Armageddon Blues

by Daniel Keys Moran

Book Overview

Jalian, a silver-eyed huntress from 700 years in the future, travels back to the 20th century in an attempt to save her world from the ravages of nuclear destruction. A stunning tour-de-force of love... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553271156
• ISBN13: 9780553271157
• Release Date: March 1988
• Publisher: Spectra Books
• Length: 205 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Good. Complicated. Did I mention good?

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.

One of the most unusual sci-fi books I've ever read

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.

This book confirms Moran as an unusual writer... (!)

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.

the armageddon blues

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.

Great First Novel set in alternate history with aliens etc.

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)