A Nomad of the Time Streams

Infobox Book |
name = A Nomad of the Time Streams
title_orig = The Nomad of Time
translator =


image_caption = dust-jacket from the first edition
author = Michael Moorcock
illustrator =
cover_artist = Fred Labitzke
country = United States
language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Science Fiction Book Club
release_date = 1982
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 442 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"A Nomad of the Time Streams" [http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=723] is a compilation volume of Michael Moorcock's influential early steampunk trilogy which Moorcock began in 1971 with "The Warlord of the Air" and was continued by its 1974 and 1981 sequels, "The Land Leviathan" and "The Steel Tsar". [http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/moorcock/nomad.htm] The trilogy follows the adventures of Edwardian-era British Army Cpt. Oswald Bastable in alternate versions of the 20th century.

Plot

"Warlord of the Air"

In the first book, "Warlord of the Air", Bastable finds himself transported to an alternate late-20th century Earth where the European powers did not stir each other into a World War and in which the mighty airships of a British Empire on which the sun never set are threatened by the rise of new and terrible enemies. These enemies turn out to be the colonized peoples trying to break free, supported by anarchist and socialist Western saboteurs opposing their own imperialist societies, and led by a Chinese general whose country is still nominally under Western control and ravaged by civil war.

"The Land Leviathan"

In "The Land Leviathan", Bastable visits an alternate 1904 in which most of the Western world has been devastated around the turn of the century by a short, yet terrible war fought with futuristic devices and in which also biological weapons were used. In this alternate world, an Afro-American "Black Atilla" is conquering the remains of the West, while the only remaining civilized areas on the planet beside this African-based "Ashanti Empire" are its enemy, an isolationist "Australian-Japanese Federation", and the wealthy, Marxist Republic of "Bantustan" (which is our world's South Africa), led by its Indian-born president Mahatma Gandhi. "Bantustan" practices a policy of neutrality, striving for a pacifist, peace-loving, and free-spirited example to the world, never having known apartheid or hostilities between the English and the Boers.

"The Steel Tsar"

In the final book, "The Steel Tsar", Bastable witnesses an alternate 1941 where Great Britain and Germany became allies around the turn of the century and thus neither a World War nor the October Revolution took place. In this world's Russian Empire, Bastable encounters the rebel Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili.

Style and themes

In an ironic to postmodernist framework yet strictly writing in the language of a 19th century adventure romance, Moorcock explores themes of racism, imperialism, socialist and anarchist politics, and the impact of technology in the nascent steampunk genre which this trilogy helped much to develop. [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]

Contents

* "The Warlord of the Air"
* "The Land Leviathan"
* "The Steel Tsar"

Publication history

The omnibus edition was first published in 1982 by the Science Fiction Book Club as "The Nomad of Time". It has appeared since under the title "A Nomad of the Time Streams" in editions by Millennium in 1992 and by White Wolf, Inc. in 1995.

Further reading

*cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Internet Speculative Fiction Database
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?TNMDFTM1982
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-12-13
*cite web
last = Brown
first = Charles N.
authorlink = Charles N. Brown
coauthors = William G. Contento
title = The Locus Index to Science Fiction (2003)
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.locusmag.com/index/b343.htm
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-12-13
*cite web
last = Contento
first = William G.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections, Combined Edition
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://contento.best.vwh.net/t140.htm#A2959
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-12-13

References