1.14k reviews for:

Swan Song

Robert R. McCammon

4.14 AVERAGE

finnyboy's review against another edition

4.5

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fucking BLEAK. i had to take breaks reading this because it put me in such a dark & hopeless mood. definitely a must-read for fans of apocalyptic fiction, but know that this one is TOUGH. i don’t know how i feel about the supernatural/religious aspect of the villain - it felt a little incongruous to me, but that might just be personal preference. tw for all manner of human awfulness

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Content Warnings

tw for truly ALL manner of human awfulness. racial slurs, sexual violence, regular violence, cannibalism, etc

alsoghosts's review against another edition

3.0

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I get all the comparisons to The Stand because these are both post-apocalyptic doorstoppers, but aside from that, a Flagg(ish) villain, and a couple people having visions of cornfields in some flyover state, they’re not that similar. This one is definitely darker just in terms of sheer Mad Max-level brutality, which is great when you're in the mood for it. I just wasn’t that invested in most of the characters, and some of the fantasy elements were just plain weird/pointless

Spoiler

(wtf was the point of Job’s Mask? Why were only some people affected? Everything’s so black and white in this book, it’s not like we didn’t already know who was Designated Good or Designated Evil. Also, who/what caused it?

or wound up being ridiculously anticlimactic

Spoiler

(don’t get me started on the glass ring macguffin, which was built up over the course of the entire book and then used for nothing by the end, and also had no explanation for who/what was behind it all)

. The writing was mostly good (minus the POV shifts from paragraph to paragraph), especially when shit hits the fan in the beginning, but don't come looking for Larry’s Lincoln Tunnel scene or a “no great loss” chapter here.

3.5 stars? Overall I did still like this. I did. But listen. All I'm saying is that I flew through The Stand in about a month. This took me seven.

momotte's review against another edition

4.0

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4,5 une excellente lecture ! J'ai beaucoup aimé le fait de suivre différents personnages qui se retrouveront, le récit est bien rythmé, l'auteur y distille plein de mystères pour nous garder happés, et le côté horrifique est super bien géré.

joanneburns's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-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: Yes

teehliime's review against another edition

5.0

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Great book! The way the author described the infected blisters and the pain that the people felt made me cringe constantly. I could not stop reading this book. It was difficult to guess where the story was going to go next. I was bummed when they didn’t settle if Josh’s family was still alive. However I understand why he chose to stay. Great book!

inkjet_knight's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lordbearon's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

bethharbour's review against another edition

5.0

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This is probably going to be my favourite book of 2024 - it'd take something really incredible to knock this down a peg with only a few months of the year left to go. It had everything I want in a book and more - I couldn't put it down, and even though it's quite long, it flew by and I wanted more. In fact, that's my one and only criticism - the ending felt a little rushed, I got to 90% and was wondering how it was going to be resolved with only 10% to go.. I was happy with the ending but would have liked more detail I think. Several parts gave me goosebumps and there was a paragraph at the end (with a sparkly dress) which made me tear up - this rarely happens with me and books, so tells you how much I loved it!

One thing I have to comment on is the comparisons to The Stand, which I do think are inevitable given the similar themes, setting and overall vibe. I read The Stand fairly recently, and love King, but I actually think I preferred Swan Song in terms of pacing and characters - parts of The Stand dragged for me, whereas no part of this book dragged!

mikernc's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

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I slogged through about a third of this book and could never completely get over the idea that it was The Stand, by Robert McCammon. Bad mystical guy: check; really bad people: check; journey across America: check; nice people caught up in a quest they don’t fully understand: check; good wins over evil: I’ll never know. I kept waiting on something unique to occur, but nope. If I’d never read the original, I’d probably eat this up…gotta let it go.

fabsfree's review against another edition

5.0

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It would have be 5 stars PLUS without the seven year leap in the story, and this is where i lost a bit of connection with the characters. If it was one or maybe two years would be ok but seven it's too much. I felt as the characters haven't grown up in that time, and their relationship with each other neither.
Still 5 stars!

THE STAND (one of my favorite of 2022) vs SWAM SONG (one of my favorite of 2023)?!
the stand is perfect in the plot, not holes. Pure Horror
Swam song is perfect with the ending (it reminds me the "Mistborn trilogy" ending quality by Brandon Sanderson). Horror with a lot of Dark Fantasy

So "The Stand" story with "Swam song" ending would be the PERFECT POST APOCALYPTIC HORROR STORY