Originally Posted by: ren... Rush have been given pride of place. Their 20 minute opus '2112' tells the story of a man who discovers a lost guitar in a cave and sets about using it to bring peace to a war torn world.

Thanks for mentioning Rush! Good stuff.

For the record, 2112 was directly influence by and is modelled after Ayn Rand's novella Anthem. The story is not about bringing peace to a war torn world. The story is about individualism versus collectivism:

"Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, first published in 1938. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age as a result of the evils of irrationality and collectivism and the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur at all) and the concept of individuality has been eliminated (for example, the word "I" has disappeared from the language). As is common in her work, Rand draws a clear distinction between the "socialist/communal" values of equality and brotherhood and the "productive/capitalist" values of achievement and individuality."

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_(novella)

It is a beautiful piece of work & fairly short. Also, it is in the public domain in the US and freely available here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1250

And here with Ayn Rand's footnotes & comments:

http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/texts/anthem/complete.html

Recommended for all lovers of liberty & individualism. :)