After having tons of people recommend this book to me, with the great debate being who did it better: The Stand by King or Swan Song by McCammon, I have finally bitten the bullet and read this behemoth of a book.

First off, this is excellent story telling. McCammon is a master storyteller. The story flows, you want to find out what happens next.

Second, there is a big disconnect between part 1 and part 2 in the book and this is where McCammon lost me and a bunch of other readers.

The story starts off with the President of the United States and other important US diplomats in a room, pushing THE button to launch all the bombs at *surprise surprise* Russia. While Russia has pressed their buttons and sending their rockets here, but somehow the rest of the world is targeted, as well. Anyway, so all the bombs fly at the same time, and the world goes into atomic fallout.

This part of the story was, for lack of a better word, excellent. I liked reading about the keloids, and learning about all the crazy *ish that happens. **Side Note: I did watch 2 excellent movies from the 80s taking place in an atomic fallout world: The Day After & Threads**

Atomic fallout is scary stuff. I never realized just how afraid people were of these atomic bombs being launched back in the 80s.

It was very fun to read about the whole survival experience and the toxic dust right after everything settles. And then you get to the 2nd part of the book, and apparently its been 7 years and everything is still dead. So, here is the first screw up: logically, this makes no sense. What are they eating? What is their heat source if the sun has been blotted out of the sky. The air would be so incredibly cold they would have frozen to death. And weren’t they on their way to go down South? Just a lot of inconsistencies in the story at this point. Somehow they are wandering around a few of the midwest/southern states only.

If you’re reading this book in 1987 when the book came out, it probably blew your mind. But if you’re reading it in 2023, we are so over-saturated with post-apocalypse movies, tv-shows and books, this seems so under-researched. As much as this is a dark fantasy, people would like to read a realistic account with the fantastical thrown in. I don’t know why but as soon as we, the readers, see something out of place we are just a tad turned off due to the author under-researching or not fully thinking the plot through.

The author just made the escapes convenient, he wrote bullets missing someone’s head by a few inches (this is mentioned SEVERAL times), or how Swan basically killed the devil with kindness or how the devil just DISAPPEARS towards the end with no showdown, very anticlimactic.

Things I wasn’t crazy about: the military war stuff. It felt like halfway through the book, post 7 years of the bombs, the book turned into a macho military, action/dark fantasy. The women characters are either whores or represented as religious and holy caregivers. There was so much religious undertones in this book. Let’s not get started with the weak devil-character.

There was so much happening in this book. It was definitely an epic journey.

My favorite characters were Killer and Mule. When Mule was in the burning barn, I literally shed tears. I can’t when animals are hurt or killed in books or movies. RIP Killer & Mule

Plot: 8/10 Survivors of a post-apocalyptic fallout world trying to fight the evil taking advantage of the times.
Characters: 7/10
Gore: 9/10
Atmosphere: 7/10 The best parts were in the beginning when Sister was trying to get out of Manhattan through the tunnel. These scenes were great. Wish the author would have incorporated more interesting scenery like this, he just got lazy and said it was all scorched earth in the midwest. Cool thanks lol We went from NYC to the middle of nowhere. Congrats for the laziness.
End: 5/10 Blah I could have predicted that outcome when they first mentioned that Swan had a green thumb and listens to plants. The devil character just disappears into thin air. And everyone else is killed off.

Solid 3/5 for me.

I don’t know if I would recommend this book. It’s way too long and a bit anti-climactic. Although, if you enjoy an epic journey, here it is. I hope The Stand by King is better. I plan to read in January.