The Nomad of Time: The War Lord of the Air. The Land Leviathan. The Steel Tsar (The Oswald Bastable Series)

This is a book that mixes political commentary with fantastic voyages. Being more of prone to reading sword and sorcery types of novels, I was a bit apprehensive going into this one, but it kept me turning the pages until the end.Our hero is thrust through a series of alternate realities for how our world might have turned out if certain turns of events were different. There isn't really anything magical or fantastic about these alternate realities, which is what makes it exciting. You feel like things could have been that way.It was a thoroughly enjoyable departure from dark sorcery and demons of other Eternal Champion novels - not that I don't love those!

Michael Moorcock's Nomad of the Timestreams is a political statement of deep profundity wrapped in an imperialist candy-coating of red uniforms, zeppelins, and ripping yarns. Moorcock's multiverse is never better here. Oswald Bastable, ripped from his home in the Railway Children Series by E. Nesbitt, is part of the British Empire in 1902. Like a Kipling story, he finds himself doing the dirty work of imperialism unthinkingly. He is punished by being sent into an alternate history seventy-odd years in the future. There he tries to reassemble his life, but finds his sense of social justice is too much, and ends up working for anti-imperialist terrorists. The books are rife with real historical figures turned into their ugliest form, and in each racism is the central conflict, and no matter what he does, or what his good intentions are, Bastable always ends up at the forefront of mass destruction namely twice dropping nuclear weapons. This is a work on the 1970's with its politicals worn bravely on its sleeve, still, Moorcocks vision is soaked with justice and through the adventures in various apocalyptic landscapes, one is as much entertained as educated. Brilliantly written, well-researched, a dazzling performance equaled only by his Dancers at the End of Time series.

I have the Millenium edition of this collection.Moorcock has brought the Eternal Champion into almost every sub-genre of speculative fiction - sword and sorcery, post-apocalyptic, time travel, space opera, and with this one, steampunk. I count the steampunk Eternal Champions as among the more exotic heroes in the genre, and they are all made colorful by Moorcock's fast-paced storytelling and extensive imagination. Oswald Bastable was an ordinary British officer. He just did his job. Then he got knocked out in an Asian temple. When he wakes up and walks out, he finds himself in a new reality: airships rule the skies, land fortresses roll over the plains and airplanes were a revolutionary concept in air combat. A totally new world, and he still must play his role in it as a servant of the balance. Like any Eternal Champion book, this is an essential.

When this first appeared in the early 70s as an Ace Special it must have hit people as a revelation, because nobody had thought of doing this particular kind of alternate history story before -- the future as imagined by the past. Since then there have been many honourable and excellent successors, but if you want to read the grand-daddy of steam-punk, a massive influence on some of the finest modern fantasy and sf writers (not to mention ahem R.Dreyfuss & H.Turtledove), this is still one of the finest. And, like Wells, it has a very specific moral and political examination to make. It doesn't once detract from the typical Moorcock pace. It's hard to think fast and follow the action sometimes but I must say to readers who are familiar with earlier editions, this has a huge amount of rewriting, especially in the final volume, and is a much better series for it. Almost a lament for lost idealism and the end of innocence -- when you slowly realize, you could also be unwittingly on the side of the 'bad guys'. Wonderful recreation of atmosphere and full of ideas which have since influenced the whole the field,not to mention literary fiction, movies, records and comics! Moorcock radically influenced the modern graphic novel (Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman are among many who have both generously acknowledged their huge debt to Moorcock). Yet, given his influence, he and his colleague J.G.Ballard, are hardly acknowledged by the sf field. Happily the mainstream world seems to appreciate them! This is a book much admired by the 'literary world' and cited by black authors as a respectful insight into the nature of racism and imperialism. This is the full-strength original, giving clear signals as to its own homages, and they read it here first!

This book is probably the most science-fictional of the four books in the series I have read thus far, and I'd probably consider it the best. The three tales of Oswald Bastable are rife with ideas and imagination. As usual, here are comments on the individual books: Warlord of the Air: Great introduction to Bastable. I thought Moorcock in the beginning was him, so it was neat to see Bastable actually show up later. The future of 1973 that he goes to is great on the surface, but dark underneath, and the political arguments are anything but one-sided, highlighting both sides. Oh, and Oswald drops a bomb. The Land Leviatian: This one reminded me of Heinlein's novel Farnham's Freehold, for some reason. The premise of blacks taking over the world in response to the crimes against them by whites is an interesting study of our world. Still, Bastable still feels lousy for helping to destroy the obviously unrepentant whites. Go figure. The Steel Tsarr: Longest of the three, and probably the most complex, set in a democratic Russia at war with its Cossacks. Poor Bastable finally gets some peace with the help of Mrs Perrson. And is it me, or is the Steel Tsar a dead ringer for Stalin? I enjoyed reading about Bastable and hopefully Moorcock will include more about him in the later book in the series. In this one, he mentions that Bastable is mentioned in Warriors at the End of Time, so perhaps he's there. I can't wait