The Five

By: Robert R. McCammon

Narrated by: Nick Landrum

Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

With works such as Swan Song and the historical thriller Mister Slaughter, best-selling author Robert McCammon has proven himself an extraordinarily accomplished storyteller. The Five features a rock band skirting the margins of success while touring the American Southwest. Life on the road, however, takes a strange turn when they encounter an Iraq War veteran. Soon thereafter, violence descends on the group, and their lives are tuned to a terrifying pitch.

©2011 The McCammon Corporation (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Horrible singing!

Robert McCammon is the author of one of the greatest stories I've read in my life time, "Swan Song". While this story is multi-layered and pulls you into the characters, it hints and dances around several possible facets that never come to fruition. The real deal breaker is the god awful singing from the narrator. On several occasions I almost just gave up on the story rather than endure another round of his "take" on the songs.

Not his best writing

Wordy, sophmoric and tedious. Not at all like the Mathew Corbet books. A good editor might have helped but in the end I just didn't care what happened to the characters

Typical great McCammon story

Where does The Five rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

McCammon stories always entertain... Especially when one is ready for just a little macabre details. Although I have enjoyed his Mathew Corbett books more, The Five reminded me of some of his older books.

Who was your favorite character and why?

More than a specific character, I enjoyed the obvious attention he gave to details of music, bands of the era, and the typical good research that goes into all his books.

What about Nick Landrum’s performance did you like?

Excellent rendition of character voices...really helped you "be there". He may need to work on his singing, however.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

From now on when you hear of "The Fab Four", you'll remember The Five, too.

Any additional comments?

I've been attracted to Rick McCammon's books because I know him personally. He's a great guy who isn't afraid to bring up life issues and questions that he and we all deal with, and he always finds ways for "good" to win out over "evil".

Lots of character development, without much more

I love Mr. McCammon, 98% of the time. The stories, the characters, the pace are almost always on point. This story didn’t do much for me though. I get it. The folks are young, struggling musicians and maybe as a not-struggling 40 something engineer, I just can’t relate. I say maybe because I’ve related to many of his other characters not similar in the least to my demographic or background. The whole story just felt muddy to me. Lots of things unclearly tethered together and an ending that didn’t feel as much like a resolution than it did just an acceptance that the whole thing was muddy. I feel like the author was shooting for something that juxtaposes gritty with ethereal. Good with evil. Life with death. At least that’s my take. I just don’t think he pulled it off. YMMV…

Not what I expected

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Robert McCannon wrote a couple of books that are in my all time favorite list (Swan's Song, and Boys Life) so I expected a story that would draw me in and be interesting. I was disappointed. The story seemed to ramble along, and was kind of pointless. No suspense--no suprises.

What do you think your next listen will be?

I will probably go back to supernatural stories.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator was OK, but couldn't save the story.

What character would you cut from The Five?

All of them.

Any additional comments?

Maybe someone who really likes rock bands would like this one.

McCammon bombs this time...and not in a good way

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I am a McCammon fan! I think his "Boy's LIfe" is one of the smartest books ever written (though not on Audible as they only have an abridged version). But this is the first McCammon I've come across that I would advise people to steer clear of, it lacks the brilliance I've come to expect of McCammon's books.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

In the other McCammon books it moves with interesting stories and interweaved plots, unfortunately this book drags and as a few of the characters die...well, frankly, I don't care as I haven't really formed a connection with any of them and I'm pretty sure McCammon hasn't either.

Which scene was your favorite?

Not out to spoil what meager enjoyment there is in the book by giving out too much information but the final shoot out is probably the best part of the book.

Was The Five worth the listening time?

I feel the narrator did as good a job as possible considering the material he was working with. I did listen to the end, thinking he might redeem it and make it all worth while...He didin't.

Any additional comments?

I definitely don't want to turn people off of McCammon's work. "Swan's Song" is brilliant and if audible ever does a unabridged version of "Boy's LIfe", well, it's one of my all time favorite books and you can see just how great a writer McCammon can be.

This had potential

What started out as a cool premise, drug on, and on with monotonous, and unnecessary backstory. This author has some other great books, this is not one of them, and the singing… Had to fast forward through “performance”

meh

while there were a few moments of wit, overall the writer seems out of his element and seems to go out of his way to throw around product names and musical terms - feels very forced.
Also, anyone who refers to a B# (sharp) chord is clearly out of his depth. And yes the song lyrics and singing are bad.
The Matthew Corbett books are so excellent...........not sure what happened with this one....?

Stop SINGING!

Would you try another book from Robert McCammon and/or Nick Landrum?

I love Robert McCammon's as an author. I anxiously await the book "Baal" on audio. I read some of the review prior to ordering "The Five", and for the first time, didn't pay attention to some of the in depth comments.

McCammon rambles in this novel. On and on it seems. I always loved his turn of a phrase, but in this case, it was all filling and no turkey. But by far, the worst...and I mean what stopped me DEAD in my tracks, was the narrator SINGING...yes, singing in the worst voice you can imagine...some of the songs in story. If you want the listener to be drawn in by the dynamic rock group, and real buy into the persona...don't hire Uncle Larry to belt out the tunes. Total buzz kill. Literally made me snap the plugs for my ear and contemplate just deleting the story.

Onward to Baal. At least I know there is no music in that tome.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Stephen King - Joyland

What didn’t you like about Nick Landrum’s performance?

Zero. Zip. Nothing. Take singing lessons or just DON'T sing. Thanks for ruining what little was there.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I felt like someone just picked my pocket...or that feeling you get when you put twenty bucks in a slot machine and get nothing for the trouble.

Any additional comments?

Next time there is music involved, read the lyrics...or hire a band.