In 2008, Not As Good As The Book, then the latest album by Progressive Rock band the Tangent, was released. The limited edition of the double CD included a novella written by Andy Tillison, the bands vocalist, keyboard player and main songwriter, and illustrated by French graphic artist Antoine Ettori. It is a comedic science fiction tale in the grand tradition of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy with more than a few nods towards the progressive rock greats from the 1970s. The book has never been available as a stand-alone novel. Until now… Dave Jacob wakes up 88.000 years later than expected and on the wrong planet. Not only that, but he’’s soon to find out that the destruction of Planet Earth is actually his fault. Or at least partially. The other people involved died with the Earth and were collectively known as Yes. Join Dave as the technicians of the future (all descended from Professor Colin Pillinger, mastermind behind the Beagle 2 Mars probe) rebuild his brain using his memories to construct an image of life in the 20th and 21st centuries. Discover why everyone in the future has a cold, how the 1580s composer Frederic Chopin was influenced by Lieutenant Pigeon, how Johanne Sebastian Bach invented the synthesizer, what is really under that pyramid in the Louvre, and how XTC influenced Gentle Giant. The future, it seems, was not as good as the book…
