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A review by jdhacker
Blue World by Robert R. McCammon
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This is the first McCammon I read (though I followed it up with Usher's Passing). Blue World is a wide ranging selection of his short fiction work from the 80s and early 90s, plus the titular novella.
The collection is a pretty broad cross-section of his short fiction; horror (He'll Come Knocking), thriller/slasher (Blue World), science fiction (Red House), fantasy (Nightcrawler), and Twilight Zone-esque (I Scream Man) stories are all represented here. The influence of script writing on McCammon's style is evident across genres, which helps keeps the pacing as reasonably fast a short story tends to demand. It also lends itself to satisfying endings, though ones that do not always explain what we've just experienced (Doom City).
While I have seen complaints the stories fail to address more timeless themes in favor of what would be more commercially successful at the time, I feel that's definitely an off-base claim. Like Michael Shea, a lot of our main characters to tend be from the working class or poor who are sometimes driven to criminalized behaviors based on that (Makeup), and though the trappings of those experiences may have shifted over the decades, their struggles are as easy to identify with now as then. Though main characters are almost all white, and for the most part men, we do have a number of strong female characters (Yellachile's Cage, Night Calls the Green Falcon, Blue World), and main characters ranging in age (Yellowjacket Summer) from children to the elderly (Night Calls the Green Falcon). McCammon does a masterful job of creating evoking strong relatable emotions and creating sympathetic (though not always easily identified with) characters in the limited space he has for each story.
I would normally single out strong shorts from the collection, but with the possible exception of Pin they're all standouts.
The collection is a pretty broad cross-section of his short fiction; horror (He'll Come Knocking), thriller/slasher (Blue World), science fiction (Red House), fantasy (Nightcrawler), and Twilight Zone-esque (I Scream Man) stories are all represented here. The influence of script writing on McCammon's style is evident across genres, which helps keeps the pacing as reasonably fast a short story tends to demand. It also lends itself to satisfying endings, though ones that do not always explain what we've just experienced (Doom City).
While I have seen complaints the stories fail to address more timeless themes in favor of what would be more commercially successful at the time, I feel that's definitely an off-base claim. Like Michael Shea, a lot of our main characters to tend be from the working class or poor who are sometimes driven to criminalized behaviors based on that (Makeup), and though the trappings of those experiences may have shifted over the decades, their struggles are as easy to identify with now as then. Though main characters are almost all white, and for the most part men, we do have a number of strong female characters (Yellachile's Cage, Night Calls the Green Falcon, Blue World), and main characters ranging in age (Yellowjacket Summer) from children to the elderly (Night Calls the Green Falcon). McCammon does a masterful job of creating evoking strong relatable emotions and creating sympathetic (though not always easily identified with) characters in the limited space he has for each story.
I would normally single out strong shorts from the collection, but with the possible exception of Pin they're all standouts.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Confinement, Drug use, Child death, and Body horror