 |
White Wolf 1995, Chris Moeller
|
A Man of Many Worlds
Although Captain Oswald Bastable only has three books in his story sequence, in some sense he's as important to the Michael Moorcock Multiverse as
Elric and Jerry Cornelius. Borrowing the name from one of Edith Nesbit's juvenile characters (The Story of the Treasure Seekers, 1899), Bastable in
the "Nomad of Time" trilogy could be imagined as a grown-up version of
Nesbit's precocious "unreliable narrator" (although Moorcock does not specifically intend for him to be
the actual Nesbit character). Mostly delivered as a first-person memoir,
this saga introduces Bastable initially as a dedicated member of the British Empire's
turn-of-the-century colonial forces, assigned to conduct a "disciplinary" action on heathen savages in the
Himalayas. During the course of the three books (written over a span of 10
years and not originally intended to be a set trilogy), Bastable is
thrown into three different alternate timelines based on 20th century Earth history. In each of these parallel-world historical settings he battles for and against various warlords over four
continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America), during which time his moral (political) stance becomes more generous towards the entire world,
rather than to just a single nation or hegemony. The third book (The Steel Tsar) is also notable for
introducing Bastable (and the broader Moorcock fan) to the League of Temporal Adventurers (sometimes "Guild"),
whose space-time-traveling denizens include such enlightened characters as
Una Persson, Count Max von Bek, and Jerry Cornelius. The revised omnibus editions of the 1990s (Orion/White Wolf, above) firmly link the Von Bek, Second Ether and Moonbeam Roads sequences to the 1970s Bastable/Cornelius multiverse.
 |
DAW 1970s, Gino D’Achille, Michael Whelan, Walter Velez
|
The Bastable books were originally written during one of Moorcock's richest decades, during
which time other important books such as the
Dancers at the End of Time sequence,
the
Cornelius Quartet, and
Gloriana also began appearing. Aside from the new sequences,
almost half of all of the Eternal Champion heroic fantasy books (including the
latter-day tales of Hawkmoon, Corum, Erekosë and Elric) were written. It's
hard to imagine such an incredible amount of conceptual material coming out of
one man's typewriter in such a short amount of time. Although perhaps verging on hyperbole, in my opinion this period compares to the early years of H.G. Wells' career, or
perhaps Edgar Allan Poe's final decade. In fact, during the 1970s Moorcock essentially developed
two multiverses: one based around the Eternal Champion and
one based on the League's exploits throughout the "megaflow". Additionally, by 1985
the mythopoeic saga of the Eternal Champion would directly intersect with the more
literary Temporal Adventures in "Elric At the
End of Time".
 |
Mayflower 1981, Melvyn Grant
|
The Bastable books originally appeared as individual novels The Warlord of the Air (1971), The Land Leviathan (1974) and The Steel Tsar (1981). They soon appeared in collected omnibus editions under the names The Nomad of Time (1982, 2014) and A Nomad of the Time Streams (1993, 1997). The text of The Steel Tsar in particular has been re-edited and restored over several editions, of which the 2014 Gollancz edition is probably the best version currently available.
A Bulge in the Megaflow
 |
Nelson/Doubleday 1982,
Fred Labitzke
|
Moorcock has stated that each of the three "Nomad of Time" volumes focuses on a different theme.
The Warlord of the Air clearly examines the pros and cons of imperialism (particularly the British kind).
The Land Leviathan postulates that even "civilized" nations are only one apocalypse away from reverting to rampant racism (and American-style slavery).
The Steel Tsar muses upon the inevitable futility of war (due to people like a certain Russian/Georgian despot), and examines some of the differences between various kinds of socialism. However, despite a bit of "speechifying" present in each of the Bastable books, they still work simply as "cracking good yarns" - the second and third novels in particular have some truly exciting "steam punk" warfare sequences. It's worth mentioning that Moorcock has cited the
fiction of late-Victorian and Edwardian writers H.G. Wells, George
Bernard Shaw, Arthur Morrison, W. Pett Ridge, Rudyard Kipling and Israel
Zangwill as being a source of admiration and inspiration.
These three books also have a tongue-in-cheek "fourth wall" element, as Moorcock's introductions (and "Editor's Notes") posit Bastable's reports as "rediscoveries" found amongst his grandfather's discarded papers. Moorcock grew up on Edgar Rice Burroughs so it's possible that some of these "second-hand" narrative structures are an homage to similar conceits employed in the Burroughs "Barsoom" books. In the third volume Moorcock also becomes a confidante of Mrs. Una Persson, the famed Temporal Adventuress herself. Although this is a very early (perhaps the first) instance of Moorcock specifically identifying himself as a "character" in one of his books, "Michael Moorcock" would eventually become a "Player" in the Second Ether saga of the 1990s (portrayed in illustrated form in the comic Michael Moorcock's Multiverse).
The Warlord of the Air
 |
Heyne 1980s, Patrick Woodroffe, Paul Lehr, Karel Thole
|
Authors sometimes
use a "long sleep" (prompted by hypnosis, or even mischievous Dutch winos) in order to have their protagonist travel into the future, usually to
comment on a contemporary social issue. Some writers also bring men from the
past forward to the present day in order to satirize modern day peculiarities. However, Captain Bastable travels from 1902 to an
alternate history version of 1973 (essentially "modern day" at the time of the book's publication). In 1990, Moorcock explained to Colin Greenland (
Death Is No Obstacle, 1992) that "it just comes out of reading H. G. Wells. All you do is go back, think yourself back to that period of time, then write what you see if you project forward from there." (in a
2008 Tripwire interview Moorcock also characterizes the Bastable books as "interventions into Edwardian fiction — specifically
Fabian fiction").
In any case, the premise of this first adventure is that in this alternate version 1973 Great Britain dominates the globe and its liberal imperialist policies have produced a hundred years of world peace (no World Wars have occurred). At the
same time, the English are wary of the rise of “Socialism” around the world. While the Empire controls several colonies around the globe, China exists in a state of unrest, ruled
by competing warlords.
 |
A Nomad of the Time Streams, White Wolf 1995, Chris Moeller
|
Once Bastable arrives in this future-parallel version of our present, he quickly adapts and joins Britain's aerial fleet which, in this world, is dominated by high-speed helium zeppelins rather than winged propeller planes and jets. During the course of the story, Bastable comes face to face with a variety of Socialist "anarchists" as well as an arrogant American scout leader named "Ronnie Reagan". Ultimately he becomes caught in a struggle between the Great Powers and a Chinese warlord named O.T. Shaw who has created a "Shangri-La"-like utopia, but also holds the key to a "doomsday weapon". Along the way Bastable meets Mrs. Una Persson (from the Cornelius books), Count Rudolph von Bek (
The War Hound and the World's Pain), and Cornelius Dempsey (an incarnation of either the Eternal Champion or Jerry Cornelius - or both), all of whom will have much more developed roles in the ensuing novels.
Bastable has a fascinating character arc in this first volume. In the beginning, he is
a dyed-in-the-wool imperialist with a conservative viewpoint.
In his mind the ideas promulgated by the Socialists (such as Von Bek) clash with Britain's moral right to rule over its colonies. The Socialists characterize Britain’s
imperialism as a bane upon its “beneficiaries”, forcing them to agree to unfair trade
agreements which end up placing them into a form of contractual slavery. Von
Bek describes England as the "last gasp of Europe", while the colonies represent
potential for a new beginning (interestingly, this contrast echoes the relationship between
Melniboné and the "Young Kingdoms" of Elric’s world). As a soldier of England, Bastable can only see the
advantages (such as
technology and social services like welfare programs) that imperial rule has brought to these “savages”. However, Bastable is
eventually forced to question his loyalties when he is confronted with films of
imperial atrocities committed on the indigenous peoples of these colonies. Although this book and its sequels work as "scientific romances", they clearly wear their political hearts on their sleeves (just as H.G. Wells' fantasies did in the first half of the 20th century).
The
Wikiverse entry provides a good analysis of
The Warlord of the Air and also details the name changes employed for several characters across multiple editions of the Bastable trilogy.
The Land Leviathan |
Doubleday 1974, Quay Brothers
|
In this novel, Bastable is thrust into another alternate world, this time concurrent with Bastable's natural time period (1904), but a parallel reality in which the world has been laid waste by an apocalyptic, bacteriological war, and most of civilization has been reduced to either a state of tribal savagery or has reinstated the indentured slavery of non-whites. Amidst this wrecked world, Bastable finds a measure of peace in President Gandhi's multi-cultural South Africa. However, he is soon forced to face "the Black Attila", a black man from Arkansas who has amassed a massive African-European coalition of armed forces in order to punish America for its crimes against "his people".
 |
| A Nomad of the Time Streams, White Wolf 1995, Chris Moeller |
From an adventure standpoint, the latter half of the book contains some of the best naval and air battles in
Moorcock’s 1970s bibliography (although
The Steel Tsar has some great air battles as well). Although large military campaigns have been described in some of the Eternal Champion books (in particular those of Erekosë and Elric), the conflicts in these volumes are different in that they are modernized, as opposed to the medieval maneuvers generally portrayed in the heroic fantasy books. Also, although in recent decades the subgenre of "steam punk" has become popular, the Bastable books contained steam punk elements even back in the 1970s (and one could say the roots of steam punk can be detected in Rudyard Kipling's 1905 tale "With the Night Mail" or H.G. Wells'
The War In the Air). Finally, another homage to Moorcock's early model Edgar Rice Burroughs (
At The Earth's Core, 1913) appears here in the form of drilling vehicles which can travel underground by tunneling.
 |
| A Nomad of the Time Streams, White Wolf 1995, Chris Moeller |
Unique here amongst the three Bastable novels is a lengthy "Prologue" (taking up more than a quarter of the
whole book) which describes a journey undertaken by the Moorcock's grandfather (also named Michael Moorcock) deep
into Pre-revolutionary China. Because it takes place in the early years of the 20th century, the account almost has an air of “lost world” literature. It
also has some elements which bring to mind Joseph Conrad’s African odyssey
Heart of
Darkness, as the senior Moorcock describes a fascinating (and dangerous) journey into
war-torn territory, seeking the semi-mythical time-traveler Oswald Bastable (it may be no coincidence that a version of Conrad appears in the narrative as "Captain Korzeniowski").
As in The
Warlord of the Air, Bastable’s conception of civilization is again upturned and he
eventually becomes sympathetic to the concerns of the “terror” forces spoken of in fear during the first
half of the book (especially by Caucasians). A reminder of Bastable's "old school" background surfaces when he states that stories of the Ku Klux Klan had “thrilled him as a boy”. Where The Warlord of the Air took aim at imperialism, The Land Leviathan posits that mankind will never be entirely rid of racism.
The Wikiverse entry provides some more background info, especially regarding some of the historical figures who appear in the book (Herbert Hoover, Joe Kennedy, the KKK).
The Steel Tsar
 |
Grafton 1989, Paul Damon
|
In this third alternate world (taking lace in 1941), Japan is at war with the
British Empire. This conflict had been prompted by an unprovoked British attack on Hiroshima. Additionaly, Japan vies with Russia over the
remains of China. Having gone through a socialist revolution (aided by the
rural Cossacks), Russia is ruled by the historical Alexander Kerensky, although unmet expectations and
the conflict with Japan have caused an internal revolution to rise, led by a messianic despot calling himself "the Steel Tsar” and his Free Cossacks.
Most of the first half of the book takes place on Rowe
Island in the Indian Sea, which in some sense functions as a South Asian “Casablanca” - a neutral zone caught between the
warring powers. Bastable is eventually forced back into air service and finds himself inevitably piloting for the "Steel Tsar" (an analogue for Josef Stalin), who seems to be following in the doomsday footsteps of the Chinese warlord O.T. Shaw from The Warlord of the Air. The main difference from the earlier book however, is that this time Max von Bek, Una Persson and the League of Temporal Adventurers take a direct hand in things, which re-frames the drama in larger, "multiversal" terms.
 |
A Nomad of the Time Streams, White Wolf 1995, Chris Moeller
|
From Moorcock's personal stance, this book was written during a period of domestic upheaval (see the
Wikiverse entry), and its initial publication was marred by a misunderstanding with the publisher. About 20,000 words are sourced from "lost" pages originally intended for
The Warlord of the Air. As mentioned elsewhere,
The Steel Tsar was also heavily revised for
A Nomad of the Time Streams in the 1990s (although even that version is missing 7 pages, later restored in the 2014 Gollancz edition
The Nomad of Time).
In any case, this third volume seems to focus more directly on an “anti-war” theme than the other books (or at least an anti-"Georgian despot" one). Another moral struggle is described in the final conflict between
Cornelius Dempsey’s desire for self-redemption through personal sacrifice and the Temporal Adventurers’
broader goal of breaking a cycle of violence throughout the multiverse.
 |
OPTA 1980s, J.-P. Dufour
|
In the introduction to the 1990s Orion/White Wolf omnibus editions,
Moorcock describes these books as a warning against "paternalism and
centralism". The Google/Oxford online dictionary defines paternalism as
"the policy or practice on the part of people in positions of authority
of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to
them in the subordinates' supposed best interest.". Centralism is
defined as "the control of different activities and organizations under a
single authority". Although a surface reading of these books may
initially seem to recommend Socialism (at least as described and
practiced by President Gandhi, Count Von Bek, and Nestor Makhno),
Moorcock's position is actually that both capitalism and socialism are in potential danger of corruption from these tendencies (paternalism and centralism).
Anyways, these books include awesome zeppelin and battleship battle scenes as well as a giant seven-story battletank and one crazed sword-wielding robot.
Next Chapter: The Dancers At the End of Time
Previous Chapter: The English Assassin
 |
Orion/Millennium 1993, Mark Reeve
|
Detailed Synopses (full spoilers)
