Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Five top novels that explore anarchist society, philosophy, or struggle

Margaret Killjoy's new book is The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, the first installment in the Danielle Cain series.

At Tor.com she tagged five "amazing novels that explore anarchist society, philosophy, or struggle," including:
The Steel Tsar by Michael Moorcock

Not all anarchist fiction is so serious. Some of it is just downright fun. No one does classic pulp adventure with an anti-authoritarian edge like Michael Moorcock. The Steel Tsar is the last in Moorcock’s Nomad In the Time Stream trilogy, which for the record is the earliest completely-and-utterly-steampunk work I’ve ever been able to find. I could kind of ramble on about Moorcock and all of the unacknowledged influences he’s had on this world (tabletop RPGs owe Moorcock at least as much credit as they owe Tolkien, plus he invented the chaos star, plus… steampunk…), but instead I’ll just tell you that The Steel Tsar has airships, nuclear weapons, a robotic Stalin, and the Ukranian anarchist Nestor Makhno. Which is to say, in the hands of a practiced master like Moorcock, you really can’t go wrong.
Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue