Book Description
A chilling tale of African drums and human souls from #1 international bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson and legendary Rush lyricist and drummer Neil Peart.
Early in their three decades of correspondence, Neil Peart sent Kevin J. Anderson extensive descriptions and travelogues of his adventures bicycling solo across Africa. Peart painted a vivid and unsettling landscape as memorable as the lyrics to his songs.
Anderson, award-winning and bestselling fantasy and science fiction author, used those descriptions as the backdrop for plotting an intense, atmospheric dark fantasy story that followed Peart’s experiences, though with a much more ominous twist. The two used their respective strengths to weave a memorable tale that will linger long after the last page.
This special illustrated edition includes Anderson’s new introduction, written after Peart’s death on January 7, 2020, as well as the original Afterword Peart wrote for the story.
Contents
Foreword: Mystic Rhythms
Kevin J. Anderson
Drumbeats
Afterword: Stories That Fired My Imagination
About the Authors
About the Artist
If You Liked …
Other WordFire Press Titles by Kevin J. Anderson
Drumbeats: Special Edition
Copyright © 2020 WordFire, Inc. and Pratt Music
First published in Shock Rock II, ed. Jeff Gelb,
Pocket Books, 1994
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except where permitted by law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously.
The ebook edition of this book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. The ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share the ebook edition with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
EBook ISBN: 978-1-68057-127-1
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-68057- 128-8
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-68057- 129-5
Cover design by Janet McDonald
Cover artwork by Steve Otis
Illustrations copyright © 2020 Steve Otis
Kevin J. Anderson, Art Director
Published by
WordFire Press, LLC
PO Box 1840
Monument CO 80132
Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta, Publishers
WordFire Press eBook Edition 2020
WordFire Press Trade Paperback Edition 2020
WordFire Press Hardcover Edition 2020
Printed in the USA
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Foreword: Mystic Rhythms Kevin J. Anderson
The letter came on a bad day.
I was working as a technical writer for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where I produced respirator safety manuals and chemical protective clothing handbooks. I had to deal with DOE regulations, editing the commas in health and safety codes, going to meetings, compiling annual reports, and delivering rush presentations.
I had always dreamed of becoming an author, but this wasn’t what I’d had in mind. At least I spent my evenings and weekends working on my novels.
The real-world tech-editor job offered plenty of challenges, problems, and chances to screw up. On that particular day I had been hit from several sides: An important annual report, produced by me, was released to great fanfare … and somehow the author’s name was misspelled on the title page. Also, I had put together a very important rush presentation on laser technology, while the anxious researcher was waiting to race off to Washington, DC to beg for continued funding; but when the slides came out of the photo lab, somehow the techs had printed all the photos upside down, and there was no time to fix it.
The biggest blow came from another direction. This was the day that one of the largest and most important magazines in my field, Asimov’s Science Fiction, ran a review of my second novel, Gamearth. It was my first major review in a national market, distributed to all my professional peers … and the reviewer tore me to shreds.
So, it was not a good day.
Sullen, I came home to my little townhouse in Livermore, California. I was just a single guy hoping to make a living as a writer someday. I’d published a handful of short stories and two paperback novels for minor advances, but nobody knew my name. Bummed, I got the mail, sorted through the bills, the grocery flyers, the junk mail.
And I found an envelope with a Canadian stamp. The return address said N. Peart.
My heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t possibly …
I opened the letter to find a three-page single-spaced letter from Neil Peart, legendary drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush. A man whose work I had admired since my high school days. He had written to tell me how much he loved my first novel, Resurrection, Inc.
It was no longer a bad day.
Now, this wasn’t entirely a coincidence. My novel, published by Signet Books in 1988, had been greatly inspired by the Rush album Grace Under Pressure [1984].
When I received my first author copies of the garish paperback with a hideous-looking cover (complete with stone skull and rocket ship), I autographed copies to the three members of Rush, acknowledging their influence on the work, and mailed the package off to Mercury Records, where I assumed the envelope just went into a warehouse similar to where the Ark of the Covenant is stored. Since so much time had passed, I’d forgotten about it and no longer expected any response.
In the letter, Neil wrote, “It has taken a year, but at last I can write to you and tell you that your book did indeed make it to me. Yes—I might have written earlier with that information, but now, finally, I can also say that I have read it. Just as you could only hope that your message would make it through all the intermediary barriers to me, so too do I hope that this delinquent response will actually make it to you.”
Well, it did, and it made my day.
“I have finally read it. Just finished it last night.
