Rush: Epic Fantasy Trilogy & Rock Albums from Clockwork Angels Collaborator
Plus WarlocK A.D.'s Dice-Rolling Live Shows
Author Kevin J. Anderson has a crowdfunding campaign for “an epic fantasy with sailing ships, sea monsters and the Crusades—and 3 companion rock albums!”
Here is how Kevin describes it:
The Terra Incognita trilogy is my fantasy masterpiece—it took me more than fifteen years to develop and write. A huge tale of two continents at war—sailing ships, sea monsters, and the Crusades. With a giant cast of characters, it is a tale of love and revenge, the Age of Discovery, and the mystery of what lies beyond the edge of the map.
…
Originally published in paperback more than a dozen years ago, these beloved books have never appeared in hardcover. For the initial release, we made Terra Incognita even more epic by producing two companion rock albums, with lyrics written by me and Rebecca Moesta and performed by some of my rock star friends and idols.
The previously released companion CDs for the first two novels featured an all-star cast of musicians, including Saga’s Michael Sadler (Saga), James LaBrie (Dream Theater), John Payne (Asia), Lana Lane, David Ragsdale (Kansas), and Martin Orford (IQ). With this Kickstarter, Kevin is at last releasing a third CD with performances by additional musicians, including Steve Walsh (Kansas), Dan Reed, Sass Jordan, Doane Perry (Jethro Tull), and Greg Bissonette (David Lee Roth).
You can learn more about this project from part one of an excellent Michael’s Record Collection interview with Kevin J. Anderson:
I first became aware of Kevin J. Anderson from his association with Rush’s final album masterpiece, Clockwork Angels. It was a steampunk concept album, and Kevin co-wrote the novelization of the record with Neil Peart, along with two sequel novels. I’m a huge fan of this album, and I agree with Michael Citro’s description from part 2 of the aforementioned Michael’s Record Collection interview:
“Few bands ever release an album of the quality of Clockwork Angels, especially if they have been writing and recording music for 40 years. But the epic steampunk concept album is one of the band’s best ever, ending Rush’s recording career on a high note.”
Kevin explains the importance of music and his collaboration with Rush’s Neil Peart in the following quote from the Terra Incognita crowdfunding campaign:
“Rock music has always been a seminal inspiration to my writing. I worked with my friend Neil Peart—legendary drummer and lyricist from Rush—to produce the novel Clockwork Angels based on their last studio album, and the first novel in this trilogy, The Edge of the World, is dedicated to Neil.”
As a Rush fan, I appreciated the way Neil Peart’s lyrics matured over their career allowing my appreciation of the band to evolve as I aged. The lyrics of “Headlong Flight” and “The Garden” from Clockwork Angels deeply resonate with me now the same way the lyrics of “Subdivisions” connected with me as a teenager.
The Clockwork Angels novel enhanced my enjoyment of the album, so I’m excited to engage with Kevin J. Anderson’s Terra Incognita trilogy and companion albums. If you are as well, you can pledge your support here.
WarlocK A.D.
The metal band WarlocK A.D. announced a contest in which they are asking fans to add a song from their album to a playlist along with “10 more epic RPG tracks”:
If you are not familiar with the band, here is a description from their website that reveals their RPG affinity:
WarlocK A.D. are a Heavy Metal band from the west-midlands, UK, that blends together Symphonic, Power and Folk Metal elements with Parodical Fantasy themes.
WarlocK A.D. Live shows are performed as Live Action RPG events where a dice is used to determine the direction and story of the setlist - creating a unique live experience at every show!
They explain more of their dice-rolling live show approach in this Rock Out Stand Out interview:
“Being that everyone calls us the DnD band, we figured why not make a setlist that we can chop and change at the drop of a hat. It’s more so a case of working with evens and odds rather than numbers themselves; these decide the path of the quest. For example, we usually start our set with The Valley Of Vagene and depending on the roll of the dice, we are either attacked by the dwarf empire and play our new song Nano Emporium or we go old school and play Rise.”
You can get a sense of the band’s epic-ness (and sense of humor) by watching this video that I share without further comment:
Dude! That Warlock A.D. video has me laughing and rockin' at the same time!