Swan Song: The Devil Has Many Faces

Although I'm getting to this review a little late I thought it was important to talk about my final read during Epic November, Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon. There are many comments online about its similarity to Stephen King's The Stand but I would argue that 1987's Swan Song should instead be viewed as its more violent, fantasy inspired cousin. Saying that, I have to preface that I have only seen The Stand's miniseries production. I was planning on reading it back to back with McCammon's novel but to McCammon's credit after finishing what could be called one of his finest novels, I needed to move on to something lighter. So what is Swan Song actually about? Similar to Stephen King's novel/doorstop (depending on who you ask) it's about the end of the world or more succinctly what humanity becomes in its aftermath and the powerplay between good and evil. Drastically different from King's work the apocalypse comes from all out nuclear war hinted at being pushed along by Satan himself. This is another drastic change in comparison to King's novel in that 1) there are no ambiguities that McCammon's Man with the Scarlet Eye is Satan and 2) he is shit your pants more terrifying and absolute than King's Randall Flagg. His introduction and the revelation that no one can pinpoint what he looks like because he looks different to everyone/changes to whatever reminds them of the worst moment in their lives is horrifying. Also the fact as the novel goes on he stops caring about blending with crowds of humans and melts and changes his appearance in plain view as a power move never gets less skin crawlingly freaky. But for every evil there has to be good right? So how does McCammon's good guys stack up to his baddie? Similar to King with mixed results.

Pocket Books first edition paperback

Josh Hutchins before the blast is an African American wrestler working small town masked wrestling circuits when he literally gets handed the little girl who will become humanity's savior. She's a blonde, blue eyed nine year old girl who can make plants grow with a touch and later bring the very soil back to life. This pairing although surface level full of stereotypes is noteworthy in having a strong black man in the prime of his life being a central character. He's in many ways the heart of the novel and although the girl named Swan is totally a Mary Sue character her absolute goodness works against the absolute evil of the Man with the Scarlet Eye. If you view Swan Song as an epic Old Testament parable complete with the violence and cruelty of that narrative's God the novel really sings. Not perfect by any means but its heady mix of mysticism, horror, and the belief that deep down humanity will always find its better angels makes Swan Song a tour de force of the apocalypse subgenre. Its multi character cast for the most part works and the perspective switches between all them mostly succeeds in understanding and sympathy with these characters instead of dragging of plot. If you have the time to set aside for this 956 page behemoth I strongly recommend you track it down and settle in for the journey. If you're sensitive to violence give yourself some time for breaks since the violence is realistic in that it's the aftermath of nuclear war so people dying painfully from radiation effects, amputations/surgery without anesthetic happens throughout. In short though, far from being a copycat Swan Song is a worthy epic in its own right that deserves to be discussed just as much as King's The Stand. Well those are my thoughts on Swan Song. As always the comments are open and the month of December will be dedicated to Fantasy reads so look forward to my discussion on Fantasy in a few days.