and full cast and a slow decline into being in the evil camp versus learning you're in the good camp, then I totally recommend this book to you. It's the journey more than anything else that makes this a good read.

And then there's also t ...more

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May 09, 2010 Lou rated it it was amazing

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 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/ ...more

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May 18, 2018 Sadie Hartmann Mother Horror rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

So in a month and a half, I finished Swan Song.
This epic, apocalyptic story has been a part of my life, forever in the background of my mind for so many days, it will feel weird for awhile to not be continuing on in the journey-but I know that it doesn't really completely go away. Now it's a part of the framework.
I've heard a lot of people compare this book to Stephen King's The Stand.
I have no idea why, other than this is a story that is both apocalyptic and horrific. There is a prolific antago So in a month and a half, I finished Swan Song.
This epic, apocalyptic story has been a part of my life, forever in the background of my mind for so many days, it will feel weird for awhile to not be continuing on in the journey-but I know that it doesn't really completely go away. Now it's a part of the framework.
I've heard a lot of people compare this book to Stephen King's The Stand.
I have no idea why, other than this is a story that is both apocalyptic and horrific. There is a prolific antagonist that may or may not be the devil, but for me, that's where the similarities end.
McCammon leans a little heavier on fantasy/magical realism here so in a way, I found this book to be more comparable to the Lord of the Rings, actually.
We follow a few groups of travelers who go through tremendous trials in order to meet their end goal. Both groups of travelers are protecting a very special gift.
The gifts are supernaturally trying to come together and for 900+ pages, it is our very special treat to watch events unfold and experience Robert McCammon's unique talent of both exceptional storytelling and character building.
In particular, I found McCammon's "bad guys" immensely compelling. Especially the character Roland, who we meet as a child (a creepy child) and get to watch him grow into a monster. I looked forward to the chapters with Roland's story.
Other favorites were our protagonists/heroes: Swan, Josh and Sister.
---Not going to go into the plot or overshare here because truly, if you're a fan of horror and epic dystopian adventures, this one is a MUST and it needs to be full of individual discovery---
My own feelings:
This is my third Robert McCammon novel and I'm falling in love with his writing style. He's much warmer on the details than Stephen King, actually. His wheelhouse is drawing the reader into a strangely intimate headspace where the experiences the characters go through feel familiar; nostalgic and easy to relate to.
Swan Song is an emotional read for me. I disappeared into its pages in an unexplainable, immersive way--it was almost unreadable at work because time would go by so quickly, it felt as though I didn't even have a lunch break-so I mainly read this one at home-at night in my bed.
Readers who have a faith in something bigger than themselves, a spiritual background will enjoy the way Robert McCammon handles that with some of his believing characters.
So I'll leave with my recommendation here:
This book is amazing. I loved every page of it. The book never felt idle--each word bore intention and purpose. I was never bored or confused. I felt like I was sitting at the feet of an experienced storyteller telling me the most epic, fully fleshed out story of his career. Boy's Life is still my favorite though, hahahah. The Listener would be second and this book is a solid third favorite. If you haven't read this one, you must buy it and carve out ample space in your TBR to enjoy it. Savor it. ...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Algernon rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012

I have read some 15 years ago The Stand by Stephen King. There are some parallels that could be drawn between that story and Swan Song. Both novels are dealing with the collapse of civilization following an apocalyptic event (virus infection in one case, nuclear war in the second) , both are set in the North American Midwest and follow the struggles of scattered bands of survivors. And both books feature supernatural beings as avatars of the forces of Good and Evil fighting for supremacy.

Stephen ...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Maciek rated it liked it · 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 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. ...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Zoeytron rated it really liked it

Shelves: new-fangled-e-reader, public-library

'All that was is lost.' The trees are burning in Central Park. Grand Central Station and the Empire State Building - gone. Mountains of ruined debris tower over everything. Wait . . . the electric lights on the marquee at the Empire State Theatre are still merrily twinkling, the movie house itself seemingly untouched. Currently showing is the film 'Face of Death', while a lone cinema patron sits in the front row giggling manically.

Swan is a little girl with an old soul and a knack with growing ...more

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Jul 31, 2008 Jennifer ☼ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, horror, bram-stoker-novels

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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Feb 22, 2014 Karl rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dark_harvest-own

This is copy 252 of 650 signed numbered copies.

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May 20, 2011 Carol. rated it liked it

Shelves: end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, my-library-kindle, to-re-read

Feels like The Stand, only with greater amounts of mysticism and nuclear war instead of disease.

Not quite sure why McCammon needed to jump 7 years into the future. Further degeneration of societal breakdown? Need to age the lead characters? What was he thinking? If the nuclear winter lasted 7 years, I think there'd be almost no one left--there's only so much scavenging one can do for canned food and gasoline. Shelf life, people, shelf life. That jump tested my patience. Fairly believable until ...more

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Aug 30, 2015 Latasha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, favorites, re-reads

this was fantastic! I listened to this for a buddy read. I never would've picked this book out myself. I'm not really into the apocalyptic scene. but I'm sure glad I joined them! it's so intense through most of the book.

listened to this again in 2017 and loved it just as much this time as I did the first time.

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Jul 16, 2010 David rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Magical girls with magical green thumbs, Randall Flag-I mean, the Man with the Scarlet Eye

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, horror, doorstopper, nuclear-war, science-fiction, 1980s, american-fantasy, great-villains, cheesy-dumb-fun, sociopaths

Okay, I have to say this up front; in many ways, Swan Song is a very stupid book. It's highly derivative of Stephen King's The Stand, to which everyone compares it to, for good reason, and Robert McCammon is no Stephen King.

When I say it's derivative, I don't mean I think McCammon was deliberately imitating The Stand, though I can't imagine he was unfamiliar with King's novel, and assuming he was, it's kind of amazing how many obvious similarities there are that he didn't see fit to alter a smid Okay, I have to say this up front; in many ways, Swan Song is a very stupid book. It's highly derivative of Stephen King's The Stand, to which everyone compares it to, for good reason, and Robert McCammon is no Stephen King.

When I say it's derivative, I don't mean I think McCammon was deliberately imitating The Stand, though I can't imagine he was unfamiliar with King's novel, and assuming he was, it's kind of amazing how many obvious similarities there are that he didn't see fit to alter a smidgen. In Swan Song, it's a nuclear war that wipes out most of the human race, but from there it proceeds much like The Stand. We see the good guys' lives in the days before the apocalypse, and the bad guys', and then we see what goes down and how the good guys and the bad guys gather in their respective groups, and of course it all leads to a final confrontation deciding the fate of the world.

And yet here I am giving this stupid, derivative book 5 stars. Why? 'Cause I just loved it. It's just a great post-apocalytic epic full of memorable characters and action and adventure and magic and love, and what can I say, I am a sucker for big honkin' doorstopper novels about the end of the world. McCammon puts his book through every trope in the post-apocalyptic checklist: pretty virginal magical white girl with a heart that is pure who will remake the world? Check. Helpful colored people who assist her on her quest? Check. Cartoonishly evil psychopathic bad guys with, like, carved wooden nail-studded hands and big black torture trailers they haul around and a Joker-like madman who plays gladiatorial games with people and then practices messy taxidermy with the losers? Check. Doomsday devices and final heroic sacrifices and True Love pretty much appearing out of thin air? Check. A magical MacGuffin that exists to conveniently manifest magic powers to lift the protagonists past little derailing plot holes? Check.

But damn, it's a good read. It's just one of those books you have to read without thinking too much. Turn off your inner critic, turn your sensitivity to annoying tropes way down, and Swan Song is crackin' great apocalyptic fun.

So, my 5-star rating should not be construed as endorsing this as a Great Work or the Best Post-Apocalyptic Novel Ever or anything like that. Sometimes I just have to rate a book on my gut reaction, and all 956 pages of this thing were page-turners. I almost dropped it a star for the ending, which not only combined deux ex machinas with ticking time bomb countdowns and supposedly-dead characters conveniently rising up to deliver one last smiting and heroes running through gauntlets of narrow and improbable escapes and tearjerker sacrifices, but also some really, really bad (like head-bangingly bad) science. Of course since the book has been randomly interjecting supernatural events with no explanation since the beginning, I guess it's kind of pointless to complain about how (view spoiler) But come on....

Still, like I said, I am a sucker for this kind of book, including the tearjerker sacrifices and the Magical Girl randomly chosen by some Higher Power to save the world. So if you like this kind of story, do read it for the pure fun of it. But I will understand if those with less affection for the occasional pure cheese genre read do not find themselves compelled to read 956 pages of bad guys chasing good guys through a nuclear winter. ...more

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Oct 20, 2014 Jenna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook-immersion-reading, books-for-2014, contemporary-fiction, fiction, october-horror-month

One of my trusty goodreads friend's recently recommended Robert McCammon to me and I am so grateful she did (thanks Jennifer!). I will be honest though that when I read "Boy's Life" that I zoned out at times because it seemed to become too wordy at times but I didn't find that to be an issue at all with Swan Song. Wow! Robert McCammon is truly a very talented storyteller and I was immediately wrapped up in this dystopian story of survival after a nuclear holocaust.

Most people, including myself, ...more

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Oct 02, 2015 Emma rated it liked it

Shelves: post-apocalypse

Talk about 'condemned by faint praise'! This book was okay. It was too long and too predictable.
I enjoyed the first 2/3 of this book but when I realised the author really was going to go for the saccharine ending, the wind was taken out of my sails.. Until then my only real niggling doubt had been the plausibility of some of the story line. Would there really still be so much canned food and fizzy drink lying around after 7 years? Would they really still have gas left for their vehicles? Would t Talk about 'condemned by faint praise'! This book was okay. It was too long and too predictable.
I enjoyed the first 2/3 of this book but when I realised the author really was going to go for the saccharine ending, the wind was taken out of my sails.. Until then my only real niggling doubt had been the plausibility of some of the story line. Would there really still be so much canned food and fizzy drink lying around after 7 years? Would they really still have gas left for their vehicles? Would the settlement of Mary's Rest really go from being a feral, brutal, violent bunch of muggers and rag tags, to a loving and supportive community, literally over night?
Ultimately this book was reductive and moralistic in a way I didn't much care for. Take Job's Mask, for example : a hard and crusty face covering developed over the years by victims closest to the point of the nuclear explosions. When these masks crack and fall off, all the good guys have developed smooth and flawless skin and a healthy head of hair, ' their true souls shining through'. Can you guess what happens to the villains?! They end up with very ugly faces because they have been very, very bad! No shades of grey for this author, no siree!
The characters develop predictably as does the whole story. The 'crown' hailed as the main magical saviour of all the good people, seems to just ebb away. Items that were almost too much for me: the reappearance of the president, the sunshine and the stars, 'though I think the author forgot the rainbows and unicorns.....
I thought this book would be better, from the reviews I read. It's not a great indictment that at 83% of the book I wasn't sure I had the will to go on, especially when the book is such a lengthy one. I'd come so far...
In the end, it was an interesting enough account of a post apocalyptic world. I have seen it compared and contrasted to The Stand. To my mind they are about the same in terms of quality and interest and in their possible use as a door stop. Ultimately though, The Road is a superior post apocalyptic account and it's much more concise and spare and therefore effective in its delivery. ...more

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Mar 15, 2010 Kandice rated it liked it

I enjoyed this, and I feel almost bad giving it three stars instead of two, but there were a few things that bugged me enough that I just had to. There has been a nuclear holocaust (seems to be the theme of my reading lately) and we see the aftermath through the eyes of what eventually become two main groups. Simply put, the good guys and the bad guys.

Almost every review I've seen compares this to The Stand by Stephen King and there's a good reason for that. In The Stand it's a disease that brin I enjoyed this, and I feel almost bad giving it three stars instead of two, but there were a few things that bugged me enough that I just had to. There has been a nuclear holocaust (seems to be the theme of my reading lately) and we see the aftermath through the eyes of what eventually become two main groups. Simply put, the good guys and the bad guys.

Almost every review I've seen compares this to The Stand by Stephen King and there's a good reason for that. In The Stand it's a disease that brings about the end of civilization as we know it, but really that's the main difference. I know a lot of fans of this book say the similarities end there because in this the world is decimated. There is little life, no sun, little fresh water, etc. but that isn't belabored. McCammon dwells on these things so little that when the sun comes out at the end I wondered why it was such a big deal until I remembered it had been pretty dark all along.

One of the issues I had with this are just how bad the bad guys are. I mean bat shit crazy, wackadoodle nut jobs. The bad guys almost always are, but there were almost ridiculously so here. In the end, when given a chance to leave, only three men leave the evil camp for the good. Three out of thousands. We're talking universally bad, not just following a leader for food, security and some semblance of a tribe. Just evil.

Very near the beginning two "magical" pieces are introduced as plot anchors, but by the time the story is finished one is gone with little fanfare and the other has done very little except look pretty and give a few dreams. There is a hint of more power in this particular talisman, but McCammon doesn't explore this. I felt almost as if he were setting the stage for a sequel or follow up novel.

After griping for the last few paragraphs I feel I need to say I did actually enjoy the novel. It felt clumsy at times and very far-fetched, but it was compelling. I generally have no problem suspending disbelief, but when characters developed growths on their faces I could see where it was going because of the broad brush strokes he used to paint the two opposing sides. When it finally happens it felt almost cheezy, but again, it was still a compelling read.

I think this book was a bit like Hamburger Helper. Is it gourmet or refined? Hell no, but it fills you up and you eat it guiltily despite how bad it is. It eventually satisfies and sometimes that's all we need. Satisfaction. ...more

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Sep 09, 2009 Randy rated it it was ok

I came close to liking this. Look, the dialog is...awful. There are weird factual errors. For example, wolf packs roaming the I80 corridor near Hazleton Pennsylvania. I live here. I can tell you...not even close. But I have a bigger problem with this text.

Okay, so here we have a writer that takes Chekhov's 'Loaded Gun' postulate, tears it out with his teeth, rips it up, craps on it, then puts it in a burning paper bag, drops it on your porch, knocks on the door and runs away. What do I mean? Wit I came close to liking this. Look, the dialog is...awful. There are weird factual errors. For example, wolf packs roaming the I80 corridor near Hazleton Pennsylvania. I live here. I can tell you...not even close. But I have a bigger problem with this text.

Okay, so here we have a writer that takes Chekhov's 'Loaded Gun' postulate, tears it out with his teeth, rips it up, craps on it, then puts it in a burning paper bag, drops it on your porch, knocks on the door and runs away. What do I mean? Without giving anything away (haha), Character A finds a Meaningful Object early in the book. It is clearly intended for Character B. In fact, you get the impression that once the Meaningful Object and Character B finally get together, things are gonna happen. Really cool things.

So The Meaningful Object does some minor stuff throughout the narrative while Character A carries it. Meanwhile, the Evil Baddie really wants it really bad so you know its gonna be good at the end...the Meaningful Object is bad news for Evil Baddie.

Sooooo....in the final pages, Meaningful Object and Character B finally meet and its magic. I mean that. It really is magic. It imbues Character B with a cool power that would be useful in a showdown with Evil Baddie and his Minions of Badness. Yes! How will she use it? What effect will it have on him? On her? I mean, I finished this book largely to see how those questions would be answered.

Well, you never find out. The have a showdown. Somehow the good guys win. But Meaningful Object sits on the sidelines in somebody's backpack or something.

Look, I'm all for irony and unpredictability if that's what's intended. But I don't believe that's the case here. Everything else happened pretty much by rote. It's like the author didn't know what to do with the Meaningful Object at the end, so he just wrote something different instead. An 'Ahh..Fuck it' ending. I HATED it. Not because the climactic battle was objectively bad, but because it subverted a great deal of what you read before. So writers, take note. If you build something up for 800-odd pages, respect your readers enough to find something useful to do with it. Please. Rant over. ...more

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Nov 20, 2011 Evans Light rated it really liked it

Shelves: cheap-from-used-bookstore, horror, have-it

Okay, I made it! Finished SWAN SONG tonight.

If reading anything negative about this book would make your head explode, then stop reading now. You've been warned. Just my opinion, and I'm entitled to it.

Overall, I would say this book was only about a 3 and a half star read for me. I can definitely see why so many people love it, and I imagine it would have been a hell of a lot better for me personally had I read this back in the late eighties as a teenager when the cold war was at its peak and nu Okay, I made it! Finished SWAN SONG tonight.

If reading anything negative about this book would make your head explode, then stop reading now. You've been warned. Just my opinion, and I'm entitled to it.

Overall, I would say this book was only about a 3 and a half star read for me. I can definitely see why so many people love it, and I imagine it would have been a hell of a lot better for me personally had I read this back in the late eighties as a teenager when the cold war was at its peak and nuclear winter was a widely accepted theory.

Still, I did find a lot to enjoy in the book. The first couple hundred pages were my favorite, really like a time capsule back into the RED DAWN and DAY AFTER TOMORROW era. Though a higher level of suspension of disbelief was required than I expected from the book, I went with it and had a lot of fun. It was definitely more "BOOK OF ELI" than "THE ROAD" if I were to make apocalyptic movie comparisons.

It began to lose me, however, around the point when the travelers arrived in Mary's Rest. The cast of characters expanded too rapidly for me to genuinely care about anyone, and the pace slowed to a crawl for the last third of the book. The random mix of reality and completely unexplained supernatural events subconsciously grated at me the entire way.

And the events in WV towards the climax of the book? *sigh* I think that whole sequence could have been chopped and the book would have been the better for it. The entire ending went out with more of a whimper than I had hoped.

McCammon can certainly craft a mighty phrase, though he does use eloquence sparingly (which is a good thing), and I ultimately preferred this version of THE STAND to Stephen King's, but both could have benefited by much tighter plotting IMO.

Enjoyed reading with everyone, but glad to say I've experienced the mighty SWAN SONG and lived to tell the tale! It's probably not the book that is lacking in any way, most likely just my personal preference for reading material that is economical in its use of words, tightly coiled tales with little to no wasted space. ...more

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Dec 18, 2010 Richard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, adventure, scifi-fantasy, dystopian-apocalyptic-fiction, author-mccammon

In this epic novel, after the world is devastated by a nuclear apocalypse, a group of survivors travel to find a town in Missouri that might offer a new beginning. One of them, a young girl named Swan, might hold the key to mankind's salvation!

This is an exciting and addictive book! It's got great characters, fast-moving action that still never feels rushed, and an incredibly-detailed plot. And McCammon's prose makes the long page-count zip by.

The sad thing is that it will always be compared to ...more

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Aug 31, 2015 Ctgt rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror

This is definitely old school PA and by old school I mean BZ(before zombie). Folks of a certain age will remember the old days of the cold war, ICBMs, nuclear arsenal buildups and the idiotic idea of crawling under your desk at school to protect yourself in the event of an attack. A familiar trope with multiple groups and POVs who converge for a final confrontation where the whole world seems to teeter on the edge of chaos or hope. Not much subtlety in the characters, they are either good or evi ...more

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Jan 08, 2009 Kathryn rated it liked it

Shelves: horror, apocalyptic

No spoilers, though I'm sorely tempted...

I originally rated this book 4 stars but now that I’ve slept on it, I have to rate 3 stars and try to keep my reasons short. Swan Song is a mix of apocalypse, horror, and fantasy. Lovers of any of these genres might consider giving the book a try. I recently read The Strain and my feelings about both books are similar.

My main problem with this book is the Hollywood feel and the zero room for interpretation since every little bit is explained for the reade ...more

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Is there really nothing like Swan Song or The Stand out there?	53	964	Oct 27, 2018 05:08AM
Apocalypse Whenever: Swan Song, general chit chat with SPOILERS	104	351	Apr 25, 2018 01:49AM
Swan Song vs The Stand	23	577	Apr 20, 2018 04:03AM
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Dystopian, most, if not all people wake up with a full head mask on, it cannot be removed, eventually they come off & people are beautiful [s]	7	42	Mar 17, 2018 12:17PM
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. SF/Apocalypse? About a girl who has a growth (cocoon) that ultimately covers her face. Read in the 80s/90s [s]	10	57	Aug 15, 2017 01:10PM
Has anyone read this?	8	63	Mar 28, 2017 05:39PM
The Reading For P...: Swan Song 2016 Buddy Read with Amber and whoever wants to join her	30	21	Nov 22, 2016 04:32PM

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About Robert R. McCammon

Robert R. McCammon

2,900 followers

Robert Rick 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.

The sixth book in his Matthew Corbett historical fiction series, Freedom of the Mask, was published in May 2016.

The second book in the Trevor Lawson I Travel by Night series, Last Train from Perdition, was published in October 2016.

H ...more