Stinger - Hardcover

Robert R. McCammon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1870532023 ISBN 13: 9781870532020

Publisher: Kinnell, 1988

Synopsis

In the remote Texas town of Inferno, a creature of evil beyond anything the world has ever encountered descends. He traps the town and ravages the land with grisly executions and horrible mutations . . . until the people rise up in a final, desperate battle. From the author of Swan Song. Original.

About this title

Review:

The "stinger" is an alien bounty hunter that remains ominously hidden for most of the book, but appears to be an enormous wicked mixture of centipede and scorpion. The bounty it's after is the "good guy" of the tale--a waif-like being who invades the mind of a small girl to make its presence known. They both arrive in a hot, desolate West Texas town surrounded by the alkali dust and sagebrush of a flatland between mountains. And the battle begins. An unpretentious horror novel with memorable imagery, Stinger is this reviewer's favorite of Robert McCammon's. It has appealing characters. It has feuding motorcycle gangs. It even has a bit of a West Side Story romance between Anglo guy and Hispanic girl. Sure, it's a B-movie romp, but McCammon is earnest--he doesn't play it for laughs. The action is scary and horrifying, making for a long, satisfying read.

From the Inside Flap:

First published as a paperback original in 1988, Stinger remains one of Robert McCammon's wildest, most compelling creations. Both a furiously paced action novel and an affectionate tribute to the SF/Horror films of an earlier era, it is vintage McCammon, and a grand, often visceral entertainment. The story takes place during a single twenty-four hour period in Inferno, Texas. Inferno is a town in trouble, driven to the brink by racial tension, gang violence, and a collapsing economy. But things can always get worse, and they do so with astonishing speed when an unidentified spacecraft crash lands in the desert outside of town, followed by a second craft bearing the alien being who will soon be known as Stinger. Stinger is a kind of interstellar hunter on a mission he intends to complete, whatever the cost. He brings with him an endless array of technological marvels and an infinite capacity for destruction that threaten the existence of Inferno, its inhabitants, and the larger world beyond. Filled with a large cast of vividly realized characters and sporting some of the most memorably horrific imagery you will ever encounter, Stinger is an adrenaline-fueled narrative of the highest order, its classic, pulp fictional elements transformed and elevated by a master storyteller. The result is pure Robert McCammon, an engrossing, hugely enjoyable experience that is sure to stay with you for a very long time to come.

About this edition

• Publisher: Kinnell
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 1870532023
• ISBN 13: 9781870532020
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 542
• Illustrator: Colin Sullivan