Blue World

No cover

Robert R. McCammon: Blue World (Paperback, 1990, New York Pocketbooks 1990.)

Paperback, 464 pages

Published May 8, 1990 by New York Pocketbooks 1990..

ISBN:
978-0-586-20584-6
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

None

This is the first McCammon I read (though I followed it up with Usher's Passing). Blue World is a wide ranging selection of his short fiction work from the 80s and early 90s, plus the titular novella.
The collection is a pretty broad cross-section of his short fiction; horror (He'll Come Knocking), thriller/slasher (Blue World), science fiction (Red House), fantasy (Nightcrawler), and Twilight Zone-esque (I Scream Man) stories are all represented here. The influence of script writing on McCammon's style is evident across genres, which helps keeps the pacing as reasonably fast a short story tends to demand. It also lends itself to satisfying endings, though ones that do not always explain what we've just experienced (Doom City).
While I have seen complaints the stories fail to address more timeless themes in favor of what would be more commercially successful at the time, I feel that's definitely an off-base claim. …