Robert Rick McCammon

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kingricefan

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Jul 11, 2006
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Subterranean Press announced today that they are publishing a limited edition of McCammon's 'Swan Song' and are taking pre-orders starting now. Hunter? Where are you? Hunter? ;;D (I wonder if it will have all of the typos that my Dark Harvest edition has.........:lol:
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
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Spokane, WA
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tenngolfer

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Apr 29, 2012
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I have my copy of The River Of Souls saved. I enjoy these books enough that I really dislike stopping the Corbett storyline when the book ends. So sort like working towards desert when eating, I'm going to try to choose a time when I feel I've recently gone through a fair to bad read, before enjoying something good. Having just finished a good read of Mr. Mercedes, I will probably experiment with books of less known authors until I hit a stinker, or at least one that is uninspiring before enjoying next in the Corbett line.
 

bigkingfan91

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Mar 1, 2014
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All I have so far is a paperback copy of Swan Song, which I hope to read very soon as it looks great to me. I love super long novels so this one should be a treat. He is another author I hope to start collecting. I found a ton of his books on Halfpricebooks.com today but I couldn't figure out which ones to buy first, lol. I'm not interested so much in the series he wrote, I'm not a big fan of reading series books, but the other novels I hope to pick up.

Did you all enjoy Swan Song? Everyone says if you liked The Stand you will like it.. Is he pretty good at keeping your attention throughout the nearly 1000 pages? And how about his earlier books, which seem to be the more horror oriented ones?
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
All I have so far is a paperback copy of Swan Song, which I hope to read very soon as it looks great to me. I love super long novels so this one should be a treat. He is another author I hope to start collecting. I found a ton of his books on Halfpricebooks.com today but I couldn't figure out which ones to buy first, lol. I'm not interested so much in the series he wrote, I'm not a big fan of reading series books, but the other novels I hope to pick up.

Did you all enjoy Swan Song? Everyone says if you liked The Stand you will like it.. Is he pretty good at keeping your attention throughout the nearly 1000 pages? And how about his earlier books, which seem to be the more horror oriented ones?
I highly recommend MINE- one of the best suspense/thriller novels you'll ever read! Stinger is great! They Thirst is awesome!
 
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OldDarth

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Jul 10, 2006
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Did you all enjoy Swan Song? Everyone says if you liked The Stand you will like it.. Is he pretty good at keeping your attention throughout the nearly 1000 pages? And how about his earlier books, which seem to be the more horror oriented ones?

I just reread it this past March.

Been over twenty years since my initial read. The book is corny as hell, reads like a very early work, and a straight out homage to King's - The Stand.

But dammit! I love the characters and their fates still managed to get me choked up from time to time with either joy or sadness. Even if the delivery of those moments was often clunky, McCammon, like Stephen King, has the elusive gift of making me care about his characters. And in the end, that is the most important thing.
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
I just reread it this past March.

Been over twenty years since my initial read. The book is corny as hell, reads like a very early work, and a straight out homage to King's - The Stand.

But dammit! I love the characters and their fates still managed to get me choked up from time to time with either joy or sadness. Even if the delivery of those moments was often clunky, McCammon, like Stephen King, has the elusive gift of making me care about his characters. And in the end, that is the most important thing.
And making you care about his characters is the sign of a great writer.
 
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bigkingfan91

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I ordered They Thirst and Night Boat, can't wait to read them! Night Boat really sounds interesting to me. Reminded me of the movie Shock Waves, which I love. Sounds like good, old school creepy horror!
 

goathunter

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May 9, 2008
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I ordered They Thirst and Night Boat, can't wait to read them! Night Boat really sounds interesting to me. Reminded me of the movie Shock Waves, which I love. Sounds like good, old school creepy horror!

Funny you should mention Shock Waves. That movie almost prevented the publication of The Night Boat. This is from the FAQ on RobertMcCammon.com:

After Baal was published, McCammon wrote The Night Boat, and Avon accepted it for publication. But then an Avon executive heard about a movie that had something to do with Nazis living underwater. He assumed that the storyline of The Night Boat was too similar to the movie, so he decided Avon would not publish McCammon's novel. McCammon scrambled for something else to sell and managed to write Bethany's Sin in about 3 months. Meanwhile, someone else at Avon saw the Nazi movie (Shock Waves, 1977), decided that The Night Boat was nothing like the movie, and in the end, Avon bought both books. Bethany's Sin was released in January 1980 and The Night Boat followed in August 1980.

Hunter
 

bigkingfan91

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Mar 1, 2014
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Wow that's interesting! I wonder if he ever got much negative criticism about that, like he did with Swan Song & It being somewhat similar to The Stand? Personally I think that's stupid. Many writers tackle the same situation, same overall scenario, and they give you "their take" on it.. Haunted house, haunted hotel, etc... I enjoyed The Stand, so naturally I cant wait to read Swan Song and see how he tackled the idea. I get so sick of seeing the negative reviews, Oh he copied King, etc.. I myself am into writing and one day I'd like to tackle the post apocalyptic/plague type scenario..
 
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goathunter

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May 9, 2008
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Wow that's interesting! I wonder if he ever got much negative criticism about that, like he did with Swan Song & It being somewhat similar to The Stand?

Not that I ever heard about. They're really not similar in any way beyond the Nazi zombies aspect.

Personally I think that's stupid. Many writers tackle the same situation, same overall scenario, and they give you "their take" on it.. Haunted house, haunted hotel, etc...

Exactly! The thing many die-hard King fans never thought about/realized is that King and McCammon are roughly the same age and grew up with the exact same influences. It's natural that they would often write about the same general scenarios. McCammon never even read some of the novels King fans claim he "ripped off." Any influence for those came from Bradbury, Matheson, etc, not from the King novels. One problem, too, is that King is so prolific, you'd be hard-pressed to find something from anybody that isn't similar in some way to something King has written.

King is a fan of McCammon's work, which should have settled the issue for King fans---but it hasn't for all of them.

Hunter