A Nomad of the Time Streams

This is a rerelease of the book by Michael Moorcock. I originally picked this up on the recommendation of Steve Blease from Wessex Games. This book falls into the realm of science fantasy – you have to be able to believe in both time travel and parallel dimensions for the book to be fun for you. As a source book for generating fictional countries and environments, this would be quite handy. You would be able to game in Victorian colonial times, a steampunk 60s/70s era with colonies, and in a world where Africa has conquered the globe. The heroes of the book (pointed out elsewhere, but now I can’t find the source) are all good socialists who believe that individualism and capitalism are dangerous concepts. I am diametrically opposed to both propositions, being a staunch capitalist and supporter of the role of the individual, but nonetheless, enjoyed the book and its stories. Moorcock’s grandfather starts the story as the narrator and over time, Moorcock himself picks up the story. The main character is Oswald Bastable, a man who had been an officer in the service of the British Empire in 1903. During a mission Bastable comes into contact with a native tribe that inhabits a set of ruins older than anyone can guess. In his attempt to escape from the tribe, he runs into a section of the temple that transports him to 1973. Over the course of his time in this era, he is transported to another era, and then another. His adjustments to the time shifts and, more importantly, the shifts in technology that have occurred form the gist of the story. I don’t want to go into too much detail as it would spoil the novel, but imagine, if you will, nukes delivered from dirigibles, enormous, city-crushing land leviathans, battles between fighter aircraft and dirigibles, a world where Russia never fell to the Bolsheviks, and you’ll get a good feel for the promise of the book.