The Future City

by Brian M. Stableford (Adapted by, Translator), Alain Le Drimeur

The Future City signed "Alain le Drimeur" (a Frenchification of "Alan the Dreamer") was published in 1890, probably inspired by Edward Bellamy's best-selling Looking Backward, 2000-1887. The Future City postulates that the Conservatives left France in 1891 to emigrate en masse to the island of La Réunion, where they established a Roman Catholic kingdom that deliberately cut itself off from the homeland for a century. The book begins in the early years of the 21st century when two young men from the island decide to discover what happened to France since it was abandoned to secularist Republicans. The result is not a straightforward future projection so much as a kind of anticipatory alternative history. The Future City is a profound and interesting text, one of the most significant contributions to the French futuristic fiction of its era.

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1890

About the author

Brian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.

Reviews

[Steve Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a long time to wade through this work. The plot is paper thin and the extrapolations - while there are some that are somewhat noteworthy - are not enough to sustain interest. Might be slightly more suitable for anyone with a rich understanding of French history since the Future History projections start in 1890 in France. This type of thing has been done better elsewhere.