Bradley J. Birzer - Neil Peart: Cultural Repercussions

EBook ISBN: 978-1-68057-300-8

Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-68057-299-5

Cover design by Janet McDonald

Cover photo by Kelly Drew

Kevin J. Anderson, Art Director

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Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta, Publishers

WordFire Press eBook Edition 2022

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A Voice for an Entire Generation

Fittingly, and with no small sense of justice, the novel Clockwork Angelsbased on the Rush album of the same namebecame a New York Times bestseller on September 12, 2012, Neil Ellwood Pearts sixtieth birthday. His close friend and coauthor, science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson, had the pleasure of informing the Canadian drummer and man of letters of their achievement in his annual birthday greetings.

The success of Clockwork Angels is not limited merely to the sales of the novel. The story originated in Pearts mind over a considerable period of time, with parts of it appearing in song form in 2010 as two singles, each performed on the 2011 Time Machine Tour. The full-length Rush album Clockwork Angels was released in the first half of June 2012. It was the nineteenth studio album of original material made by the progressive rock trio. The band toured extensively throughout North America and Europe to support the album, and a live version of the tour, simply entitled Clockwork Angels: Tour, came out on November 19, 2013. On that tour, the band played most of the album, complete with an elaborate stage, lighting, and set pieces, all serving to tell a better story. Rush had even hired a string ensemble to play with them. On Rushs last tour, R40 (summer 2015), the band continued to support the album, beginning the first set with three songs from Clockwork Angels.

That a novel appeared in the wake of a rock album is relatively exceptional. Most albums remain albums, though a few, such as Pink Floyds The Wall and The Whos Tommy have become movies. Coheed and Cambria have released novels as well as comics to accompany their immense multi-album space opera, but they remain a cult band, at best. Through Pearts coauthor and close friend Anderson, the progressive metal band Roswell Six has released albums based on two of Andersons novels in his Terra Incognita series.

Clockwork Angels, though, has now appeared in the public eye as an album, a novel, an audiobook (with Peart himself, narrating it), a series of comic books, and a graphic novel. Even more impressively, one can purchase the audiobook in a variety of formats, including one that comes in a box designed to look like a clock tower (in which the clock actually functions).

Peart and Anderson penned a sequel, Clockwork Lives. It, too, appeared in book format, as an audiobook (with an ensemble cast of readers), and as a graphic novel. If anything, the sequel is even better than the original. Filled with wisdom, pathos, and humor, Clockwork Lives grips the reader from the opening to the last page. A set of sturdy and attractive tarot-like cards were even produced to accompany the novel. And, the very book of Clockwork Lives is a thing of beauty, bound in red faux leather and adorned with alchemical symbols.

As of this writing, the third book of the Clockwork trilogy, Clockwork Destinyplotted together before Pearts death in 2020is moving into the production stage.

While no plans for a movie version yet exist, the story would certainly make an epic theater release or a long and involved series for television. The Clockwork universe is rich and diverse, full of possibilities, full of creativity, and full of potential.

Just like Peart himself was.

Indeed, the Clockwork universe might very well be the best allegory possible for the life, intellect, and soul of Neil Ellwood Peart, 19522020. He possessed immense talent. He was always a moving target, never satisfied with second best. His artwhether in lyrics, drumming, or proseconsistently built upon the past, always improving. He was in the fullest sense an individual, but he also almost always worked in small communitieswhether with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, or with Anderson, or with his motorcycling companions.

And, while Peart had no problem acknowledging his successes of the past, he was never content living there.