Reviews

Baal by Robert R. McCammon

smcscot's review against another edition

2.0

This is Robert McCammon's first book, and now I understand why he wanted to keep it from future print runs. The whole novel is more like a character sketch of an evil paragon, but never actually amounts to anything. The first section is a poor rendition of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen" all fit into one. Personally I would have liked to see the genesis in a matter of pages and extended his works, which was by far the best of what was here. The second part of the book is Baal's rise to power. This was fairly well done. There is horror here, there is danger, there is intrigue and mystery. This is what the majority of the story should have been, but then we go into the third section. This portion didn't even make sense. You have a long drawn out chase, and then such an incredible anti-climax, that the reader feels cheated. This was more of an adventure than a horror novel. What IS good about it, is you can see the writer that begins to emerge. He hit some of the same mistakes in "The Night Boat", but that story is much more evolved and more mature. I love his later stuff, and wanted to get to this one to know what it was like, but if you aren't a super fan, this one really isn't worth it.

addison_reads's review against another edition

2.0

Not the strongest book by McCammon, but then this was his first published work. I'm a huge fan of Swan's Song and Boy's Life, and this had that 80's horror feel to it, but it just never quite delivered for me.

The premise of a child born from rape who ends up turning those around him towards evil and hatred was very interesting, however, as the book went on I just felt myself not completely invested in what was happening to the characters.

Overall I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, it was just okay.