The Afterman

The Afterman was originally published as a coffee table book included in select special editions of double-album of the same name. It was written by Claudio Sanchez and included illustrations by Nathan Spoor.

Ascension
In the first half of the book, we are introduced to Sirius Amory, an astronaut and scientist obsessed with learning about the Keywork. His wife, Meri, is not thrilled about his upcoming trip into the beams, but he leaves anyway. Once there, he checks in with his AI assistant, All Mother before entering the Keywork.

Inside, he encounters various Entities who attempt to possess him. After three leave him completely worn out, he is protected by a fourth who is kind until someone can rescue him and get him out of the Keywork. Meanwhile, Meri has mourned him presuming his death, and tried to move on.

Descension
Sirius is finally saved by a fifth entity and after this exchange, he is not only able to leave the Keywork freely, but he also learns that the Keywork has two layers. The surface layer is full of restless entities filled with regret, sorrow, and anger. The layer beneath is full of entities at peace; whatever feelings they may have once held have been resolved, and they live in a sort of utopia.

Sirius also learns on his departure home that over a year and a half has passed since he first entered the Keywork. Back home, he is at a crossroads: does he tell the world about his amazing discovery, or keep it to himself and save people the panic? Another dilemma quickly arises as well: Meri has found new love and though she still cares for Sirius, she's in too deep to just up and leave. They go to an award ceremony where he decides to keep the exact truth to himself. After talking on the way home, the two get into a car accident which results in Meri's death. Sirius, completely blaming himself, decides that he needs to go back to the Keywork to lead her soul to the Utopia part of the afterlife.

Publication History
The material has been produced three times: The "Amory Award" Edition, a limited Deluxe Vinyl release, and finally, in a Live Deluxe edition. The first release was on September 10, 2012, just about one month ahead of the first album's official release. Each "chapter" includes insight into hoe Sanchez came up with each premise for the song the chapters are based on, and beautiful artwork by Spoor sums up the feeling or events taking place.

Creative Team
Heidi Taillefer is an award-winning artist and illustrator. Her work is described as a, "creative fusion of classical figurative painting, surrealism, contemporary realism, and mythology combined with popular figurative traditions ranging from Victorian romanticism to science fiction." Her work was used on the original albums, and the book's Amory Award version which used the album art on the front and back of the actual book.

Nathan Spoor is an artist, writer, and curator. He did the accompanying art for each song that was included in the album interior art, and sketches were even used in the final book.

Album Comparison
"" The albums are very straightforward as the book is written to be track-by-track. The first "chapter" gives a more robust information, especially about Meri as there are really only two songs from her perspective. There is more information about the two layers in the book, and how an entity may move from one to the other. Amory's mentor, Allen Linkev is only mentioned in the book as well.

As for tracks, the albums are already in book order, but there are a few bonus songs... "The Homecoming" is another Meri song that takes place between "The Afterman" and "Goodnight, Fair Lady", but where exactly to put it is a bit difficult to say as "Mothers of Men" is between the two. "Random Reality Shifts" and "Carol Ann" both take place after the car crash in "Gravity's Union", but "Carol Ann" may be better suited to going after "Away We Go" which is meant to represent Meri's passing.

Trivia

 * "The Amory Wars" gets its Amory from Sirius Amory, but Sirius gets it from Sanchez's childhood home's street.