On June 14, 2011, Robert McCammon signed copies of The Five and other books at the Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, AL, for a small but appreciative crowd.
The photos, such as they are, are by Hunter Goatley. Click on each image to view a larger version. It was great to meet those of you who attended!
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Alabama Booksmith owner Jake Reiss and Robert McCammon |
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The August 2011 issue of Sci Fi includes a great review of Robert McCammon’s The Five by Adam-Troy Castro. You can click on the image of the review page or click here to read the review in full, but it includes these lines:
…there is sustained, well-modulated characterization of even the fleeting characters…. There is an extended visit to the mother of one hard-bitten band member who is so artfully composed during her few pages on stage that she lives and breathes more vividly than some characters other authors labor and sweat over, for entire novels. ….There are tour-de-force passages, describing the sheer joy of playing before an audience, that are masterful set-pieces of evocative prose. …The Five is a raucous, horrific, hilarious, sensuous, wild, and above all emotionally riveting ride, teeming with passages that you’ll want to read again.
The page also includes a review of Steven R. Boyett’s Mortality Bridge, which was also published by Subterranean Press.
Subterranean Press has posted the covers for the Limited Edition and Deluxe Limited Edition of Baal. Both covers were painted by Tomislav Tikulin. Click on the images to view larger versions of the covers.
You can pre-order the Baal limited edition directly from Subterranean Press.
 The Limited Edition |
 The Deluxe Limited Edition |
From Subterranean Press:
Last week Robert McCammon was in our office to sign 1600 copies or so of his new novel, The Five, which has drawn even more praise from Stephen King. You may recall that he referred to it as McCammon’s “best novel ever”. In a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, Mr. King added The Five to his list of summer reads, and had this to say: “It’s scary; it’s also a soaring anthem to the redemptive power of rock & roll.” We couldn’t agree more, and thank Mr. King once again for supporting the book.
All copies of the trade hardcover of The Five have shipped to customers, so if you preordered one, you shouldn’t have much longer to wait. We had Rick sign extra copies, so while our large online retail and wholesale accounts are being sent second printings, we still have a small number of signed firsts on hand to fill direct orders.
While Rick was here, we had him sign 75 or so first edition copies of his most recent historical thriller, Mister Slaughter. It’s a great introduction to the Matthew Corbett series, and stands alone well.
Finally, Tomislav Tikulin has turned in both dust jackets for our new edition of the classic McCammon novel, Baal, which is in the final round of proofreading. We’re right on schedule for our fall publication.
Finally (this time, really), if you want to see a few photos from Rick’s trip to the SubPress offices to sign books, check out Robert McCammon’s website.
Posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 at 9:03 am.
Here are a couple more recent great reviews of Robert McCammon’s new novel, The Five:
The Five is the assured, confident work of a man who has climbed back to the top of his game. It’s tight and suspenseful, and yet manages to take long sidetrips into the histories of the characters that don’t detract from the action, but instead enhance it. This is the kind of book you get lost in; the type of story that you’ll find yourself reflecting on long after you finished it, wondering what those characters are up to now. Do yourself a favor and pick it up today.
This current novel, The Five, is not only about a band; it’s about music. That swelling ache you get in the marrow of your bones when you hear your favorite guitar maestro let his fingers fly over the frets and strings. The pounding your heart begins to do when you hear that bass line beat it’s way through the speakers or the drum beat begins to thump. This novel is brilliantly alive with that love and passion for music.
Robert McCammon plans to attend the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Surrey, British Columbia, October 21–23, 2011. An open-to-the-public signing session will take place Saturday evening. In addition to that, Mr. McCammon will be leading and participating in the following sessions:
Robert McCammon invites you to explore the idea of coming up with character, town and place names that have significance and resonance in your work.
In short, when to use dialect, when to lose it and how to tell the difference.
Robert McCammon traveled to Troy, MI, on June 6, 2011, to sign and inscribe copies of his new novel, The Five, at the Subterranean Press warehouse. Over the course of two days, he signed over 1600 copies of The Five, plus about 80 copies of Mister Slaughter. If you order The Five directly from Subterranean Press, you will receive one of these signed copies. Photos by Hunter Goatley. Thanks to the great folks at Subterranean Press for putting out such a beautiful book and for being such gracious hosts!
There have been several notable blog posts and articles about Robert McCammon’s work in the past week or so. Here are some of the more interesting links:
I know many of us would love to see some film adaptations!
Tomislav Tikulin has just turned in the first cover for Robert McCammon’s classic, Baal, which has been fully proofread and is on schedule for release this fall.
Next week, Rick will be in our offices to sign and inscribe copies of The Five. While he’s still here signing, we’ll be shipping copies of the trade hardcover. (The limited, which is nearly sold out, will ship as soon as the slipcases are in our offices.)
Posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 10:19 am.
Stephen King has a column in the June 3, 2011, issue of Entertainment Weekly with his reading list for the summer. He includes The Five in the twelve books profiled. You can see a scan of the page by clicking on the image to the left, but here’s what he wrote:
THE FIVE Robert McCammon
One of the finest horror-suspense writers of the late ’70s and ’80s returns with a riveting novel of a rock band (the Five) pursued by a mentally unstable Army vet who’s offended by one of their videos. It’s scary; it’s also a soaring anthem to the redemptive power of rock & roll. You probably won’t find it in your bookstore, so go to your (hopefully nonmalevolent) computer and click on subterraneanpress.com.
