Reviews

Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon

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mcmallow's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

books_nooks_spooks's review against another edition

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4.0

The prospect of picking up Swan Song was incredibly daunting and it gave me horrible The Stand flashbacks (I really despise that book) did I really want to invest in another epic apocalyptic tale after my last experience went so horribly? If anyone else has the same question then I can tell you YES. You want to invest. I truly get it now. Whilst the story is intense, the writing is in no way intimidating and this is a remarkably easy read despite the size of the book appearing overwhelming. It’s a fully immersive experience and never has the phrase ‘get lost in a book’ been more appropriate. Some writers just have this amazing ability to really bring their characters to life and that’s certainly something Robert McCammon achieves here. Not only that, he pulls you into their world so you can feel how each experience impacts them and there was definitely some moments that hit different.

There were a few small gripes for me. The first being the sheer volume of characters. Whilst the main and even the secondary characters were great, I felt like we stumbled into one too many ‘extras’ but that’s definitely a personal preference as I don’t like to be bombarded with too many people. In books and life

ph0enixlynn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

lunkbunk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

youssefahmad7's review against another edition

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5.0

I haven't read a book that I had liked so much in such a long time. I loved the characters, the pacing, and the grotesque setting Robert engrossed me in. At first it was a read very much akin to King's The Stand (despite the plights), then later it veered off to its very much thrilling line. This book delved into human choices, rights and wrongs facing the end of times, and explored the rise and fall of societies. I loved it.

ngallion's review against another edition

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3.0

First, this book is better than the three star review I gave it and I don’t doubt that a good many people would love it. I didn’t, though. First, this is a loooong book. I’m not agains a book being long, but this one spends too much time without clear forward momentum. Characters are moving, to be sure, but it doesn’t become clear until the last quarter of the book where anybody is moving to. (That’s not entirely true - some characters are moving toward each other, but even the reason for that isn’t entirely clear.) The meandering nature of the plot - which, for much of the runtime boils down to “traverse the wasteland” - won’t be a problem for many, but for me, it made the book feel overly long and directionless. There are some well-drawn characters here, but there’s very little in the way of a clear character arc in which they change gradually over the course of the book. By about 25% of the way into the book, you’ll know who the good guys and bad guys are and not much will happen along the way that will change that.

Maybe the post-apocalyptic genre just isn’t my thing - I felt similarly about Justin Cronin’s The Passage earlier this year. Or maybe I’m still waiting for a post-apocalyptic book that scratches my particular itch. Either way, the many five star reviews for this one didn’t translate into a great reading experience for me.