Quarterly Review // May–June Wrap–Up – Jordan Casstles
The Last Englishman – A. S. Salinas “You’re not who you think you are. You never were. Your real name is Horatio, and you’re the world’s greatest secret agent.” Thank God, he thought. For a minute there, he was convinced he was just some writer nobody had ever heard of. From bloodthirsty dogfights between Spitfires and Messerschmitts to decadent garden parties at the end of the world, the life (or lives, or un-life) of Horatio Welington is truly remarkable. To his metatemporal nemesis John Constant, he is the wretched Englishman who both thwarts his schemes and enacts his own with elegant menace; to his transdimensional lover Melissa Prophet, he is both glorious champion and pathetic cuckold – but who or what truly is Horatio Wellington? World War II flying ace? International man of mystery? A hapless teenager in way over his head? Or something far more complex? For those who love the works of Michael Moorcock (especially his Eternal Champion books and the Jerry Cornelius Quarte...