The Steel Tsar

Infobox Book |
name = The Steel Tsar
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of the first edition
author = Michael Moorcock
illustrator =
cover_artist = Melvyn
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = Oswald Bastable
subject =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Granada
release_date = 1977
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 155 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-583-13432-7
preceded_by = The Land Leviathan
followed_by =

"The Steel Tsar" is a sci-fi/alternate history novel by Michael Moorcock, first published in 1981 by Granada. [http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/moorcock/nomad3.htm] Being a sequel to "Warlord of the Air" (1971) and "The Land Leviathan" (1974), it is the final part of Moorlock's "A Nomad of the Time Streams" trilogy regarding the adventures of Cpt. Oswald Bastable and which has been seen as an early example of steampunk fiction. [cite web|author = Bebergal, Peter|publisher = "The Boston Globe"|title = The age of steampunk|date = 2007-08-26|url = http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/26/the_age_of_steampunk/|accessdate=2008-05-10]

Plot summary

In a story introduced by the ubiquitous Una Persson (who is also found in other works by Moorcock), the trilogy's hero, Cpt. Oswald Bastable, finds himself in an alternative twentieth century in which the Great War never happened. Britain and Germany became allies instead, as France declined, in a world menaced by Japanese Imperialism. Oswald joins the Russian Imperial Airship Navy and is imprisoned by the rebel Dugashvili, the 'Steel Tsar' of the title who is known to the real world, of course, as Joseph Stalin.

Themes

While imperialism and racism in nineteenth century "heroic" fiction were deconstructed in its predecessors, the final book of the trilogy deals with the benefits of socialism and anarchism in a third alternate twentieth century where there were no effective social democratic parties in Western Europe and Australasia, as in our world.

References

External links

*cite web
last =
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title = Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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date =
url = http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?STLTSAR1981
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accessdate = 2007-12-18
*cite web
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title = Moorcock's Miscellany
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url = http://www.multiverse.org/imagehive/v/bookcovers/books/mikebooks/tstsar/
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accessdate = 2007-12-18
*cite web
last = Brown
first = Charles N.
authorlink = Charles N. Brown
coauthors = William G. Contento
title = The Locus Index to Science Fiction (1984–1998)
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date =
url = http://www.locusmag.com/index/t259.htm#A27542
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accessdate = 2007-12-18
*