Baal (Robert R. McCammon)

I read this book in an evening; it's a fairly quick read if you don't lose interest. I had no problem with it, but I can see where others had issues with it. This was McCammon's first book, so it is by no means his best. The story of Baal (a daemon or demigod of evil) who is born from a raped woman and manages to gather together a frenzied following of believers. The "good guys" we follow include a theology professor, a half Eskimo hunter and the mysterious "Michael" in their quest to end Baal's influence. The book is well written, though from the beginning I feared I was reading an "Omen" rip off. Then we changed settings and drifted away from the "Omen" plot and moved on to other plots we have seen before. The problem with this story versus so many other of McCammon's is that there really isn't anything here that we haven't seen before. Granted it's brilliantly written, but it's a rehash and remixing of all of the other antichrist movies and books. As a McCammon fan, you... Read more

I read this book way back in 1978 and it still scares me to think about it. It was one of the few paperbacks that has stuck in my mind since then (I'm surprised I remembered the name of the book, ususally titles come and go with the read). Perhaps my brain has matured enough to stand the fright I felt the first time around. I think its time for a re-read. I'm only giving this 4 stars since I do not recall much about the storyline, only the scare it gave me at the time of reading it.

Even Mccammon admits that Baal wasn't his best work. I have to agree, which hurts me because Mccammon wrote the incredible Boys Life (best book ever), and Swan Song (Go read these now!), but I didn't care for Baal much. Baal is the progeny of Satan via the rape of a poor woman, whose tale for the first 40 pages is engrossing and very entertaining as she beings to suspect that there is something wrong with her son...Then the tale moves to the next two phases of Baal's life - the orphanage, and as an adult as he amasses his fanatic zealots to aid his cause of chaos. And it is in these last 2 parts that the tale turns south. If you are a die-hard fan of Mccammon(as I am), you have to read it, but just don't expect it to come close to anything else he has written - but to be fair this was his first book, and the first 40 pages are certainly foreshadow of the writer he would become. Relic113

This book was awful. The story boring and predictable, not to mention a bit confusing historically (Baal was banished by the Hebrews), the characters totally unbelievable. If you are looking for an intro to Bob McCammon, do yourself a favor and read Swan Song or Mine, two extraordinary novels of horrific proportions, edgy and energetic, frighteningly vivid.

I've read everything Mr. McCammon was written and enjoyed most of it, but this was the exception. I can't think of a single thing I liked about it. It was boring, the characters uninteresting and Baal just didn't cut it for me. Considering that the Hebrew God drove him out of Palistine, I found it strange that he'd show up in a country where He is worshiped. I would have thought he'd go somewhere where another diety was followed. This was the first book Mr. McCammon wrote, but it was not the first one I read. If I had started with this one, instead of the much superiour "They Thirst", I'd have probably never picked him up again. Leave this one on the shelf