Gaining employment amongst the great airship armadas, however, he soon comes into contact with a troop of anarchists – among them a mysterious woman named Una Persson, and a Russian revolutionary named Ulianov. In this alternate future, the First World War never happened, and the colonial powers continue to assert dominance over their empires-for example, India remains a British territory, though Winston Churchill had been viceroy in this alternate future as well as in Bastable's own.Īt first, Bastable marvels at the wonders that await him in his 'future' - London is a clean and peaceful city, and the world seems to be a utopia, held in balance by the great empires. He is soon found and picked up by a massive airship, where he learns that it is in fact the year 1973, but not the one that the reader would recognise. When he awakes, and escapes the caves, the Temple is in ruins, as if a great amount of time has passed. After a confrontation with Kang and his men, Bastable finds himself lost and alone in the caves around the 'Temple of the Future Buddha', where he is assaulted by a mysterious force and knocked into unconsciousness. Bastable agrees to tell Moorcock the story, and begins his narrative with his experiences in North East India in 1902, sent as part of a British expedition to deal with Sharan Kang, an Indian high priest at the temple of Teku Benga, a mysterious and seemingly supernaturally powerful region. Holidaying at the remote Rowe Island, he befriends Oswald Bastable, an ex-soldier stowaway who seems confused and disoriented beyond what could be explained by his opium addiction, and who is tormented by great guilt from an action he performed in his past. The novel is transcribed by 'Michael Moorcock' (the author's fictional grandfather) in 1903. The novel was first published by Ace Books as part of their Ace Science Fiction Specials series. It is the first part of Moorcock's A Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy and, in its use of speculative technology (such as airships) juxtaposed against an Edwardian setting, it is widely considered to be one of the first steampunk novels. It concerns the adventures of Oswald Bastable, an Edwardian era soldier stationed in India, and his adventures in an alternate universe, in his own future, wherein the First World War never happened. The Warlord of the Air is a 1971 British alternate history novel written by Michael Moorcock.

Michael Moorcock by Michael Moorcock