There aren't a lot of good things about growing older. I won't go into the negative aspects of the process, but one good thing is how you can re-experience beloved books and it almost seems like reading them for the first time. I remember the plots of books I read decades ago, but the little details grow fuzzy.
Yes, I probably spent too much time in my reading past. There are a lot of good books coming out all the time, and I not only have plenty I want to read, I have obligations to get to some of them. But, damn it, I like it back there.
So I can start another overpraised current title, or I can spend a few evenings reading a brilliant and absolutely satisfying Robert McCammon book.
Mine was first published on April 1, 1990, but only a genuine fool would have passed it by. Up until this point Robert McCammon could have been looked at as another Horror Writer. That's not such a bad thing, and he would have been in good company. But it seems as though he wanted to break away from the generic stigma. It wasn't the best time for horror fiction, anyway.
Mine is a spiritual cousin to McCammon's The Five, which was published twenty-one years later. Both are suspense stories. Both novels have horrific aspects, but neither deal with the supernatural.
As Mine opens the reader is introduced to Mary Terrell AKA: Mary Terror, a 1960's radical living alone in anonymity. Blood is on her hands and madness is in her brain.
Mary's happiest days where when she was part of the Storm Front, a violent terrorist group. She was under the sway of a charismatic leader. Things went awry for them, as it did for all the former revolutionaries, and during a bloody encounter, she miscarried the baby she was carrying. When Mary reads a message in a personal ad that could only have been written by a Storm Front survivor, Mary's madness takes control and she kidnaps a newborn baby to present to her lost king. The mother of the child, an ex-hippie herself, embarks on a long and arduous chase across a barren American landscape to regain what is hers.
Mine is a dark, nasty story, but McCammon is known for having compassionate characters. Mary Terror is a human monster that needs to be eradicated, but she is also a lost soul who once, at least, believed in trying to make the world a better place.
I see a lot of talk about Swan Song, Boy's Life, and the Corbett series. And rightly so. They are all phenomenal books. Mine deserves its place among McCammon's best works. If you have not read it, you really should put it high on your reading list. I know there are one hell of a lot of worthy books to read, and we're all trying our best, but nobody does it better than Robert McCammon. Nobody.
Written by Mark Sieber
Yes, I probably spent too much time in my reading past. There are a lot of good books coming out all the time, and I not only have plenty I want to read, I have obligations to get to some of them. But, damn it, I like it back there.
So I can start another overpraised current title, or I can spend a few evenings reading a brilliant and absolutely satisfying Robert McCammon book.
Mine was first published on April 1, 1990, but only a genuine fool would have passed it by. Up until this point Robert McCammon could have been looked at as another Horror Writer. That's not such a bad thing, and he would have been in good company. But it seems as though he wanted to break away from the generic stigma. It wasn't the best time for horror fiction, anyway.
Mine is a spiritual cousin to McCammon's The Five, which was published twenty-one years later. Both are suspense stories. Both novels have horrific aspects, but neither deal with the supernatural.
As Mine opens the reader is introduced to Mary Terrell AKA: Mary Terror, a 1960's radical living alone in anonymity. Blood is on her hands and madness is in her brain.
Mary's happiest days where when she was part of the Storm Front, a violent terrorist group. She was under the sway of a charismatic leader. Things went awry for them, as it did for all the former revolutionaries, and during a bloody encounter, she miscarried the baby she was carrying. When Mary reads a message in a personal ad that could only have been written by a Storm Front survivor, Mary's madness takes control and she kidnaps a newborn baby to present to her lost king. The mother of the child, an ex-hippie herself, embarks on a long and arduous chase across a barren American landscape to regain what is hers.
Mine is a dark, nasty story, but McCammon is known for having compassionate characters. Mary Terror is a human monster that needs to be eradicated, but she is also a lost soul who once, at least, believed in trying to make the world a better place.
I see a lot of talk about Swan Song, Boy's Life, and the Corbett series. And rightly so. They are all phenomenal books. Mine deserves its place among McCammon's best works. If you have not read it, you really should put it high on your reading list. I know there are one hell of a lot of worthy books to read, and we're all trying our best, but nobody does it better than Robert McCammon. Nobody.
Written by Mark Sieber
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