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A review by marionettecreep
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
2.0
Fair warning, I'm not going to say that Swan Song is a bad novel... it's just a meandering one that suffers from its extended length. I will also be transparent and say that I tapped out about 524 pages into the 900+ in the book. What follows its very subjective and ultimately, if you've loved the book, that's fantastic, but it wasn't for me.
First things first, McCammon created a vivid and deeply vivid portrait of the nuclear apocalypse and what followed in this. To his credit, the author captured the utterly bleak (and often uncompromisingly horrific) aspect of what a full-on nuclear exchange and its aftermath would look like. There's passages that are legitimately challenging to get through, given the graphic content, and the world after the bombs is an interesting one in many regards. Full credit to McCammon, he knows how to create an interesting setting. If anything, this would compel me to look at his other works.
However, while the characters are interesting for the most part, they felt more like vehicles for the plot points rather than something fully developed in their own right. There's this real sense at times that you're reading a serialised book in sections, rather than something cohesive in terms of character development. The characters are there for the ride of the different little event arcs for the most part, rather than dedicated focuses.
As for what ultimately made me drop the book... it's that the story just didn't feel like it was progressing. There'd be some legitimately great moments that'd progress the sprawling plot, and then it'd just meander for 50-70 pages. I will also say that I was really into the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic elements, but the more fantastical and religious elements fell flat for me. It also felt like McCammon was kind of engaging in post-apocalyptic bingo, trying to fill in as many boxes as possible. It was a hard decision to drop the book, but with 400 or so pages left, I decided that it was time to move on.
This isn't my first brush with epic horror and for context I really enjoyed The Passage, which covers similar ground, but Swan Song just lacked the momentum that's kept me going with other longer texts. Swan Song just wasn't for me, and that's okay. If it had been two more focused novels of about 400-500 pages each, I would likely enjoy it a lot more.
First things first, McCammon created a vivid and deeply vivid portrait of the nuclear apocalypse and what followed in this. To his credit, the author captured the utterly bleak (and often uncompromisingly horrific) aspect of what a full-on nuclear exchange and its aftermath would look like. There's passages that are legitimately challenging to get through, given the graphic content, and the world after the bombs is an interesting one in many regards. Full credit to McCammon, he knows how to create an interesting setting. If anything, this would compel me to look at his other works.
However, while the characters are interesting for the most part, they felt more like vehicles for the plot points rather than something fully developed in their own right. There's this real sense at times that you're reading a serialised book in sections, rather than something cohesive in terms of character development. The characters are there for the ride of the different little event arcs for the most part, rather than dedicated focuses.
As for what ultimately made me drop the book... it's that the story just didn't feel like it was progressing. There'd be some legitimately great moments that'd progress the sprawling plot, and then it'd just meander for 50-70 pages. I will also say that I was really into the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic elements, but the more fantastical and religious elements fell flat for me. It also felt like McCammon was kind of engaging in post-apocalyptic bingo, trying to fill in as many boxes as possible. It was a hard decision to drop the book, but with 400 or so pages left, I decided that it was time to move on.
This isn't my first brush with epic horror and for context I really enjoyed The Passage, which covers similar ground, but Swan Song just lacked the momentum that's kept me going with other longer texts. Swan Song just wasn't for me, and that's okay. If it had been two more focused novels of about 400-500 pages each, I would likely enjoy it a lot more.