A Review: The Nomad of Time – Michael Moorcock

Since I feel compelled to write them, I am going to start posting my (usually short) book reviews here. Everything I read, I review. And you’ll hear about it all here. Enjoy!

3 / 5 Stars
A one-two punch of steampunk and pastiche. Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that because this is a foundational work in those genres. Perhaps it's better to call it retro-pulp adventure. In addition to the airship battles and the polemics from various warlords, much of the subject matter deals with different perspectives on colonialism and war. The stories’ strongest points always come from the way that the Twentieth Century as we know it is juxtaposed to the alternate worlds Bastable visits. The 1960s and 1970s is when Britons first came to grips with the reality that their Empire was over and I think these books grow out of that to some extent. The main character is from Edwardian England (as in “the sun never set on”) and comes with all the turn-of-the-century conventions of that time. However, the author is writing in post-WWII England and cannot help but include references to the war, imperialism, racism and decolonization. Throughout the series there is a resonance (almost, but not quite, a dialogue) between these two perspectives. It’s Gilded Age optimism versus Post-Modern pessimism. As Captain Bastable says, "...perhaps I had been selected by providence to be involved in a countless series of what might be called alternate versions of the Apocalypse - that I was doomed to witness the end of the world over and over again and doomed, too, to search for a world where man had learned to control the impulses which led to such suicidal conflicts, perhaps never to find it.” Enjoyable as a genre romp with a few hints of deeper things. This omnibus edition collects:
The Warlord of the Air
Captain Bastable, soldier of the British Raj in 1902, finds himself in a 1973 where the Great Powers are all about to go to war over China. Yet a capable Chinese nationalist has other plans for his country.
The Land Leviathan
A singular genius creates the technology to achieve a world utopia at the start of the Twentieth Century. Instead, the world ends up plague-ravaged and destitute. Then “The Black Attila” begins empire-building in Africa with the last of the fighting machines.
The Steel Tsar
In 1941 Japan bombs Singapore sparking a war with Russia. On a remote island Bastable makes the acquaintance of a mysterious airship captain. This captain is somehow connected to the war and to a revolution raging on the Russia steppes.