The Warlord of the Air (1971)

Oswald Bastable is a man with a problem. The problem is that he was stuck in an earthquake in 1902. He woke up, alone, in 1972. And no one believes him.

The 1972 he finds himself in is obviously an alternate timeline - but close enough that our stalwart Mr. Bastable has a run-in with Ronald Reagan and Mick Jagger amongst others. And while we see that certain things are definitely malleable, there are other significant events that apparently MUST occur in any timeline - like the Hiroshima bomb.

An interesting story, although one not quite worthy of the Eternal Champion tag. I do think it's interesting that this appears to be the first one where the forces of Law are in the wrong, and the Champion is acting on the side of Chaos. ( )

Hey man! Yeah! Moorcock can write more than just really good dark fantasy, he can write killer steampunk too. I was also surpised by the (at times transparent) ideas which he's working with - reading only Elric I had no idea of his political bent. Anyway, this short but still rambling "review" should convey to you that, while clumsy at times, this is still a really neat story of a (now classic?) steampunk setting. I would also think it's fairly influential, so if you're digging something like Alan Moore's steampunkian stuff, then maybe this is where he got some of those ideas. It's also worth noting that A&J VanderMeer lift one of the best passages out of this book for their Steampunk anthology, which is where I first read it. Worth checking out in any case, especially if, like me, you can get it used for less than two dollars! ( )

Eminently readable! Compare this tale of an alternate reality British Empire with S. M. Stirling's recent 'Peshawar Lancers'. What's truly remarkable is that this work, though three decades older is far more progressive, far more intelligent, more thought-provoking, rings more true and perhaps most importantly, much more fun! For a long time my only exposure to Michael Moorock was through the Elric stories, but as I read further, I'm finding I far prefer his time travel/alternate history books to the sword and sorcery stuff. ( )

Oswald Bastable is an English army officer, sent on a mission to the mountains in the Nepal region. It does not go too well, and sick and delirious he stumbles into a citadel that is rumoured to have existed for all time.

When he wakes up, he is several decades in the future and the natives are not disposed to be too friendly.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2006/12/oswald-bastable-warlord-of-air.html ( )