Blake's Progress

by Ray Faraday Nelson

William Blake lived as no man had ever lived before. Sweeping across the centuries, he clashed with Cleopatra, chatted with Churchill, entertained with Ezekiel. His wife Kate was astounded at the man she had married. And she knew what she had to do! In this amazing account of Blake's life, Ray Nelson tells it like it might have been, had Blake had his way.

"There are wonders galore in this book... I don't believe I've read a science fiction novel like Blake's Progress before."
--Terry Carr

Cover illustration by Kelly Freas

Genres: Science Fiction, Time Travel, Fantasy

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1975

About the author

Aka Jeffrey Lord (house pseudonym)

Radell Faraday "Ray" Nelson is an American science fiction author and cartoonist most famous for his 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning", which was later used by John Carpenter as the basis for his 1988 film They Live.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blake's Progress was the lucky thirteenth novel in Roger Elwood's line of Laser books published by Harlequin (though it was actually the fourteenth, but that's another story). Nelson wrote the story upon which Carpenter's film They Live was based, collaborated with Philip K. Dick on a novel, was also an artist, and a long-time fan, and wrote quite a bit of good genre fiction on his own. This is a wild and wacky biographic tale of time-traveler William Blake and his wife, Kate, who range up and down the time-stream interacting with everyone from Cleopatra to Churchill, discovering alternate timelines and fixing them as well as possible, bigger than life and as entertaining as Scott and Zelda. Kate is a very richly drawn, strong character, too. They both burn bright, one could say. Lots of fun, especially as Nelson points out how you can see the truth of it all be examining Blake's published work. Terry Carr wrote a nice introduction for the Laser edition, which also features, of course, a nifty Kelly Freas cover. Nelson expanded it quite a bit (or perhaps just re-integrated material Elwood edited for length) and Tor published as Timequest a decade later.

[mkfs · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather dizzying ride.

William "Burnin' Brite Tiger" Blake, time traveller, enters into a time war with his nemesis, Urizen. As chronicled in his work, of course, as any fool can plainly see.

This novel was re-issed as Timequest, and given that the Laser editions were edited down to the size of a Harlequin Romance novel, it's likely that edition is more complete.

[Arden Thira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book RULED from the opening paragraph

And surprisingly less sexist than you would think for the era it was published

[Jon Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a scanned paperback copy on the Internet Archive. So here I am, once again, slumming in the Laser Books series, which is starting to seem like the reading equivalent of drinking sterno. I had hopes for this particular title, as I had read another entry in the Laser Books series by Nelson, "The Ecolog," which was also strange and twisted, but in a good way. And of course Nelson wrote the short story "Eight o' Clock In The Morning," which was famously the basis for John Carpenter's classic 1988 movie "They Live." So, what have we got here? This book features as its central character one William Blake, the poet and printmaker who lived in Ye Olde London Towne in the years 1757 - 1827. Yes, we're talking THAT William Blake of "Tyger, tyger burning bright" fame. According to Wikipedia, he was considered to be insane by his contemporaries. I guess this book attempts to explain his insanity. For whatever reason, Blake has the ability to slip out of his current time and travel to other times and places. That's gotta make you seem weird, even insane. He teaches his wife Kate this trick, and together they flit about visiting various eras in Earth's history. They discover a cadre of other time travelers called zaos, chief among them being the evil Urizen. Urizen is intent on meddling with the timeline to change the future so he will end up ruling all of mankind. Blake and Kate become his enemies, and there are tit-for-tat attempts by Urizen to alter the course of history and Blake & Kate working to restore the damage. Eventually the idea of multiple branching timelines and alternate realities is introduced. Maybe that's where the Marvel Cinematic Universe got its beginning? Anwho, I found it hard to care enough about what was happening to follow the twists and turns. This book appears to have been heavily edited down to fit the page count of the Laser Books series (this one clocks in at 189 pages). I wonder if a longer, more fleshed-out version would be any better. I doubt it. Three out of five stars.

[James Dick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book whose title should probably be "Blake's Acid Trip", this novel takes the cliches of the Golden Age and flips them upside down, placing a woman in the driver's seat of the narrative and taking you on a whirlwind tour of history, the afterlife, and one troubled poet's weird view of creation. This novel has to be read to be believed.

[Adam Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge surprise— this is not only a Laser Book but also a changing-history-through-time-travel book, a tired genre— but this was excellent. Beautiful at times, making clever use of a real historical figure’s eccentricities, highly imaginative and even full of interesting action and conflict. Easily in a class by itself amongst the first baker’s dozen of Laser Books.

[Andie Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s William Blake meets time traveling and alternate universe science fiction. The positive note to take away from this book is that Kate Blake is given agency.

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun sci-fi Blake fan fiction and I loved it!