Something Passed By

by Robert McCammon, Kevin T. Collins (Reader)

"Something Passed By," a story by Robert McCammon, was originally published in his short fiction collection Blue World and was selected for inclusion in The Year's Best Fantasy and Third Annual Collection .

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction

MP3 CD

First published April 1, 1990

About the author

Pseudonyms: Robert R. McCammon; Robert Rick McCammon

Robert McCammon was a full-time horror writer for many years. Among his many popular novels were the classics Boy's Life and Swan Song. After taking a hiatus for his family, he returned to writing with an interest in historical fiction.

His newest book, Leviathan, is the tenth and final book in the Matthew Corbett series. It was published in trade hardcover (Lividian Publications), ebook (Open Road), and audiobook (Audible) formats on December 3, 2024.

McCammon resides in Birmingham, Alabama.

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual McCammon is entertaining and so good at writing speculative macabre. Fascinating little short story.

[Jim Camerlinck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hypnotic and terrifying. A bleak alternate future I hope never happens.

[Steven Francis]

What a terrifying apocalyptic story. One where people spontaneously combust, where concrete becomes quick sand only to harden again, where a violet sun looms in a white sky and time either moves forward or backward all but too quickly, disrupting the aging process. Other horrors; the compound of water alters and people explode, brain melt out of ears and gasoline is now safe to drink because water is dangerous.

[What the Sam Hill are you reading? · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5. Right from the get go, things were bat shit crazy! I loved the absolute terror of the situation, that “something passed by” and all of reality flipped on its head. This was the right amount of weirdness and scary for me! I have no idea how I would cope or attempt to adjust to such a world, but I hope I’d be cool-headed and accepting enough to play poker!

[Andreas Acevedo Dunlop Strom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A weird little story, but good. The most fun was catching all the nods to other horror writers, which were sprinkled through the whole thing

[Geoff Foss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining for sure but this one was a bit too crazy and all over the shop for me.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 2 out of 5]

A comet passes and throws the balance of nature off. A child is mummified as the air is sucked out of his room. A husband grows younger as the wife ages. A sort of Benjamin Button rip off.

[Pj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something passed by is one of my favorite sci-fi stories about the end of the world. It doesn't try to make any righteous claims about one god or another bringing wrath or some holy crusade. It is the epitome of "sometimes you're the hunter, sometimes you're the bear" logic. Humanity was doing ok and then, oops, something passed by and now things are not good. Wonderful story, great ending. The rest of his stories are decent but this is my favorite.

[Fungai Mboko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read! Very well may have convinced me to start reading short science-fiction stories.