Reviews - Swan Song | The StoryGraph

1.13k reviews for:

Swan Song

Robert R. McCammon

4.14 AVERAGE

plurbitz's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark slow-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

laurendwelker's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark reflective 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: Complicated

swday's review against another edition

3.0

Guess I'm a King girl. Much preferred The Stand. Swan Song was entertaining and an easy read. Felt Christian-lite, which isn't my thing. Granted, the same can be said for The Stand, but it felt different. But as a lover of all things dystopian and apocalyptic, I am happy to have read it. Sister fast became a favorite character and I enjoyed her arc the most.

ladybitch's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. For years, my ultimate favourite book has been The Stand. This almost toppled it. Both have good versus evil. Both have a main heroine and a terrifying antagonist. Both books also have a horde of other characters that are so well developed that I rooted for them / despised them in equal measure. I may be biased because Steven King is my favourite author of any genre (The Stand remains untoppled), but I highly recommend you read both and decide for yourself.

paulopaperbooksonly's review against another edition

5.0

In my 100 rating I would rate this 97. I won't dwell much on this because there are some great reviews here but let me add something, if you are looking at a book dealing with survival, with good vs evil, with good characterization and something for you to lose and immerse yourself then this book is for you. If you want a book focus on action scenes and such then this book may not be for you. The comparisons between The Stand and Swan Song are there and I've yet to finish The Stand (I started 2 times) and although there are similarities I think they are handled differently.

I will miss Swan, Josh, Sister and even the not-so-good kind of characters. It was interesting to see how the world ends, how people try to survive and the effects of nuclear winter and reaffirming that even in Death there is Hope, even with Death there is Rebirth and although , no matter how dark things get, hope must prevail.

My only complain, if you can call it that was the handling of the evil one and the ending was a bit rushed. If he can write 850 to then climax in the last 100 he probably could have flesh out more things. But that's okay.

Love it. Advisable. Book of the year material.

glittergorecannoli's review against another edition

5.0

Despite this being an absolute HONKER of a book, it flew by! It never felt long at all. I’m so glad I picked this one up this year! As someone who loves apocalyptic reads, this one stood out for having so much heart.

Even with multiple POVs, every character felt fully fleshed out and distinct, making it easy to get invested in their journeys. And let me tell you, this book was gorey as heck, emotional as heck, and… I think I literally mourned for some of these characters.

It had such a wild yet seamless blend of magic, real life, and demonic/angelic elements, making for a unique read. If you love apocalyptic stories with depth, grit, and gut-punch emotions, highly recommend this one!

ktkareis's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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: Complicated

The book is mostly dark and deeply disturbing at times with small spots of light between characters that keep you going until the end when the there's a massive payoff for all the horrible things you've been reading for all those pages and things get better.