![]() ![]() In their place comes a story about the magic, sea battles, purloined princesses, manhunts, make-believe kingdoms, fraudulent ambassadors, spies, jewel thieves, poisoners and devil worship that lie at the origins of modern freedom. Original introduction by Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan and Gun Machine Who are these bold rebels pillaging their European neighbors in the name of revolution The Futurists Utopian pirate warriors of the diminutive Regency of Carnaro, scourge of the Adriatic Sea. Pirate Enlightenment playfully dismantles the central myths of the Enlightenment. Its actors were Malagasy women, merchants and traders, philosopher kings and escaped slaves, exploring ideas that were ultimately to be put into practice by Western revolutionary regimes a century later. In this jewel of a book, he offers a way to ‘decolonize the Enlightenment’, demonstrating how this mixed community experimented with an alternative vision of human freedom, far from that being formulated in the salons and coffee houses of Europe. For Graeber, Madagascar’s lost pirate utopia represents some of the first stirrings of Enlightenment political thought. This was the Golden Age of Piracy, a period of violent buccaneering and rollicking legends – but it was also, argues anthropologist David Graeber, a brief window of radical democracy, as the pirate settlers attempted to apply the egalitarian principles of their ships to a new society on land. Its true origins lie thousands of miles away on the island of Madagascar, in the late seventeenth century, when it was home to several thousand pirates. We just don’t have a good way to describe how futuresīecome old-fashioned, or what aspects of futurism are perenniallyįor more info on PIRATE UTOPIA, visit the Tachyon page.The Enlightenment did not begin in Europe. Tradition of future sounds oxymoronic,” Sterling says, “but ofĬourse we really do have quite a long and solid tradition ofįuturism. Of the future, then, or perhaps better the past of futurism. Inhabit, for better or (as it so often seems) worse. ![]() WEATHER, his new novel PIRATE UTOPIA drops readers into the heart ofĬarnaro and the middle of events a century past.įuture back then-and, in some ways, it is that future that we now In aĭeparture from the near-future science fiction for which he hasīecome well known, as with novels such as DISTRACTION and HEAVY Year in the antifascist, writerly Italian city of Turin. Sterling’s, late of Austin, Texas, now resident for much of the Plus: illustrations from John Coulthart!Īlso at KIRKUS, Gregory McNamee interviews Bruce Sterling about PIRATE UTOPIA. They operated from land enclaves, free ports pirate utopias located on islands and coastlines as yet beyond the reach of civilization. WHY YOU MIGHT LIKE IT: This offbeat alternate history is peppered with names you know, but not necessarily as you know them. During the Golden Age of piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries, crews of early proletarian rebels, dropouts from civilization, plundered the lucrative shipping lanes between Europe and America. WHAT IT’S ABOUT: The Futurists, a collection of questionably-insane rebels, aim to start a revolution in Europe. ![]() On his KIRKUS blog, John DeNardo listed the tale in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads for November. Noted sci-fi maven and futurologist Sterling (LOVE IS STRANGE, 2012, etc.) takes a side turn in the slipstream in this offbeat, sometimes-puzzling work of dieselpunk-y alternative history. KIRKUS included the book among its 9 Great Books to Round Out 2016. Original introduction by Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan a. Graphic novelist Warren Ellis, and an interview with the author. Read 140 reviews from the worlds largest community for readers. Medium Praise for Bruce Sterling 'He understands technology’s present and future better than anyone in the field. Slender, but it is filled with astonishing characters, fine dialogue,Īnd an abundance of ideas and is packaged with John Coulthart’sĬool Futurist-Constructivist-inspired graphics, an introduction by Pirate Utopia: .uk: Bruce Sterling, Coulthart, John, Klaw, Rick, Ellis, Warren: 9781616962364: Books The Warbler Rich with surreal exaggeration and fantasy. Minister of Vengeance Weapons and makes him-and the regency-a Success with a radio-armed torpedo gets him appointed Carnaro’s Historical moment, with its odd mixture of technology and politics,īecomes the irresistible setting for Sterling’s (THE CARYATIDS,Ģ009) latest novel, a fantastic, comical, alternate historicalĭieselpunk affair starring Lorenzo Secondari, a pirate engineer whose Bruce Sterling’s soon-to-be-available PIRATE UTOPIA garners a BOOKLIST review and mentions in three different KIRKUS articles.īen Segedin for BOOKLIST praises the alt history, dieselpunk adventure. ![]()
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