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andydcaf2d's review
4.0
Got tired of waiting for the next GOT book so I read one of his very early works and it was very good. No surprise there right. Loved all his musical references in this book.
owenreads's review
4.0
It took me ages to read this, but it was thoroughly enjoyable when I actually did sit down and do it.
janetlun's review
Flabby. I figured out what what was going on pretty soon, and then waded through slow, wordy exposition to get there.
heatherreadsbooks's review
3.0
Sandy Blair has left his underground journo roots behind, only to find himself drawn back to the sleazy rock 'n' roll of the Nazgul following the murder of a millionare rock promoter. But as he sets off on the trail for the story of his lifetime, it's far darker and more demonic than even he could imagine.
And, jeez, it took so long to get to the supernatural darkness hinted at in the blurb that you forgot it was coming, and it was pretty much irrelevant when it did.
See, by the time it started getting twisted, you were generally hooked on the rock 'n' roll ride, the mystery of murder, so that it became completely unnecessary. It had the down and dirty era to a T, the hippy vibe, the sense of revolutions past. It was a slow start, but then you got hooked.
And then it went mental and the already generally unlikeable Sandy finds himself playing a more integral part to this new found revolution. What's the deal with Edan? Or Ananda? Or Gort?
You wonder, and then you lose interest. His past friends seem irrelevant other than the fact they fleshed out his road trip. And sure, you got interested in their odd twists and turns in life compared to one another, but in the end... hmm.
So then comes the ending. The grand finale. The coming of whatever the hell was meant to be coming. And it's an anticlimax. It really is. And by this point, the Tolkien influence was clear as day from the moment you clocked eyes on the cover, so the constant reminder from the characters that this is all steeped in some sort of Tolkienology is another grate.
I swear at one point I liked this book, and I know it doesn't sound it. The fantastical side had to be integral from early on, not as late as it came in. And the ending needed more time to unravel, because it was so abrupt; and it needed something a little more complicated, at least.
A bit of an odd one. I'm still willing to read my way through Martin's back catalogue, but this was pretty much down the middle.
And, jeez, it took so long to get to the supernatural darkness hinted at in the blurb that you forgot it was coming, and it was pretty much irrelevant when it did.
See, by the time it started getting twisted, you were generally hooked on the rock 'n' roll ride, the mystery of murder, so that it became completely unnecessary. It had the down and dirty era to a T, the hippy vibe, the sense of revolutions past. It was a slow start, but then you got hooked.
And then it went mental and the already generally unlikeable Sandy finds himself playing a more integral part to this new found revolution. What's the deal with Edan? Or Ananda? Or Gort?
You wonder, and then you lose interest. His past friends seem irrelevant other than the fact they fleshed out his road trip. And sure, you got interested in their odd twists and turns in life compared to one another, but in the end... hmm.
So then comes the ending. The grand finale. The coming of whatever the hell was meant to be coming. And it's an anticlimax. It really is. And by this point, the Tolkien influence was clear as day from the moment you clocked eyes on the cover, so the constant reminder from the characters that this is all steeped in some sort of Tolkienology is another grate.
I swear at one point I liked this book, and I know it doesn't sound it. The fantastical side had to be integral from early on, not as late as it came in. And the ending needed more time to unravel, because it was so abrupt; and it needed something a little more complicated, at least.
A bit of an odd one. I'm still willing to read my way through Martin's back catalogue, but this was pretty much down the middle.
anesh's review
4.0
Reading about The Nazgul was exciting, partially because the "era" in which the action is set is very similar to ours in many ways, although it was about 30 years ago, and partly because The Nazgul seemed to comprise all the rock'n'roll and magic and power that the great rock bands had. Martin describes this band lyrically and you can almost hear them through the voices and sounds of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and other great bands of the 60's and 70's. You recognize the power in the lyrics, the wickedness in the rhythm and the sound and you become nostalgic for a time that is long gone. Martin also adds his special ingredients, which are a bit of mysticism, a sprinkle of occultism and an abundance of mystery, leaving us to fill in the blanks with our imaginations.
Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is beyond epic, but he doesn't disappoint with this musical/murder mystery either.
Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is beyond epic, but he doesn't disappoint with this musical/murder mystery either.
aadaenyaa's review
I really enjoyed this, definitely out of his normal genre. More paranormal then anything else.
input_sh's review
5.0
All the way through, this is an amazing book.
Pretty much as everyone else, I heard about George Martin through A Song of Ice and Fire series. However, this book is pretty different than the books in that series.
Sitting between a fiction and a representation of the hippie movement, this book has it all.
Pretty much as everyone else, I heard about George Martin through A Song of Ice and Fire series. However, this book is pretty different than the books in that series.
Sitting between a fiction and a representation of the hippie movement, this book has it all.
tachyondecay's review
3.0
Did you know George R.R. Martin wrote novels before A Game of Thrones? Yes, it’s true! And you can read them! On paper, even! The Armageddon Rag is a 1980s tale of a journalist-turned-novelist recapturing the zeitgeist of the 1970s music scene. Spurred by a mysterious, sacrificial killing of a music promoter, Sandy Blair discovers that there might be more to it. Someone has a plan to reunite the band Nazgûl—particularly troubling since its lead singer is dead.
Sandy leaves the adult world of responsibility behind and goes off on a cross-country road trip to track down the surviving members of the Nazgûl. Along the way, he visits several friends with whom he has lost touch—members of the revolutionary circles in which he moved when he was younger. The trappings of Sandy’s present fall by the wayside in favour of continuing to recapture his present. As he continues to investigate the killing of Jamie Lynch, Sandy discovers that there is a supernatural element to his news story. And it might just eat his soul.
The Armageddon Rag is a very different beast from A Song of Ice and Fire, but they do share one thing: both are ambivalently supernatural at first. It’s not clear, at the beginning of this book, whether there is a supernatural element to the crime or merely the appearance of one. GRRM teases us, dangling the possibility of magic but never quite confirming it. He fakes us out a few times—the seemingly-impossible re-emergence of Patrick Hobson is one example. It’s not until the second half of the book, as Sandy’s sanity, steeped in the atmosphere of the renewed Nazgûl, begins to unravel.
So for the majority of the book, this is a music murder mystery. Sandy is an unlikely detective (GRRM hangs a lampshade on this through Sandy’s own reflections). However, it’s fair to say that the story isn’t about the mystery as much as it is about the music, and the relationship between music, culture, and the revolution that Sandy held so dear in his younger days. To this end, Sandy’s various reunions with his old pals provide great insight into how he has changed in response to the decline of that revolutionary attitude. Each of his friends has reacted to that decline in different ways. Maggie has clung to her old lifestyle, attempting to remain carefree. Lark—restyled as L. Steven Elleyn—has embraced the suit-and-tie atmosphere of middle management. Bambi has stuck her head in the sand and joined a commune. And Sandy, of course, quickly discovers that he isn’t quite so adult and settled as his life as a writer and boyfriend might make him appear.
I’m actually rather surprised by how much I enjoyed The Armageddon Rag. So much of it takes place—or is influenced by the atmosphere of—those “lost decades” of history for me, the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Too recent to have received much coverage in history classes; too distant to have the same connection to me as the 1990s and 2000s, those decades seem forever just out of reach. I can’t identify with Sandy the way an older reader might. So it’s a testament to GRRM’s skill that I still understood and sympathized with this journey of rediscovery, which ultimately culminates in Sandy abandoning his journalistic endeavour to do public relations for the Nazgûl.
The tone of the book begins to shift, with supernatural elements coming to the fore. Sandy begins to realize that the reunion of the Nazgûl, the “resurrection” of Patrick Hobson, their new concert at West Mesa, are all part of a larger plan. Trust someone like GRRM to come up with the idea that Judgement Day will take the form of a concert! Despite the apocalyptic angle, however, the climax of the book isn’t so much about the battle between good and evil as the battle between Sandy’s sense of self-determination and his commitment to the “cause”. His entire journey is an examination of whether he abandoned the “revolution” because he wasn’t committed enough. His crucial decision at the climax of the concert is the last word.
The Armageddon Rag has moments of brilliance. Its supernatural elements aren’t quite married with my own tastes in this genre, and for that reason I can’t give it five stars. But the mystery, story, and especially the characterization are all what one would expect from GRRM. It’s not enough to tide me over until the next Song of Ice and Fire book … but it helps.
Sandy leaves the adult world of responsibility behind and goes off on a cross-country road trip to track down the surviving members of the Nazgûl. Along the way, he visits several friends with whom he has lost touch—members of the revolutionary circles in which he moved when he was younger. The trappings of Sandy’s present fall by the wayside in favour of continuing to recapture his present. As he continues to investigate the killing of Jamie Lynch, Sandy discovers that there is a supernatural element to his news story. And it might just eat his soul.
The Armageddon Rag is a very different beast from A Song of Ice and Fire, but they do share one thing: both are ambivalently supernatural at first. It’s not clear, at the beginning of this book, whether there is a supernatural element to the crime or merely the appearance of one. GRRM teases us, dangling the possibility of magic but never quite confirming it. He fakes us out a few times—the seemingly-impossible re-emergence of Patrick Hobson is one example. It’s not until the second half of the book, as Sandy’s sanity, steeped in the atmosphere of the renewed Nazgûl, begins to unravel.
So for the majority of the book, this is a music murder mystery. Sandy is an unlikely detective (GRRM hangs a lampshade on this through Sandy’s own reflections). However, it’s fair to say that the story isn’t about the mystery as much as it is about the music, and the relationship between music, culture, and the revolution that Sandy held so dear in his younger days. To this end, Sandy’s various reunions with his old pals provide great insight into how he has changed in response to the decline of that revolutionary attitude. Each of his friends has reacted to that decline in different ways. Maggie has clung to her old lifestyle, attempting to remain carefree. Lark—restyled as L. Steven Elleyn—has embraced the suit-and-tie atmosphere of middle management. Bambi has stuck her head in the sand and joined a commune. And Sandy, of course, quickly discovers that he isn’t quite so adult and settled as his life as a writer and boyfriend might make him appear.
I’m actually rather surprised by how much I enjoyed The Armageddon Rag. So much of it takes place—or is influenced by the atmosphere of—those “lost decades” of history for me, the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Too recent to have received much coverage in history classes; too distant to have the same connection to me as the 1990s and 2000s, those decades seem forever just out of reach. I can’t identify with Sandy the way an older reader might. So it’s a testament to GRRM’s skill that I still understood and sympathized with this journey of rediscovery, which ultimately culminates in Sandy abandoning his journalistic endeavour to do public relations for the Nazgûl.
The tone of the book begins to shift, with supernatural elements coming to the fore. Sandy begins to realize that the reunion of the Nazgûl, the “resurrection” of Patrick Hobson, their new concert at West Mesa, are all part of a larger plan. Trust someone like GRRM to come up with the idea that Judgement Day will take the form of a concert! Despite the apocalyptic angle, however, the climax of the book isn’t so much about the battle between good and evil as the battle between Sandy’s sense of self-determination and his commitment to the “cause”. His entire journey is an examination of whether he abandoned the “revolution” because he wasn’t committed enough. His crucial decision at the climax of the concert is the last word.
The Armageddon Rag has moments of brilliance. Its supernatural elements aren’t quite married with my own tastes in this genre, and for that reason I can’t give it five stars. But the mystery, story, and especially the characterization are all what one would expect from GRRM. It’s not enough to tide me over until the next Song of Ice and Fire book … but it helps.
beautyisterror's review
3.0
Boh.
Non so che dire, sinceramente. Non é assolutamente quel che mi aspettavo.
Credevo fosse un thriller e ci son rimasta male, ecco.
Quindi tre stelle perché le mezze misure son ció di cui mi nutro.
... Yo?
Non so che dire, sinceramente. Non é assolutamente quel che mi aspettavo.
Credevo fosse un thriller e ci son rimasta male, ecco.
Quindi tre stelle perché le mezze misure son ció di cui mi nutro.
... Yo?
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