Robert McCammon. Sometimes I want to pinch myself. To make sure that I'm not dreaming and that Mr. McCammon is indeed publishing again. I know, it's been nearly ten years since he returned to the field. He was gone for ten years though, and that was a long dry period. He was so sorely missed. Despite many fine writers emerging in and out of the genre, no one could even come close to replacing Robert McCammon.
When I heard that McCammon's first book after his absence was a historical novel, I was only slightly disappointed. Historicals were never my favorite type of book to read. But it was McCammon.
I should not have had the slightest misgivings. Speaks the Nightbird is arguably the best book that Robert McCammon had published to date. It's a vividly realized portrait of the turn of the seventeenth century, and it also introduced readers to a wonderful protagonist named Matthew Corbett. Corbett was a magistrate's apprentice in Speaks the Nightbird, but he has gone on to more interesting career paths in the three books that have featured him since then. Corbett is now a professional 'problem solver' in 1703 New York City.
Yes, McCammon is doing his first series with the character. Corbett has been featured in three other books since Speaks the Nightbird: The Queen of Bedlam, Mr. Slaughter, and now The Providence Rider. The great thing about this series is that each novel has its own personality. When many writers do a series, the books are essentially the same story with details changed. Not so with Robert McCammon and the Matthew Corbett series.
In The Providence Rider, Corbett is launched quite literally into his most exotic adventure yet. Already targeted by the nefarious "Emperor of Crime", Dr. Fell, Corbett is taken against his wishes to an island where the Doctor reigns supreme. Though Fell has previously marked Corbett for death, he now needs the young problem solver to help him with some of his own troubles. So young Mr. Corbett is off on a perilous journey across the sea, where he will find danger, intrigue, romance, and genuine evil. Far from his comfortable home in America.
What makes this series work so, other than McCammon's flawless depiction of the past and the exquisite language he conjures it up with, is the basic decency of Matthew Corbett. The young detective is intelligent, tenacious, honorable, and simply a good human being. Yet no man can face the evils Corbett faces in these books and remain wholly innocent.
The publisher states that The Providence Rider is a perfect entry point for new readers of the Matthew Corbett books. And it is. But if you haven't read the first three, take my advice: Get them all and take a month off from work and read them all in order.
Subterranean Press has pronounced 2012 to be The Year of Robert McCammon and that is a very fine thing. The Providence Rider will be published in May, and other classic reprints are to follow. I can think of no better home for the incomparable fiction of Robert McCammon.
When I heard that McCammon's first book after his absence was a historical novel, I was only slightly disappointed. Historicals were never my favorite type of book to read. But it was McCammon.
I should not have had the slightest misgivings. Speaks the Nightbird is arguably the best book that Robert McCammon had published to date. It's a vividly realized portrait of the turn of the seventeenth century, and it also introduced readers to a wonderful protagonist named Matthew Corbett. Corbett was a magistrate's apprentice in Speaks the Nightbird, but he has gone on to more interesting career paths in the three books that have featured him since then. Corbett is now a professional 'problem solver' in 1703 New York City.Yes, McCammon is doing his first series with the character. Corbett has been featured in three other books since Speaks the Nightbird: The Queen of Bedlam, Mr. Slaughter, and now The Providence Rider. The great thing about this series is that each novel has its own personality. When many writers do a series, the books are essentially the same story with details changed. Not so with Robert McCammon and the Matthew Corbett series.
In The Providence Rider, Corbett is launched quite literally into his most exotic adventure yet. Already targeted by the nefarious "Emperor of Crime", Dr. Fell, Corbett is taken against his wishes to an island where the Doctor reigns supreme. Though Fell has previously marked Corbett for death, he now needs the young problem solver to help him with some of his own troubles. So young Mr. Corbett is off on a perilous journey across the sea, where he will find danger, intrigue, romance, and genuine evil. Far from his comfortable home in America.
What makes this series work so, other than McCammon's flawless depiction of the past and the exquisite language he conjures it up with, is the basic decency of Matthew Corbett. The young detective is intelligent, tenacious, honorable, and simply a good human being. Yet no man can face the evils Corbett faces in these books and remain wholly innocent.
The publisher states that The Providence Rider is a perfect entry point for new readers of the Matthew Corbett books. And it is. But if you haven't read the first three, take my advice: Get them all and take a month off from work and read them all in order.
Subterranean Press has pronounced 2012 to be The Year of Robert McCammon and that is a very fine thing. The Providence Rider will be published in May, and other classic reprints are to follow. I can think of no better home for the incomparable fiction of Robert McCammon.
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