The Steel Tsar
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| The Steel Tsar | |
 Cover of the first edition |
|
| Author | Michael Moorcock |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Melvyn |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Oswald Bastable |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Granada |
| Publication date | 1977 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 155 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-583-13432-7 |
| Preceded by | The Land Leviathan |
The Steel Tsar is a novel by Michael Moorcock [1]. It is the final part of a trilogy which has been seen as an example of steampunk fiction. It is a sequel to The Warlord of the Air and The Land Leviathan and is also published in the compilation volume A Nomad of the Time Streams.
It was first published by Granada in 1981. In a story introduced by the ubiquitous Una Persson, the hero, Oswald Bastable, finds himself in an alternative twentieth century in which the Great War never happened. Britain and Germany became allies instead, as France declined, in a world menaced by Japanese Imperialism. Oswald joins the Russian Imperial Airship Navy and is imprisoned by the rebel Dugashvili, the 'Steel Tsar' of the title who is known to the real world, of course, as Joseph Stalin. While imperialism and racism in nineteenth century "heroic" fiction were deconstructed in its predecessors, this final book deals with the benefits of socialism and anarchism in a third alternate twentieth century where there were no effective social democratic parties in Western Europe and Australasia, as in our world.
[edit] References
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- Moorcock's Miscellany. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- Brown, Charles N.; William G. Contento. The Locus Index to Science Fiction (1984-1998). Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- Jacob, Merle; H. Apple (2000). To Be Continued: An Annotated Guide to Sequels. Greenwood Press, 199. ISBN 157356155X.
