Swan Song

Rating:
Summary: McCammon's Best
Review: In my humble opinion, Swan Song is fellow Alabamian Robert McCammon's best work. Unfortunately I read this one first which made all of his others pale by comparison. If you like a good long yarn, ala Stephan King's The Stand, you'll love this one.

Rating:
Summary: MacGammon's Best
Review: I have read many of Robert McCammon's books. Unfortunately, I read this one first which made the others pale by comparison. If you enjoyed Stephan King's "The Stand" I am sure you will love "Swan Song."

Rating:
Summary: Great ride
Review: This was a really great book: for almost 1,000 pages it goes by quickly. To address the Stand thing: sure there are some similarities, however, it is original. I found the first 100 or pages to be very depressing and I almost put it down for good but as I trucked through, the characters started to really come to life and, as was probably the author's intent, hope for the good guys and the world in general grows. A fantastic journey that makes the reader believe that good can come out of our worst nightmares. PEACE

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books.
Review: If you like The Stand by Stephen King you'lll love this book. This is one of the few books I could not put down once I started reading it.

Great characters and a great story. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: A great book.
Review: I am reading all the McCammon books in turn, and this is one of the best books I've ever read. It is really hard to put down since one becomes engulfed in the likeable characters that's introduced one by one: Sister, Swan, Josh. The villians, Roland, Macklin are cruel, with streaks of their former good selves in them, but buried so deep - which makes them all the more belivable, and frightening. McCammon has a very nice twist to what a world after nuclear holocaust would be like, and adds on a touch of fairy tale - hope really, that perhaps wouldn't be there after a real all-out nuclear war.. One would like to think so though. He has the book devided into chapters that follows the different characters in turn, and you can slowly follow them as they are drawn together. Some would flinch because of the length of the book, but it is because of all the things you come to know about the characters that you also come to care about them too. It is a book to recommend and read again and again later on.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo .....
Review: Need I say more . If you read it you know . If you didn't , then you really need to . And please enjoy . I did immensly .

Rating:
Summary: SWAN SONG IS AN EPIC TO BE READ!
Review: WOW! This was my 4th book that I have read from this author - and it won't be the last, but this one was by far my favorite so far. Like other readers reviews I have read, this was their favorite too, and I can see why. What a great story with so many wonderful and rich characters both good and evil. I have read numerous End of the Earth novels but this one was so original and fresh! I would love to see this made into an animated movie since T.V. mini-series could'nt afford or be able to show this correctly with all the blood and guts. It was definately one of my all time top ten books I have ever read in nearly 40 years of reading. Its a long one and took me 2 weeks to read, but it was never boring and just an awesome read.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as it could be...
Review: Robert McCammon is a good writer. In fact, he is also an excellent thriller author when he wants. But "Swan Song" seems to be a little overrrated by my fellows reviewers. It's not the wonderful tale some of them described.

The story is relatively simple: the USA are destroyed by Russian nuclear weapons and the survivors have to struggle very hard for their lives. There's no beauty here: most characters are deformed by nuclear heat and radiation, when not affected by some strange diseases. But one of the survivors, a girl named Swan, is special: she has the power of life, of reviving Nature from the atomic death. She has also an enemy:a shape-shifting guy with a kind of sadistic sense of humour who wants her dead.

The story is well written, but some of the characters, IMHO, are just boring. Very boring. The villain, very interesting in the beggining, shows himself very weak and fragile. He comes from nowhere, without any good explanation, and walks alone by the devastated land, convincing people to kill themselves. For someone who could be the devil, he is really limited in his actions. The best thing about him is a hint about his human side, when he finally finds his nemesis, Swan.

But, as a whole, the book does not have even 50% of the thrilling of other MacCammon's books, specially "They Thirst". It's very slow sometimes. There are some very good ideas in it, but, with the author's talent, it could be better. Much better.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I Have Ever Read
Review: This book is amazing. Everyone that I know who has read it agrees with me. As I read the final pages, I wished there was more. It took me a while to read it because I was very busy with 2 jobs at the time, but it was always on my mind and I read every chance I had. I suggest to Robert McCammon that there be a movie made of Swan Song. I'd be first in line for tickets! If they need actors, I volunteer! It is a thrilling story with an intense storyline, and I highly recommend it to everyone. 8)

Rating:
Summary: The writing is the difference
Review: I first read this book 3 years ago. Since then I have a read other books. Some written by McCammon, some written by others.

Mr. McCammon could write a story about a person watching grass grow, and it would be good.

Swan Song is memorable. It is re-readable. I recently re-read it, and I think I enjoyed it more because I took the time to enjoy and appreciate the writing. The manner in which the characters, events, and sub-stories of the book are introduced and developed is done with a fluidity that deserves the highest compliment I can think of: Every detail of this book is transparent to the reader.

The flow, logic, and cohesion of this book in relation to its storyline is rock-solid. No guesswork. The writing is so rich and clever the whole story unfolds like a good movie.

My review is not all sunshine, though. Here's my one crticism: Of the three main groups, the least interesting were Sister and Artie (And I wonder why Artie had such a prominent role early on when he made no significant contributions later), yet they got the most coverage.

That observation aside, whether Swan Song has a good story or not is certainly debatable. I happened to enjoy it. But I give 5 stars (10 if available) to Mr. McCammon for his story-telling abilities. His writing is incomparable.