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 colourful 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.

Kevin J. Anderson: is one of the world's bestselling sci-fi authors. He is the author of The Illustrated Star Wars Universe and the highly popular Jedi Academy trilogy of novels: Jedi Search, Dark Apprentice and Champions of the Force. Both his X-Files novels, Ground Zero and Ruins, were New York Times bestsellers. He is now co-authoring the new series of Dune prequel novels.

Kevin J. Anderson's profile page

Neil Peart is an internationally acclaimed, bestselling, and award-nominated author, and for more than thirty-five years has been the celebrated drummer and lyricist for Rush, the most successful band in the history of Canadian rock music. Defying categorization, his books have earned a devoted, ever-growing readership by combining elements of memoir, travel writing, and social commentary with a thoughtful, musical sense of self-discovery. His previous books include ROADSHOW: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour by Motorcycle (2006), the story of Peart’s two-wheeled travels on Rush’s 30th Anniversary tour in 2004; TRAVELING MUSIC: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times (2004), a unique triple memoir of a man, a musician, and a traveler; and THE MASKED RIDER: Cycling in West Africa (1996), a richly textured account of bicycle touring in “the continent where both life and art began.” The relentlessly soul-searching GHOST RIDER: Travels on the Healing Road (2002) was chosen by The Writers’ Trust of Canada as a Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize finalist for its “exceptional merit” as one of the five best biographies of the year. For their achievements, Peart and his Rush bandmates have been appointed Officers of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor.

Neil Peart's profile page

• Short-listed, Colorado Book Award

“Clockwork Lives is wonderful. It’s an inspirational adventure. You are never set in one life. You can always start again and live a new dream.” — Steampunk Canada

“Clockwork Lives is an amazing collection of stories that brings the world to life. It paints a picture of an orderly world but with almost limitless wonder hiding beneath the surface. Each story produces its own unique draw, and the framing story, that of Marinda Peake, shows a young woman learning what it truly means to live. This is a fantastic book.” — The Arched Doorway

“A scintillating, steampunky novel . . . Very highly recommended.” — Tales from Auction Front Lines

“With captivating illustrations by [Nick] Robles, it is easy to imagine the backdrop of the lives Miranda (and the reader) collects. Fantasy fans will be captivated by this steampunk version of The Canterbury Tales.” — Library Journal, starred

“Clockwork Lives is a highly satisfying assortment of stories of characters marked by a common theme: unique lives lived on a grand scale.” — Popdose.com