![]() The history is solid and might appeal to students of the political turmoil that led up to the rise of Fascism in Italy and Germany, but as a narrative, it is more a scenario than a story. The slim volume is plumped up with futurist-style illustrations, a foreword, an afterword, and an interview with the author, and therefore seems to be little more than a sketch for future collaborative projects among the team that produced it. This is a wonderful rump through alternative history, from WWI to the date of publication. The ambitious Soldier-Citizens of Carnaro are led by a brilliant and passionate coterie of the perhaps insane. Wilson's concept is largely based on speculation, although he admits to adding a bit of fantasy to the idea. In 1695, Henry Avery (also known as Every) and his crew attacked a Mughal convoy on its way to Mecca, captured two of its richly laden ships, and made off with a stupendous bounty worth the. Mortal enemies of communists, capitalists, and even fascists (to whom they are not entirely unsympathetic). Pirate utopias were defined by anarchist writer Peter Lamborn Wilson, who coined the term in his 1995 book Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes as secret islands once used for supply purposes by pirates. Original introduction by Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan a. Lovecraft, and ends abruptly with a hint that no political philosophy, however idealistic, is a match for American cynicism and PR. Pirate Utopia by Bruce Sterling was released October 17, 2016. Utopian pirate warriors of the diminutive Regency of Carnaro, scourge of the Adriatic Sea. Read 141 reviews from the worlds largest community for readers. Sterling fictionally introduces figures like Harry Houdini and H. (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons) For twenty-odd years during the 17 th century, on the coast of Madagascar, there was a. ![]() The author calls the novella’s genre “Dieselpunk” (winking at his role in helping create the cyberpunk genre of SF), and it’s essentially a thought experiment about the intersection of art, war, and politics. An engraving from Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of Pirates. 187 clean inside pages of English text with some b&w illustrations, no inscriptions. The protagonist, engineering genius Lorenzo Secondari, lends his skill in designing ever more deadly war machines for the free Futurist state he’s a symbol rather than a character. He introduces historical figures like Gabriele D’Annunzio, founder in 1919 of the anarchist Regency of Carnaro, through the eyes of a fictional war hero devoted to a mishmash of modernist causes including fascism, spiritualism, and free love. ![]() (Nov.In this fantastical alternate history novella, Sterling, better known for his pioneering work in science fiction, imagines what would happen if the artistic/philosophical post-WWI movement known as Futurism were to get its hands prematurely on later innovations in military and communications technology. An introduction by Warren Ellis and an interview with Sterling sandwich the novel, both bearing an air of false gravitas, but the actual story is wacky and fun what-if-ing at its finest. Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger (Montreal, Black Rose Books, 1997). The Regency of Carnaro exalts technological advancement above all else, including art, because. Hitler died saving another man’s life in a bar fight, Wilson was poisoned, and Mussolini’s been disabled by a pair of bullets aimed “where a man least likes to be shot,” so the Europe in which Secondari is attempting to create his radio-controlled airborne torpedoes and other gizmos is already massively different from ours. Do or Die Pirate Utopias Under the Banner of King Death Friday June 18th. Pirate Utopia can be read as a cautionary, almost Luddite, tale. ![]() He and his compatriots build flying boats and fight communism while dealing with American secret agents, including Harry Houdini and Howard Lovecraft (who’s now working as Houdini’s publicity agent after going into advertising). From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Moslem corsairs from the Barbary Coast ravaged European shipping and enslaved thousands of unlucky captives. Lorenzo Secondari, a veteran of the recently ended Great War and forever changed by it, is the head engineer of the titular utopia, the Italian free state of Fiume. Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes. Cyberpunk progenitor Sterling’s alternate history novella is bizarre, chock-full of famous people in improbable situations, and wildly entertaining, even when the worldbuilding seems to go a little off the rails. ![]()
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