THE ARMAGEDDON RAG [Hardcover]

George R.R. MARTIN (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Poseidon Press; First Edition edition (1983)
• ASIN: 0914261002
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,948,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

George R.R. Martin sold his first story in 1971 and has been writing professionally since then. He spent ten years in Hollywood as a writer-producer, working on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and television pilots that were never made. In the mid '90s he returned to prose, his first love, and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever he's allowed to leave, he returns to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with the lovely Parris, and two cats named Augustus and Caligula, who think they run the place.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Classic-Rock / Horror Masterpiece, August 20, 2001

By 

Daniel Dean (Myrtle Beach, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Armageddon Rag (Hardcover)

It seems quite appropriate that praise from Stephen King can be found on the back of this book. Like many of King's better novels, the "Rag", doesn't seem like a horror novel at the start. Instead, we are given an engaging mystery set in a real-life setting. But as you continue to turn the pages, you begin to get the sense that something is definitely not right, and eventually, we encounter the supernatural.

I highly recommend this book, but as I write this review, the question I ask myself is, "Exactly *whom* would I recommend it to?" When I first picked up the Rag, I was dubious. Of course I loved Song of Ice and Fire, and I found myself quite impressed with most of Martin's horror and sci-fi works as well... But I didn't have much confidence in an out-of-print horror book with a hippie/seventies/classic rock setting.

Fortunately, I read it anyway, or I would have missed out on one fabulous book.
But will YOU like it?
-If you occasionally find yourself enjoying episodes of VH1's Behind The Music, or the movie Almost Famous, you will appreciate Martin's meticulous attention to the music industry.
-If you are a fan of Stephen King, The Rag will make you feel right at home.
-And, if you've enjoyed any of Martin's other writings, you're sure to approve of his style here as well.

The bottom-line is, this is one book that truly doesn't deserve to be out-of-print, and thanks to Martin's rocketing popularity- it soon won't be. As soon as you can, give it a try!

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A classic., March 27, 2000

By 

brx "brxx" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Armageddon Rag (Hardcover)

By now, this has to be a classic in the fantasy/horror field. I remember picking it up in as price-reduced overstock, simply for the astonishing artwork (the german edition) and that title. I have to say, that I'm still very thankful for that occasion. Not only has Mr. Martin delivered the best Werewolf-Novellla of all time (Skintrade) but the Song of Fire and Ice Series, that had reignited my interest in Fantasy after 15 years.

Thank you Mr. Martin.

I want a hardcover-reprint of this book. Now.

23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, if dated, tale in a world that really existed., October 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Armageddon Rag (Hardcover)

George R.R. Martin's science fiction novels and short stories strike a resonant chord with compelling, flesh and blood, characters and a real sense of their time... even if that time is thousands of years in the future after a human diaspora into outer space, where many of his tales are set. That sense of time and place is a strength... and weakness, in Armageddon Rag, taking place with a history that really existed and with which the reader is already familiar. This time, we stand at the uncertain, disillusioned dawn of the 1980s, looking back on the chaos of the '60s and '70s, but with the renaissance of the '80s and '90s yet to come. The sad meanderings of the book's former flower children and their yearning for their past delusions are heart wrenching. It's understandable some turn to a bizarre plan to resurrect the Nazgul, a Tolkein tinged, Doors-esque super group whose bloody dissolution years before is part of Armageddon Rag's lush "back story." The sinister truth behind the reunion unravels in a narrative that is both a wistful personal journey and an intriguing mystery. The trouble with the book is that it is so very much a work of its time. In 1980, it would have felt right on. Today, it seems surprisingly dated. Even then, the ex-hippies' lingering desire to destroy the "military-industrial complex," tear America apart, and promote world socialism seemed amusingly anachronistic. Today, after free enterprise's success at bringing prosperity to billions of people, the West's victory in the Cold War and the implosion of the Soviet Union, let alone AIDS, it seems preposterous and makes it hard to muster sympathy for these would-be revolutionaries, including the hero. Even with those shortcomings, Martin's narrative style is mesmerizing and his characters vividly alive, from the conflicted storyteller himself, to the doomed holdouts in the commune... to Froggy the Gremlin. If you can disregard the cobwebs on the protagonist's mindset, Armageddon Rag is a seductive treat.