Customer Reviews

The Armageddon Blues (Limited Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Moran became a cult writer with the publication of his first book, the Armageddon Blues. Let me give you some idea of what this book is like. Good? Well, I think that some readers will find enjoyment in reading it. But Moran doesn't seek the middle ground with his readers. I found it disjointed and hard to read as a continuous narrative, with some clever ideas. Unusual features of the Armageddon Blues include: (A)its presentation, in short, punchy vignettes that feel like single scenes rather than full blown chapters. Chapters?! (B) A sense of some grand, plotted machinery occurring someplace offstage in the universe, with aliens and stuff. Drama?! Only the personal stuff, about Jalian D'Arsenette y ken Selvren, his female lead, and a couple of others, guys. She doesn't like them. (C) Time travel into the past through a negative entropy universe-- where time flows backwards, basically. The best thing about this book is the tightly focused scenes, some being pretty exciting. At times I found myself laughing and saying WHAT IS HIS PLAN HERE? The book gives you just a hint of what he has planned for later books in this timeline, which he calls the Great Wheel of Existence. This book is not a part of his Continuing Time series. The Continuing Time is set on the Great Wheel, but it gets better kudos than the Armageddon Blues.

Of the books by Daniel Keys Moran that I've read, this is easily my favorite. He builds a complex world, and at times, the way the story is going isn't clear, but I think it's worth the effort. This was, at the time it was published, a critically hailed book by some - I remember reading a review of it in one of the free newsletters offered at Waldenbooks - and I read it as a teenager during the height of the Cold War, so the future it predicted seemed all too easily imagined. It still is a good book, unusual in its premise, and, as I've rarely seen it in a used book store, worth finding and keeping.

The first book I ever read over and over again... wasn't Daniel Keys Moran. However, the first Sci-Fi book I read over and over again was a Moran book. Not Armegedon Blues... Emerald Eyes. All of which was years ago. Recently I decided to re-read the old favorites, and hit this one along the way since I'd never been able to find it before. So I got it, and read it, and really, really enjoyed it. It's sort of a kind of prequel to Emerald Eyes, but not really. It might be sort of in the same universe, or not. Anyways, it's very good. I liked the three computers, a lot.

Plot.... well, that's complicated. See, the world ended. And then some aliens stopped by because their spaceship broke down. And then the girl ran away to the past, and the luckiest man alive met her... no, really, it all makes sense when you read it.

The Armageddon Blues, I found was incomparable to nearly any other sci-fi title I have ever read. It is replete with concepts and implications of science and reality that astound the imagination and occasionally are quite hilarious. Though the actual form of the book can be a bit rough and difficult to read at times, the content more then makes up for this. The "enemy of entropy" Georges Vezina driving on the road, with the stereo, heater, and air conditioner all simultaneously operating, left me laughing for minutes. An excellent book, by an excellent imaginative mind.

Armageddon Blues (AB) is one of my favorites, but it does start off oddly.

Any reader is of course familiar with flashbacks as a literary device. When a character is on plotline A and then remembers something that happened on plotline B. AB starts off flashing along so many timelines it's hard to know which one should be considered the true one. I haven't ever counted all the various threads but writing this review I can remember at least 5 distinctly different plots all occurring on different timelines.

This may sound wildly confusing, but it isn't and I don't want it to daunt you. I just wanted to properly warn you so that you could enjoy this book for the gem that it is. The book opens vacillating between these various plots as the author introduces you to the story and the characters. Don't worry about understanding it. Just relax and read. Suddenly everything will begin to click and the story takes off - taking you along with it.

Everyone I know who has read this book has enjoyed it. For some it was "neat" for others it was a new favorite, but all were favorable. So I think you will enjoy it too, just don't let the beginning turn you away.

Armageddon Blues is DKM's first novel, and although rough in a few spots, is very polished and enjoyable. Mr. Moran mixes aliens, telepathy, anti-entropy, time travel, alternate timelines, and Artificial Intelligences into a busy but always intriguing yarn. Daniel Moran's work has been described most succinctly as Cool (with a capital C)