2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush

I was really bummed out by the news of the recent death of Neil Peart. I've said more than once that seeing Peart performing one of his extended virtuoso percussion solos live is the closest thing I've had to a religious experience, and that's only very slightly hyperbolic. It certainly wouldn't be at all hyperbolic to call it a transcendent experience.

So I was sort of wondering what I might do in memoriam, when I remembered I still had this volume sitting on my TBR shelves. And picking up a book seemed like a fitting way to pay tribute to a member of a band known for retiring to their hotel rooms to read while the other rock stars partied.

This anthology is pretty much exactly what the title says it is: stories inspired by various Rush show more songs, including both big hits and deep cuts. It also includes the story "A Nice Morning Drive" by Richard S. Foster, which directly inspired the song "Red Barchetta," and "Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber, which apparently was a vague and half-forgotten inspiration for "Roll the Bones."

I'll be honest, there are maybe three or four stories in here that I'd remotely describe as "good," and that's if you include the Fritz Leiber piece, which was written in 1967, and whose imaginative writing and fascinating weirdness are seriously marred by a couple of gratuitous racial slurs that felt like sudden and awful slaps across the face. Only one of them, Greg van Eekhout's "On the Fringes of the Fractal" (which I'd actually already encountered somewhere before, but which was worth re-reading), truly stands out. And even that one has a slightly weak ending.

The rest of them vary quite a bit in quality, but in general they're just... not terribly well-written. And yet, I did find the collection as a whole a bit more enjoyable than it seems to me that it objectively deserves. I'm sure some of that is me being in a forgiving and nostalgic mood. But I was also genuinely impressed by how even most of the weaker stories approached the subject matter. I more than half expected that we'd get a lot of pieces that read like novelizations of some of the more story-like songs, of which there are certainly plenty to choose from. But all of the authors put some real creativity into the assignment, and almost all of them gave us stories that have clear connections to the songs but build something unexpected on top of them. And even if I didn't think the results were always that great, I found that interesting enough to keep me fairly engaged. Mostly. show less

This was a trainwreck. I should have known better. I should have seen that name on the cover and walked away.

I love Rush. I love everything about Rush. Three insanely talented musicians, and one of them also the talented wordsmith behind the brilliant, insightful, incisive lyrics. I'd hoped this collection would be a testament to the creativity of Neil Peart.

Instead, it was an exercise in bloated, dull storytelling, usually with a SF bent. Now, yes, Peart often went in an SF direction for his songs...but more often, especially from the latter two-thirds of the Rush catalogue, he more examined the human condition, without the SF trappings.

Many of these stories honestly felt as though they'd been pre-written, then a couple of Rush lyrics show more were shoehorned in to make it fit to the anthology concept. Some very obviously came directly from the songs, but twisted the intent of the song so far out of true as to be virtually unrecognizable. I'll be honest, the only story that held any interest was "A Nice Morning Drive" simply due to its place in history for inspiring "Red Barchetta".

And the less said about the Fritz Lieber story that inspired "Roll The Bones" the better. While it may have inspired the song, it was so blatantly racist I was shocked at its inclusion.

I'd had high hopes for a good anthology inspired by one of Canada's best, but with KJA at the helm, I really should have known better. If this anthology serves any purpose, it's to show what a brilliant writer Peart was.

Never again. show less

What a terrific book, both in concept and in execution. Kevin Anderson has taken songs by Rush, some that are popular and some more obscure, and his contacts in the science fiction field, and combined the two. So yes, Rush fans, you are reading stories inspired by these songs: "Spirit of the Radio", "Tom Sawyer", and "Freeze" along with the original short story that inspired "Red Barchetta". It's all here! In one volume! I literally had no idea this book existed until I turned around onto a book seller's stall at a geek convention.

The short stories in this compilation are well-written and concise and not necessarily an exact way of interpreting a song: "Players" by David Farland is based on "Tom Sawyer" and is a story dealing with a show more Jewish movie director meeting Saudis for the next big deal. "The Burning Times v2.0" is a futuristic extension of witch burnings, and several others are in the futuristic, post-apocalyptic vein. Such as the story inspired by "Spirit of the Radio" entitled "Last Light": some space aliens have landed on Earth and are hunting humans, but a radio broadcast brings some survivors to try to find these DJ's and their "companion(ship) unobtrusive." What a joy to find, and what a joy to read! show less

This anthology is a collection of "short stories inspired by the music of Rush." Having been an avid fan of the band since 1982, I've listened to each studio album in their discography dozens to hundreds of times. As such, I've generated my own imagery about what the lyrics and music are saying, so I went into this book with preconceived expectations.

As the subtitle to this book is "stories inspired by the music of Rush", one should pay attention to the "inspired by" part. I didn't. I was expecting literal interpretations of the songs. Most stories head off in a direction I would never have guessed. Plenty of times my reaction was, "Really? That's where you went with this song?" Now when the song is fairly vague on specifics, focusing show more on a theme of feelings in a situation (like Mercedes Lackey's "Into the Night", inspired by "Freeze"), there's far more leeway to generate a story.

But sometimes the stories are built from just one line in a song. These are typically the stories that take the most liberties, riding a tangent off into the fifth dimension. Yeah, creative license; I totally get that. But it wasn't what I was looking for. It worked in "Random Access Memory" by John McFetridge, but too often these stories were just so different that they would've worked better for me without the Rush reference.

Two of the eighteen stories in this anthology were actually the inspiration for Rush songs: "A Nice Morning Drive" by Richard S. Foster inspired "Red Barchetta" and "Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber inspired "Roll the Bones." While Neil's lyrics were faithful to Foster's story, he seems to have just used Leiber's story title as its content couldn't be much further removed the song.

Now that's not to say that the stories are bad. There are plenty of good stories here, and some of them, like "Day to Day" by Dayton Ward (inspired by "Red Sector A"), are faithful to the lyrics. If one doesn't go into this collection expecting every story to be a literal interpretation of the selected songs, one will appreciate this collection all the more. show less

When I discovered that Brian Hodge was going to be contributing to this anthology, I immediately kept my radar going until the book showed up at Net Galley. I was approved for it and I was so happy-I mean how often does a book come out that's based on the music of one of your favorite bands? I'm not as big a fan of Rush as some people, but I recognize the lyrical genius of Neil Peart-the man can write. Turns out, the authors included in this collection can too.

There are too many stories here for me to go into each in detail, so I've picked the ones that knocked my socks off to highlight here.

On the Fringes of the Fractal by Greg Van Eekhout (Inspired by "Subdivisions.") At first read this story was weird and I thought it was just okay. show more However, as I continued reading over the course of a month, I found my mind turning this tale over again and again. I now consider it one of my favorites in the collection.

The Burning Times v2.0 by Brian Hodge (Inspired by "Witch Hunt.") This story, (and this song), are both so perfect for the times in which we currently live-it's scary. When I say scary, I don't mean just the story, or the song, but the times in which we live also. I count this as another brilliant tale from the awesome Mr. Hodge.

A Nice Morning Drive by Richard S. Foster This one, in a strange and nice twist, is the story that inspired Red Barchetta, instead of the other way around. Now, the author and Neil Peart are friends. Cool, right?

A Prayer for 0443 by David Niall Wilson (Inspired by "The Trees.") I really dug this story. All individuality gone, no music or books last longer than a month or a year. My notes say "Big Brother to the Max". That's my story and I'm sticking to it. This tale disturbed me.

Gonna Roll the Bones by Fritz Leiber In another twist, THIS is the story that inspired the RUSH song. Lyrics quoted from Roll the Bones:

We go out in the world and take our chances

Fate is just the weight of circumstances

That's the way that Lady Luck Dances

Roll the bones

Last Light by Steven Savile (Inspired by "The Spirit of Radio.") This was my favorite story of the collection. It really spoke to the power that radio used to have in our lives and how important it could be once again. Bravo, Mr. Savile!! Your story really brought it home and in what I feel was the true "spirit"of the song.

Overall, this collection was good-especially if you're already a fan of Rush. Even being just a casual fan, like myself, there's a good chance 2113 will work for you too. My only complaint is that I think it's too long. 18 stories takes a while to get through. However, when the tales are good, the reader sticks with it, just as I did.

Highly recommended to fans of Rush and to fans of the short story form.

*Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the e-ARC of 2113 in exchange for my honest review.* show less

A collection of stories of mixed-genre. A few interesting ones, but nothing really special. Maybe if you're a real die-hard Rush fan that knows all the details of every song, it's more interesting, but I didn't feel much of the connection except for a few lines/song titles.

Collection of short stories inspired by the songs of Rush, plus two stories that inspired them.