Clockwork Lives

By Neil Peart and Kevin J. Anderson

Some lives can be summed up in a sentence or two. Other lives are epics.

In Clockwork Angels, #1 bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and legendary Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart created a fabulous, adventurous steampunk world in a novel to accompany the smash Rush concept album of the same name. It was a world of airships and alchemy, clockwork carnivals, pirates, lost cities, a rigid Watchmaker who controlled every aspect of life, and his nemesis, the ruthless and violent Anarchist who wanted to destroy it all.

Anderson and Peart have returned to their colorful creation to explore the places and the characters that still have a hold on their imagination. Marinda Peake is a woman with a quiet, perfect life in a small village; she long ago gave up on her dreams and ambitions to take care of her ailing father, an alchemist and an inventor. When he dies, he gives Marinda a mysterious inheritance: a blank book that she must fill with other people’s stories — and ultimately her own.

Clockwork Lives is a steampunk Canterbury Tales, and much more, as Marinda strives to change her life from a mere “sentence or two” to a true epic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ECW Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781770908093

Reviews for Clockwork Lives

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The second book based on the concept behind the Rush album Clockwork Angels. Returning to Rush's 'concept' album roots, Neal Peart came up with the basic ideas for a Steampunk type world. K. Anderson collaborated with Neal to produce this novel that expands on the stories of the first novel. Unfortunately this is mostly a collection of short stories about people that appear in the first book. It either expands on characters from the first book or introduces some of their direct ancestors in very similar stories. Not a lot of new material here, but it is still fun to see lyrics from old Rush songs pop up from time to time and read a novel dedicated to the ideas of this great band and album!For book collectors, this is a beautifully bound, printed and illustrated book and that added to my rating.

[caanderson-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you’re a Rush fan or a fan of steampunk you will like this book. The book takes the stories from the album Clockwork Angels and expands the stories into more characters and more adventures.