Rollicking, ripping action packed adventure yarn.
The Warlord of the Air
- in the spirit of Balzac and Maupassant, a good old-fashioned frame
tale. Actually, our British author goes one better, giving us a frame
tale within a frame tale. And this novel is the first of three in his
classic steampunk trilogy Nomad of the Time Streams.
Here's
the setup: Michael Moorcock comes into possession of a manuscript typed
out by his Grandfather, a gent also by the name of Michael Moorcock.
Turns out, back in 1903 Grandpa served as scribe for one Oswald
Bastable, a man who over the course of several days and nights related
his fantastic, outrageous adventures - both in 1902 and 1973!
I'll
leave the hows and wheres for each reader and make an immediate shift
to the bulk of the novel: Bastable's bold, astonishing tale, presented
here as a highlight reel:
KINGDOM CLAIMING TO BE OLDER THAN TIME
Bastable,
a handsome chap in his late twenties, begins as the beginning: despite
his young age, back in 1902 he was Captain Bastable who lead a small
army into the upstart Himalayan land of Kumbalari (they dared kill a few
British officials manning a frontier station within their borders) to
make sure this race of cruel, ignorant, dirty but proud people
recognized the supreme, rightful authority of the British Empire.
Events
move apace until their leader, Sharan Kang, invites the good Captain
and a handful of his men to his palace in Teku Benga. Upon entering this
walled mountain city, Bastable can't imagine how such a city was built
out of the crags of the Himalayas as many of the buildings “looked as if
they had been plucked up and perched delicately on slivers of rock
which could scarcely support the weight of a man.”
The more we
listen to Bastable's descriptions of the city's barnyard stench and the
sickening mixture of architectural styles with sculptures formed into
“serpent finials, fabulous monsters grinning or growling from every
corner, tigers and elephants standing guard at every doorway,” the more
Teku Benga appears to be not only the stuff of fabled Oriental exotica
but a maddening, diabolical cross between the mythic city of Shambala
and Kurtz's Heart of Darkness Inner Station. Any bets on an unexpected
spiraling down for Captain Bastable and his band of not so merry men?
ACTION AND MORE ACTION
Many
reviewers give away far too much. A reader deserves to follow
Bastable's adventures and misadventures with fresh eyes. But I will say
Captain B faces the challenge of being drugged and then waking up in the
aftermath of an earthquake only to face a mind-bending (understatement)
time shift.
POLITICS AND SOCIETY
A pair of Bastable
reflections: One: “All over the world the British were settling and
administering – and so civilizing – even the most inaccessible areas,
thanks to the invention of the airship.” Two: “And as for the seamier
side of life, well, there was hardly any at all, for the social and
moral evils which had created them had been abolished. The Suffragettes
of my own day would have been happy to hear that women over thirty now
had the vote and there was talk of extending the franchise to women of
twenty-one.”
One of the more charming features of the tale: a man from the world of 1902 observing the tale's world of 1973.
SUPERSIZED STEAMPUNK
“For
the entertainment of the passengers there were kinemas, ballrooms,
phonographs, deck sports and party games, restaurants – all anyone might
desire concentrated in a space of a quarter of a mile floating two or
three thousand feet above the surface of the earth.” Hmmm. I wonder if
those kinemas are something like the “feelies” from Brave New World?
A
key invention of retrofuturistic technology: the airship. Michael
Moorcock, prime precursor of what has come to be known as Steampunk,
lets it fly – his airships here can be ten times as large as the largest
ocean liners. The QE2 x 10. Now that's colossal! Are there any doubts
we're talking alternate 1973 history?
Fans of steampunk will especially take to The Warlord of the Air since a good chunk of the novel's drama transpires up in the clouds.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Michael
Moorcock, prolific real life author, always leaves enough room for a
reader's imagination. Case in point, as part of the fun we can make our
own connections revolving around characters. For example: there's a
Captain Joseph Korzeniowski (Joseph Conrad's Polish name), ah, another
JC eternal hero, and the captain had a fine former second officer named
Marlowe (perhaps a conflation of Christopher Marlowe with Marlow the
sailor/meditating Buddha of Heart of Darkness fame). The list
goes – Che Guevara, Lenin, Churchill, Kennedy, Humphrey Bogart, Greta
Garbo, Mick Jagger, even a fashionably dressed young man with long black
hair: Cornelius Dempsey - but we need not be bound by our own twentieth
century cause we're talking alternate history here.
CORNBALL CAPTAIN
Recall
I alluded to Bastable's misadventures. This term surely applies when
our hero must deal with a bloated buffoon who happens to be the leader of
teenage scouts. “His comical appearance was heightened by the look of
stern self-importance on his red, lumpy face.” And the name of this
poopstick? Captain Reagan. Bullseye, Michael Moorcock! So prescient.
Ronald Reagan was only a B actor turned California Governor back when
Sir Michael wrote Warlord.
SHE'S BEAUTIFUL, AND THEREFORE TO BE WOOED
“Behind
him stood a pretty girl dressed in a long, black traveling coat. Her
short, dark hair framed her heart-shaped, serious little face and she
stared at me curiously with steady grey eyes.” What's a tale of
adventure without the presence of a stunning beauty? Also aboard a
colossal airship is none other than luscious lovely Una Persson, one of
the female luminaries from the Jerry Cornelius novels. Hang in there,
Bastable! You might hit a streak of luck, romance-wise.
TRUE WARLORD
Michael
Moorcock lets us know he's always had an enthusiasm for late-Victorian
and Edwardian fiction. Indeed, this novel can be seen as a tribute to
writers like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Grab a copy and read about the
many twists and conundrums Oswald Bastable must face, especially when he
encounters General O.T. Shaw, a man who proves beyond doubt he is the
true Warlord of the Air.
British author Michael Moorcock, born 1939
"Each
ship was a thousand feet long. Each had a hull as strong as steel. Each
bristled with artillery and great grenades which could be dropped upon
their enemies. Each ship moved implacably through the sky, keeping pace
with its mighty fellows." - Michael Moorcock, The Warlord of the Air
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