The Return of the Discontinued Man

HERBERT GEORGE WELLS (1866–1946)

A prolific writer, Wells is best remembered for his science fiction. He was also a proponent of the idea that the world would function best under the auspices of a single state.

“The only true measure of success is the ratio between what we might have done and what we might have been on the one hand, and the thing we have made and the things we have made of ourselves on the other.”

“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.”

“The Anglo-Saxon genius for parliamentary government asserted itself; there was a great deal of talk and no decisive action.”

—From The Invisible Man

“Socialism is the preparation for that higher Anarchism; painfully, laboriously we mean to destroy false ideas of property and self, eliminate unjust laws and poisonous and hateful suggestions and prejudices, create a system of social right-dealing and a tradition of right-feeling and action. Socialism is the schoolroom of true and noble Anarchism, wherein by training and restraint we shall make free men.”

—From New Worlds for Old

Throughout the Burton & Swinburne series, I’ve used real people from history as the basis for many of my characters. Mostly Victorians, they are long dead and thus ca

With Mick Farren it’s been different. With Mick, when I started this novel, I was introducing into the series a man who still lived.

For those of you unfamiliar with him, Mick was an important voice in the UK counterculture who rose to prominence during the late 1960s. He was the editor of the alternative newspaper International Times, a songwriter and lead singer in the rock group the Deviants, a music journalist (he accurately predicted and supported the advent of punk), and a science fiction novelist.

You can probably understand that I felt rather apprehensive when I approached him and asked if I could hijack him for a work of fiction. I sent him the first three Burton & Swinburne novels to read. I told him what I intended. I made it clear that the Mick I wanted to portray would be, at best, an approximation of the real thing.

He was delighted. Really. He laughed, he enthused, and he said he was thoroughly flattered. “Damn! I love it. I’d be delighted. Do your worst. Burton has always been a major hero of mine.”

So I went ahead, got writing, and sent the early draft chapters to him. He gave me a thumbs-up. We communicated regularly over a period of about six months.

Then he died.

This man, who was one of my heroes, who was fast becoming my friend, got up on stage with the Deviants on Saturday, July 27, 2013, and, after two songs, suffered a heart attack, collapsed, and didn’t regain consciousness.

He never got to read this novel.

I never got to say thank you or good-bye.

So I’ll say it now. Thank you, Mick. You inspired me, impressed me, entertained me and intrigued me. Thank you for the Deviants. Thank you for the novels and many brilliant articles. Thank you for so enthusiastically embracing what I have done with you in The Return of the Discontinued Man.

And good-bye. I’ll miss you. I hope everybody who reads this novel looks you up on Wikipedia, listens to your music, and buys your books. I’m glad you went out rockin’.

Mark Hodder

Valencia, Spain

Photo by Yolanda Lerma Palomares

Mark Hodder was born in Southampton, England, but has lived in Winchester, Maidstone, Norwich, Herne Bay, and for many years in London. He has worked as a roadie; a pizza cook; a litter collector; a glass packer; an illustrator; a radio commercial scriptwriter; an advertising copywriter; and a BBC web producer, journalist, and editor. In 2008, he moved to Valencia, Spain, where he settled with his Spanish partner, Yolanda. Initially, he earned a living by teaching English, but then he wrote his first novel, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, which promptly won the Philip K. Dick Award 2010. Mark immediately and enthusiastically became a full-time novelist, thus fulfilling his wildest dreams, which he started having around the age of eleven after reading Michael Moorcock, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, Philip K. Dick, P. G. Wodehouse, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He recently became the father of twins, Luca Max and Iris Angell.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Also by Mark Hodder

Dedication

Contents

THE FIRST PART: THE VISIONS

1 AN APPARITION IN LEICESTER SQUARE

2 AN EXPERIMENT GONE AWRY

3 AN EVENING WITH ORPHEUS

4 RECURRENCES

5 THE JUNGLE

6 THE SECOND EXPERIMENT

7 ECHOES OF OXFORD

8 THE DREAMING ROSE

9 AN UNLIKELY EXPEDITION

THE SECOND PART: THE VOYAGE

10 THE APATHY OF 1914

11 THE SQUARES, CATS AND DEVIANTS OF 1968

12 THE GROSVENOR SQUARE RIOT OF 1968

13 AN OLD FRIEND IN 2022

14 THE ILLUSORY WORLD OF 2130

15 THE TRUTH OF 2130 REVEALED

THE THIRD PART: THE FUTURE

16 ARRIVAL: 2202

17 THE UPPERS AND THE LOWLIES

18 HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA

19 A PLEA TO PARLIAMENT

20 SEVEN BIRTHS AND A DEATH

21 BODIES

APPENDIX: MEANWHILE, IN THE VICTORIAN AGE AND BEYOND . . .

AFTERWORD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Back Cover