A review by jonathan_von
Stinger by Robert R. McCammon

5.0

4.5 Stinger rocks! A fugitive alien spaceship crashes in a dying Texas border town and is quickly followed by a second, a brutal bounty hunter who comes to be known as Stinger. This is an atypically action sci-fi outing from McCammon but don’t fear as the author’s talents for rich characterization remain intact. In fact, this is a book of two separate identities that really mesh (until they don’t). One part is a compelling dramatic novel about the townsfolk of a town on its last legs; gang members, drunks, people who’d given up on life. There’s little to live for until the characters are forced to fight for survival. And the other part is a badass 80’s action movie creature feature with monsters, explosions, and burrowing needle-toothed abominations. And these two parts go back and forth, escalating in drama and action in a way which is just wonderful. Until about 80% of the way and the whole thing starts to teeter towards generic action movie territory. But still, the fact that there are a handful of moving, genuinely good dramatic scenes followed by crazy monster attacks and helicopter explosions makes this a delight. McCammon does a thing where more than once he portrays a characters as a real scumbag from one point of view and then flips to to their perspective and makes you feel for the scumbag! Artistry. It does kind of run out of steam at the end but, for a while, it’s magic. Technically a reread for me as I read this when I was thirteen (because of that awesome cover) and remember getting in trouble over some school work because all I wanted to do was devour this book over the 3-4 days. Surprisingly good book for teens!