Inscrit le: 14 Fév 2007
Messages: 590
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February is NEWS FROM THE MOON, an anthology by Brian Stableford of French proto-science fiction stories ranging from 1768 to 1902.
Normally a book like this would have no Wold Newton connections at all (and I still would have been happy to publish it) but in this case, the piece de resistance and by far the longest novella in the book is Brian's translation of the first (self-contained) third of Albert Robida's SATURNIN FARANDOUL.
Those of you who have read TOTS 3 will recall that Paul DiFilippo located his witty contribution in Robida's (retro-)futuristic universe of the 1960s (as seen in the 1860s).
Robida also write a picaresque novel (somewhat reminiscent of Jack Vance) whose hero, Saturnin Farandoul, was shipwrecked as a baby on a Pacific Island (like the Phantom his parents' ship was attacked by pirates) and raised by a tribe of apes.
Yes, long before Burroughs' Tarzan and Kipling's Mowgli (1893), Robida had come up with all the basic archetypes of the feral child who grows up to become King of the [fill in the blank].
Somehow -- I'm not sure whether Robida asked Jules Verne's permission or not? -- he also decided to guest-star Captain Nemo in the first third of the book. The character is treated with respect, and his appearance there bolster the notion that (a) he wasn't dying and (b) he didn't die in MYSTERIOUS ISLAND -- which appears in the book.
Ultimately the action in SATURNIN FARANDOUL may be too extreme to be considered Earth-1 as opposed to AU though rather less so than the events of WAR OF THE WORLDS. Yes, Saturnin and his Ape Legions conquer Western Australia, but at the end they're expelled and the world reverts to its original shape and poor Saturnin goes on to have other adventures. If one can deal with the world-shaking events of LOEG and WOTW I don't see why SATURNIN FARANDOUL is intrinsically less real. But that's a discussion I'll leave to others.
I hope Brian eventually translates Part II and III of SATURNIN FARANDOUL as Hector Servadac (from Verne's OFF ON A COMET) and Phileas Fogg guest-star in these. |
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