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England invaded: A collection of fantasy fiction
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
245 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
42 people want to read
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,206 books3,742 followersMichael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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March 7, 2023A bunch of kooky, dated short stories that feel almost parodic in how of their time they are, and then the rather brilliant and melancholy When William Came. The narrative elements of the latter certainly are no less dated than the prior stories, but there's something very resonant in the depiction of an existentially troubled but ultimately indifferent British society entirely globalised and subjugated. Wonder why.
February 21, 2025
STORY COLLECTIONS are incredibly hard to review, it is almost unheard of to like all of them equally. Here However I think Moorcock has done a marvellous job of putting together a collection that are all as well written as each other. They are all so old, yet so contemporary in reading experience.
1)"Introduction" by Michael Moorcock Told me it was part of a series, but little more.
2) "The Uses of Advertisement – an Aeroplane Adventure" by Tristram Crutchley (from Pearson's Magazine, July 1909)
Charmed me! The writing was marvellous and the story imaginative and delightful.
3) "When the New Zealander Comes" by Blyde Muddersnook (from The Strand Magazine, September 1911)
A great story, set in the years of fifty thousand or so, when England and the rest of civilisation as we know it has fallen and the monuments are ruins. Man have expanded to Mars and the Moon and an expedition from New Zealand come to do archaeology in London. It is a VERY humorous and pointed commentary at times. It certainly takes a dig at the way the British Empire plunder the world.
4) "The Monster of Lake LaMetrie by Wardon Allan Curtis (from Pearsons Magazine, September 1899)
This short story is by American writer Wardon Allan Curtis. It is a charming and very subtly funny story in the Pellucidar sort of theme.
Our narrator who is of scientific bent, travels with one companion to a remote lake which he believes connects to the centre of the Earth which, he believes, still possesses all sort of flora and fauna now extinct on the rest of the Earth. The entirely ridiculous occurs when an 'elasmosaurus' washes up all but dead. And the narrator's companion drops dead after having expressed a desire to be as strong and vital as the animal. Ehem, yes brain transplant ensues which “... the medical fraternity has been predicting...” for some time.
I was charmed by the writing style, the bio-science element and the whole notion.
5) "The Abduction of Alexandra Seine" by Fred C. Smale (from The Harmsworth Magazine, November 1900)
This is a rather neat little story which feels very steampunk in a way. Because it is VERY
1900's but with heaps of wild, unlikely and unexplained devices. We have flying air ships, imaginative notions of how photography and film may progress with the use of an 'Antegragh' , food cap be summoned from the wall, a la Star Trek and people can use a telepathic device to communicate between England and Japan, which are six hours away from each other by air.
A missing, beautiful damsel in distress is rescued and found to be a long lost daughter and it is a very satisfying little adventure.
6) "Is the End of the World Near?" by John Munro (Cassell’s, Jan. 1899)
Now this one is a very serious little discourse about whether the end of the Earth (or, at least, humanity) will come about due to a lack of oxygen, since oxygen is required to burn fossil fuels (they don't call them that) and other fuels. The maths and physics of it all made my head spin, and I have a feeling that it was a serious or at least semi-serious prediction based on the science of the time. The science of the time was 1899 and wrong on several points but anyone who is very into dystopian theories should definitely look at this one.
When William Came by Saki
Which seemed to me a really obscure title, though I think I got it in the end, takes up half the volume. Saki was the pen name for Hector Hugh Munro, a British writer known for satirising the Edwardian culture. He is considered by some English scholars a master of the short story (according to Wikipedia) and this one was really excellent.
Published just before WWI, I am guessing there was already a fair bit of dread over German military to prompt it. published in November 1913 it was is set several years in what was their future, After after a war definitely not a World War between Germany and Great Britain, German won and has made England a vassal state, we mostly see the world through he eyes of Murray Yeovil who was abroad and suffering from a fever when the even occurred. He comes home to England to a conquered island where many people have fled abroad and to his wife Cecily who is busily acclimatising her social life in London to the occupation.
Murray is lost and angry, Cecily is busy planning her next social success and I feel this one was far more about satirizing fashionable society in Edwardian times than anything else and it would probably have hit hard for anyone who knew the time and place well.
1)"Introduction" by Michael Moorcock Told me it was part of a series, but little more.
2) "The Uses of Advertisement – an Aeroplane Adventure" by Tristram Crutchley (from Pearson's Magazine, July 1909)
Charmed me! The writing was marvellous and the story imaginative and delightful.
3) "When the New Zealander Comes" by Blyde Muddersnook (from The Strand Magazine, September 1911)
A great story, set in the years of fifty thousand or so, when England and the rest of civilisation as we know it has fallen and the monuments are ruins. Man have expanded to Mars and the Moon and an expedition from New Zealand come to do archaeology in London. It is a VERY humorous and pointed commentary at times. It certainly takes a dig at the way the British Empire plunder the world.
4) "The Monster of Lake LaMetrie by Wardon Allan Curtis (from Pearsons Magazine, September 1899)
This short story is by American writer Wardon Allan Curtis. It is a charming and very subtly funny story in the Pellucidar sort of theme.
Our narrator who is of scientific bent, travels with one companion to a remote lake which he believes connects to the centre of the Earth which, he believes, still possesses all sort of flora and fauna now extinct on the rest of the Earth. The entirely ridiculous occurs when an 'elasmosaurus' washes up all but dead. And the narrator's companion drops dead after having expressed a desire to be as strong and vital as the animal. Ehem, yes brain transplant ensues which “... the medical fraternity has been predicting...” for some time.
I was charmed by the writing style, the bio-science element and the whole notion.
5) "The Abduction of Alexandra Seine" by Fred C. Smale (from The Harmsworth Magazine, November 1900)
This is a rather neat little story which feels very steampunk in a way. Because it is VERY
1900's but with heaps of wild, unlikely and unexplained devices. We have flying air ships, imaginative notions of how photography and film may progress with the use of an 'Antegragh' , food cap be summoned from the wall, a la Star Trek and people can use a telepathic device to communicate between England and Japan, which are six hours away from each other by air.
A missing, beautiful damsel in distress is rescued and found to be a long lost daughter and it is a very satisfying little adventure.
6) "Is the End of the World Near?" by John Munro (Cassell’s, Jan. 1899)
Now this one is a very serious little discourse about whether the end of the Earth (or, at least, humanity) will come about due to a lack of oxygen, since oxygen is required to burn fossil fuels (they don't call them that) and other fuels. The maths and physics of it all made my head spin, and I have a feeling that it was a serious or at least semi-serious prediction based on the science of the time. The science of the time was 1899 and wrong on several points but anyone who is very into dystopian theories should definitely look at this one.
When William Came by Saki
Which seemed to me a really obscure title, though I think I got it in the end, takes up half the volume. Saki was the pen name for Hector Hugh Munro, a British writer known for satirising the Edwardian culture. He is considered by some English scholars a master of the short story (according to Wikipedia) and this one was really excellent.
Published just before WWI, I am guessing there was already a fair bit of dread over German military to prompt it. published in November 1913 it was is set several years in what was their future, After after a war definitely not a World War between Germany and Great Britain, German won and has made England a vassal state, we mostly see the world through he eyes of Murray Yeovil who was abroad and suffering from a fever when the even occurred. He comes home to England to a conquered island where many people have fled abroad and to his wife Cecily who is busily acclimatising her social life in London to the occupation.
Murray is lost and angry, Cecily is busy planning her next social success and I feel this one was far more about satirizing fashionable society in Edwardian times than anything else and it would probably have hit hard for anyone who knew the time and place well.
February 20, 2022
England Invaded - 3/5
'England Invaded' is n interstin anthologie've 'future shocks' writtin pre-WW1 (mainly takin fae the 1910s in tis case) collected be seminal English fantasy author Michael Moorcock. The bulk've tis beuk is made up've the novel 'When William Came' be H. H. Munro, beeter kent is 'Saki' which I've reviewed separately.
'The Use of Advertisement: An Aeroplane Adventure' be Tristam Crutchley fae 1909
Ah fun wee storie thit predictin the comin dominance've aircraft durin the later 20th centurie as weel is sum quarters dislik earlie oun've air power in warfare.
'When the New Zealander Comes' be Professor Blyde Muddersnook (brilliant name be the wae) fae 1911
Ah tale coverin the fear've British decline thit pervaded the late 19th tae early 20th century, a troupe've New Zealand archeologists come tae investigate the ruins've of desolate London, occupied be ah tribe cawed the Cockneys.
Sum nice imagery've ah watery St Pauls bit aside fae thit nae aw tae engain, guid showcase've colonial anxiety thae.
'The Monster of Lake LaMetrie' be Wardon Allan Curtis fae 1899
Ah strange wan. Twa scientists thit believe in the hollow-earth theory explore Lake LaMetrie fir proof, comin across a creature fae the distant past thit seems mair intelligent thin furst assumed...
Deals a lot wae racial ideas've 'savagery' thit folken it the time were richt intae, specially affer .
Another interestin historical piece thit's mair thin ah wee bitty dodgy noo a days, as maist in tis collection are. Wurth ah read jest tae see where the strangeness ends up thae.
'The Abduction of Alexandra Seine: A Tale of the Twentieth Century' be Fred C. Smale fae 1900
Awricht we tale aboot twa men tryin tae rescue their daughter n girlfriend respectively. Predicts ability tae travel lang distances in ainly ah couple hoors alangside the ability tae talk lang distance instantly wae voice n video. Nae all tae engagin thae.
'Is the End of the World Near?' be John Munro fae 1899
N article aboot hoo the end've the wurld is near due tae overpopulation and excessive fuel uase drainin aw the air fae the atmosphere. The arguments seem michtae absurd noo bit sum still inform frighteningly awn oor very real struggle against human-made climate change n resource scarcity.
'When William Came' be H.H. Munro ('Saki') fae 1913
Reviewed separately.
O'eraw, n interestin delve intae the hopes n fears've of Brits it the height've Empire, be it predictions've of planes, mass communication, the collapse, bith racial n societal, of the nation or the fears of resource loss, it wis wurth ah read tae see wit the Brits've generations past thought the future'd be lik.
'England Invaded' is n interstin anthologie've 'future shocks' writtin pre-WW1 (mainly takin fae the 1910s in tis case) collected be seminal English fantasy author Michael Moorcock. The bulk've tis beuk is made up've the novel 'When William Came' be H. H. Munro, beeter kent is 'Saki' which I've reviewed separately.
'The Use of Advertisement: An Aeroplane Adventure' be Tristam Crutchley fae 1909
Ah fun wee storie thit predictin the comin dominance've aircraft durin the later 20th centurie as weel is sum quarters dislik earlie oun've air power in warfare.
'When the New Zealander Comes' be Professor Blyde Muddersnook (brilliant name be the wae) fae 1911
Ah tale coverin the fear've British decline thit pervaded the late 19th tae early 20th century, a troupe've New Zealand archeologists come tae investigate the ruins've of desolate London, occupied be ah tribe cawed the Cockneys.
Sum nice imagery've ah watery St Pauls bit aside fae thit nae aw tae engain, guid showcase've colonial anxiety thae.
'The Monster of Lake LaMetrie' be Wardon Allan Curtis fae 1899
Ah strange wan. Twa scientists thit believe in the hollow-earth theory explore Lake LaMetrie fir proof, comin across a creature fae the distant past thit seems mair intelligent thin furst assumed...
Deals a lot wae racial ideas've 'savagery' thit folken it the time were richt intae, specially affer .
Another interestin historical piece thit's mair thin ah wee bitty dodgy noo a days, as maist in tis collection are. Wurth ah read jest tae see where the strangeness ends up thae.
'The Abduction of Alexandra Seine: A Tale of the Twentieth Century' be Fred C. Smale fae 1900
Awricht we tale aboot twa men tryin tae rescue their daughter n girlfriend respectively. Predicts ability tae travel lang distances in ainly ah couple hoors alangside the ability tae talk lang distance instantly wae voice n video. Nae all tae engagin thae.
'Is the End of the World Near?' be John Munro fae 1899
N article aboot hoo the end've the wurld is near due tae overpopulation and excessive fuel uase drainin aw the air fae the atmosphere. The arguments seem michtae absurd noo bit sum still inform frighteningly awn oor very real struggle against human-made climate change n resource scarcity.
'When William Came' be H.H. Munro ('Saki') fae 1913
Reviewed separately.
O'eraw, n interestin delve intae the hopes n fears've of Brits it the height've Empire, be it predictions've of planes, mass communication, the collapse, bith racial n societal, of the nation or the fears of resource loss, it wis wurth ah read tae see wit the Brits've generations past thought the future'd be lik.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews