REVIEW SUMMARY: A fable of Order vs. Chaos fighting for a young man’s soul set in a world of alchemy and alternate universes. And steamships! KJA’s world building plus Easter eggs for Rush fans, and a struggle that starts out simple but is complex.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Owen Hardy grows up in a world controlled by the Watchmaker, where “the Universe has a plan, All is for the best.” His yearning for something more takes him out of the order of his small town, and thrusts him into the battle between order (the Watchmaker) and chaos (the Anarchist) leading him to explore places and worlds he did not realize existed.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Hugh Syme’s graphics (wish there were more in the ARC!); Rush easter eggs; combination of alchemy and steampunk world
CONS: Starts slow; more backstory (i.e, a longer novel) on the world’s history and characters;
BOTTOM LINE: After a slow start, Clockwork Angels barrels through a world of alchemy, multiple universes and steamships, using a manipulative war between chaos and order as the canvas for a philosophical discourse based on lyrics by Neil Peart. Not just for Rush and KJA fans, but enjoyable for those who like different worlds and allegorical fables.

[For additional background, see the review of the Clockwork Angels album by Rush]

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John Anealio writes songs about Science Fiction, Fantasy & Other Nerdy Things. His music sounds like John Mayer, Weezer & James Taylor playing Dungeons & Dragons together on their iPhones. Download his music for free at johnanealio.com

Artists of all kinds are often inspired by other mediums.  Songwriters are routinely influenced by novelists, and novelists commonly listen to music when they write.  While there have been numerous novelizations of feature films, there haven’t been many book length interpretations of individual songs.  So here’s a question for you:

Which Author Should Novelize “The Trees” by Rush?

Shoot your answers to us in the comments below. Meanwhile, watch the video f the song and enjoy a bonus question!
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Song: “2112 Overture”
Artist: Rush
Album: 2112

This week we are blessed with the arrival “2012″, the latest cinematic masterpiece from Roland “I like to blow things up” Emmerich. When I first read the title of this film, I briefly thought that someone had made a movie out of Rush’s magnum opus “2112″. Sadly this appears to be another by the numbers world catastrophe movie.

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