by Mark Yon
Hello again. September means that we get to Autumn, which is perhaps my favourite time of the year. The nights are getting colder and darker and the lure of a warm home with a good book or magazine grows ever more favorable.
Outside the house (when I do venture outside!) those mop-top-lets, The Beatles, are still taking the pop music world by storm. They are on tour in Britain and filling their venues as they go. Their latest recording is an EP of their hits so far – From Me to You, Please Please Me and Love Me Do, with a B-side track, Thank You Girl.
Even though this is really a re-release, “by popular demand,” as they say, like all their other releases I suspect that this one will go to the top of the British pop charts. Their upbeat energy and enthusiasm is quite infectious.
Movie-wise, I have been to see Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, which finally got to Britain this month. I thought it was good. There are some chilling scenes in the movie, although on the whole I felt that it’s more of a slow burn of a movie than Psycho ever was. The creepiest thing, that I realised after seeing the film, was that there is no reason given for the bird’s unusual behaviour. It just happens, which means that it could happen to you or me: anytime, anywhere.
Perhaps the most exciting news to me is the announcement made by Mr. Kennedy a couple of days ago that there should be a joint Soviet-US mission to the Moon. Being a positively minded sort of chap, I’m thinking, “Wouldn’t that be a wonderful development?” I find it hard to imagine that such a positive comment for exploration could be made less than a year after the Cuban Crisis. I guess the opposite view is that the US government may be worried about how much progress the Russians seem to be making?
On science-fictional matters, last month I did say that I would pass comment on the Hugo Awards. It sounds like it was a good time with the Good Doctor Asimov in charge of proceedings. I’ll mention him again later.
My Hugo predictions were, as I rather expected, a little off. I was disappointed, though not surprised, that the novel The Man in the High Castle won, though I have yet to actually read it myself. Well done also to Galaxy and Mr. Jack Vance for The Dragon Masters which I was pleased with. It was one of my favourite novellas last year. I was very surprised on there being “No Award” for Dramatic Presentation. Was The Twilight Zone, my prediction for winning, really that bad?
I’ll try again next year.
Right – to this month’s New Worlds.
After a couple of variable, though stronger issues, this month we seem to be back to our usual standard.
s.x, s-f and c_________p, by Mr. G.H. Doherty
No, that title’s not a misprint- that’s how it’s written. This month’s Guest Editor is someone unknown to me. However, the matter he discusses is a topical one – how does and should science fiction tackle sex in its fiction? There is a long history of the topic in s-f being avoided or ignored, partly because the fiction has grown up from the pulps and partly because its typical matters of science and technology do not lend themselves easily to the issue.
Mr. Doherty’s Editorial is part Convention Report and part-thought-experiment, in that the issue was raised by a presentation from Mr. Harry Harrison at this year’s BSFA Convention. What was meant to be a slightly humorous talk ended up as something more serious. There’s some very interesting comments made by the participants and this leads Mr. Doherty to conclude that if the genre is to make progress then it needs a more grown-up attitude. It’s not quite a return to the ranty tirades of old Editorials, but it is more anecdotal than analytical.
To the lower-cased-titled stories! (Yes, it’s still annoying.)
man-hunt , by Mr. John Rackham
This month’s Rackham story is more traditional than his recent “X-person” stories, a Galactic Police detective tale that wouldn’t be that amiss from the 1940’s pulps. Combining a man-hunt adventure with a healthy dose of Galactic Empire order, it is a story of a competent cop who meets and is tested by senior management. It is good fun. There’s a bit of ruminating about the characteristics you need to be a person with great powers and responsibility, and how sometimes meeting your heroes is not always a good thing, but nothing really new here. 3 out of 5.
breakdown , by Ms. Hilary Bailey
This story is written by – gasp – a woman! It is good to see a change in this male-dominated magazine. A sign of the times, perhaps. It’s not really a coincidence, though. Ms. Bailey is a friend of Mr. Michael Moorcock, which might explain the connection. As a social-science story, it is OK. The characters visit Neurodram Park, a place where visitors can watch others placed there for cathartic therapy by the Welfare State. This story is really about the voyeuristic attractiveness of watching other’s lives (I’m sure television scratches the same itch) and the need for people to let off steam. Shows us that perhaps we’ve not come that far from Bedlam Asylum of the 1800’s, where members of the public could watch patients. As stories based around an idea go, its OK. It made me think of the dystopian tales that Mr. J. G. Ballard does well, but without the cutting bite of his prose. 3 out of 5.
forty years on , by E. R. James
A time travel story of sorts, although really it is the sort of time travel tale typified by stories like Mr. H. G. Wells’ The Sleeper Wakes. Space miner Greg Dormer finds himself waking from cryogenic sleep forty years on than he expected to be. Seen by some as a hero, with his own Fan Club, in hospital he discovers that he is actually a suspect being investigated for the destruction of his original spaceship and the loss of the rest of the crew. This is a solid enough tale of wish-fulfilment and space piracy. It reads well enough, though the motive for the crime at the end I found a little unconvincing. 3 out of 5.
project 13013 , by Mr. Bill Spencer
Last seen in the July 1963 edition of New Worlds, with The Nothing, Mr. Spencer’s story this month is a run-of-the-mill laboratory tale. This time the drug being trialled is an attempt to achieve life longevity, with (surprise surprise!) its testing having unfortunate side effects. Ho-hum. 3 out of 5.
yutsy brown , by Mr. Pino Puggioni
Here’s something we haven’t seen for a while in New Worlds: a reprint, from a story first published in the author’s native Italian in August of this year. It is clearly part of Mr. Carnell’s commitment to publishing s-f beyond the traditional British and US markets. Others might say, uncharitably, that it is a money-saving effort. Nevertheless, the story is a jaunty tale of the eponymous author of the future meeting one of his harshest literary critics – a publishing machine! yutsy brown is entertaining and not-too-serious, which brought a certain degree of lighter relief to the issue. At the same time it also raises the sobering point that literary criticism is entirely subjective, something I must always bear in mind! In the end it was one of the issue’s stronger stories for me, which, considering my usual low opinion of ‘funny stories’, was a surprise. I must be mellowing. 4 out of 5.
To Conquer Chaos (Part 3 of 3), by Mr. John Brunner.
In the final third part of this serial we find things pretty much tied up. Much of this portion is about the joining-up of the two halves of the plot, when Idle Conrad and Jervis Yanderman meet Nestermay and her grandfather inside the dome of the barrenland. The purpose of the dome is revealed, as is the cause of Conrad’s visions. The general feel is that the story’s a little unbalanced, with a lot being revealed through information-dump in the last few pages. Much of the dialogue goes along the lines of “I don’t know why, you’ll just have to trust me,” which is rather depressingly convenient. Nevertheless, the novel’s been worth a read and it is still one of the most memorable serials of late. It shows what you can get when you get work from an experienced writer. 4 out of 5.
book reviews , by Mr Leslie Flood.
Most highly recommended this month is Mr. Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, which I guess should not be a surprise judging by the comments from your side of the Atlantic. Plaudits also for Mr. Brian Aldiss’s “qualitatively erratic and erotic” The Airs of Earth but Mr. Frederik Pohl’s “failed experiment” The Expert Dreamers is less successful. Worst of all, Mr. Derek Ingrey’s Pig on a Lead is reviewed as “the strangest and most sickeningly desolate (novel), both physically and spiritually” read recently by Mr. Flood. A reason to rush out to your nearest bookshop if ever you needed one.
Personally, I really want a copy of Mr. Isaac Asimov’s anthology of The Hugo Winners, all the novelette and short story winners from Mr. Walter M. Miller’s The Darfsteller in 1955 to Mr. Poul Anderson’s The Longest Voyage in 1961. I have read most of them already, but it is great value.
***
In summary, I’m pleased that this was a fairly solid issue of New Worlds this month. The serial was good, and the reprint of a non-English story has given life to an issue that otherwise would be a little mundane, even with an editorial that discusses the ever-controversial issue of sex in s-f.
Until next month.
I'm not sure about John Brunner. He seems to be developing a reputation, but in my opinion the quality of his work is very uneven. And though he's done a few stories I've liked, he's written some real losers too. Perhaps he'll get better.
John Rackham doesn't seem to have the presence Brunner does – maybe he simply doesn't write as much – and while I'll agree his stories are almost always simplistic, they're also almost always entertaining, even if few people would recommend them for prizes.
Hello, TRX! I agree with you up to a point about Brunner. It may be a case of "quantity over quality" – I have been surprised by how much he has written using pseudonyms, for example! – but this serial (which I suspect will be a novel soon) for me stands out above the rest of the magazine. It's not perfect, and there are some unresolved elements just left in the story, but I liked it a lot.
Are there better out there? I'm sure. But I found it to be one of the better New Worlds serials of late.
Is that because the rest of the magazine by comparison is more mundane? Possibly.
The biggest surprise for me this month was the Puggioni story, which just seemed so much brighter and energetic compared with the usual dystopian tale we seem to get at the moment. (I blame Mr Ballard for that…) It was a much-needed boost.
Brunner's best work, in my view, is across Carnell's desk in SCIENCE FANTASY, which publishes novellas, a length at which Brunner frequently excels. Sometimes these show up as the shorter halves of Ace Doubles. ECHO IN THE SKULL was a particularly good example to my taste of unpretentious fast-moving storytelling with well-drawn characters.
Hi John! I do feel that sometimes I'm missing a trick by not reading Science Fantasy as well as New Worlds… I really must think about it, even if its only to note the overlap in authors between the two publications!
At least you get the option… a foreign subscription is far outside my entertainment budget, but random copies pop up in the local used book stores, likely trade-ins from the nearby air base. The stores normally don't take or shelve pulps, but it's exotic foreign stuff, you know…
We see some Rackham and Brunner in US magazines, but it seems the publishers have very different ideas about what constitutes an appropriate or marketable, so most of what we see is similar to the same old stuff…
I have no idea how magazine distribution works down at the corner-store level, but I wish some of the British magazines could get a toehold here.
Your voice echoes mine, but in reverse: I am occasionally able to get hold of US copies, but it is not really consistent. I have been known to scour copies of my local Woolworths but my search is not always successful! I am envious of my colleagues at the Journey, and like you wish copies were more easily available.
And the views of S-f between Britain and the US do seem to be diverging, don't they? It is one of the things I find most interesting, comparing what you get with what we get. I am interested to see where this so-called "New Wave" in Science Fiction will go, although I'm not a complete fan of all of it.
But such diversity does mean that we're never bored!
I enjoyed "The Birds" also. I believe it's the closest thing to an SF film that the Master of Suspense has given us.
The Beatles still haven't made much of a splash on this side of the pond. There must be something about their music that doesn't translate well for Americans. Maybe I'll get a chance to hear some of it some day and judge for myself.
On the other hand, British (and Italian) SF seems to cross the Atlantic without much trouble.
"Man-Hunt" was, as noted, old-fashioned. I also predicted the twist ending pretty early. It could have easily been published in Analog, I think.
"Breakdown" was interesting sociological satire, if never quite convincing. It could have wound up in Galaxy in the old days.
"Forty Years On" was quite readable. It reminded me of Poul Anderson in a way which I can't quite define. Too bad it ended so quickly, right when it was getting intriguing.
"Project 13013" was very well-written. Although strictly a one-idea story, the notion was a powerful one. I thought it was the best story in the issue.
"Yutzy Brown" was enjoyable. Its sense of comedy was much lighter than the usual SF farces. I don't know if this has anything to do with the author's country of origin.