McCammon, Robert R. Books

Mystery Walk

Robert R. McCammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Ignore the cover, this is a brilliant read! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book has been around for ages, I know because I've glanced over the cover probably a thousand times. Always the same cover, a dark sky with a strange feline-esque face shrieking out of it. Having never heard of McCammon until recently I'd glance at the cover and shake my head assuming the book was more over-hyped badly written horror. Magically this book, whose cover had turned me off for so many years, appeared on my shelf, so out of morbid curiosity I began to read. By the following evening the book was finished and I decided that this book was worthy of a review. I was impressed with the writer's skill, even when discussing mundane details or goings on, it felt important and the writing style was brilliant, artistic, and simplistic. McCammon was genius without trying to jam down the reader's throat that he was genius.

The story follows two boys, starting at a young age: Billy, the son of a Choctaw mother and her fervently Christian husband, and Wayne, the son of an evangelical minister. At young ages their mysterious gifts become apparent. Billy can see the dead, and help to send them on to their final resting place. Wayne can heal wounds and save the dying. The book takes place from the 1950's through the 1970's and there is much going on in the world during those times. The two boys are soon pitted against each other by the evil Shape Shifter... perhaps Satan himself who leads his pray down the wrong path by exploiting their weaknesses and by evil trickery of the mind. There are some who might say that the ending is a bit to clean, but to be honest, it is so skillfully written that when you are done reading your mind tells you that it couldn't have ended any other way.

I honestly can't recommend this book enough; I imagine that even those who don't read horror will find much to appreciate in this story. Needless to say, after having read it there are now several other McCammon books in my inventory that have been bumped up on the reading list. If his writing skill holds true, then he could write about grass growing for 400 pages and readers will thank him for it. Ignore the cheesy looking cover and pick this up, it's a wonderful read.

Editorial Review:

While Billy Creekmore is drawn mysteriously into the house of a murdered family, Wayne Falconer demonstrates miraculous healing powers, while demons grow in his soul. Reprint.

The Wolf's Hour

Robert R. McCammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 109 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

TOP-KNOTCH WEREWOLF YARN... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I like werewolf stories, but when I first heard about this book, I thought that the plot sounded pretty far-fetched. Michael Gallatin is a sexy, handsome, debonair, and highly intelligent British spy, battling the Nazis. He is also a werewolf. Hmm, I thought, it just won't work. Well, I was wrong. This is a page turning, attention grabbing book that will simply not let the reader go, so engrossing and well-written a story does the author weave.

The author essentially tells two stories. One is the story of how Michael Gallatin became a werewolf and the man that would dare take on the Nazis. It is a powerful and sensitive telling of his formative years in Russia, weaving a mystical, magical tale. It is also a rip-roaring thriller of how Michael tangles with the Nazis to try and discover their super secret plot to destroy the Allies on D-day. Action packed and full of twists and turns, it is a hell of an adventure!

This is simply a superlative, well-written and suspenseful book that will take the reader by surprise. I simply could not put this book down! Bravo!

Boy's Life

Robert R. McCammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 266 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Genuine Work of Art 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

It's been 17 years since I first read this book and it's still my most favorite book of all time. Before "Boy's Life" it was Stephen King's "Different Seasons" that held the spot and I thought that it would never be knocked from number one. I still think about how I felt after I first read this book. It was a combination of awe, hope, and anticipation. McCammon wrote in such a way that I just prayed that he'd come out with another book really soon. Which he didn't, but that never took away from the quality of "Boy's Life."

Do yourself a favor and read this book, and then read it again, and then a third time. Read it to your kids; a few pages at a time each night, and they will be hooked on reading forever. Do ya'all remember what it felt like after watching the movie "The Titanic"? Yeah, that's what I felt like after I first read this book. Awesome.

Editorial Review:

Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson -- a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake -- and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible vision of death that will haunt him forever.

As Cory struggles to understand his father's pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that are manifested in Zephyr. From an ancient, mystical woman who can hear the dead and bewitch the living, to a violent clan of moonshiners, Cory must confront the secrets that hide in the shadows of his hometown -- for his father's sanity and his own life hang in the

Mine

Robert R. McCammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

RELENTLESS... 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a well-written thriller that is relentless in its pacing. It will capture the reader's imagination from the beginning. It intertwines the stories of two women, Mary Terrell and Laura Clayborne. Both are women with a mission.

Mary is a radical hippie extremist, who once belonged to a terrorist organization called the Storm Front. She is responsible for several murders, and has been underground for years, living under assumed names, as she is on the FBI's most wanted list. Laura, who played at being a hippie, albeit a peaceful one, is now married and living the life of an upper middle class yuppie in Atlanta, Georgia. Working as a journalist reporting on high society, she is about to have a baby and hopes that it will repair her marriage to Doug, her stockbroker husband. By the time she gets to the hospital, however, and is delivered of a son, whom she names David, the marriage is in its death throes.

Mary, who is not wrapped too tight, had once been desperately in love with the Storm Front's erstwhile leader, Jack Gardiner, who disappeared from sight after a fiery confrontation with the FBI twenty years earlier. She now decides to seek him out and thinks that what will cement their relationship is a baby. Since she is not pregnant, the only way to get a baby is to steal one. It just so happens that Mary goes to the hospital in which Laura is ensconced as a patient. While there, Mary decides that Laura's baby is just the ticket. When Mary steals David from the hospital, she sets in motion a scenario between herself and Laura in which only one of them will survive an encounter. As Laura hunts Mary down, a cross country cat and mouse takes place, and Laura will discover things about herself that she could never have imagined.

This is an exciting, action packed thriller that will keep the reader turning the pages until the very end.

Editorial Review:

Robert McCammon asks, "What happened to those children of the sixties who learned the language of hatred, who swore oaths upon their bloodstained manifestos and vowed to never surrender?" Most went on to other lifestyles. But Mary Terrell, a.k.a. "Mary Terror," did not change. Her insanity deepened into schizophrenia, and in the late '80s she still calls herself "freedom fighter for those without rights in the Mindfuck State." Hallucinating, heavily armed, and possessed by the delusion that an infant son will restore the good ol' days with her ex-lover, Mary steals a baby. But the child's mother is a strong, resourceful woman, and she recruits an ex-radical to help her. What ensues is a hair-raising chase across the American Midwest in wintertime, toward a final confrontation in which both "mothers" proclaim, "He's mine." Not only is Mine an intense horror novel (winner of a Bram Stoker Award), but refreshingly, all three main characters are women.

Usher's Passing

Robert R. Mccammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A great horror book I just keep coming back to. 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I think the reason why I enjoy this book so much is its use of typical gothic horror trappings, which I love. What can I say, I like the classic, i.e. what others might call "tired out cliches." "Usher's Passing" by Robert McCammon, a very fine author, is just a good old fashioned horror story.

The story starts off with a vignette from the past. The Ushers are a real family, and their patriarch is angry that Edgar Allan Poe has come so close to the truth about their peculiar form of degeneracy. But when he sees how badly off Poe is himself, he realizes he can let it slide and no one would believe him anyway.

Forward to the "present day" (in this case, 1984). Rix Usher is a descendant of the original Ushers of the Poe tale, and he's very troubled. He's kind of a loser prone to crippling panic attacks (which we learn is a malady all the Ushers suffer from), and he is recovering from his wife's suicide. His father, who he broke with when he was growing up, is dying, and either Rix, his older, disgusting brother Boone (think of a combination of Animal House's Bluto and Back To The Future's Biff Tannen, and you have Boone), or his sleek drug adddict model sister Kat will inherit the vast estate in the mountains of southwest North Carolina known as "Usherland" along with the $10 billion armanent company that the family has grown fat on. So they all return to the eerie estate and find much more in store for them then they had in mind.

This book positively oozes that feeling of autumn horror in a way unlike anything I've read since Ray Bradbury. The setting is wonderful - Usherland is a sprawling, enormous mountain estate made even more fascinating through a number of facets. For instance, a bunch of backwards hillfolk live on the fringes of the estate (it's thousands of acres, hard to keep an eye on that much land). All the leaves are changing color, giving it that harvest time Halloween effect. It has cliffs, holes, and briarpatches, making it extremely difficult to navigate. What's more, this parcel of land is stalked by not one but two supernatural killers - the black-as-pitch panther Greediguts and the terrifying Pumpkin Man, both of whom have been killing for ages in the area. If that's not enough for you, somewhere on this property is an abandoned, ruined lodge that no one will set foot in and Rix has horrible half-memories of getting lost in as a child.

I really like that set-up, and the story's execution is quite good as well, but I have to agree somewhat with the previous review that the nosy reporter and the rather unbelievable media interest in the family were the weakest points of the story. Yet, they were necessary to move the story along.

The story has some good surprises along the way and the loose ends all get wrapped up. It's a great read that trades well off its fantastic atmosphere and setting. Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

In this most gothic of Robert McCammon's novels, setting is key: the continuing saga of the Usher family (descended from the brother of Roderick and Madeline of Edgar Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher") takes place in the weird and picturesque heart of the North Carolina mountains. The haughty, aristocratic Ushers live in a mansion near Asheville; the poor but crafty mountain folk (whose families are just as ancient) live on Briartop Mountain nearby. At harvest time, when the book's action unfolds, the mountains are a blaze of color. Add to the mixture a sinister history of mountain kids disappearing every year, a journalist investigating those disappearances, a monster called "The Pumpkin Man," moldy books and paintings in a huge old library at the Usher estate, and a secret chamber with a strange device involving a brass pendulum and tuning forks--and you've got a splendid recipe for atmospheric horror.

Stinger

Robert R McCammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

"Predator" + "Tremors" + a little "West Side Story" = "Stinger" 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

First and foremost, Robert McCammon is a terrific horror writer who has yet to write a weak book in this reviewer's humble opinion. The only problem with McCammon is that he doesn't write enough books. With that being said, let me cover a little about this gem of a horror ride.

"Stinger" hits the ground running with a story that starts out about rival gangs pitted against each other in the tiny Texas town of Inferno. The town soon comes under siege by an alien bounty hunter dubbed "Stinger" who's in search for a freedom-loving alien known as "Daufin". Stinger starts to tighten the net (literally as the town is completely shut off from the rest of the world) and as humans get in the way they are systematically picked off one by one.

McCammon does a GREAT job of character development (as he does in all of in books) which really draws the reader into the plot during the last 2/3rds of the book. My only criticism of the book is the slow pace of the first 125 pages. If the reader can stay with the novel beyond that point, he or she will be rewarded with a great story!

Editorial Review:

The "stinger" is an alien bounty hunter that remains ominously hidden for most of the book, but appears to be an enormous wicked mixture of centipede and scorpion. The bounty it's after is the "good guy" of the tale--a waif-like being who invades the mind of a small girl to make its presence known. They both arrive in a hot, desolate West Texas town surrounded by the alkali dust and sagebrush of a flatland between mountains. And the battle begins. An unpretentious horror novel with memorable imagery, Stinger is this reviewer's favorite of Robert McCammon's. It has appealing characters. It has feuding motorcycle gangs. It even has a bit of a West Side Story romance between Anglo guy and Hispanic girl. Sure, it's a B-movie romp, but McCammon is earnest--he doesn't play it for laughs. The action is scary and horrifying, making for a long, satisfying read.

Stalkers: 19 Original Tales by the Masters of Terror

Robert R McCammon, Rick Hautala, Rex Miller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Hunter and Hunted 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Rather than a collection of creep-up-on chronicles or chase-scene scenarios, this audiobook is comprised of an eclectic blend of stories of unfortunates plagued by stalkers both psychological and logical, earthly and unearthly. Revenge, guilt, lust, and desperation drive both perpetrator and victim in locales as frighteningly diverse as dark city streets, Amazon jungles, and deep-South swamps. Anyone who appreciates short fiction involving elements of mystery, science fiction, and horror should be entertained by this unusual audio anthology.

Editorial Review:

Darkness falls quickly when you're being stalked . . . but it is always dark when you are the stalker. This anthology of chilling stories takes listeners into the deepest depths of terror to explore both sides of the hunt. Includes tales from such masters of the genre as Dean Koontz, F.Paul Wilson, Robert McCammon, Max Allan Collins, Trish Janeshutz and many others.

Baal

Robert R. McCammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Immature ramblings of an Angry Young Man 1 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This book was awful. The story boring and predictable, not to mention a bit confusing historically (Baal was banished by the Hebrews), the characters totally unbelievable. If you are looking for an intro to Bob McCammon, do yourself a favor and read Swan Song or Mine, two extraordinary novels of horrific proportions, edgy and energetic, frighteningly vivid.

Go Read Boy's Life! 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Even Mccammon admits that Baal wasn't his best work. I have to agree, which hurts me because Mccammon wrote the incredible Boys Life (best book ever), and Swan Song (Go read these now!), but I didn't care for Baal much. Baal is the progeny of Satan via the rape of a poor woman, whose tale for the first 40 pages is engrossing and very entertaining as she beings to suspect that there is something wrong with her son...Then the tale moves to the next two phases of Baal's life - the orphanage, and as an adult as he amasses his fanatic zealots to aid his cause of chaos. And it is in these last 2 parts that the tale turns south.
If you are a die-hard fan of Mccammon(as I am), you have to read it, but just don't expect it to come close to anything else he has written - but to be fair this was his first book, and the first 40 pages are certainly foreshadow of the writer he would become.

Relic113

Blue World

Robert R. McCammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Short horror fiction that rivals, if not trumps, King 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

In this sweet set of 13 short stories, McCammon proves once again that he unrivalled in skill at:

1. establishing setting
2. creating and defining complex characters in a hurry
3. creating plots that are, if not unique, then at least original.

"Yellowjacket Summer," "Blue World" and "Yellachile's Cage" are fine examples of a short story writer at the height of his skill. Others, like "Something Passed By," "I Scream Man" and "Pin" have their weaknesses, but tackle complex plots and emotions without creating stories that feel stretched out and thin.

Editorial Review:

"We will travel, you and I, across a tortured land where hope struggles to grow like seed in a drought. In this land, a place with no boundaries, we'll run the freeways and back roads and we'll listen to the song of the wheels and peer into windows at lives that might be our own, if we lived in that land." So Robert McCammon introduces this superb collection of 13 stories, nominated for a 1990 Bram Stoker Award for Best Story Collection. The standouts are "Blue World" (a richly imagined novella about a priest facing temptation); "Nightcrawlers" (a World Fantasy Award-winner about a Vietnam vet in a roadside diner); "Night Calls the Green Falcon" (has-been fictional hero dons his old costume to fight real evil); "Yellowjacket Summer" (fateful stop for gas in backwoods Georgia); and "Pin" (dare you to read that one). All of the stories are excellent.

DARK DREAMERS - Conversations with the Masters of Horror

Stanley (Stephen King; Peter Straub; Clive Barker; Anne Rice; Robert R. McCammon; Dean R. Koontz; Robert Bloch; Gary Brander; Les Daniels; Dennis Etchison; John Farris; Charles L. Grant; James Herbert; Joe R. Lansdale) Wiater

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