Disclaimer: this review is based on an advanced reading copy of the book, courtesy of ECW Press.

This is the final entry in Martin Popoff's trilogy of Rush books, following "Anthem: Rush in the 70s" and "Limelight: Rush in the 80s". It covers a lot more ground, chronologically, than both of those books combined, as it takes us from the release of "Roll the Bones" in 1991 all the way to Neil Peart's tragic death in January 2020. In between, we are treated to some wonderfully in-depth discussions of each of the albums Rush released over their final three decades, told from the points of view of the band themselves, producers, engineers, and other people who worked on their albums, and bands that toured with them. I particularly enjoyed a passage at the end of the first chapter where Primus's Les Claypool talks about what it means to be cool - a theme that comes up again later in the book as Rush started to become more and more a part of popular culture, eventually earning accolades such as their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I actually started listening to Rush in the mid-90s, and even though I've followed the band quite closely since that time, I still ended up learning a lot of things I never knew about from this book - I especially enjoyed the detailed discussions about how some of the songs were constructed, and I've made notes about some of the more esoteric things so that I can try to spot them myself the next time I listen to these albums. Overall, I would recommend this book very highly for Rush fans.

(edited on 2020-01-20 to add disclaimer at the top) ( )