Clockwork Angels

Smooth reading. Goes well with some terrific music and perhaps a nice Canadian whiskey. Highly recommend. I hadn't read much steampunk but it seems to fit with Rush music. Loved the little buts of lyrics sprinkled throughout.

Clockwork Angels expands on all of the themes from the Clockwork Angels CD and turns them into an excellent story - Rush fans will love how lyrics from their songs are interwoven into the story. Great book to go with a great CD!

I am sure my opinion is somewhat colored because I am a Rush fan, but this book ranks with the small percentage of books I've read that were so good and/or meaningful that I want friends that are readers to read it too. The book and the album really complement each other. Thanks for a great book, Kevin and Neil!

A truly moving story. The trials and tribulations of Owenhardy take you on a headlong flight through different ways to look at faith and the work you live in. No mater what you are brought up to believe or if you believe in nothing, there is a valid point for everybody in this story. Kevin Anderson took the excellent story that Neil Peart put in lyric form and spun that work into an excellent page turned that you will not want to put down.

There was so much promise here but a high concept idea handled by a midlist author couldn't reach escape velocity and the whole affair fell back to earth where it disappeared into the waters of imagination without leaving a trace.

After setting up this titanic conflict the story wandered off and died. This is the sort of ending that if written by a Christian author would be castigated for sacrificing story for principle. What makes for a decent philosophy on vinyl makes me a very unhappy reader in a novel. After taking us all over the place and teasing us with the idea of all these other worlds, the ending is an insult. The authors (Peart and Anderson) did yeoman's work setting up the idea of Owen Hardy as this critical character caught in a struggle between the Watchmaker and the Anarchist, but instead of being critical, he matters not at all and affects his world only by stepping out of it.

I can't remember the last time I wanted to throw a book across the room at an ending. This book was just good enough to make me despise the ending.

Pros:
- The book is beautiful. The artwork, the pages, the fonts ... everything about this book is gorgeous.
- Interesting story ideas, interesting story potential, excellent descriptions of scenery
- Some clever and engaging ideas, such as the books from other worlds
- The carnival scenes in general and the characters in particular
- Some plot portions do read well. Some.

Cons:
- Very simplistic, linear plot
- A LOT of text dedicated to introspection of the main character Owen Hardy, who is awfully whiny. The introspection portions are NOT well done. They are repetitive, and frankly, dull.
- The forced inclusion of Rush lyrics from the band's back catalog is just embarrassingly awful. They are jarring, hokey, and out of place in most cases.
- The motive for the Anarchist being filled with life-long, murderous rage is that he got kicked out of college for trying too-dangerous experiments. Not believable.
- Outside the Carnies, the characters are shallow
- The writing is so simplistic - what you'd expect from a high-school student, not a professional novelist. It's just that bad.
- What's with putting an ellipsis (...) at the end of every third paragraph? Irritating and hardly as profound as the author might think it is.

2 Stars

Clockwork Angels is a parable that describes Neil Peart's basic philosophy of life, filled with archetypal characters representing various aspects of human behavior and societal norms. Based on his impressive collection of lyrics over the decades, as well as his non-fiction writing, it is clear he is a strong-minded individualist who has always stressed personal integrity, honesty, and self-reliance. Many of his previous works have talked about the evils of a centralized government or group that controls the lives of everyday people, and this book can be added to those. Mr. Peart has often described himself as a "bleeding-heart libertarian," demonstrating both his love of individual freedom and responsibility, and his concern for the Everyman of society. These concepts are demonstrated throughout the book in vivid descriptions of the world and the rules it contains throughout the various cities Owen encounters.

Being a long-time fan of Neil Peart's work was actually an obstacle to enjoying this book and the reason I can only give three stars. As I read, I found many of the twists and story points to be predictable because they were echoes of what Mr. Peart has already covered in his lyrics and prose. In fact, Anderson has included dozens of snippets of these lyrics and song titles all through the story. Sometimes these seemed strained or out of place, as if placed there for primarily for the benefit of Rush fans but not necessarily an uninitiated reader. The text is generally unremarkable, using a large number of similes in the descriptions that sometimes work, but occasionally overwhelm. However, this book is not about the sparkling use of words but the concepts they convey. Kevin Anderson provided the words, but the fundamental ideas and themes for the story are all Neil Peart - and that is a very good thing. After a series of harrowing adventures, the main character's life parallels Peart's (who just turned 60) in that he becomes an itinerant entertainer for most of the year, and, borrowing from Voltaire's Candide, a "tender of his garden," for the rest.

A great story with great characters and ambience. You're immediately transported to another world, like the best works of masters like K.Dick, Clarke or even Verne! Better yet if you are a RUSH fan and are somehow into Neil Peart's ideas and writings. He and Kevin J. Anderson created a symbiosis and a special co-working. In other words: the best book I've read in recent years. A real journey.

Great companion to the CD but could be read without it. Plenty of RUSH references and also pays homage to Candide. I am glad I read the book before I saw the concert-made it that much more incredible.

From a well-respected science fiction author, in conjunction with the complex workings of arguably one of the greatest drummers (and lyricists) of all time comes a well thought out and presented novel.

This book is very captivating. The story is well written and teaches some great life lessons. I have not listened to rush very much but after completing this story clockwork angels is now one of my favorite albums to listen to and i rank this as one of my favorite books. A book i will read again and again.

Excellent Story with great visual descriptions. Love the lyric references of Rush's works sprinkled throughout the book. Even when you reach the end of the story, go past the lyrics to read the Author's thoughts and musings on how the story was recreated. A lot of "Ahh..." moments. A great read!

This book is very well written and engaging. It taps into classic coming of age themes and has well developed characters. It reads like a Charles Dickens novel. Being a fan of RUSH and Neil Pearts's writing, I was prepared to like it, while at the same time expecting a lot. I was not disappointed. The themese and lyrics from the album are woven into the book seamlessly. The book itself has certain rythms and cadences.

The only reason I downloaded this book was because of the contribution to the novel by Neil Peart. I had no expectations going in but was pleasantly surprised. Good read, I recommend it to everyone not just the Rush fans out there.

I enjoy Anderson's Star Wars books and his original standalone work. The real magic and the real fun in this, for me, was the fact that it came to fruition through collaboration with a premier lyricist and philosopher that I admire and it does combine well with the Rush album. It is clear that Anderson had fun writing it because he peppers the book with lines from Rush songs of the past and uses ideas and at times word-for-word lyrics to move the story forward. He is not just pulling from the Clockwork Angels effort, but touches on music all through Rush's history. As someone who has been touched by these lyrics over the bulk of my life, I felt like it was a personal invitation to experience this with Owen, Kevin, and Neil. While they are sometimes slightly out of place, I always enjoyed seeing the nods to
well written lyrics and even saw a few places he could have added more. (There was more than one place for a Jacob's Ladder reference that he never took advantage of. I kept waiting for it.)

I was drawn in and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It isn't complex read, but it is still engaging. The characters were well thought out and while they could have been developed a little more, what he gave us was sufficient for the story. There were a few characters I wanted to know still more about, because what he did develop was so compelling. I also would have liked to see the Clockwork Angels used for more than just a device to get the plot started. I know there was more to the relationship between them and the Watchmaker, but it wasn't massaged as much as I wanted. He also could have added more variation to the dialog, but it was always clear to me who was speaking.

The end is satisfying and the hard cover version also contains the full lyrics to the songs and an Afterword from Neil that gives more insight into the production and origins of the book. I can't speak to the Kindle version as I really wanted this one on my shelf. (However, if you buy the hard cover, the publisher will give you a PDF or ePub version of the book gratis. It would be nice if they offered the Kindle version, but alas... The details for the deal are in the back of the book. They were very prompt in emailing it to me.)

Chapter 1 has one of the best opening lines I think I have ever read.

"The best place to start an adventure is with a quiet, perfect life... and someone who realizes that it can't possibly be enough."

I finished Clockwork Angels while I've been sick. I actually enjoyed it a great deal, and one of the problems several folks have had with it - the constant use of the lyrics from not only the Clockwork Angels album but earlier Rush albums as well - did not bother me in the least. In fact, I rather liked it. I do wish it had been longer, though. That's my only real complaint.

I actually identify with Owen Hardy a great deal. I was stuck in my own Stability until I broke free, had a few adventures and eventually found my place and began to tend my garden. A lot of what is in this book really struck home for me.