Robert McCammon discussion

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

For next month's read, we are temporarily setting aside our regular voting to read The Five! Since the paperback was just recently released, I am hoping to turn more people on to this fantastic, contemporary book by Mr. McCammon! I hope everyone can join us in January.

This is good news! Bought the book last week, am 100 pages into it, fell in love with the characters from the opening chapters. Enjoying this one so far, could turn out to be one of my favs of McCammon. Looking forward to discussing it with everyone else.

I'm in. Just picked it up for my Kindle paperwhite.

Excellent! I read this when it first came out, and I loved it. I'm looking forward to discussing it with you guys. I'm psyched that you both are excited about it.
I love music and consider it to be an integral part of my life. I think that's one of the reasons I enjoyed The Five so much.
I believe the McCammon website has some questions for readers to think about while reading. As we get closer to starting I will post a link or copy the questions here, and hopefully that will help us in our aim to have some great discussions.

I'm glad, Randolph. :)

Charlene wrote: "I'm glad, Randolph. :)"

I will be grabbing a copy of this one and joining in at some point!!!!

Grew up listening to music all the time (WAAF 107.3 in Massachusetts), and music is still a big part of my life. Love that music plays so prominently is this book.

Since not many people have seen the post in General Chat, just FYI:

The Five promotional video and a song by Robert McCammon!

And the full video interview is also available.

The Full Video Interview for The Five

Hunter

Chad wrote: "Grew up listening to music all the time (WAAF 107.3 in Massachusetts), and music is still a big part of my life. Love that music plays so prominently is this book."

Chad, I love WAAF. I don't get to listen to it as much as I would like, because it's hard to get out here in western MA. But anytime I get near Boston, I tune right on in. :)

Going to start a couple days early since I just finished reading a book and can't wait 2 days to start another.

Go for it, Benjamin! :)

Well I'm about 25% into it and can't decide yet if it's going to be a bs political commentary or a good story.

Don't worry Randolph I didn't give anything away. I've gotten farther now and definitely think it's going to be a good story.

Since we are about to begin this conversation, please take heed: Please put your posts between spoiler tags, so as not to spoil the read for someone else. Directions on how to do that are found right about the box where you are typing, just click "some html is ok."

Benjamin wrote: "Don't worry Randolph I didn't give anything away. I've gotten farther now and definitely think it's going to be a good story."

I'm glad to hear that, Ben. :)

I read "The Five" a year ago and it was easily my least favorite of McCammon's books and the only one I don't care to read again.

(view spoiler)[It's interesting. More so than any other McCammon book, I've found that people either "get" The Five, or they don't. It's a book that people either really love or really don't like. There doesn't seem to be much middleground. (I'm not disparaging those who don't like it, simply making an observation that few people read it and think it was just "OK." Most people either love it or really dislike it. I've seen just about as many people who call it his best as people who call it his worst.)

A sidenote regarding the quote from Stephen King: King read the book and liked it so much that he reached out to us (his webmaster contacted me) and asked if we wanted a quote from him about it. Many times, blurbs from other authors are solicited by agents or publishers, but in this case, it was completely unsolicited and instigated by King. (Of course, in keeping with my earlier comments, a lot of King fans loved it---and a lot hated it.) (hide spoiler)]

Hunter

I'm sorry to hear that, Marc. :(

I'm in the camp of really loving The Five. I think your personal connection to music does play a role in how you react to the book.

Hunter, thanks for sharing the back story on the King blurb. That's so awesome.

That is a nice tidbit, Hunter. Thanks for sharing it with us. :)

I located the questions that Mr. McCammon posed about The Five on his website. They are clearly marked as containing spoilers, so check them out at your own risk. I found the list after reading the book the first time and I realized I could not answer all of them. I'm looking forward to reading a bit more deeply this time around. :)

http://www.robertmccammon.com/?s=ques...

Here is a quote from Robert McCammon from an interview with our own Lou at the RM site. This is his answer to the question of The Five was based on personal experiences.

Robert McCammon: "Ha! Oh, my gosh! Well…that book is ALL about personal experiences. Also the feeling that your work goes out into the world and touches so many people, and you never know who it will touch and what someone will take with them from that work. You just hope you can speak clearly, and someone will hear what you’re trying to say…and maybe they, in turn, will pass it on."

I Loved The Five. I found it to be a welcome return after his self-imposed hiatus for nearly a decade. Yes, I know he "came back" with the Corbett series. But, this was his first novel that I read after his return. As always, great character development where the reader gets inside and it feels like you've known them forever. I'm also a huge music junkie. So, the storyline of following the lives of a traveling band was a nice little bonus. Hope you all enjoy it.

That sounds great. I was thinking about getting The Five myself. Can't wait to sink my teeth into it!

We would love to have you, A.R!

I'll buy it tomorrow, along with Baal.

Thanks for posting the site for the questions, Charlene.

I about 67% into the novel. Nice read. Look forward to the discussion and writing a review.

DO NOT READ THE QUESTIONS at the McCammon site. There are spoilers there! Much better to read after you read the book.

Of course this is my opinion, but I really wish I hadn't read the first few questions. I will read them after I finish the book.

I tried to warn everyone above about the questions. There is also a spoiler warning just above the questions at the RM website.

Sry, Charlene. I didn't mean to point a finger. For some reason I had in my head to read the questions prior to reading the book and I'm thinking, "Well, I'm behind!!" So I ran right over there and read the first couple of questions and thought, "Oops"!! I have no one to blame but myself, but it certainly did not ruin the book for me. So I just wanted to re-warn every one. I should have heeded all the warnings...lol...still going strong. Almost at 70%. It's getting reflective now and I think that's slows me down a bit. Wonderful story!!

Pamellia wrote: "Sry, Charlene. I didn't mean to point a finger. For some reason I had in my head to read the questions prior to reading the book and I'm thinking, "Well, I'm behind!!" So I ran right over there a..."

I didn't feel like you were pointing a finger, Pam. No worries!! I'm glad that you're enjoying the story so far.

Me too. I was thinking this morning that Bethany's Sin was the first book I read of Mr. McCammon. That was one recommended by you when I was on vacation a couple of years ago. Thank you for being a good reading buddy!!

Thank you, too! We have read some great books over the last two years. :)

Thanks for the King info, Hunter. Love it that a writer as successful as King will go out of his way to provide a blurb for a fellow author. The horror community as got to be one of the best writing communities as far as supporting each other's work. Love it.

I mostly agree. That being said, I have read some stinkers that had blurbs by King. :)

Considering King has written mostly crap in recent years (Duma Key being an exception), his blurbs are pretty meaningless to me.

Continuing off-topic, I really enjoyed 11/22/63 and Doctor Sleep. I have Joyland in the TBR. But those are the only recent (since The Green Mile) King titles that I've read that I enjoyed.

Hunter

I absolutely loved Full Dark No Stars and 11/22/63 as well. I liked Joyland also.So, I guess I still trust King as a writer, as long as the writing isn't blurb. :)

I read Guns at Stephen King's head (or something like that) and I think he may have written it. It was funny, sort of.

On a different note....I'm only 75% into THE FIVE. No spoiler, but I think the first half is easier to read than the second half...both are good.

You're moving right along, Pam. :)

I was head over heels for 11/22/63. I loved Full Dark No Stars, too, Charlene. I thought Joyland and Dr. Sleep were great reads. I fell off of reading King for a while, but right now I will read anything new I can get my hands on.

Some very dear friends of mine happen to be in touring rock bands. I think, for me, being familiar with the lifestyle and loving music as much as I love books, made The Five my #2 favorite R.M. book, second only to Swan Song. I can't wait to hear what everyone else thought of it!

Tara, are you finished with the book. I am a musician, but a much different genre than THE FIVE. However, I can identify with so much of how they feel about their craft. I think, if nothing else, it's given me a greater understanding for touring rock bands.

Well, to be honest, I probably would shun the Melville. LOL
But you do have an excellent point, Randolph.


Tara, I can't speak to the touring part of the book but (view spoiler)[ I do have friends in bands and I was fascinated by the song writing process and how they worked on it together. Was that true to life as far as your knowledge is concerned? I've wondered how authentic the stuff in The Five is as compared to real life. (hide spoiler)]

Oh wow! I am about 95% and know it will be finished soon, but I had to prepare dinner...err...

Pamellia,

Yes ma'am, I read it just a few months ago! However, just talking about it makes me want to read it all over again!

I finished last night. Five very brightly colored stars for another excellent work of art by Mr. Robert McCammon! Will be posting my review soon.

I'm glad you liked it!

Charlene wrote: "Well, to be honest, I probably would shun the Melville. LOL
But you do have an excellent point, Randolph.


Tara, I can't speak to the touring part of the book but [spoilers removed]"

I loved Moby Dick. Really missed the characters after I was done reading it.

OMG, I hated that book so much. LOL I know that speaks badly of me, but oh well. :)