Swan Song Journal #2: Direction

I go running at night for two reasons:
1. I want to lose weight.
2. I am in love with Swan Song.

The book is difficult to predict.  I am honestly kept guessing at each page.  I have no idea what will happen with any of the characters.

When I read  The Stand, it became obvious via the dreams that the forces of good would be gathered to one place, and the forces of evil to another.  Swan Song is not so immediately clear.  The AOE (Army of Excellence) is certainly growing ever more powerful.  And there are two elements McCammon certainly intends to bring together; the ring and the girl.  Swan has the power to give life, while the ring hast he power to give direction.  Together, they may be the key to bringing healing on the earth;  and possibly to defeating the AOE.

Though I've heard others complain about this; I like the ease with which McCammon introduces  and then dismisses characters.  It gives the story a feeling of bigness; grandeur.

None of that is a spoiler -- because I have no idea what is ahead.

War:
There are certainly a lot of battles in Swan Song.  I like that a lot.  The action is fast paced.  There are moments when McCammon introduces us to characters  that seem like they could have come from The Stand.  Alvin Mangrim wants to rise high in Colonel Macklin's army, even though Roland is suspicious of him.  What's more, Mangrim cut off the head of one of Macklin's most wanted  enemies.  Somehow, I'm thinking -- Trashcan man!

The AOE is completely evil.  Colonel Macklin wears a Nazi uniform and a wood hand with nails  sticking through it, just to be clear that he will show no mercy to anyone.  I suspect who he should really fear is the boy, Roland.

Elements I really like:

• The ring.
• The Shadow soldier.  (An imaginary friend who keeps Colonel Macklin cool under fire)
• Swan's ability to give life.  How far will that go?
• The mark of Cain.  A strange growth that crusts over some survivors like a hard shell, closing them in.
• The flies crawling out of the man of a thousand faces so go and search the earth for the woman with the ring.  That is really great!  The flies are really his eyes, an extension of himself.

Concerning the flies, get this passage:

More flies penetrated his face. More images whirled through him: a woman scrubbing clothes in a lamplit room, two men fighting with knives in an alley, a two-headed boar snuffling in garbage, its four eyes glinting wetly. The flies crawled over his face, being sucked through the flesh one after the other.