Clockwork Destiny

by Kevin J. Anderson, Neil Peart

Overview

The final volume in the New York Times–bestselling, award-winning steampunk trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson and legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart

In Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives, readers met the optimistic young hero Owen Hardy, as well as the more reluctant adventurer Marinda Peake, in an amazing world of airships and alchemy, fantastic carnivals and lost cities. Now Owen Hardy, retired and content in his quiet, perfect life with the beautiful Francesca, is pulled into one last adventure with his eager grandson Alain. This final mission for the Watchmaker will take them up to the frozen lands of Ultima Thule and the ends of the Earth. Marinda Peake must undertake a mission of her own, not only to compile the true life story of the mysterious Watchmaker, but also to stop a deadly new group of anarchists.

The Clockwork trilogy is based on the story and lyrics from the last album of musical titans Rush, with Anderson and Peart expanding the world, stories, and characters. The two developed the final novel in the trilogy in the last years of Peart’s life, and more than a year after his passing, Anderson returned to that unfinished project, with the full support of Peart’s wife, bringing Owen and Marinda’s stories to a satisfying and stirring conclusion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770416512
Publisher:	ECW Press
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Edition description:	No Edition
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	168,768
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	HL920L (what's this?)

About the Author

Kevin J. Anderson has published more than 170 books, 58 of which have been national or international bestsellers. He has written numerous novels in the Dune, Star Wars, and X-Files universes, as well as Clockwork Angels, Clockwork Lives, and Drumbeats with Neil Peart. His original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series, the Terra Incognita fantasy trilogy, the Wake the Dragon trilogy, and his humorous horror series featuring Dan Shamble, Zombie PI. Anderson and his wife, Rebecca Moesta, are the publishers of WordFire Press. His most recent novels are Stake, Kill Zone, and Spine of the Dragon. Anderson lives in Colorado.

Neil Peart was the drummer and lyricist of the legendary rock band Rush and the author of Ghost Rider, The Masked Rider, Traveling Music, Roadshow, Far and Away, Far and Near, Far and Wide, and, with Kevin J. Anderson, the Clockwork trilogy and Drumbeats.

Read an Excerpt

One of the stories in Clockwork Lives is “The Percussor’s Tale,” about a music professor in declining health who creates a steam-driven mechanical drummer with perfect rhythm. At the end of the story, the Percussor performs an incredibly complex symphony for the Watchmaker. This grand symphony was a tour of the wonders of the world, including “the legendary lands of the far north, Ultima Thule — a mirage of tremendous glaciers under dark skies that danced with shifting veils of colored light.”

After writing that passage, Neil remarked that it would be fun to visit the far-flung icy landscape of the great white north under the auroras ... and we realized that the Northern Lights must be the source of the quintessence. I suggested that we could take old Owen Hardy out for one last adventure, this time with his bright-eyed young grandson Alain. It quickly became apparent that they must be on a mission for the Watchmaker, who was running down after centuries of his Stability, and he needed Owen and the boy to find him a new source of quintessence.

And if we were going to set the adventure up in the vast frozen wastelands, then another famous Rush reference would have to make an appearance: “By-Tor and the Snow Dog.”

Instantly, the backbone of Clockwork Destiny was formed.

For a couple of years, we dabbled with the idea off and on, and I kept notes of our conversations and other plot possibilities. I would talk with Neil about the story whenever we got together, but I had other book projects and deadlines. Neil embarked on the all-consuming R40 Tour, Rush’s last tour, which required extensive practice and rehearsals, and then months on the road before their final show in Inglewood CA on August 1, 2015.

Previously, Neil and I had taken a three-year break between the publication of Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives, and we had no contract for Clockwork Destiny, no deadline. We decided to let it develop organically, since these novels were extremely special to both of us.

There was no hurry. We had all the time in the world.

Until we didn’t.

Not long after he retired, Neil was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of terminal brain cancer. From that point, whenever we did meet or talk, we would dabble a little with Clockwork Destiny, but there were other things to occupy our conversations.

The import of this novel, with its underlying theme of death and legacy and paying it forward, did not escape us, and writing it took on an entirely different perspective for me. An impossible task. We both knew that it wouldn’t be finished until after he was gone.

Time is the true anarchist.

Editorial Reviews

Readers will enjoy the saga’s surprising end as well as its championing of the freedom of choice.” — Booklist

“Anderson has delivered an extraordinary, heartfelt farewell, both to the world of the Watchmaker and to Peart. Clockwork Destiny explodes with longing, love and adventure to the far reaches of the world ... Kevin J. Anderson should be very proud of this volume. It is a beautiful adventure. Heartbreaking and uplifting, it is a fitting goodbye to a wonderful world explored over the course of an entertaining and thoughtful trilogy. That it also doubles as an honest and emotional farewell to a friend and amazing wordsmith in his own right enriches the result to the status of sublime perfection.” — BookReporter

From the Publisher