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With The Night Mail: A Story Of 2000 Ad
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"SHE: Do you like Kipling? HE: I don't know, I've never Kippled!" If you've never read Rudyard Kipling's science fiction, then you've never Kippled.
Having achieved international fame with The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous, Kim, and his Just So Stories, in 1905 Kipling serialized a thrilling science fiction novella, With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D, in which the ...more
Having achieved international fame with The Jungle Book, Captains Courageous, Kim, and his Just So Stories, in 1905 Kipling serialized a thrilling science fiction novella, With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D, in which the ...more
Paperback, 58 pages
Published
August 1st 2001
by Rhwymbooks
(first published 1909)
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Showing 1-30
Even though Kipling’s idea of the year 2000AD falls short of reality, I still found this story entertaining, very fast paced and energetic. It is the first of only 2 science fiction novels he wrote, the second being the sequel, As Easy as A.B.C..
I never thought of Rudyard Kipling writing pulp science fiction but here is the proof of at least one venture into such territory. Written in 1905, this story was great fun to read and I hope someday to find the sequel that was written in 1912 and takes place 60 years or so after the action in Night Mail, which was set in the year 2000.
I was tickled by many of the details in this story, which follows a dirigible mail ship across the Atlantic. There is a lot...A LOT...of air traffic, all controll ...more
I was tickled by many of the details in this story, which follows a dirigible mail ship across the Atlantic. There is a lot...A LOT...of air traffic, all controll ...more
You can read this novella online at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29135/...
The story is thinner than air, but it’s really about the worldbuilding, which is amazing. This tale features large dirigibles moving passengers and freight across the planet, the use of radios, and the slagging off of aeroplanes. Bear in mind that this was published in 1905, before zeppelins existed, before successful demonstrations of radio, and just after the Wright brothers demonstrated their airpla ...more
The story is thinner than air, but it’s really about the worldbuilding, which is amazing. This tale features large dirigibles moving passengers and freight across the planet, the use of radios, and the slagging off of aeroplanes. Bear in mind that this was published in 1905, before zeppelins existed, before successful demonstrations of radio, and just after the Wright brothers demonstrated their airpla ...more
This story is a quick read, but not a particularly engaging one-- aside from the curious fact that it's a sci-fi story written by Rudyard Kipling, who is not normally associated with the genre.
The story itself is an account of a fairly routine zeppelin-mail delivery (London to Montreal) that happens to be set in the year 2000. The characters are forgetttable, and a lot of the story involves technobabble about the "Fleury ray" that makes dirigible travel so effective. What's really interesting i ...more
The story itself is an account of a fairly routine zeppelin-mail delivery (London to Montreal) that happens to be set in the year 2000. The characters are forgetttable, and a lot of the story involves technobabble about the "Fleury ray" that makes dirigible travel so effective. What's really interesting i ...more
Remarkable writing. Thorough, fully created alternative world. Done as if it were all real and done well. No plot to speak of nor characters.
Unfathomable. Only for die hard Steampunk -ers
This short story seemed to be about the rescue of a dirigible that was crashing, followed by a whole load of spoof adverts and newspaper reports to give the flavour of authenticity. However I found it almost impossible to follow. Set in the far future 2000AD this is Steampunk of the highest order. Written in 1905 by Rudyard Kipling about global travel by airship I think this is a classic that needs sought out by all diehard steampunk fans and possibl ...more
This short story seemed to be about the rescue of a dirigible that was crashing, followed by a whole load of spoof adverts and newspaper reports to give the flavour of authenticity. However I found it almost impossible to follow. Set in the far future 2000AD this is Steampunk of the highest order. Written in 1905 by Rudyard Kipling about global travel by airship I think this is a classic that needs sought out by all diehard steampunk fans and possibl ...more
A look into the future from more than a century ago. Kipling got just about everything wrong, mostly by underestimating the advances and the resulting social change. Still, a very interesting set of ideas.
No real plot, but wonderfully imaginative 3.5*
More strictly a novelette, With the Night Mail comes in at only 13,000 words and 60-ish pages. I started out with a download from the Gutenberg project (it’s well into the public domain) but found a beautiful scan of an illustrated version on Forgotten Futures linked from Wikipedia which also includes “As Easy as A.B.C.”, a shorter tale set in the same universe. Together, the two make up the only Science Fiction Kipling published. The online version of the Gutenberg text includes the illustratio
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Not so very long ago I was surprised to discover that Mark Twain wrote a spoof Sherlock Holmes story called The Double-barrelled Detective Story. Lo and behold, now I find out that Rudyard Kipling wrote a sci-fi tale.
Whatever next? Did Jane Austen write a swashbuckling adventure yarn?
I no doubt should have known these things a long time ago, but there you go. Twain's quirky little diversion was well worth discovering. How about Kipling's unlikely foray?
According to Kipling, in the year 2000 we ...more
Whatever next? Did Jane Austen write a swashbuckling adventure yarn?
I no doubt should have known these things a long time ago, but there you go. Twain's quirky little diversion was well worth discovering. How about Kipling's unlikely foray?
According to Kipling, in the year 2000 we ...more
Aerial Board of Control, Book 1 - Science Fiction
First published in 1905, this Rudyard Kipling short story is set in the year 2000.
Dirgibles and zepplins of all sorts fill the skies with busy air traffic, overseen by the Aeriable Board of Control (A.B.C.).
We follow an international mail dirigible crossing the Atlantic, bound for Quebec, when bad weather strikes. I enjoyed this story very much - thanks to Good Reads' Debbie Zapata for her great review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show ...more
First published in 1905, this Rudyard Kipling short story is set in the year 2000.
Dirgibles and zepplins of all sorts fill the skies with busy air traffic, overseen by the Aeriable Board of Control (A.B.C.).
We follow an international mail dirigible crossing the Atlantic, bound for Quebec, when bad weather strikes. I enjoyed this story very much - thanks to Good Reads' Debbie Zapata for her great review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show ...more
Kipling's future world is dominated by commerce based on dirigible transportation, regulated by the Aerial Board of Control. The technology extrapolation makes sense for when the story was written, but Kipling completely misses the mark in characterization or other facets of good storytelling. The second half is nothing more than faux advertisements, the first few of which were somewhat interesting, but there were too many. A few would have worked better as sidebars included within the story its
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Interesting. Kipling imagined a world in which commerce was dominated by airships. A supra-national agency, the Aerial Board of Control, regulated air commerce and penalized nations for interference with commerce.
In this world, airplanes are toys of the wealthy.
The problem Kipling had was that his hero is the technology. He shows us the technology, not how the men lived and struggled with the technology. For that reason, it is inferior science fiction.
In this world, airplanes are toys of the wealthy.
The problem Kipling had was that his hero is the technology. He shows us the technology, not how the men lived and struggled with the technology. For that reason, it is inferior science fiction.
Kipling isn't renowned for his sci-fi and this goes some way towards explaining why. It's well-written, but still reads like some kind of Jane's aeroplane manual for futuristic planes that never existed or aviation magazine. Add to this some dodgy predictions about the future 2000 AD (now known to be way off the mark - including the very first line about the GPO!) and you end up with something that is very humdrum indeed. I got so bored, I gave up after 3/4 of it, despite forcing myself on.
An interesting read. The faux science is detailed. In many respects typical Kipling but for me a rather superficial story in the end. I would have liked to see the ideas and the setting further explored in a more lengthy speculative work but a worthwhile read for me nevertheless. Good world building, with an emphasis on creating convincing science but character is superficial. A curiosity piece.
I'm kind of scared to read the Jungle Book, having despised this short story so much. The writing style is very dry, packed full of technical details about the airships with nary a plot or character of depth to be seen. I only read this story to help someone with an essay and if I could go back and retrieve that wasted time I would.
I had no idea Rudyard Kipling had written science fiction. I also had no idea Rudyard Kipling had written anything this bad. His vision of the year 2000 (as envisioned in 1905) is meticulous, but so crowded with imaginary technical jargon that I still don't know what the story is about.
Well, I only understood about one word in five of the technical gobbledegook about the airships, but being Kipling it's immensely readable. And the accompanying material, the job adverts and suchlike, are superb. This is well worth an hour of anybody's time.
Interesting as a Victorian steampunky artifact. As an actual story, not so much.
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Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in ...more
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in ...more
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