Robert R. McCammon

Swan Song

Robert McCammon

New York Times Bestseller: A young girl’s visions offer the last hope in a postapocalyptic wasteland in this “grand and disturbing adventure” (Dean Koontz). A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick Swan is a nine-year-old Idaho girl following her struggling mother from one trailer park to the next when she receives visions of doom—something far wider than the narrow scope of her own beleaguered life. In a blinding flash, nuclear bombs annihilate civilization, leaving only a few buried survivors to crawl onto a scorched landscape that was once America. In Manhattan, a homeless woman stumbles from the sewers, guided by the prophecies of a mysterious amulet, and pursued by something wicked; on Idaho’s Blue Dome Mountain, an orphaned boy falls under the influence of depraved survivalists and discovers the value of a killer instinct; and amid the devastating dust storms on the Great Plains of Nebraska, Swan forms a heart-and-soul bond with an unlikely new companion. Soon they will cross paths. But only Swan knows that they must endure more than just a trek across an irradiated country of mutated animals, starvation, madmen, and wasteland warriors. Swan’s visions tell of a coming malevolent force. It’s a shape-shifting embodiment of the apocalypse, and of all that is evil and despairing. And it’s hell-bent on destroying the last hope of goodness and purity in the world. Swan is that hope. Now, she must fight not only for her own survival, but for that of all mankind. A winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, Swan Song has become a modern classic, called “a chilling vision that keeps you turning pages to the shocking end” by John Saul and “a long, satisfying look at hell and salvation” by Publishers Weekly.

The Hissing Saint

The first book I read by Robert McCammon was Boys Life. It was a long time ago and that book had a huge impact on me with some of the ideas and concepts still imprinted in my head.

Strangely enough I never got around to reading another of his books until now.

Swan Song definitely comes nowhere close to Boys Life considering that the concept was not really unique to me. In fact the book seemed quite close to Stephen Kings's The Stand. But McCammon managed to keep my attention snagged throughout with his tight writing.

Definitely a great read.

Alfredo santos

This an amazing gargantuan book that when you're 3/4 done, you want 1,000 pages more. 

It's beautifully written with a nice prose. Characters all have a good story line and background, the writer gets in their heads a lot, with deeper thoughts than your average novel. And the story line keeps getting better and better. 

I can sum it up as an Epic Novel of Epic proportions. Comparable maybe to Lord of the Rings. Actually, I'd describe it as Lord of the Rings Meets Mad Max. 

Highly recommended.

Dee B. 

I'm not quite sure what I think about this book. ( www.ithinkihaveaproblem.webs.com )

In a nightmarish, post-holocaust world, an ancient evil roams a devastated America, gathering the forces of human greed and madness, searching for a child named Swan who possesses the gift of life.

Ashlyn

This book is similar to The Stand in that it is set in a post-apocalyptic world, features a wide cast of characters, and centers on a final battle between good and evil. I like the characters, style, dialogue, and horror elements in this book more than The Stand. Swan Song is definitely a pulpy, page-turner novel, but still manages to be a rewarding read.

courtney garrison

Dang this was so good. I didn’t really go in knowing much about this one except that it was a end of the world doomsday read. 

The beginning starts off quick taking you through the turmoil of how the nuclear war started and caused the end of our structural society as we know it. 

Your soon introduced to a variety of characters and you skip around from group to group learning each of their stories and where they come from. 

I absolutely loved two aspects of this book. One that this book is about never giving up hope. That there is always something worth fighting and taking that next step for. Two, there is so much character development throughout this book. Who you are introduced to in the first 100 pages is not who you are getting in the last 100. 

One thing I want to note is the comparison between this novel and The Stand by Stephen King. I don’t really see them being the same except for in the aspect of good verses evil. Other than that they are different to me as one is a plague and the other a nuclear war. 

Overall I loved this book and took my time reading it as it is 900+ pages. It took me a little over a month and I’m so sad to say goodbye to these characters. If you love post apocalyptic novels like I do. Please don’t skip this one. I promise you won’t regret it.


TW - Gore, Violence, Rape, Murder, War. Aspects of this book can be very descriptive and violent so if that’s not your thing do not picks this up.

Melody Izard

Written by an author who lives in Birmingham.
Sort of a mixture of The Road, The Wizard of Oz and The Stand, yet still manages to tell a unique, yet oh so similar story of the destruction of the world by war and weaponry. Good and evil are clearly portrayed beneath the cement mask concealing the soul.

I'm torn on this one because it is readable- I listened to the 30 hour audiobook in 2 days at my normal 2x speed. And people compare it to King's The Stand, and I've actually read and hated that, so this was a much more enjoyable experience. This one I have only read because it is on the Great American Read list, and I think it is interesting that both this book and The Stand are on there.


To the actual book, it was great until the falling action just lost me. It has huge religious motifs and it really likes to beat you over the head with it. Like I get it, we have a "god" and a "satan" and of course the entire book is building both leaders up with followers and culminating to some kind of confrontation.

I did like the characters. I think the religious stuff, for all of it being talked up, is very much just talk and no show. Especially with a crystal object that I really don't understand why it wasn't utilized when it appeared to need to be utilized. And just other, weird plot holes or gaps in the universe that didn't make a lot of sense or just failed to manifest.

Probably a good read if you want a post nuclear war fallout book and don't want to ask too many questions about how likely it would be for any of these people to survive (like I'm pretty sure most of the protagonists would have died from radiation poisoning).

Zach Spencer

I came into this story with very little knowledge of what to expect, except that it would be a great book, and I was not disappointed. There's multiple characters that I grew fond of, as well as ones I wished would have gone away sooner rather than later. Lots of imagination in how elements are brought to life as well. Overall this was a great post-apocalyptic tale, I'm looking forward to reading more from Robert.

Swan Song

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