Swan Song is a 1987 horror novel by American novelist Robert R. McCammon. Published June 1, 1987, it is a work of post-apocalyptic fiction describing the aftermath of a nuclear war that provokes an evolution in humankind. Swan Song won the 1987 Bram Stoker award, tying with Stephen King's Misery. Plot Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union peak, and the two superpowers engage in nuclear war. In hours, the United States is reduced to a barren wasteland covered by the snows of nuclear winter. The President, blaming himself for what happened, prepares some kind of system known only as "Talons", but his plane crashes before he can activate it. A number of individuals are caught up in the onset of nuclear war: Josh Hutchins and a young girl named Sue "Swan" Wanda take cover in the basement of a Kansas gas station; a homeless woman named Sister Creep miraculously escapes an explosion in the subway tunnels of New York City; Colonel Macklin and teenager Roland Croninger are trapped in a collapsed fallout shelter in Idaho. Amid the ruins of a jewelry store, Sister discovers an unusual glass ring with precious stones melted into it and soon discovers that the ring has supernatural properties, showing the holder visions of a better world. Sister and new companion Artie Wisco find themselves pursued by a demonic shapeshifter known as "The Man with the Scarlet Eye", who seeks to destroy the ring. Josh and Swan, wandering through post-apocalyptic America, meet Leona Skelton, who predicts via tarot cards that Swan will have to face the Devil. Sister and Artie meet mountain man Paul Thorsen, the leader of a small group of survivors, and continue their journey in his truck. Macklin and Roland reach the Great Salt Lake and discover a relatively well-maintained and guarded camp led by the narcissistic Kempka. Macklin and Roland capture drug addict Shiela and use her supply to bargain with Kempka and move into the camp. After Roland kills Kempka when the latter tries to rape him, Macklin assumes command and introduces military discipline to the camp, establishing the "Army of Excellence" (AoE). Meanwhile, Josh, Swan, and Leona find themselves trapped in a former K-Mart taken over by escaped psychiatric hospital patients; Leona sacrifices herself to allow Josh and Swan to escape from the group's leader Alvin Magrim. The pair then meet Rusty, the last survivor of a