Category: Swan Song

Robert McCammon’s Virtual Blog Tour to support The Providence Rider continues at Horror World today.  They’ve posted a new interview with Robert McCammon conducted by Blu Gilliand.

Hot on the heels of the news that GraphicAudio will be releasing dramatizations of the Michael Gallatin books, Brilliance Audio will be releasing the Audible production of Swan Song, read by Tom Stechschulte, on Audio CD and MP3 CD on December 11, 2012. Both products are currently listed on both the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites.  You can pre-order them via the links below. The success of the Audible edition of Swan Song is what led to the decision to release the book on CD.

And finally, here are a few more recent reviews:

 

Here are some recent McCammon-related happenings around the web:

As we reported a couple of weeks ago, Audible will release an unabridged audio version of Robert McCammon’s Swan Song on Tuesday, November 15, 2011. Thanks to Audible, you can now listen to a 7-minute excerpt. The narrator is Tom Stechschulte. The link mentioned at the end of the trailer won’t actually be active until November 15.

Click the Play button below to listen to the excerpt.

[audio:https://www.robertmccammon.com/audio/audible-swan-song-excerpt.mp3]

Robert McCammon @ Audible.com

Open Road Integrated Media has released nine of Robert McCammon’s novels in ebook format!  The books are available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Sony, Kobo, and other sites.  On their Robert McCammon page, you can find links to purchase the ebooks, as well as a video profile of Robert McCammon, which can also be seen below.

The Robert McCammon page at Open Road Media

It was originally announced that all of Robert McCammon’s pre-Speaks the Nightbird backlist would be published in ebook format today, but there was a rights mixup, and the first four books are not yet available.  Those books (Baal, Bethany’s Sin, The Night Boat, and They Thirst) will be released as ebooks in the coming months by Subterranean Press, which will also be publishing signed limited editions of each novel.  The first limited edition and ebook, Baal, will be published in November 2011 and can be ordered from Subterranean Press.

In addition to the ebook releases, Simon & Schuster has re-released their abridged audiobooks of Boy’s Life and Gone South. Both are available from Audible, Ambling Books, and other sites. Again, please note that these releases are the 3-hour abridged audiobooks originally released in 1991 and 1992.



Robert McCammon eBooksOn October 18, 2011, much of Robert McCammon’s pre-Speaks the Nightbird backlist, from Mystery Walk through Gone South, will be available in various eBook formats. The books will be published by Open Road Integrated Media, and more information, including a video profile of Robert McCammon, will be available on October 18.

The books are already pre-orderable from Amazon (Kindle) and iTunes (iBooks).  Click here for order links for all of the McCammon ebooks! As soon as Barnes & Noble adds the titles, the page will be updated to include the NOOK links, as well.

 

Korean publisher Sigongsa has released a new two-volume paperback edition of Robert McCammon’s Swan Song. The covers can be found below and in the Book Cover Gallery. The same publisher recently released a Korean translation of Boy’s Life. This is the first Korean translation of Swan Song.

Swan Song - Volume 1
Swan Song - Volume 2

The publisher also recently posted the prototype image of the cover to their Facebook page.


Swan Song prototype cover

Some blog posts by Sigongsa (in Korean) about their release of Swan Song can be found here.

Russian publisher Эксмо (Eksmo) has released new hardcover editions of four of Robert McCammon’s novels: They Thirst, The Wolf’s Hour, Swan Song (2 volumes), and Boy’s Life (2 volumes).  The covers of all six books have been added to the Book Cover Gallery. You can click on the images below to view a slightly larger version of each.

Boy's Life - Volume 1
Boy's Life - Volume 2
Swan Song - Volume 1
Swan Song - Volume 2
They Thirst
The Wolf's Hour

The metal band Denots has posted to their MySpace page three songs whose lyrics were inspired by Robert McCammon’s Swan Song. The songs form the trilogy “A Symphony of Frost and Fire.” Thanks to Jerimiah Peterson for the links!

A Symphony of Frost and Fire

  • “Friend”
  • “Mary’s Rest”
  • “Final Hour”

MySpace is defunct, of course. You can listen to the tracks on the Fan Audio page here.

In case you missed them, in 2008, two other metal songs inspired by Robert McCammon novels were posted to MySpace:

  • “Job’s Mask” by Kilyakai
  • “Stinger” by Engorged

These can also be heard on the Fan Audio page.

Hi again, guys. I wanted to check in and thank you for all the kind comments about Swan Song. I’m glad you enjoyed that book and certainly glad you still have an interest in it.

I see that James Melzer’s review of Swan Song includes a picture of the original cover, and I have a story to tell you about that.

When that original cover was presented to me at Pocket Books, I hit the roof. I begged and pleaded for them not to use what I considered to be a “cartoon” depiction of evil. I offered all sorts of options. I even drew my own picture of what I wanted the cover to be, which was a nuclear cloud with a barely-defined “face” within it. (Actually, that picture was used in a reprint edition).

Anyway, I went around and around with the publisher at Pocket over what I thought was a “comic-book” cover. Basically, I was patted on the head and told to go away, because the art director knew what sold and he knew what the market wanted to see.

I asked to speak with the art director.

He walked into the office wearing, as I recall, a hot-pink tie with a sickly-green coat. Looking at his mismatched and garish clothes made me feel a little sick. But I realized, this is why the garish colors are on the cover of the original Swan Song…art is in the eye of the beholder, even if that eye is nearly half-blind or otherwise unable to see anything but a blast of miasmic and frenetic hues.

So…that’s why the incandescent red-and-orange clown face is on the cover. They came to their (color) senses only years later at Pocket, with the latest edition that I think looks very good. But that first cover…OMG!!!

Again, thanks for the comments!

Best Wishes,
Rick