Swan Song

By Edmund Crispin

This playful whodunit featuring an Oxford don and a permanently silenced opera singer is “a splendidly intricate and superior locked-room mystery” (The New York Times).

When an opera company gathers in Oxford for the first postwar production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger, its happiness is soon soured by the discovery that the unpleasant Edwin Shorthouse will be singing a leading role. Nearly everyone involved has reason to loathe Shorthouse, but who amongst them has the fiendish ingenuity to kill him in his own locked dressing room?

In the course of this entertaining adventure, eccentric Oxford professor and amateur sleuth Gervase Fen has to unravel two murders, cope with the unpredictability of the artistic temperament, and attempt to encourage the course of true love.

“One of the last exponents of the classical English detective story . . . elegant, literate, and funny.” —The Times of London

“[Crispin’s] books are fast, fun and smart, their hero charming, frivolous, brilliant and badly behaved.” —New Review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Release date: Apr 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781504087452

Edmund Crispin

Robert Bruce Montgomery was born in Buckinghamshire in 1921, and was a golden age crime writer as well as a successful concert pianist and composer. Under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin, he wrote 9 detective novels and 42 short stories. In addition to his reputation as a leader in the field of mystery genre, he contributed to many periodicals and newspapers and edited sci–fi anthologies. After the golden years of the 1950s he retired from the limelight to Devonshire until his death in 1978.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

There are few creatures more stupid than the average singer. It would appear that the fractional adjustment of larynx, glottis, and sinuses required in the production of beautiful sounds must almost invariably be accompanied – so perverse are the habits of Providence – by the witlessness of a barnyard fowl. Perhaps, though, the thing is not so much innate as a result of environment and training. This touchiness and irascibility, these scarifying intellectual lapses, are observable in actors as well – and it has long been noted that singers who are concerned with the theatre are more obtuse and trying than any other kind. One would be inclined, indeed, to attribute their deficiencies exclusively to the practice of personal display were it not for the existence of ballet-dancers, who (with a few notable exceptions) are most usually naïve and mild-eyed. Evidently there is no immediate and summary solution of the problem. The fact itself, however, is very generally admitted.

Certainly Elizabeth Harding was aware of it – perhaps only theoretically at first, but with a good deal of practical confirmation as the rehearsals of Der Rosenkavalier ran their course. She was therefore relieved to find that Adam Langley was considerably more cultured and intelligent, as well as more svelte and personable, than the majority of operatic tenors. It was her intention to marry him, and plainly the quality of his mind was a factor which had to be taken into account.

Elizabeth was not, of course, in any way a cold or calculating person. But most women – despite the romantic fictions which obscure the whole marriage problem – are realistic enough, before committing themselves, to examine with some care the merits and demerits of their prospective husbands. Moreover, Elizabeth had gained by her own talents a settled and independent position in life, and this was not, she had decided, to be abandoned improvidently at the behest of mere affection, however strong. She therefore reviewed the situation with characteristic thoroughness and clarity of mind.

And the situation was this, that she had fallen explicably and quite unexpectedly in love with an operatic tenor. In her more apprehensive moments, in fact, infatuation suggested itself to her as a more accurate term than love. The symptoms left her in no possible doubt as to her condition. They showed, even, so strong a resemblance to the tropes and platitudes of the conventional love-story as to be vaguely disconcerting. She thought about Adam before she went to sleep at night; she was still thinking about him when she woke up in the morning; she even – the ultimate degradation – dreamed about him; and she hurried to the opera-house to meet him with an eagerness quite inappropriate to a reserved and sophisticated young woman of twenty-six. In a way it was humiliating; on the other hand, it was decidedly the most delightful and exhilarating form of humiliation she had ever experienced – and that in spite of a sufficiency of practice in love and rather too much theoretical reading on the subject.

How it came about she was never able clearly to remember, but it seems to have happened quite suddenly, without gestation or warning. One day Adam Langley was an agreeable but undifferentiated member of an operatic company; the next he shone alone in planetary splendour, amid satellites grown spectral and unreal. Elizabeth felt, in the face of this phenomenon, something of the awe of a coenobite visited by an archangel, and was startled at the hurried refocusing of familiar objects which such an experience involves. 'Fallings from us, vanishings . . .' She would certainly have resented this gratuitous upsetting of her normal outlook had it not been for the unprecedented sense of peace and happiness which it brought with it. 'Darling Adam,' she murmured that night to a hot and unresponsive pillow, 'darling ugly Adam' – a form of endearment which its object would probably have greatly resented had he known of it. There was more to the same effect, but such ecstasies make a poor showing by the time the printer has finished with them, and the reader will either have to take them for granted or imagine them for himself.

The epithet was as a matter of fact slanderous. Adam Langley was entirely presentable, being thirty-five years of age, with kindly, regular, undistinguished features, thoughtful brown eyes, and a habit of courtesy which served admirably as a defence to his natural shyness. His chief defect lay in a certain vagueness which amounted sometimes to the appearance of aimlessness. He was trustful, modest, easily startled, and innocent of all but the most venial misdemeanours, and though at one time and another he had been moved to a gentle and – if the truth is to be told – rather clumsy amorousness, women had played no very important part in his peaceful and successful life. It was perhaps for this reason that he remained for so long totally unaware of Elizabeth's feelings for him. He regarded her, at all events in the first instance, simply as a writer who had gained admittance to the rehearsals of Der Rosenkavalier in order to study the operatic background required for an episode in a new novel.

'But schön!' Karl Wolzogen hissed at him during a break in one of the piano rehearsals. 'If she could only sing – ah, my friend, what an Oktavian!' And more out of courtesy than because he was impressed by Karl's enthusiasm – which tended, in truth, to be indiscriminate – Adam studied Elizabeth properly for the first time. She was small, he saw, exquisitely slender, with soft brown hair, blue eyes, a slightly snub nose, and eyebrows which were crooked and hence a trifle sardonic. Her voice – she was speaking at this moment to Joan Davis – was low, vivid, and quiet, with a not unattractive huskiness. Her lipstick had been applied with a rare competence, and of this Adam greatly approved, since it seemed to him that the majority of women must perform this operation in front of a distorting mirror or during an attack of St Vitus's Dance. She was dressed soberly and expensively, though with a little too much masculinity for Adam's taste. And as to character? Here Adam became a little bogged. He liked, however, her disciplined vivacity and her poise – the more so as there was no hint of arrogance about it.

Subsequently he was in the habit of attributing their marriage to the independent purposes of Herren Strauss and Hofmannsthal. The chief singing parts in Der Rosenkavalier are for three sopranos and a bass. Adam, being a tenor, had been fobbed off with the small and uninteresting role of Valzacchi, and this left him, at rehearsals, more often unoccupied than not. It was inevitable that he and Elizabeth should drift together – and so far, so good. But here an obstacle presented itself, in that it never for one instant occurred to Adam that Elizabeth might wish their relationship to rise above the level of disinterested affability on which it had begun. On this plane he obstinately remained, blind to winsomeness and affection, deaf to hints and innuendoes, in a paradisaically innocent condition of sexlessness which exasperated Elizabeth all the more since it was obviously natural and unconscious. For a time she was baffled. An open declaration of her feelings, she saw, was far more likely to put him on guard than to encourage him – and moreover her own characteristic reserve would invest such a declaration with a perceptible air of incongruity and falsity. It says much for the semi-hypnosis in which her mind was fogged that the obvious solution came to her only after a considerable time: plainly some third person must be found to mediate between them.

They had no mutual acquaintance outside the opera-house, and inside it there was only one possible choice for such a delicate mission. A woman was indicated – and a woman, moreover, who was mature, worldly, sensible, and friendly with Adam. So one evening, after the rehearsal was over, Elizabeth went to visit Joan Davis (who was singing the part of the Marschallin) at her flat in Maida Vale.

The room into which an elderly, heavy-footed maidservant ushered her was untidy – so untidy as to suggest the aftermath of a burglary. It soon became apparent, however, that this was the normal condition of Miss Davis's belongings. The maid announced Elizabeth, clucked deprecatorily, made a half-hearted foray among a welter of articles on the sideboard, and then departed, tramping vehemently and muttering to herself.

'Poor Elsie.' Joan shook her head. 'She'll never reconcile herself to my slatternly ways. Sit down, my dear, and have a drink.'

'You're not busy?'

'As you see' – Joan waved a needle, a shrivelled length of silk, and a mushroom-shaped object constructed of wood – 'I'm mending. But I can quite well go on with that while you talk to me . . . Gin and something?'

They chattered of commonplaces while they sat and smoked their cigarettes. Then, with some misgiving, Elizabeth broached the reason for her visit.

'You know Adam,' she began, and was taken aback at having made so idiotic a statement. 'That is to say –'

'That is to say,' Joan put in, 'that you're rather taken with him.'

She grinned disconcertingly. She was a tall, slender woman of about thirty-five, with features which, though too irregular for beauty, were yet remarkably expressive. The grin mingled shrewdness with a cynical, impish vivacity.

Elizabeth was frankly dismayed. 'Is it as obvious as all that?'

'Certainly – to everyone except Adam. I've thought once or twice of letting even him into the secret, but it hardly does for an outsider to interfere in these things.'

'As a matter of fact' – Elizabeth blushed slightly in spite of herself – 'that's exactly what I came here to ask you to do.'

'My dear, what fun. I shall enjoy it thoroughly . . .' Joan paused to reflect. 'Yes, I see now that it's probably the only way. Adam is not, in our grandparents' phrase, a person of much observation. But he's a good-hearted creature, all the same. Blessings to you both. I'll tackle him tomorrow.'

And this she did, carrying Adam off, in a suitably idle moment, to the green-room. What she had to tell him took him completely unawares. He expostulated, feebly and without conviction. Subsequently Joan left him to meditate upon her words and returned to the rehearsal.

His initial surprise gave place almost at once to an overwhelming sense of gratification – and this by no means for reasons of vanity, but because an obscure sense of dissatisfaction from which he had recently suffered was now entirely dissipated. For him, too, there was a refocusing, as though the pattern of a puzzle had at last become apparent – become, indeed, so self-evident that its previous obscurity was almost incomprehensible. Beatitude and embarrassment clamoured equally for recognition. Ten minutes previously he had regarded Elizabeth as a pleasant acquaintance; now he had not the least doubt that he was going to marry her.

He was recalled to the stage, and there participated with decided gusto in the discomfiture of Baron Ochs von Lerchenau.

But when actually confronted with Elizabeth his shyness got the better of him. During the week that followed, indeed, he went so far as to avoid her – a phenomenon which filled Elizabeth with secret dismay. She came to believe, as the days passed, that the news of her feelings must have offended him, though as a matter of fact the reason for his unsociability lay in a sort of coyness, for which he severely reproached himself, but which for some time he was quite unable to overcome. In the end it was his growing impatience with his own puerility which brought him to the point. It happened towards the close of the first dress-rehearsal. Bracing himself – in a fashion more appropriate to some monstrous task like the taking of a beleaguered city than to the wooing of a girl whom he knew perfectly well to be fond of him – he went to speak to Elizabeth in the auditorium.

She was sitting, small, demure, cool, and self-possessed, on a red plush seat in the centre of the front row of the stalls. Framed in the large rococo splendours of the opera-house like a fine jewel in an antique setting. Tier upon gilded tier of boxes and galleries, radiating on either side from the royal box, towered into the upper darkness. Callipygic Boucher cherubs and putti held lean striated pillars in a passionate embrace. The great chandelier swayed fractionally in a draught, its crystal pendants winking like fireflies in the light reflected from the stage. And Adam paused, daunted. The mise-en-scène was by no means appropriate to the intimate things which he had to say. He consulted first his watch and then the state of affairs on the stage, saw that the rehearsal would be over in half an hour at most, and invited Elizabeth out to a late dinner.

They went to a restaurant in Dean Street, and sat at a table with a red-shaded lamp in a stuffy downstairs room. A small, garrulous, mostly unintelligible Cypriot waiter served them. Adam ordered, with stately deliberation, some very expensive claret, and Elizabeth's spirits rose perceptibly. Since it was obvious that the well-intentioned nagging of their waiter would be unpropitious to confidences, Adam deferred the business of the evening until the arrival of coffee forced the waiter at last to go away. He then embarked on the subject overhastily and without sufficient premeditation.

'Elizabeth,' he said, 'I hear – that is to say, I understand – that is to say that my feelings – what I mean is –'

He stopped abruptly, dumbfounded at so much feebleness and incoherence, and drank the whole of his liqueur at a gulp. He felt like a man who has incomprehensibly lost his nerve on the middle of a tight-rope. Elizabeth experienced a transient exasperation at being kept for so long in suspense; certainly the omens were favourable, but one could not be completely sure . . .

'Adam dear,' she replied gently, 'what on earth are you trying to say?'

'I am trying to say,' Adam resumed earnestly, 'that – that I'm in love with you. And that I should like you to marry me. To marry me,' he repeated with unwarranted ferocity, and sat back abruptly, gazing at her with open defiance.

Really, thought Elizabeth, one would imagine he was challenging me to a duel. But oh, Adam, my darling, my unspeakably shy and precious old idiot . . . With the utmost difficulty she resisted the temptation to throw herself into his arms. She soon observed, however, that the Cypriot waiter was once again looming, toothily affable, on to their horizon, and decided that the situation had better be dealt with as quickly as possible.

'Adam,' she said with a gravity which she was far from feeling, 'I wish I could tell you how grateful I am. But you know, it isn't the sort of thing one ought to decide on the spur of the moment . . . May I think about it?'

'Any more liqueur, eh?' said the waiter, materializing suddenly beside them. 'Drambuie, Cointreau, Crème-de-Menthe, nice brandy?'

Adam ignored him; now that the worst was over he had recovered much of his self-possession.

'Elizabeth,' he said, 'you're being hypocritical. You know perfectly well that you're going to marry me.'

'Green Chartreuse, nice Vodka –'

'Will you go away. Elizabeth, my dear –'

'You like the cheque, eh?' said the waiter.

'No. Go away at once. As I was saying –'

'Oh, pay the bill, darling,' said Elizabeth. 'And then you can take me outside and kiss me.'

'Kiss 'er 'ere,' said the waiter, interested.

'Oh, Adam, I do adore you,' said Elizabeth. 'Of course I'll marry you.'

'Nice magnum of champagne, eh?' said the waiter. 'Congratulations, sir and madam. Congratulations.' Adam tipped him recklessly and they departed.

For their honeymoon they went to Brunnen. Their rooms at the hotel overlooked the lake. They visited the Wagner-museum at Triebschen, and Adam, in defiance of all the regulations, played the opening bars of Tristan on Wagner's Erard piano. They purchased a number of rather risqué postcards and sent them to their friends. Both of them were blissfully happy.

They stood on their balcony gazing across the water, now amethyst-coloured in the fading light.

'How nice,' said Elizabeth judicially, 'to have all the pleasures of living in sin without any of the disadvantages.'

CHAPTER TWO

The marriage would have been no more noteworthy than ten thousand others had it not been for a third party who was obliquely involved.

Edwin Shorthouse was singing Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier. Like Adam, he became acquainted with Elizabeth during the rehearsals. And he, too, fell in love with her.

'Love', as used in this connexion, is largely a euphemism for physical excitement. To the best of everyone's knowledge, Edwin Shorthouse's affairs with women had never risen above this plane. His habits suggested, in fact, a belated attempt to revive the droit de seigneur, and his resemblance to the gross and elderly roué of Strauss's opera was sufficiently remarkable for it to be a subject of perpetual surprise in operatic circles that his interpretation of the role was so inadequate. Possibly he himself was uneasily conscious of the similarity, and felt the basic stupidity of Hofmannsthal's creation to be a reflexion on his own way of life. Sensitivity, however, was not Edwin Shorthouse's most outstanding trait, and it is more likely that his aversion to the part was instinctive.

There may have been something more than mere sensuality in his attitude to Elizabeth. Certainly it is difficult, on any other hypothesis, to account for the active malevolence which Elizabeth's marriage to Adam aroused in him. Joan Davis held the view that it was his vanity which was chiefly concerned. Here was Edwin (she said); coarse-grained, middle-aged, ill-favoured, conceited, and almost continually drunk; and here, on the other hand, was Adam. The choice, to anyone but Shorthouse himself, must have seemed a foregone conclusion: to him it had undoubtedly been a wounding blow.

'But don't worry, my dears,' Joan added. 'Edwin's concern is with the

Reviews for Swan Song

[amcheri-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this book. It took me a long time to finish it but I'm very happy that I stuck with it. And the narrator did a fantastic job.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Better than "The Stand" - most definitely not! I mostly enjoyed it and the writing style is very easy to read. For a long book I got through it very quickly. Some interesting characters but the end was a bit of an anti-climax and certain plot developments just faded away into nothing which was a bit puzzling. Worth a read but King did it better.

[jldarden · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Just finished this on audio and while I did enjoy it I agree with some of the reviewers that the character development was lacking. The epilogue was a little dissatisfying. Many compare this to King's [The Stand] but I have to admit I liked that one better.

[zeljanamaricferli · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I am a big fan of the genre, but this book was a big disappointment for me. I can, however, see why many people seem to like it. The author is obviously skillful, and story has a nice flow to it. I was, at least in the beginning, in love with the basic premise. I especially liked the build up just before the nuclear holocaust, and the depiction of the event itself. As the book progressed I found it harder and harder to keep reading. There were just so many stereotypes, cliches, and I simply lost my interest.
The biggest letdown were the characters. I just didn't care for them. They were not relatable or believable. After a while I was just turning pages to see how this will end, but I couldn't care less for the characters.
If I hadn't read The Stand, maybe the whole impression would have been a bit more positive.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I picked this up because a friend recommended it and I was looking for something different. It's over 900 pages but hooks the reader right from the beginning. The earth has destroyed itself in a nuclear holocaust. This book focused on some of the survivors: Sister, a bag lady from NYC, Josh, a WWF-type wrestler, Swan, a young girl with an 'extreme' green thumb, and Roland, a geeky kid who's taken into the care of a Viet Nam veteran and taught survival techniques. There are others, both good and evil, who they come across as they wander the devastated landscape of what was the United States. The writing is tense and effective, always moving the plot forward. He's excellent at foreshadowing, hinting at some event to come and teasing it out for the reader. Some incidents are horrific, some are touching, but I can see I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long time. I'd really like to see it made into a miniseries.

[booklovers2 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Appears to me to be a total Rip off of Stephen Kings - "The Stand" - and definitely NOT as good - Read the ORIGINAL - before you give any stars to this crap

[baochuan-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book gave a good description of the humanity, good or evil, after the all out nuclear war that renders the earth an wasteland. The characters were well depicted with a bit of mytical power that bring hope to the humanity in the post-apocalyptic era. I do have problem with some of the details in the book. There was a seven years gap that seems randomly choosen by the author, and I am also not sure if the fuel reserve and ammunition can really last that long without careful planning and rationing beforehand. I expected people will reverse back to pretty primitive stage of life after the war. Despite these points, overall, the book is a good read albeit a bit on the long side.

[eric_j._guignard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

REVIEWED: Swan Song
WRITTEN BY: Robert R. McCammon
PUBLISHED: June, 1987

Another successful novel by author, Robert R. McCammon. Swan Song is a post-apocalyptic horror story following the survivors of a nuclear Armageddon. The characters are diverse and engaging, though many border on the stereotypical “too-good” vs. “too-evil.” However, I appreciated the variety of characters’ “Points of Views” by chapter, similar to Stephen King’s own post-apocalyptic novel, “The Stand.” The desolation and misery created by McCammon is emotional; you can feel the pain and weariness of the survivors as they trek across the ruined country. But that’s also offset by the perpetual hope and innocence of the girl, Swan, as well as the life lessons learned and perseverance by Sister and Josh and the others. The ending is very satisfying, even somewhat beautiful. Swan Song is a classic and recommended reading for anyone who enjoys dark fiction.

Five out of Five stars

[rynooo_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I love post-apocalyptic fiction, but this is absolute garbage.

[toast.x2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One leading to another to another, I find I am wading through decades of old novels. I have been shoveling them into my gaping brain maw and chewing them up, enjoying every bite.

One stands out a little from the others. It is having it's 30th birthday this year and holds sway in my view as under appreciated and overly influential to how my think meats process the world.

My perspective post reread of Robert McCammon's Swan Song? As expected, it was every bit as good as the first time, with the exception of spoiled surprises.

I was introduced to Swan Song in 2002(3/?) by a karaoke singing dirty old man (RIP: Dr Lou). He traded me for a Stephen King novel (Black House, sequel to The Talisman). King is important here because at the time, I was of the impression The Stand was an infallible masterwork of apocalypse. Two days after receiving Swan Song and 800 pages later, King was knocked to his knees and deposed of his throne. All hail the new king, McCammon.

Swan Song opens with the introduction of various characters, including Sister Creep. Sister is crazy, drunk, and homeless. Not long after looking the devil in the eye at a screening of 'faces of Death' she finds herself boiled alive and dropped into a post nuclear wasteland. Following instinct, her remaining shreds of humanity, and faith, Sister begins a journey hide from the ultimate evil and save the survivors of our race.

I will spare the internet a blow by blow of plot and characters on a 30 year old book. If you want that, head out to google and I am sure you can find other options.

This novel is not simply a good read, I find that it influenced how I view large cities and even foot travel. Trigger statements might follow for some east coasters.

Positive influence- At one point in the book, there was mention of the need for a good pair shoes. Through conversation it was stated "[...] take it one step at a time. One step and then the next gets you where you’re going." This stuck with me and I have since refused to wear unreasonable or uncomfortable shoes. This was even a restriction at my wedding, that I would only get hitched wearing comfortable shoes.

Negative influence is worse. When I look at large buildings or cities, I cannot help but imagine the sheer volume of corpses mixed with rubble that I would have to climb over to escape a city post nuclear collapse.

My reaction to this mind bendingly good book:
* This tainted my view of the world. The taint itself is unusual, however. This novel left me with a strange feeling of hope, astonishment that the human race is so foolish, and a blatant desire not to be locked into a fate where my only choice is death. As there will always be a choice, I will walk and fight till my bones and sinews can no longer remain connected.

King, you still hold a position next to the throne, but McCammon Frankenstein wrestled you to the mat and kicked your butt. While you were writing fever dreams of corn fields and rats, McCammon's corn fields were burning in the wake of Minuteman flames.

[bookwormteri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In many many many ways, this reminded me of Stephen King's The Stand. There are differences, but it is very similar. Nuclear war and the survivors are left to fend for themselves. A little girl named Swan has the gift of life (growing and planting) and the very bad man is looking for her.

[kerryalandenney · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Doesn't get much better than this. Even better than The Stand, which I loved.

[briandarvell_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Anyone who has read The Stand by Stephen King will find many similarities in style to Swan Song. It was a large book and had many interesting characters. I enjoyed the story overall but felt a little let down, maybe I went into it with too high an expectation. Would be likely to read another book by this author.

[bookson23rd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The good guys: Swan, Josh, Sister, Robin. The bad guys: The Man with the Scarlet Eye, Colonel Macklin, Roland. A final, edge-of-your-seat climax high atop a mountain in West Virginia. This book had me spinning through all 956 pages of action, never knowing what lay ahead! I laughed, I cringed, I cried.

[jerhogan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Overall I would say this book would suit a fairly religious person despite the graphic action scenes. Good and Evil are fairly starkly defined. Not half as good as Stephen King's The Stand in my opinion.

[mlake_22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book!! My brother and sister and I all read it in our teens and hold it as one of the best!

[busyreadin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A different look at post-apocholyptic life. The good, the bad, and the ugly are not always what they seem. And sometimes something as insignificant as a chunk of melted glass can change the world.

[absurdeist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Once upon a time, the Cold War made the U.S.A. a nation of nuclear neurotics. The probability of nuclear war was taken so seriously here that public schools drummed its terrifying possibility into our heads with such practiced, prolonged and one might say paranoid intensity that Armageddon might as well have already detonated deep inside our impressionable minds, enduring as we did, those what were supposed to be surprise but became oddly rote classroom disaster drills that gave everybody involved in the collective safety charade a short-lived sense of security even as they purported to "prepare" us for that inevitable blinding light and shockwave inferno that one day would incinerate us all into kiddie crisps. The question wasn't if an ICBM would pulverize us, but when?Swan Song, published and set during what turned out to be the Cold War's waning twilight of the mid-to-late 1980s, showcased the absolute worst possible scenario in the event of an all out nuclear blitz. Not just slow miserable death, but cruel physical deformities that were like outward manifestations of the bizarre metastasis overtaking so many hopeless and ravaged minds. I've read the nearly 1000 page novel twice. I love it. Kudos to Robert McCammon for taking what even around the time the Berlin Wall fell was a tired post apocalyptic premise and breathing some beautifully foul life into the oversaturated genre. I like it better than Stephen King's The Stand by far. Funny how it turned out for the survivors of the ensuing nuclear winters in the States that the likewise decimated Soviet Union had never been their worst enemy after all.

[carl_alves_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Swan Song is an epic post-apocalyptic novel similar in certain ways to Stephen King’s The Stand, but certainly not at the same level of awesomeness. The novel starts off with a nuclear holocaust, which wipes everything out. A group of characters who survive the bombings work toward each other all with the purpose of saving a mystical young girl called Swan, protecting her from the Man of Many Faces. McCammon assembles an excellent cast of characters, my favorite being the former professional wrestler known as Black Frankenstein, who really develops a bond with Swan.The plot in the novel is compelling and progresses well. The writing is also top notch. I thought the novel was fantastic for about 4/5ths of the way through. It was really shaping up to be one of my favorite horror/fantasy novels, and then the end absolutely falls apart. The last fifth of the novel was poorly thought out and a serious let down. It didn’t kill the entire novel for me, but it really knocks it down a couple of notches. Without spoiling the novel, I won’t give away what happens, but I found it absolutely preposterous and not worthy of the rest of the novel. I would still recommend the novel, but not as enthusiastically as I would if it had a better ending.Carl Alves – author of Blood Street

[yougotamber · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book had me at first. I was enjoying it until it reminded me of the energizer bunny and kept going and going and going. Not only is this book extremely long (not in a good way) but the hokey religious tones are so abundant it made me cringe. The ending was so full of cliches (religious ones, some of the worst) that it had me changing my rating of three stars down to two. The writing is actually quite good except for the length and the tone the Author set wasn't bad either. If only it ended sooner and I wouldn't have wasted hours and hours finishing it to see what happened... it just wasn't worth it.

[samarnold1975 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It took me ages to read this book but I am glad that I preserved with it until the end. I changed format in the end and read it as an audio book. Through this method I greatly enjoyed the book and found it easy to get to the end. I have a theory that it depends whether you read this book first or Stephen King's The Stand as to which one you enjoy the best. I completed reading The Stand many years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it which is why I would say Swan Song is good but not as good as The Stand.The two stories have many similarities throughout and the structure of the book is also very similar. The characters in this book are well written and totally believable I loved Swan, Sister and Josh and towards the end I considered them my friends as I really invested in what happened to them. Unlike The Stand there are less main characters in this book and I think that is one area where Swan Song has the advantage. At all times you can keep track of the characters and how they develop. The chapters are short and swap from one character to the next which keeps you wanting to read on. I have to admit to liking the book a lot more when these characters joined together and became one unit. The ending to the story is a little predictable and is the classic good versus evil. However, the predictability of the ending may be due to the fact I had previously read The Stand. Overall this is a classic novel which I urge anyone to read.

[shevener-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book when it first came out and I really, really liked it. The process of transformation the characters undergo totally creeped me out then and creeps me out to this day. I didn't remember the name of the book until I saw it as a recommendation, but the story stayed with me and the minute I saw the pic of the cover, I had a flash of the picture I made in my mind all those years go and got creeped out all over again.
I'm going to have to look up in the attic and pull this one down again for a re-read.

[jiraiya_5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Included in the experience of reading a particularly wordy and thick book is the hunger and the desire to see and the feeling of wonder regarding how the said book will end. Tolkien knew how to end his books. Of course he had the luxury of appendices and posthumous notes. But he really knew when to stop. Robert McCammon, sadly, lacks this skill. His last concluding chapters use every muscle they have to try to make one forget the good work of earlier chapters. When a book begins with a nuclear holocaust, the room for a happy ending is not much. But if you believe in a post Ragnarok like post scriptum, then you may buy into the happy ending that was hastily worded. Anyway I remember the pulsating few reactions from some of the passages, like the mystery of the Friend, and the recovery of Sister Creep's sanity, and the feeble powers of Leona Skelton, and the stark madness of a criminally insane ward's residents unleashed, and the clash between the wild and lost men, and the unending winter, and you have a not bad book. And that is reflected in my rating.

[akmamma · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was introduced to this by a dear friend who as soon as she found out I thought The Stand was the be all to end all threw up her hands and said oh no you don't READ this! Boy am I glad she did. It sat hidden on my shelf for months before she finally politely asked for it back. So happy that it came out in Kindle so I can always have a copy. Earlier this weekend someone said they had finally finished The Stand and wanted a good Post-Apocalyptic book to read. Quickly myself and one other (Justin Bog of Sandcastles and Other Stories) suggested this one, and although others were suggested the requester is currently reading Swan Song. I cannot wait to hear how he feels about one of my top reads of my lifetime!

****

ENTRANCED is the word I will use for this grand epic novel. Each and every time I read it I am completely moved and engaged. Each visceral moment, with its approachable characters I am engaged and magically stuck in the time, feeling the hunger in my belly, and the sand grate at my eyes and skin. The book goes in every direction. And unlike The Stand, which sits on an arguable fence as to whether it is an epic novel or not, this sits on no fence, it is in the pit and pureity of definitive literary Epic fiction within the sub-genre of Post Apocalyptic Horror.

Evil, heroic (within the stories mythos) and benign threads and story arcs are woven into the overall tapestry of this tale. Numerous sub-plots easily coloring the flavor and experience of this book. And believe me, this is not just a great read this is an experience meant to be enjoyed over and over. Each time you do you will bite down into something else you missed when you were chewing to fast the last time, or to slow to enjoy the POP of that spicy flash of color. It never balances out, always leaving you feeling a bit topsy-turvy, sometimes the foam of your latte has the perfect swirl .. and the next moment destroyed by the plunk of a story devices spoon.

If you love a dense read, if you have a love that goes beyond just a great book with The Stand and are tired of Young Adult Dystopia? Go grab this and hang on, because you are in for a ride!

[harperkingsley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My all-time favorite post-apocalypse book. Engaging characters, flowing plot, just a hint of the supernatural/divine. It's like The Stand, with all the extra stuff taken out. Except the world is destroyed by nuclear fire, rather than Captain Trips. The mainest main character is a girl, adorable and talented with a strange ability that makes her priceless in the post-apocalyptic world. The bad guy is super crazy. Some guy turns into a snake thing. There might be cannibals, though I should probably read the book again. There's romance that doesn't feel forced...

Okay, this book is nothing like The Stand, other than the whole post-apocalypse thing. I mean, I have a fondness for The Stand, but "Swan Song" is the better book, hands down. The sad thing is that few people have read it.

Considering that it was published in the 1980's, there are some dated concepts. But on the whole, a very solid story.

Apocalypse, romance, desperate last stand, great book that I firmly recommend.

[mary6508 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic book. Reminds me a lot of Stephen King's The Stand, although I'm not sure which book was written first.

[evans2light-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Okay, I made it! Finished SWAN SONG tonight.

If reading anything negative about this book would make your head explode, then stop reading now. You've been warned. Just my opinion, and I'm entitled to it.

Overall, I would say this book was only about a 3 and a half star read for me. I can definitely see why so many people love it, and I imagine it would have been a hell of a lot better for me personally had I read this back in the late eighties as a teenager when the cold war was at its peak and nuclear winter was a widely accepted theory.

Still, I did find a lot to enjoy in the book. The first couple hundred pages were my favorite, really like a time capsule back into the RED DAWN and DAY AFTER TOMORROW era. Though a higher level of suspension of disbelief was required than I expected from the book, I went with it and had a lot of fun. It was definitely more "BOOK OF ELI" than "THE ROAD" if I were to make apocalyptic movie comparisons.

It began to lose me, however, around the point when the travelers arrived in Mary's Rest. The cast of characters expanded too rapidly for me to genuinely care about anyone, and the pace slowed to a crawl for the last third of the book. The random mix of reality and completely unexplained supernatural events subconsciously grated at me the entire way.

And the events in WV towards the climax of the book? *sigh* I think that whole sequence could have been chopped and the book would have been the better for it. The entire ending felt like it went out it more of a whimper than I had hoped.

McCammon can certainly craft a mighty phrase, though he does use eloquence sparingly (which is a good thing), and I ultimately preferred this version of THE STAND to Stephen King's, but both could have benefited by much tighter plotting IMO.

Enjoyed reading with everyone, but glad to say I've experienced the mighty SWAN SONG and lived to tell the tale! It's probably not the book that is lacking in any way, most likely just my personal preference for reading material that is economical in its use of words, tightly coiled tales with little to no wasted space.

[skatoulaki-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first read Swan Song around the same time I read King's The Stand, and this was by far my favorite of the two. In fact, this is one of the few books that I have read more than once (three times so far!). The characters are mesmerizing, people you feel like you'd love to know in reality. The story, though post-apocalyptic, is one of hope and innocence and the struggle of good against evil, of the innocence of the hopeful against the adversity of some of the darker sides of human nature.Swan Song has been, each time I have read it, a page-turner. I cried whenever one of my favorite characters died or was ill, I was angry when the unsavory characters seemed to be getting ahead, and I cried again when I finished the book, simply because it was done.This one's in my Top 5!

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well! I set off reading Robert McCammon's novel, which had been recommended to me, with a thoroughly disparaging outlook. Even though I last read The Stand years ago, and have since consigned Stephen King's writing to the junk pile, the similarities between both apocalyptic epics are unavoidable, so I simply hopped on the 'rip-off' band wagon. And then, a few chapters in, I realised that McCammon is a fairly bad writer. Stephen King gets along more on vivid imagination than nuanced prose, but this young pretender is of the pow! boom! crash! range of Hollywood scriptwriters. The characters are cliched, and very, very familiar to anyone else who has read The Stand, and the action scenes outnumber any philosophical narratives about three billion to one. Also, the undated setting of the story is lodged firmly and irretrievably in the 1980s.And then something unusual happened - the longer I persevered with Swan, Sister, Josh, Colonel Macklin and the creepy ass Roland, the more I came to appreciate McCammon's novel, apart from and - dare I say - above King's standard version of events! There are some great moments in amongst the hackneyed devices and thinly veiled religious symbolism, which can only add to the experience. That blasted ring/crown, for one, and the 'inner faces' behind the truly revolting 'Job's masks', which some characters were afflicted with. I'm also a sucker for loyal animals and noble sacrifices, so Mule and Leona helped to win me over.What can I say? Swan Song is and is not The Stand, and I can't say I would ever try to read all 800 pages again, but I did come to know, if not like, some of the characters, and McCammon's message of peace and life over violence and death was well worth slogging through an American Boy's Own adventure to get to.

[reginar_447079 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Review to come ...


Just some initial thoughts (may be a spoiler if you haven't read this):


Sister = Frodo
Paul = Sam
Rusty = Boromir
Josh = Gandalf
Swan = Aragorn
Macklin = Saruman
Roland = smeagol (still deciding on this)
Man with the scarlet eye = Sauron