What if after World War III the Earth became a scorched wasteland stuck in perpetual nuclear winter,

and those who survived roamed the planet in little armies, and the devil was among them,

but he mostly just sort of hung out in the Midwest.

And there was one little girl who might be able to restore everything due to her inexplicable magic powers.

Today's book won the Bram Stoker Award in

1987. And true story, it's the only year that I guess there was a dead tie because he won

alongside Stephen King's misery. Because everyone loves to know that they are number one alongside

someone else. This is Swan Song by Robert McKammon.

And this is The Bookpile.

A podcast about the best of books and the worst of books.

If this is your first time to the podcast, welcome,

and maybe suggest checking out our back catalog of over 180 episodes with as many books.

Or should I say almost as many books?

Because some of them have repeated with some recent episodes that I've reissued

because they are just that good.

I'm Kalan Erskine.

I'm a comic, a father, and someone who recently got back from doing a week of shows in Canada

where I didn't see any swans, but plenty of geese, which was confusing because I live in California

by a little lake that also currently has geese. And I thought that all those birds were only

supposed to be in one of those

places at a time. As per our new usual, my co-host David Vance is off this week, scooping coins

out of wishing wells to support his chewing tobacco addiction. But he'll be back next week when we

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