Swan Song
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S E Brisbane
- Posts: 7
- Joined: 24 Nov 2016, 00:18
- Currently Reading: The Little Red Chairs
- Bookshelf Size: 7
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-s-e-brisbane.html
Swan Song
I was just remembering a book I read long ago; Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon. I usually don't get into horror books, but this one had my attention, from the start all the way to the finish. Of course, it played into the fear of the time, with the US and Russia in a cold war. Has anyone else read this one? I would love to discuss, and maybe even read it again.
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Samyann
- Posts: 71
- Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 13:42
- Bookshelf Size: 10
A long audiobook in an unabridged format, close to 35 hours of listening. Released by Audible Studios in November of 2011, but originally published in the 1980s.
Swan Song opens with a bang - an airplane containing top government officials, including the U. S. President, crashes. WWIII begins and ends in hours. Bombs fall everywhere. Cities are gone, a nuclear winter begins.
Central to the story is a woman named ‘Sister’. A New York City street person, Sister is outside a jewelry-row area of shops shortly after the bombs fall. She finds a fuzed piece of glass containing emeralds, diamonds, sapphires, etc., that, before the bombs fell, would have been worth millions - now it’s just a pretty piece of glass. But … is it? It glows, and within it, Sister sees visions that take her across the country in search of Swan.
Swan is a little girl who can feel ‘life’ in the earth and plants … and she can make things grow.
Liked: The author’s perception of life after an apocalypse. The human spirit prevails through devastation beyond measure. It takes a while to get there, but we eventually find uplifting hope for mankind, even though there is considerable creative license taken with grizzly evil-doers. Lots of quirky characters that have their own little story.
Didn’t like: Would have been just as good a story without the ‘magical’ element, especially ‘evil’ magic, but hey … it’s fiction. So, stretch the imagination. Second gripe is with regard to some pretty fundamental issues. How do you feed an army of thousands of men for years when the earth is virtually dead? I mean, these guys gotta eat, right? The author intimates they’ve pilfered pantries, etc., but that would have been over within the first couple of years. So…what did they eat? Third, it’s been 7-8 years since the bombs fell and we can still scrounge for gasoline to run vehicles? Really? I sort of doubt it.
Narration by Tom Stechschulte is great. Lots of characters with unique voices, male and female alike. You’ll have no trouble discerning who-says-what-to-who. Good audio production. No sex or offensive language beyond what is appropriate for the character or scene. Some graphic description of man’s inhumanity to man.
Overall, a very long, epic, mystical, apocalyptic journey - a worthy read.
Swan Song opens with a bang - an airplane containing top government officials, including the U. S. President, crashes. WWIII begins and ends in hours. Bombs fall everywhere. Cities are gone, a nuclear winter begins.
Central to the story is a woman named ‘Sister’. A New York City street person, Sister is outside a jewelry-row area of shops shortly after the bombs fall. She finds a fuzed piece of glass containing emeralds, diamonds, sapphires, etc., that, before the bombs fell, would have been worth millions - now it’s just a pretty piece of glass. But … is it? It glows, and within it, Sister sees visions that take her across the country in search of Swan.
Swan is a little girl who can feel ‘life’ in the earth and plants … and she can make things grow.
Liked: The author’s perception of life after an apocalypse. The human spirit prevails through devastation beyond measure. It takes a while to get there, but we eventually find uplifting hope for mankind, even though there is considerable creative license taken with grizzly evil-doers. Lots of quirky characters that have their own little story.
Didn’t like: Would have been just as good a story without the ‘magical’ element, especially ‘evil’ magic, but hey … it’s fiction. So, stretch the imagination. Second gripe is with regard to some pretty fundamental issues. How do you feed an army of thousands of men for years when the earth is virtually dead? I mean, these guys gotta eat, right? The author intimates they’ve pilfered pantries, etc., but that would have been over within the first couple of years. So…what did they eat? Third, it’s been 7-8 years since the bombs fell and we can still scrounge for gasoline to run vehicles? Really? I sort of doubt it.
Narration by Tom Stechschulte is great. Lots of characters with unique voices, male and female alike. You’ll have no trouble discerning who-says-what-to-who. Good audio production. No sex or offensive language beyond what is appropriate for the character or scene. Some graphic description of man’s inhumanity to man.
Overall, a very long, epic, mystical, apocalyptic journey - a worthy read.
