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5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Moorcock's most enjoyable EC volumes., Dec 15 2003
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!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Cautionary Socialist Recasting of History, Mar 27 2002
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.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Cautionary Socialist Recasting of History, Mar 27 2002
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.
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