George Griffith (1) (1857–1906)

George Griffith is very little known now, but in the late 19th and first few years of the 20th centuries, he was a writer of science fiction/fantasy and a utopian socialist a la H G Wells. This was apparently one of his minor works, where an Egyptologist and his daughter discover that they are the reincarnations of, respectively, a high priest and Queen in ancient Egypt. Other characters they meet in a series of dramatic events are also reincarnations of ancient Egyptians. This is a mixture of science, fantasy, high politics and Ruritania style manoeuvrings, and is quite fun, though it does drag in places, and the ending seemed quite sudden.… (más)

After a brilliantly inventive book in Angel of the Revolution (1893) and a moderately accomplished one in Syren of the Skies (1893-94), George Griffith's Outlaws of the Air (1894-95) is where the rot begins to set in. This book is basically Angel all over again, but less interesting. While terrorists plot, England and Russia go to war; the terrorists sit it out with their advanced weaponry with a goal of taking over once the war has ruined the world. Only in this book the anarchists are the bad guys (in Angel, they were one of the factions in the good guy coalition), and a Syndicate of preachy capitalists are the good guys. Running the world as a business (with Britain and Germany at the top) turns out to be the path to world peace. Blech. Angel was altogether more weird, more fun, and more fascinating, but three books in and Griffith has alread turned his new genre into something, well, generic.… (más)