The Armageddon Rag: A Novel

by George R.R. Martin

381 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 30, 2007

About the author

George Raymond Richard "R.R." Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.

In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.

As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.

In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.

Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.

Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...

Reviews

[Vickie Woodard]

WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO RAISE THE DEAD?

Imagine your favorite band lost a member to murder. Band mates and close friends are never the same.
Then along comes someone who can't accept it, who will do anything to change the past.
This book keeps you guessing. Who's behind it all? Why the murders?
And why do the murders parallel one of the hits?
And yes, I caught every musical reference, even the ones that were buried. Like the meme says, "I may be old, but I got to see all the great bands"

[Jerrel H. Sorensen]

The nostalgia was entertaining. The dream sequences less so.

I wanted real bad to love this book it didn’t quite transport me like a clever critique of the late 60s and early 70s should. This novel started great with our frustrated and bored hero getting involved with a gruesome murder to someone in his past. He happily drops all of his responsibilities and charges off on a rejuvenating quest. I liked the Travis McGeesque traveling investigation. However, the characters from his past, meant to represent archetypes of aging hippies, did not ring true to me.
The second half of the novel was less successful. The attempt at (black) magical realism was neither magical nor real enough. The trajectory of the rest of the book was fairly straightforward.
While Mr. Martin seems to have put a lot of his own experiences into this novel he was not able to move the plot along evenly. And finally the characters were unconvincing. I am pleased that Mr. Martin found his voice, and great success, in the high fantasy genre.

[Heather]

So weird and random that an author like GRRM can have so few reviews on one of his earlier works. .. so here is another.

Backstory, because I can.

I read this ages and ages ago when I was in college, and was amused by its depiction of my dad's generation waxing nostalgic, and loved the geeky tolkien references. I still do. This is very much "The Big Chill" of a rock and roll book, with a fantasy/supernatural element on the fringes. I think Martin does magic best when he leaves it half realized and on the fringes.

This book comes across as dated as hell, but for me, that's part of the enjoyment. A failing novelist takes a job to follow a rock band for their reunion tour and discovers they're being controlled by... Well, no spoilers but it has both a silly and satisfying conclusion. It's also a great portrait from the eighties perspective of what happened to all the flower children after. One generation growing up. When I read it as a kid in the eighties, they seemed impossibly old and uncool and that was part of the charm for me. Reading it now, they seem impossibly young and that too is charming.

Years later, in the late nineties I randomly found AGOT and ACOK in a Barnes and Noble. I didn't even realize they were by the same author they are so different.

[elsalmon L]

Radical 1960's activist turned novelist investigates the dark side of a rock 'n roll promoter's death.