Tag Archives: new worlds

[March 24, 1970] 200 Not Out (New Worlds, April 1970)

March 24, 2025 Fiona Moore 2 Comments

by Fiona Moore

Greetings from the Island of Formosa, more usually known as the Republic of China! Though the local name for the island is “Taiwan.” I’m here on a visiting fellowship at National Tsinghua University.

The Republic is a hub of electronics and engineering, and so there is a great appetite for SFF here. SF is regarded by the nationalist government as a way of encouraging young people into careers in science, and also SF, of the “if this goes on…” variety, is seen as a vector of “moral teaching”.

Nonetheless, for the past twenty years Taiwan has lagged behind Korea in the production of locally-written SFF. Most what is available is foreign SF works like Asimov and Clarke, in (often not very good, or indeed legal) translation. In fact, some translators leave the author’s name off the novel and pass it off as theirs! The scene is further hampered by restrictions on Japanese cultural products, an understandable reaction to 50 years of Japanese colonisation but nonetheless one which denies Chinese people a wealth of movie and comic-book content.

However, there are signs of change emerging, with the rise of a thriving short SF fiction scene. The appearance of Zhang Xiaofeng’s clone story Pandora in the China Times in 1968 has led to the publication of a lot of stories in mainstream newspapers and magazines, the creation of dedicated SFF magazines, and even an SF short story contest. The government is said to be encouraging the development of a “truly Chinese” SF. Some authors to watch include Chang Shi-Go, an electronics engineer by day and writer by night, Zhang Xiguo, and Huang Hai, who is rumoured to be putting together an anthology of near-future science fiction stories.

Meanwhile, my copy of New Worlds has followed me safely to Asia. It’s the 200th issue: will it mark a new direction for New Worlds, or will it be more of the same old worlds?

You can probably guess.

Cover by Andrew Lanyon

Lead-In

In which Michael Moorcock celebrates New Worlds making it to 200 issues with a rant about how they won’t make it to 300 if the arts council grant doesn’t come through and/or more people don’t buy the magazine. Signs of trouble I fear.

The Dying Castles by Michael Moorcock, Samuel R. Delany and James Sallis

art by Alan Stephanson

A half-page vignette in three sections, I assume written in round-robin style by the authors. It stops just when it seems to get going. Three stars for the prose.

Secret Identity by John Sladek

art by Andrew Lanyon

A modernist spoof of spy fiction. Well written for what it is, but I feel like we’ve been here before: writers have been sending up spy fiction since Ian Fleming got on the bestseller lists. Two stars.

The Floating Nun by M. John Harrison

art by uncredited artist, possibly Andrew Lanyon as he is credited with the rest of the artwork on this story

An excerpt from a longer novel, The Committed Men, yet to be published. It's really quite gripping, featuring a group of travellers trying to cross a post-apocalyptic British landscape, full of mutants and dominated by a sort of perverted cannibalistic folk-horror Christianity. I’m definitely going to look for the full version. Four stars.

The Time Ship by Paul Green

A poem about, well, a time-ship spinning uncontrolled through history. Some good imagery. Three stars.

The Tarot Pack Megadeath by Ian Watson

art by Judy Watson

Of course there’s an Ian Watson story (and there’ll be more Watson content later)—but again, I don’t mind, as he’s the most fresh and original thing in New Worlds at the moment. This is a piece about a US President facing total societal collapse, told through a tarot reading—one suspects that Watson did the tarot reading first and built the story around it, but that’s perfectly legitimate as a tool for inspiration. Sometimes the cards are described and sometimes they’re left for the reader to work out from the content. Four stars.

Two Stories by Gwyneth Cravens

The first is “Abbe Was I Ere I Saw Ebba”, a story having fun with palindromes and etymology. The second is “Literature and the Future of the Obsolete but Perpetual Present by Claude Rene Vague”, a mock essay sending up the more opaque and pretentious forms of literary criticism with a lot of French puns. It’s at least more readable than most experimental stories with a “clever” conceit are. Three stars.

Computer 70: Dreams and Love Poems, Part Two by D.M. Thomas

art by Andrew Lanyon

A continuation of last issue’s poem series. Like last issue’s, there’s some good imagery about machines and loves, but it all goes on a little too long. Two stars.

Gunk Under The Skin by Raymond Johnson

art by R. Glyn Jones

A short piece about a man who gets off on affixing green tape to his secretary’s skin, until she becomes entirely green. A bit creepy and fetishistic. Two stars.

The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod by Philip Jose Farmer

art by Alan Stephanson

The premise for this one is “what if Tarzan was written by William S. Burroughs instead of Edgar Rice Burroughs?” and that’s as far as the joke goes. I got a laugh out of it, particularly its sending up of Tarzan story clichés like Jane seemingly being abducted every five minutes, but it got boring pretty quickly and there was a woman-hating edge to it that I didn’t really get on with. Two stars.

Comic Strip by Judy Watson

art by Judy Watson

Ian Watson’s wife Judy’s previous contribution to the magazine was the surreal cartoon interpretations of Japanese culture from the February issue. I’d thought they were impressive and clearly someone on the editorial staff did too, as she’s back with a visual meditation on women’s anxieties about attractiveness and relationships. Four stars.

Books

Bob Marsden reads the proceedings of the Alpbach Symposium 1968; Joyce (Not A Woman) Churchill thinks that British fantasy is in a dire place because someone is reprinting James Branch Cabell and John Norman has another so-called book out; James Cawthorn quite likes a book by de Camp and Pratt. Note to self: ask campus bookshop to order in the Cabell reprints.

The music review column seems to have been abandoned; on the one hand, this is a shame as it was at least something new for the magazine, but on the other, it wasn’t really contributing anything new to music reviewing.

An advertisement on p. 30 indicates that J.G. Ballard is exhibiting a sculpture called “Crashed Cars” at the Arts Lab. One wonders when he’ll get it all out of his system.

methinks Ballard is getting a bit big for his boots

Overall, this is definitely more a looking-back than looking-forward issue. New Worlds seems to be staying firmly in its wheelhouse for the most part, with the same writers covering the same themes and only the occasional new voice creeping in. Sorry, Michael Moorcock, but I’m afraid at this rate no, we won’t see an Issue 300.

[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]

Follow on BlueSky

2 Comments Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[February 24, 1970] Sex and the Single Writer: New Worlds, March 1970

February 24, 2025 Fiona Moore 2 Comments

by Fiona Moore

This month has seen a few positive developments. In news of the former British Empire, the world welcomes the new Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Guyana (formerly British Guyana) had achieved independence in 1966, but now the country has completely severed governing ties with the U.K., exchanging a Governor General for a ceremonial President. The South American nation is also officially pursuing a somewhat socialistic path, introducing cooperative elements to the economy. May she continue to be a leading member of the Commonwealth!

Former President Forbes Burnham addresses a crowd regarding his plan for a Cooperative Republic in 1969

Meanwhile, Miss Ono is back in the news, as the owner of the London Arts Gallery has been charged with corrupting morals for exhibiting John Lennon’s etchings, which include lithographs of himself and his wife in coitus. I suppose we’ll get to see just how far the Permissive Society goes.

A crowd at the Gallery examines Lennon's art

Which brings us neatly to New Worlds, who seem to be courting similar controversy, or attempting to, anyway. The front cover this month is a file-box of erotic pictures with the heading Does Sex Have A Future? This gives the impression that New Worlds are trying to restore their flagging fortunes by going back to basics: shock the Tories by talking about sex.

Artist/designer uncredited

My immediate fear is, of course, that it will be New Worlds business as usual, full of Philip Roth pastiches and wish fulfilment fantasies on the part of frustrated young white men. Fortunately the resulting issue is better than that. Most of the stories are light on the titillation (if indeed any is present), and heavy on the use of SF to explore the more complex and disturbing aspects of sex.

Lead-In

Mostly highlighting the Sex! theme of the issue, and promoting the Ballard story, so pretty much as usual.

The Sex Machine by Ian Watson

Artist uncredited

Watson is emerging as the new darling of New Worlds. However, I don’t really mind the recent overexposure, as his work has thus far been refreshing and exciting. This one is a really disturbing story about a sentient vending machine for sex, casually used and vandalised in misogynous ways. Five stars.

Agatha Blue by Hilary Bailey

Artist uncredited

Another standout story and another one exploring the misogyny of everyday life. An alien being, curious about human life, inhabits the body of a mentally ill woman; the alien is from an implied-to-be-gender-egalitarian society and finds what she discovers on Earth to be shocking and frustrating. Also five stars.

Princess Margaret’s Facelift by JG Ballard

Art by Charles Platt

Fairly standard Ballard fare, using the clinical description of a facelift to criticise the beauty industry and our attractiveness standards for famous (and non-famous) women. I found it a bit too similar to his story "Coitus 1980" a couple of issues ago, however. Two stars.

Does Sex Have A Future? By John Landau

Artist uncredited

Clearly the answer is “yes”, or we're doomed as a species, but Landau argues that it will become increasingly commodified and solipsistic, due to the combination of technological advances and increasing permissiveness. He imagines a future where a man might never physically meet his partner, but have sex with her through videophones and customised artificial genital-substitutes. It doesn’t sound to me like it’ll catch on. Three stars.

Cinnabar Balloon Tautology by Bob Franklin

A surrealist/absurdist piece, where the unnamed narrator takes a balloon trip with a man and some chickens. They eat eggs and play chess. I suppose it could be about the banality and absurdity of daily life. Two stars.

High in Sierra by Reg Moore

Art by Gabi Naseman

A short vignette. A traveller on an island visits an Indian reservation and is implored to stay, but leaves and regrets it, seeing the reservation as the future. I suppose it’s saying that we should aim for a happy multicultural society that doesn’t depend on capitalism or technology, and yet we fail to achieve it? Anyway, two stars.

Front and Centaur by James Sallis

Art by R. Glyn Jones

Surrealist humour. Two American writers come to London and have a relationship with a woman named Berenice who leaves them for a unicorn. A bit sophomoric. Two stars.

Computer 70: Dreams and Lovepoems by D.M. Thomas

Art by Gabi Naseman

As the title indicates, this is advanced and experimental poetry by Thomas, on the themes of love, sex and/or technology. Some of them are really very good but the whole thing went on a little too long for me. Three stars.

The Terminal by Michael Butterworth

Art by Allan Stephanson

Short vignette/prose poem about a car accident. I think Ballard might have started a trend. I do like Butterworth’s imagery though. Three stars.

Edward at Breakfast by Yannick Storm

Short modernist piece about a man drinking coffee and ruminating on his unsatisfactory relationship, and I suspect his wife leaves him in the end. Didn’t really stick with me. Two stars.

Nest Egg by Sandra Dorman

Art by Ivor Latto

Good heavens, a second woman in the magazine! And one who appears to be actually a woman and not a pseudonym for one of the male regulars! It’s a rather good short story, satirising domestic and consumer culture through paralleling the life of a suburban woman with that of a battery hen. I’m still not entirely enthralled with the way women writers for New Worlds tend to be pigeonholed into the domestic satire/critique genre, but this was a good enough story. Four stars.

Books

William Barclay complains that bad books sell better than good ones; Michael Dempsey gets sarcastic about a volume of art criticism; Joyce (Not Actually A Woman) Churchill reads some nonfiction; John T. Sladek thinks about voting and Peter White finds a social-breakdown novel a little unoriginal.

Music

Ralph T. Castle likes the new album by the Mothers of Invention, but is pretty scathing about everything else that comes out this month. Having recently been subjected, along with the entire campus, to the debut album of Black Sabbath courtesy of an undergraduate playing it at top volume on the fourth floor of Founders Building, I share his disapproval. We should never have let the college go co-educational.

Next month I’m off for a fieldwork trip to the Republic of China (Formosa), where I can update you all on the latest exciting developments in the lives of Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame Chiang! The next issue of New Worlds will be its 200th, and I’m interested to see what they will do to celebrate this milestone.

[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]

Follow on BlueSky

2 Comments Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Serial

[January 22, 1970] Sergeant Pepper's New Wave Writers' Club Band: New Worlds, February 1970

January 22, 2025 Fiona Moore Leave a comment

by Fiona Moore

February’s rain and sleet freeze the toes right off the feet, as Flanders and Swann once sang. Still, there’s reason to celebrate: the Family Law Reform Act has come into effect, reducing the age of majority from 21 to 18 for most purposes, homosexual sex being a notable exception. Decimalisation continues apace, with the half-crown coin being taken out of circulation (don’t worry, you can exchange it at most banks).

Term has resumed at Royal Holloway College and my students are attacking the writings of Margaret Mead with their usual enthusiasm. However, there is also widespread unease among our Nigerian foreign student community over the capitulation of Biafra: many of them have had no news of their families, and are also concerned about when they will be able to go home. The university is rallying round to make sure everyone is housed, and there are jobs aplenty in Southwest London if they need to stay a while, but it is still an anxious situation for them.

Jubilant street scene in Lagos upon the news of surrender, January 12, 1970

No news of Yoko Ono after December’s festive anti-war campaign. Rumour has it she and her husband have gone off to New York for some reason, so I expect I’ll be covering her activities less often. What all this means for her husband’s band, I’m not sure.

On to New Worlds, which continues its trajectory back to being an SFF magazine, but unfortunately almost every story is suffering from a lack of originality this month.

Cover by Roy Cornwall

Lead-In

Mostly introducing new writers and illustrators to the magazine, as well as showcasing the pieces by Ballard and Watson, and drawing the reader’s attention to a new, presumably ongoing, feature of the publication—of which, more later.

Journey Across a Crater by J.G. Ballard

A piece about a crash-landed astronaut finding his way to civilisation. There are resonances with Ballard’s earlier story “You and Me and The Continuum” (Impulse Magazine 1:1, 1966), and also some vivid sexual imagery about car crashes, which makes sense given that the Lead-In tells us Ballard is currently working on a novel about these. Interesting enough as a revisitation of familiar Ballard themes but no new ground broken. Three stars.

Soul Fast by Gwyneth Cravens

Illustration, artist uncredited (possibly Charles Platt)

A story by a woman in New Worlds is always worth remarking on, particularly a woman who is a current editor of the New Yorker. However, I can’t help but notice that women writers in New Worlds always seem to get pigeonholed into writing about domestic or otherwise nurturing themes. This one, for instance, is about food and the role it plays in relationships. There are some interesting satirical commentaries on race and how over-privileged White Americans with superficial attitudes towards spirituality crib from Black and Asian cultures, which makes it worth checking out. Four stars.

Japan by Ian Watson

Illustration by Judy Watson

This is the standout piece of the issue. Watson, a Tokyo resident, introduces Japan to English readers in a surreal, outré travelogue emphasising the weird SF-ness of living in a country where the atmosphere isn’t breathable, earthquakes and fires are endemic, sexual fetishes are catered to in the mainstream media, and consumerism takes on the status of art. The illustrations are by Watson’s wife Judy. It’s beautifully written, though, having been to Japan once or twice myself, I worry that it’s over-emphasising the strangeness of the country to a point where it might simply confirm Europeans’ stereotype that the East is a bizarre and hostile place. Nonetheless, five stars.

Apocrypha by D.M. Thomas

A poem about the life of Jesus. It’s not terribly original, but I did find it engaging and nicely written. Three stars.

6B 4C DD1 22 by Michael Butterworth

Illustration by Alan Stephanson

Another not-terribly-original piece in the vein of “let’s drop acid and describe the resulting trip as an SFF story.” The mind-altered protagonist lurches back and forth between several different realities, some more surreal than others, with recurring characters playing different roles. I like Butterworth’s way with prose, and some of the metaphors and descriptions are genuinely arresting, but I’d like to declare a moratorium on anyone using Alice in Wonderland as an acid trip metaphor; it’s been done to death. Similarly, while I really like the accompanying art, it looks exactly the same as every other set of illustrations intended to show an acid trip (see above). Four stars.

A Spot in the Oxidised Desert by Paul Green

Illustration by John Bayley

A short prose poem from the point of view of a dying sentient tank in a future desert battlefield. Possibly the most innovative piece this issue. Four stars.

The Bait Principle by M John Harrison

Illustration by Ivor Latto

Patients in an asylum begin to share each other’s delusions, and, in doing so, bring them into reality, leading to an ailurophobe being tormented by human-sized cats. This is an amusing twist on the familiar crazy-people-are-actually-seeing-the-truth genre, but at the end of the day that’s all it is. Two stars.

The Wind in the Snottygobble Tree: Conclusion by Jack Trevor Story

Illustration by Roy Cornwall

Finally this serial lurches to an end, with some heavy-handed satire about the Catholic and Scientologist churches, spies and the police. I have the feeling that the story-so-far summary is in fact retroactively adding elements, but I’m not interested enough to go back and find out. The eponymous tree finally appears (it's a species of yew, apparently), but I don’t think it’s got much to do with the story apart from being a bit gross. One star.

A Vid by James Sallis

A short poem which didn’t really do much for me. Two stars.

Books

By Mike Walters, John T. Sladek and Douglas Hill. There’s a delightfully excruciating pun on the first page, although Walters has to contort his review in order to fit it.

Music

As regards the new feature I mentioned above: New Worlds now has a music column! This is certainly a welcome innovation, and I look forward to seeing whether the New Wave has a particularly distinctive take on album reviews.

Overall, I’d say the magazine is suffering this month from a lack of originality. Everything is competently written at worst and sometimes really beautiful, but most of it is things that have been done before. Even the music column is something we see over and over in other magazines, and whether the fact that the reviewers are from the usual New Worlds crowd will make a difference is uncertain.

Is the New Wave played out? Can it (and Mr. Yoko Ono’s musical career) survive into the new decade? Time will tell.

[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]

Follow on BlueSky

No comments Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology

[December 24, 1969] At Last The 1980 Show: New Worlds, January 1970

December 24, 2024 Fiona Moore 2 Comments

by Fiona Moore

Here it is, nearly 1970! What does the UK have to look forward to in the next decade? Already we’ve got a new Doctor Who, a new all-live-action series from the Andersons, and a new currency is coming in. I hope we’ll join the common market and help build a revived Europe. I for one am feeling optimistic.

Meanwhile, what is my favourite provocative pop artist up to? Miss Ono and her husband have launched a festive anti-war campaign, with a giant poster in Piccadilly Circus (and eleven other cities around the world) reading WAR IS OVER IF YOU WANT IT. It makes a change from adverts for American soft drinks and I appreciate the sentiment.
None of the photos I took turned out, but here's the art for the poster.

On to New Worlds. Who are making up for the last couple of issues by giving us some actual SF, with actual illustrations. There’s even a story by a woman! It’s not Pam Zoline though; she’s contributing to this issue, but as an illustrator not a writer. I’ll take what I can get.

Cover by R. Glyn Jones.

Lead-In

Saying (rightly) that the media is overwhelmed with predictions of 1970, which are becoming “as dull as the next moonshot” the editors are celebrating their theme of looking forward to 1980. How many (if any) of the stories actually follow the theme? Let’s find out!

Michael Butterworth: Concentrate 3

Illustration by Charles Platt.

A very short prose piece followed by a poem. I like the imagery of an astronaut freaking out with the feeling of stars crawling over his face but otherwise it seems to read like several opening lines mashed together. Nothing to do with 1980. Two stars.

Graham Charnock: The Suicide Machines

Illustration by R. Glyn Jones, who gets everywhere this issue.

A more developed imagining of a near-future Britain, in an Oxford which has been given fully over to tourism by dull and tedious businesspeople, with “feedies”, a sort of android, as guides and entertainers. Jaded with sex, they seek instead to force the feedies to commit suicide for their pleasure. No indication that this takes place in 1980. Three stars.

R. Glyn Jones: Two Poems, Six Letters

As the title says. Two quatrains, containing only six letters. Not sure the experiment does all that much. Nothing to do with 1980. One star.

Ed Bryant: Sending the Very Best

A fun short piece about near-future man buying a holographic sensory-stimulation greeting card, which leaves the reader wondering wickedly about the recipient and the occasion. Nothing to do with 1980. Four stars.

Hilary Bailey: Baby Watson 1936-1980

Photo by Gabi Nasemann.

This is one of the standout stories for me this issue, if one of the least SF (though one of the only ones to involve 1980). It’s a story in the Heat Death of the Universe vein, making the familiar strange by looking at the lives of ordinary women, with the same surname and born in the same year. It’s a sad story for me, highlighting the way in which the scientific and creative potential of women is squandered on a world not yet ready to accept them as equals. Five stars.

Harlan Ellison: The Glass Teat

Design by unknown artist.

Ellison saves himself some work by writing his usual TV column, but as if it were 1980. Although I wouldn’t have known that if the Lead-In hadn’t told me. It’s a 1980 where the US is at war in various developing nations, has a liar for a President, and is subject to rampant acts of terrorism at the hands of its own citizens. I suppose it’s a “if this goes on…” piece. Two stars.

John Clark: What is the Nature of the Bead-Game?

Photo by Roy Cornwall.

An experimental essay, containing 25 statements and questions the writer apparently posed at the 1969 Third International Writers’ Conference. The aim appears to be the usual New Worlds trick of juxtaposing sentences and having the reader discern meaning from the juxtaposition. Nothing to do with 1980. Three stars.

Michael Moorcock: The Nature of the Catastrophe

Nice to see Jerry Cornelius back with us, though I confess after the efforts of other writers Moorcock’s original version is a little disappointing. Too few descriptions of Jerry’s clothes, I think. There’s a brief mention of 1980 in order to keep this in with the theme, though there are also brief mentions of 1931, 1969, 1970, 1936 and many other years. Otherwise it’s just your usual Cornelius stuff. Two stars.

Thomas M. Disch: Four Crosswords of Graded Difficulty

Not really my favourite Disch (ha ha) of the year. Experimental poems; the first one made me laugh but the others seemed not very interesting. Nothing to do with 1980. One star.

J.G. Ballard: Coitus 80: A Description of the Sexual Act in 1980

Illustration by Charles Platt.

Familiar Ballard stuff this: a brief description of a sexual encounter interspersed with clinical descriptions of plastic surgery related to the genitals and breasts, in order to convey a sense of scientific alienation behind a simple, familiar act. I confess I hadn’t thought what goes into a vaginoplasty or phalloplasty before. It at least takes place in 1980. Three stars.

Brian W. Aldiss: The Secret of Holman-Hunt

A mock essay about an incredible breakthrough taking place in 1980 (yes!). The narrator discovers a way of unlocking the potential of the mind using the art of pre-Raphaelite painter William Holman-Hunt. No more implausible than The Stars My Destination, I suppose, but it failed to hold my attention. Two stars.

John T. Sladek: 198-, a Tale of ‘Tomorrow’

Illustration by Pam Zoline.

Sladek gives us a plausibly dystopian 1980s where computers can call each other up from anywhere in the world, where people’s fertility and happiness are controlled by drugs, and where everything is made of plastic. I find this vision of the future sadly compelling, though of course Sladek has to remind us that he’s Sladek through cutting the columns up and putting them out of order and sideways. Four stars.

M John Harrison, The Nostalgia Story

Another of these stories that are made up of disconnected snippets with the reader invited to make their own connections. One of these is entitled “Significant Moments of 1980” so I suppose it’s on theme. Two stars.

Joyce Churchill: Big Brother is Twenty-One

Illustration by James Cawthorn.

A short essay on Nineteen Eighty-Four, concluding that Huxley was closer to the mark than Orwell: the coming dystopia will most likely be a capitalist one in which we convince ourselves we are happy through the acquisition of material goods, rather than a socialist one based on a war footing. Not exactly looking forward to 1980, but at this point I’ll stretch the definition. Four stars.

Jack Trevor Story: The Wind in the Snottygobble Tree part 3

Photo by Roy Cornwall.

This isn’t getting any better as it goes on, though Story is making it clearer what the situation is with his protagonist (he’s not actually a secret agent, just pretending he is, however, in doing so, he’s wound up being mistaken for a genuine one). Nothing to do with 1980. One star.

Book Reviews: M John Harrison and John Clute (rendered as “John Cute” in the table of contents)

The usual suspects review the usual volumes. Nothing to do with 1980.

Obituary for James Colvin

Spoof obituary for a pseudonym of Barrington J. Bayley and Michael Moorcock. Nothing to do with 1980.

Out of 17 items, eight actually have something to do with the 1980s, broadly defined, and only five have anything to do with 1980 specifically. Nonetheless, this does feel like a more SF-related and livelier New Worlds than we’ve had in a while. Perhaps the new decade will give them a new lease on life? We can only hope!

[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]

Follow on BlueSky

2 Comments Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[November 24, 1969] The Wind That Shakes The Snottygobbles O: New Worlds December 1969

November 24, 2024 Fiona Moore 2 Comments

Tune in at 12:45 pm Pacific for LIVE splashdown coverage of Apollo 12!

by Fiona Moore

Once again, greetings from London. The big news this month is that Britain is now a space power! Yes, thanks to the launch of the Skynet 1-A satellite, we now have our very own presence in orbit. Can regular rocket launches from Woomera be far behind?

Skynet 1-A is GO!

In news that’s closer to home, Royal Holloway College has acquired a colour television for the student lounge, and I’ve been taking advantage of my position as Staff Advisor to the Film Club to make use of it. The students’ new favourite programme is a delightfully surreal children’s stop-motion SF tale called The Clangers, featuring aliens that look like pink mice and live on an asteroid. I much prefer it to Monty Python, myself. One of my more enterprising students has worked out a knitting pattern to make her own; I’m sure an official one will be not long in coming. I shall keep an eye on the Radio Times.

The Clangers, I love them all

On to this month’s, sadly rather thin, issue of New Worlds. Sadly, Britain’s new space-faring ways are not reflected in the magazine’s content. I tend to like New Worlds best when it’s being a SF magazine with a literary sensibility, but this month it is thinking of itself as a literary magazine with a few weird or surreal touches, so I found this issue disappointing. I even found myself missing the Jerry Cornelius segment!

Cover of New Worlds for December 1969

Although it is advertised as a “new writers’ issue”, only two new writers are actually included. Once again, book reviews take up almost a third of the publication. There is no art this issue, only photographs, and by only two photographers, which makes me wonder if they’re saving money by not commissioning drawings.

Their 1970 preview advert suggests they should be back in more SF territory with the next issue, which purports to “look ahead to 1980”, and I hope that’s not wrong.

Lead-in

A short one this issue, mostly highlighting the two new writers, C.R. Clive and Michael Biggs, and encouraging people to buy the abovementioned 1970 first issue, promising us Brian W. Aldiss, Pam Zoline and Thomas M. Disch as well as the usual suspects. We all know how well that went last time, so I’m not holding my breath.

Rise and Fall by Marek Obtulowicz

Photo by Gabi Nasemann

A man named Lykke goes on a few dates with his neighbour, Janet. They have sex and a lot of rather pretentious conversations about autumn leaves. It’s all really rather banal. I struggled to see the point of it all. Two stars.

Hemingway by Michael Biggs

As the title suggests, a Hemingway pastiche about a reporter going to Vietnam. It’s a skilful enough evocation of Hemingway’s style and fairly exciting, and I suppose it’s got the subtext of comparing the current ongoing, seemingly neverending, conflict with the wars Hemingway himself covered. I’m not a huge Hemingway fan but it at least held my attention. No illustrations. Three stars.

Graphics and Collages by Ian Breakwell

One of the better collages

As the title suggests: collages of text and pictures forming illustrated short-short stories or prose poems. A portrait of squalor, a joke about an electrician, something about sports and physical culture, a factual article about skin grafts juxtaposed with images of radios and televisions, a piece of what looks like found poetry about business. As with a lot of these things it didn’t really appeal to me, though apparently it appeals to the editors of New Worlds. Two stars.

The Last Awakening by C.R. Clive

Photo by Gabi Nasemann

This is the only story this issue that could really be described as SF, a postapocalyptic narrative mostly involving a forty-four-year-old man leching over a teenage girl with the excuse that they’re the only ones left alive. If I didn’t know the author was 27 I would have put it down to wish fulfilment. The prose is pretty good, with some nicely evocative touches about the postapocalyptic landscape, but I wish it had been put in the service of something less predictable. Two stars.

The Wind in the Snottygobble Tree Part II (a Jack Trevor Story)

Photo by Roy Cornwall

Not much of an improvement on part I, really, other than that there’s less improbable sex and more time devoted to making it ambiguous whether our protagonist, Marchmont, is a secret agent or just an innocent caught in the crossfire. Apparently it’s to be continued next month. I can’t say I’m terribly looking forward to it. One star.

Book Reviews

Our esteemed editor has told me that I don’t need to review the book reviews, so I won’t go into too much detail about these. However, there are a couple this issue that are worth checking out. J.G. Ballard reviews Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, treating it as a psychological portrait of a man obsessed with hygiene and pseudo-biology. Elsewhere, John T. Sladek reviews Erich von Daaniken’s Chariots of the Gods, getting more and more scathing as he gets further and further into the weeds; as someone who absolutely loathes that book and rues the impact it has had on some of our more impressionable undergraduates, I giggled all the way through it. Finally, Michael Moorcock has a go at The Neophiliacs, which is somewhat more long-winded than Sladek’s review of von Daaniken but no less scathing.

Advert for John and Yoko's Wedding Album, because I can.

In closing, I shall torment the Yoko Ono anti-fan club in my audience by revealing that the last page is an advert for her and John Lennon’s Wedding Album. Sorry, people; she’s here to stay. I understand that her husband is handing back his MBE in protest at the British government’s positions on Biafra and Vietnam. Sadly, I don’t think it’ll make much difference.

[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]

Follow on BlueSky

2 Comments Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology

(October 26, 1969) Loose Change: New Worlds, November 1969

October 26, 2024 Fiona Moore 1 Comment

by Fiona Moore

The big news over here this month is the introduction of the fifty-pence piece, replacing the ten-shilling note. It’s the beginning of decimalisation! Finally they are bringing us into line with the rest of the world.

My students are currently enamoured of a new wacky surreal sketch-comedy programme, a spiritual descendant of At Last The 1948 Show, called Monty Python’s Flying Circus. What I’ve seen of it suggests it’s a bit hit-and-miss, but it’s early days yet.

Anyway, on to New Worlds! Who, readers may notice, have missed a month. There’s an apology in the Lead-In for the “slightly erratic” publication schedule, and I hope it’s not more signs of trouble for the mag. Which, once again, has a table of contents bereft of women. The cover promises us JACK TREVOR STORY’S NEW NOVEL—don’t worry, it’s serialised, not the whole thing.

Cover of November 1969 issue, by John Bayley

Lead-In

This month, the Lead-In mostly introduces Jack Trevor Story and his exciting background, which includes suing the police for terrorisation. The relevance of this fact will become obvious shortly. Elsewhere, I’m pleased to read that Langdon Jones has a new anthology coming out, but sorry that Thomas M. Disch’s Camp Concentration hasn’t been well received, since he’s one of my favourite New Wave writers. Finally, I’m glad that Ian Watson, a young British writer living in Tokyo with whom I’ve cultivated some acquaintance on trips to the Far East, has a story this issue.

The Wind in the Snottygobble Tree, by Jack Trevor Storey

Art by Roy Cornwall and definition of Snottygobble

Despite all the buildup, I didn’t really like this one. A man who works in a travel agent’s is either correctly or falsely suspected of abetting espionage, and goes on the run from Special Branch, during which time he has rather more sex than one would imagine a fairly boring and egotistical fellow like this would have in real life. Two stars.

New and Reasonably New Poems, by Thomas M. Disch

Art by J Myrdahl

I like Disch as a prose writer, but hadn’t read his poems before. There are seven, and they’re what you might expect from Disch; full of body horror and sharp wit, with themes like politicians, surgery and really bad sex. Four stars.

The Girl Who Went Home to Sleep…, by Jannick Storm

Art and words by Jannick Storm

This is an experimental/concrete piece, with verses underneath photographs of a girl, as advertised, going home and sleeping. It took me two tries to work out how to read it (start with the sentence in block capitals, then read the three above it in reverse order, and then the three below it in normal order– you can follow along at the illustration above) but once I did it was fine. The story itself is a little vignette about a woman having an affair and maybe regretting it, or maybe not. Three stars.

Roof Garden under Saturn, by Ian Watson

Art by R Glyn Jones; wow.

This piece is set in a future world under Saturn (presumably on one of its moons), which is a giant department store, where capitalism has run riot and is taken to its logical but most absurd extremes. Our protagonists, Suzuki and Kim, try in various ways to escape or resist this culture: One succeeds, the other fails. It’s refreshing to read a story with Asian protagonists (one of them Korean!), and it’s also mostly free of Orientalist imagery. Clearly, it helps to have stories about Asia from people who actually live there! Four stars.

Alien Territory, by John T. Sladek

The first page of "Alien Territory" by John T. Sladek

Another of these concrete poems/stories/literary experiments that New Worlds likes. The story, about a photojournalist covering a war and becoming increasingly traumatised by it, consists of fragmented paragraphs which can be read in several different orders, and it was fun reading it a few different ways and seeing how the results compared. Again, you can see what I mean from the above picture. Three stars.

Travel to the Sun with Coda Tours, by Chris Lockesley

art by Peter Southern

A charming short piece about a man overcoming suicidal despair and coming to realise there’s joy in the world after all. The prose is lovely and the descriptions of finding beauty in a drab high street are worth reading. Three stars.

The End of the Cycle, by Langdon Jones

Art by R Glyn Jones

This is the Jerry Cornelius episode for this issue, and the New Worlds team seem to be becoming bored with them, as it’s in the form of a poem. It reads almost as self-parody, with verses about Jerry’s clothes, and sex, and time travel, but at least it’s a) a novelty and b) short. Two stars.

Books: John Clute, “Pouring Down”

John reviews Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural acts, a short fiction collection by Donald Barthelme; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; Barefoot in the Head by Brian Aldiss; Steps by Jerzy Kosinski; Babel by Alan Burns; and The Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith. He couches it all in terms of the American versus the European novel, which gives the piece thematic unity. He’s ambivalent about most of them, but quite likes the Kosinski and the Burns (though he warns the latter might be offputting to Burns neophytes). He really doesn’t like the Vonnegut.

M John Harrison, “The Tangreese Gimmick”

John reviews The People Trap, a short fiction collection by Robert Sheckley; The New Minds by Dan Morgan; Emphyrio by Jack Vance; The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction (Eighteenth Series); and The Herios Gamos of Sam and An Smith, by Josephine Sexton. He really likes the Vance and the Sexton, heavily recommending the latter, and it does sound like something that’s worth checking out.

R Glyn Jones, “Coke Culture’

An example of pop art; well, something is popping anyway.

Glyn reviews Pop Art Redefined, by John Russell and Suzi Gablik and Image as Language by Christopher Finch. He finds the former overstated, and praises the latter for not trying to fit art into “movements” but instead approach artists individually.

So, will we get an issue next month or won’t we? I’ll leave readers on a cliffhanger…just as they've left me!

1 Comment Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[August 22, 1969] Peake District: New Worlds September 1969

August 22, 2024 Fiona Moore 7 Comments

by Fiona Moore

Hello! I’m taking over the New Worlds reviews from Mark Yon, which is a little intimidating, but I hope I’ll be able to live up to his excellent legacy.

On the UK Star Trek broadcast front, I missed “Mudd’s Women” due to having to take a work trip to Glasgow, but “A Taste of Armageddon” was decent anti-war satire if a bit heavy-handed. Having seen a few episodes in colour on trips to North America, I have to say it works less well in black and white, but at least we do get the idea.

Cover for New Worlds, September 1969

Lead-In (New Worlds 194) by The Publishers

This is brief, without the edge of hysteria from last month, which leads me to hope that they’ve got the financial issues under control. It’s also good to know that JG Ballard has a collection coming out, The Atrocity Exhibition. The lineup this month features regular contributors and well-known people on the New Wave scene, but perhaps it’s a little too conservative as a result. Three stars.

A Place and a Time to Die by JG Ballard

Art by Mal dean

This story is about an implied Chinese Communist takeover of an implied USA, though with a degree of vagueness as to time and place. It follows two men attempting to hold the line as the invaders, or maybe exponents of an internal coup, come into town. This is a bleak description of warfare; no one is heroic and everyone is ugly. It also highlights how ideological takeovers can be more powerful than armed ones. Four stars.

Pictures from an Exhibition 9 and 10 by Giles Gordon

Artist unknown

Two vignettes, inspired by pictures in a Sunday colour supplement, and part of a longer work. The two pictures have little in common apart from featuring in the same publication, and the point seems to be both to draw narratives out of the images and to highlight how newspapers juxtapose unrelated imagery, causing the reader to look for meaning. Three stars.

Transplant by Langdon Jones

The text of Transplant, with concrete effects

A concrete poem about a heart transplant. It’s dramatic and evocative, making one think about how horrific even a life-saving surgical procedure really is. Cutting open humans and sticking new hearts in them is a horrifiying idea, and yet lives are saved. Four stars.

The Incomplete Science by B.J. Bayley

This is a non-fiction piece on economics, a concept SFF writers ignore far too often. The author presents two sets of economic dynamics, one relating to production and the other to land values, and concludes without reconciling them. The subject is very interesting but unfortunately it’s also very dry. Two stars.

The Capitol by George MacBeth

This is a series of sonnets that appear to be found poetry, a set of lines from newspaper stories all thrown together out of context. Like “Pictures at an Exhibition”, the only real meaning I could discern was to point out the absurdity of capitalism and journalism. I’m afraid it left me cold. Two stars.

The Party at Lady Cusp-Canine’s by Mervyn Peake

Art by, of course, Mervyn Peake

This is one of the issue’s highlights, including an essay by Langdon Jones. It seems that the original edition of Peake’s posthumous novel Titus Alone excluded a lot of good material and was poorly edited, and Jones has done a lot of work trying to develop a new edition which is closer to what Peake intended. As a Peake fan I’m thrilled by the news, and hoping that the revived Titus Alone will be something more in the style of the first two Gormenghast novels. The excerpt is certainly in line with Peake’s ascerbic wit, capturing the brittle nastiness of cocktail parties with a plethora of evocative animal names and similies. There is also brief news about another posthumous novel by Peake coming out, Mr Pye, which should be worth comparing to his earlier fiction. Five stars.

Lines of White on a Sullen Sea by Maxim Jakubowski

Art by Mal Dean

This is the latest in the ongoing shared-author story featuring Jerry Cornelius. It doesn’t make any more sense than the other ones, but making sense is less of a priority than evoking a mood. Jerry is preoccupied with a Chinese rival; a female Cornelius turns up; there are lovely descriptions of clothes, and characters with absurd names like Treblinka Durand. If you liked the previous entries you'll probably like this. Three stars.

Books (New Worlds 194)

This issue contains no less than five full pages of book reviews, making the reviews section longer than any of the stories. This is a bit much, particularly given the magazine’s current reduced page count.

Slum Clearance by John Clute

John Clute's book reviews

Clute reviews Omnivore by Piers Anthony, Let the Fire Fall by Kate Wilhelm, Retief: Ambassador to Space by Keith Laumer, Brother Assassin by Fred Saberhagen, The Mezentian Gate, an unfinished novel by by E.R. Eddison, and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. He quite likes the Le Guin, is scathing about the Anthony, Laumer and Saberhagen, and mixed on everything else. Three stars.

Come Alive—You’re in the William Sanson Generation by Joyce Churchill

Churchill reviews Death Goes Better with Coca Cola by Dave Godfrey, Cape Breton is the Thought Control Centre of Canada by Ray Smith, Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick, The Island Under The Earth by Avram Davidson, and Penguin Modern Stories. She doesn’t seem too happy with any of them, and her comments didn’t leave me wanting to read any of them other than out of morbid curiosity. Two and a half stars.

Getting it Out by Norman Spinrad

Spinrad’s book review article, unlike the other two actually has a theme: he focuses on the output of Essex House, a paperback line whose agenda is to be for pornography what the New Wave has been to SF, leading to a subgenre of “speculative erotic fiction”. He reviews Season of the Witch by Hank Stine, Biker by Jane Gallion, the Agency trilogy by David Melzer, Evil Companions by Michael Perkins and A Feast Unknown by Philip Jose Farmer. Spinrad makes some of them, at least, sound intriguing. I’m going to keep an eye out for the Stine, a gender-bending body horror that sounds up my street. Four stars.

While at first glance it looks like the magazine is back on an even keel after last month’s financial woes, I’m still a bit worried. The writers are all White men with one exception (who I suspect is also White). Meanwhile, a recent trip to see Yoko Ono’s latest show has reminded me that London’s art and film and literature scene is simply exploding with talented people from all over the world. If NW wants to survive, simply writing about sex isn’t original enough any more; it needs to bring in some of the new voices on the scene.

7 Comments Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[July 28, 1969] New Worlds – on a Budget, August 1969

July 28, 2024 Mark Yon 10 Comments

by Mark Yon

Scenes from England

Hello again!

Well since last month we’ve had the Moon landing, which I’m sure you’ve read all about from my colleagues here at Galactic Journey. It was quite exciting here in England too, even if events were happening well into the early morning hours.

Secondly, we’ve started showing episodes of Star Trek here in Britain.

Programme description from The Radio Times, 12th July.

As the picture above from the Radio Times (the British BBC version of the TV Guide) shows, on July 12 I had chance to see Where No Man Has Gone Before. What a treat! How great to see Gary Lockwood from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I loved Sally Kellerman. Not a bad start.

On the 19th July we saw The Naked Time, and last Saturday we saw The City on the Edge of Forever, which was a wonderful episode, and perhaps my favourite so far. According to the Radio Times, I understand we next see A Taste of Armageddon. Although a limited run, I hope they are all as good as what we’ve seen so far (although my colleagues here suggest they might not be!)

Anyway, back to New Worlds, number 193. There are a number of changes this month, most noticeably the price reduced – from 5 shillings to 3 shillings and sixpence – but also the fact that it is a thinner magazine. This issue is down to 34 (admittedly A4-sized) pages this month, from 68 last – half the size of what was a usual issue. More on this later.

Cover by Charles Platt

After the last two impressive covers by Mal Dean, we’re back to boring old nondescriptive images this time. Another sign perhaps that things are being done on the cheap. Don’t think this is going to persuade readers to buy the magazine, though with most sales becoming subscription based, the cover is partly irrelevant. You’ve paid your money up-front, after all.

Lead-In by The Publishers

You might remember me last month commenting on New Worlds celebrating five years of being the new version of the magazine, with its new agenda and format. This month the editor (this issue, it’s Charles Platt) takes it further. The first line of the Lead In is a bold statement: New Worlds “is not a science fiction magazine.”

What was hinted at last month is now written in detail – an explanation of what has been going on recently, followed by a flag-waving, trumpeting statement of intent, a clarification and exemplification of what Michael Moorcock, Charles Platt, Langdon Jones and others have said pretty much since they took over about five years ago. This introduction tells us that the journey has not been easy. Here is the statement in full:

Gravity by Harvey Jacobs

Photo by Gabi Nasemann

Jacobs last appeared with The Negotiators in the May 1969 issue. Gravity is a science-fiction story, despite what the editors proclaim, although the science fictional elements are really just background. A bored woman, married to an astronaut who has just gone into space, has an affair with a computer programmer. Cue lots of sexual references whilst meditating on the more esoteric elements of life, space and the universe. Oddly enough, I was not thinking about this whilst watching Apollo 11. 3 out of 5.

Poetry by D. M. Thomas

Four poems by D. M. – X, Grief, End of a Viking Settlement and Yseult. Little for me to say here, as normal. The first poem is “based upon The Cold Equations, a story by Tom Godwin”, although you’ll be hard pressed to find anything more than a general connection. This version is basically sex, allied with a different poem in the margin. 3 out of 5.

The Nash Circuit by M. John Harrison

Sketch by R. Glyn Jones

And here we have M. John Harrison’s go at a Jerry Cornelius story. This one is as diverse as ever – it has Albert Einstein, a visit to Vegas (the real one this month!), destruction at Madam Tussaud's waxworks, and a map of Vatican City. Like the Spinrad story last month, I enjoyed it, but Harrison’s is not as out-there as those stories previous to it. 3 out of 5.

The Entropic Gang Bang Caper by Norman Spinrad

And talking/typing of Norman Spinrad, here he is with a satirical story about war – an ongoing battle between protestors and the police and the military, written in that cut-up style we’ve seen before. It all ends up happily ever after at the end. 3 out of 5.

Like Father by Jon Hartridge

Photo by Gabi Nasemann

A new writer at New Worlds. The story of Fingest, a man devoted to satisfying his basest instincts, travelling from the 23rd century to create Mankind. A sort of anti-2001 A Space Odyssey, with Fingest producing a child in the Neolithic and then teaching it how to fight using weapons. It doesn’t end well. Moonwatcher, this is not! 3 out of 5.

Book Reviews by R. Glyn Jones

R. Glyn Jones (who seems to be everywhere this month!) reviews an art book by John Berger. No room for anything involving science fiction this month.

Summing up New Worlds

This is very much a slimline issue. Although cheaper, it is noticeably thinner, and with a limited range of photos and drawings throughout (no Mal Dean this month!), we seem to be pulling back on the reins a little here.

It almost feels like we’re back to the bad old days at the end of C. J. Carnell’s editorialship. I suspect that despite the pleas from the editor to keep buying, subscription-eers who were barely keeping an interest will bail out at this point, as regular buyers paying the same price for a magazine half its normal length cannot be a good thing.

And that’s a shame. Despite being shorter, it’s not a bad issue, even though the scores are determinably average.

What is important is that despite its shorter length, there’s still enough of it to be recognisably New Worlds – including D. M. Thomas’s poetry, but you can’t have everything.

However, it is at this point that I think New Worlds has become a magazine of more literary interest than anything vaguely science fiction – although I see that J. G. Ballard is back next month.

With that in mind, I should say that this issue is the last that I will review, at least for now.

For the record, I have reviewed every issue of New Worlds (and Science Fantasy and Impulse) since the September 1962 issue, number 122. Seven years on, and 71 issues of New Worlds, 15 issues of Science Fantasy magazine and 12 issues of Impulse later, I think it’s time for a rest, and to give a chance to give someone else at Galactic Journey to make comments. (Don’t worry, though – I’m sure that you are in very capable hands!)

It seems an appropriate point to step off here.

Looking back, I am still surprised how much the magazine has evolved, from a magazine with standard science fiction stories to what it is today – a deliberately provocative and determinedly different magazine, one that doesn’t rest on its laurels, nor goes quietly. Much of that is due to the sheer doggedness of Michael Moorcock, Charles Platt (who has edited this issue), Langdon Jones and others. It has been an interesting journey.

I have enjoyed my time here a great deal, and even when all of the prose has not been to my taste, I’d like to think that generally I have appreciated the effort (except perhaps the poetry!) I have always tried to be honest, which I hope has been entertaining and useful. I further hope at least some of the comments have been interesting and /or informative.

Despite my reservations, I will read future issues with interest and look forward to reading what others have to say about the issue, without feeling the need to judge or make comment – although I’m sure that may happen!

Thank you to everyone – the supportive team here at Galactic Journey, and to those of you who have passed on your (usually) kind comments. They have always been appreciated.

10 Comments Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[June 26, 1969] Five Years… New Worlds, July 1969

June 26, 2024 Mark Yon Leave a comment

by Mark Yon

Scenes from England

Hello again!

As we are now into Summer here, the warmer weather leads to reflection, if not introspection, although I am quite excited about the next few months. Not only do we have the impending Apollo mission to land men on the Moon – and how exciting does that sound! – but as I mentioned last month we also have Star Trek starting on the BBC in July. Such news even reached the national newspapers here.

The only annoying part of that last event is that I understand that the Beeb will not show all of them but a selection, chosen from all three seasons. I hope I’m wrong, but as the series is filling in time between July and new Doctor Who in the Autumn, it sounds likely.

More positively, though, and partly based on the comments from my colleagues here at Galactic Journey, I feel that seeing any Star Trek at all has to be good. I’m just pleased that we will have chance to see them here, albeit in black and white – no colour telly luxury for me, I’m afraid. Most British viewers do not have colour televisions.

Anyway, back to New Worlds, issue 192.
Cover by Mal Dean

Another great cover by Mal Dean – that’s two in a row. This one is illustrating Norman Spinrad’s story, The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde.

Lead-In by The Publishers

It's not just me that's in a reflective mood this month – this Lead In points out that the magazine has been five years in its current format and brings us up to date with what’s been happening to the magazine over that time: financial worries, subscription issues, publisher issues and the refusal of certain shops to sell the magazine in public.

It’s a sobering read and yet in the end a positive one, celebrating that the magazine has lasted five years in its current format and with its new agenda.

Coincidentally, this introduction also tells us that Norman Spinrad is now a resident here in Britain, which may or may not be in part due to the publication of Bug Jack Barron in this magazine.

The Garden of Delights by Langdon Jones

Photo by Gabi Nasemann

This may be one of the best Langdon Jones stories I’ve read. It’s not for the easily shocked – as is de rigueur for New Worlds. It’s sexually graphic and basically deals with the story of an incestuous relationship between a boy and his mother. I liked the time travel aspect of the story, although it’s not a new science-fiction thing. 4 out of 5.

The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde by Norman Spinrad

Drawing by Mal Dean

Wherein Spinrad is the latest author to write about Mike Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius. (The last was Brian W. Aldiss in last month’s issue.) The Beatles, Russians, Mongolians, a facsimile of Las Vegas in China. Chaotic and satirical (what would you expect from the author of Bug Jack Barron? Not a bad effort, frankly. 4 out of 5.

Erogenous Zone by Graham Charnock

Drawing by Mal Dean

The fourth story based in Graham’s world, CRIM – the first was in New Worlds in November 1965, the third last month. It’s a strange world, where advertising is an essential part of society. It’s a two-act story, one where Craven Image (great name! – but also not-coincidentally ‘CR…IM’) is in a car accident and taken to the hospital afterwards, and another where a dying man is being watched by his daughter and her spouse. Not a story to make sense, but lots of vivid imagery and sex. The world is both odd and depressing, with talk of the Dresden bombings, amongst other things. I’m reminded of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 a little, although not quite as ‘out there’ as that. 3 out of 5.

Article: The Shape of Further Things by Brian W. Aldiss

Unknown source.

A non-fiction article from Mr. Aldiss, with the promise of more to follow at a later date. It is written more as a monologue, combining Aldiss’s own life with ruminations of life, technology and H. G. Wells. Odd, but engaging. 4 out of 5.

Surface If You Can by T. Champagne

Drawing by Mal Dean

According to the Lead In, Terry Champagne is a sculptor and an author. Her first story here in Britain is about a young couple who rent a fallout shelter as a home, only to find themselves sealed in when what appears to be nuclear bombs fall outside. A surprisingly straightforward story, with a twist at the end, given the New Worlds treatment by including lots of sex and even necrophilia. There’s also cockroaches. 4 out of 5.

Circularisation by Michael Butterworth

And here’s this issue’s attempt to break down traditional prose format by creating a number of ‘radial-planographic condensed word image structures’, rotated around a point. As these things go, I quite liked the concept of these, although I disliked the fact that the author felt he had to explain them for pages at the end. The actual content is symbolic nonsense, of course. 3 out of 5.

An Experiment in Genocide by Leo Zorin

Artist drawings are unlabelled, but possibly by Mal Dean

Leo Zorin’s odd snippets of prose seem to be well-liked by New Worlds readers (or is that editors?) I’m less impressed by most, although this one was more accessible. This one’s about a pervert (actually described as such in the text!) wandering a world of Ballardian car accidents and grotesque characters that feel like they’ve mutated from Moorcock’s world of Elric. More visual, mixed-up imagery as a result. 3 out of 5.

Perjoriative by Robert E. Toomey Jr.

A story that begins with a one-armed man and a dwarf on a bus and ends with a mushroom cloud. A typical New Worlds story of oddness, reminiscent of the rant-y elements of Bug Jack Barron. 3 out of 5.

Book Reviews: Terrible Biological Haste by Kenneth Coutts-Smith
Where Kenneth Coutts-Smith looks at the work of artist Aubrey Beardsley.

Book Reviews: Fourteen Shillings Worth of Grass by R. G. Meadley

R. G. Meadley reviews Gunter Grass’s Dog Years as well as a book of his poetry.

Book Reviews: Paperbag by Joyce Churchill

Joyce Churchill (also known as M. John Harrison) reviews some science fiction books, including Edmund Cooper’s “dated” Deadly Image, Anne McCaffrey’s Decision at Doona (from “the Enid Blyton of science fiction”), Michael Frayn’s satire The Tin Men, John Jakes’s The Planet Wizard, M. P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud and (unsurprisingly) saves the plaudits for Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron, lastly taking a pop at the editor of Ace Books, Donald A. Wollheim, with a quote from his review of Bug Jack Barron;

Book Reviews: The Sexual Gothic Private Eye Caper by Charles Platt

Charles Platt reviews The Image of the Beast by Philip Jose Farmer very positively.

Book Reviews: The Quality of Justice by David Conway

Back to the non-genre stuff. David Conway reviews a philosophical book on the quality and justice of our social practices.

Summing up New Worlds

I was surprised and pleased to find that on balance I enjoyed this more than the last issue. Spinrad makes a decent stab of a Jerry Cornelius story, the Langdon Jones is acceptable (a fairly standard science fiction idea given the New Worlds treatment of sex and incest) and some good work from new writers as well. I even found the poetry less annoying than usual, although I readily accept that I was more interested in the process of creating rather than the content of the poetry.

What was most memorable however was the fighting talk given by the editors at end of the Lead In at the beginning of the issue. As shown here, New Worlds has not been without its difficulties over the past five years, but based on this it looks like it is determined to fight for its place in a literary market.

Anyway, that’s it, until next time.

No comments Leave A Comment

Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[May 26, 1969] Cornelius Overload! New Worlds, June 1969

May 26, 2024 Mark Yon 3 Comments

by Mark Yon

Scenes from England

Hello again!

The continuing voyage of the new-new-new New Worlds continues apace. (Apologies – I’m still recovering from being told that it looks like the BBC are finally – finally! – going to show Star Trek over here starting in the Summer!)

Anyway, on to this month’s issue.

Cover by Mal Dean

Well, that’s better!! After the succession of frankly dull covers with faces on, this is a breath of fresh air – scarily dark, vivid, startling – never has Jerry Cornelius looked more frightening. Should get casual readers interested!

Lead-In by The Publishers

The fact that we have two stories of Jerry Cornelius this month is heralded by the Lead-In, as it should.

A Cure for Cancer (Part 4 of 4) by Michael Moorcock
Drawing by Mal Dean

As we reach the end of the story things begin to make some sense, although to some extent the point of the story is to be confusing, I think!

It is still non-linear, almost dadaist in its narrative structure. This is a story less about plot and more about the little vignettes, scattered across different times and different universes. At times the contradictory nature of these elements add to the confusion.

Keeping it simple, Jerry manages to retrieve the gizmo he has been chasing over the last three parts and we now know that it is important because it allows the user to control multiple universes and see all the alternatives at once. As a result, characters we thought had gone now reappear – Bishop Beesley, Jerry’s brother Frank, Mitzi, and most important to Jerry, his sister Catherine.

The Cure for Cancer is perhaps most important for being an indicator of the times. It is the sort of story I think you need to read with Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced? or the Beatles’ White Album playing in the background – both artists have been mentioned in the narrative. Its thoughts on race, war (deliberately satirising Vietnam) and sexual freedom are indicative of being made for an angry, disillusioned and, perhaps most of all, young readership. 4 out of 5.

Three Events of the Same View by John G. Chapman

Another one of those anti-religious stories New Worlds likes. In the first part, Pope Honorius is imprisoned in a castle by the cardinals after declaring there is no God. In the second, a domestic scene involving a garden shed and a request to store cadavers there before an Undertakers Convention. In the third, the view is from a Commandant in a concentration camp. Nice prose, but if there’s a connection, I couldn’t see it. 3 out of 5.

Playback by Granville Hawkins

An un-named narrator uses illegal equipment to play back a recording of sex. It unfolds that the recording is of his wife, who with their children has been killed in a destroyed London by the moralistic "Calvs". As a final act of defiance, our narrator shows the unlawful recording to the public by projecting it onto a chapel wall. It doesn’t end well. An odd yet memorable story, well written, graphically depicting a dystopian future – rather like Orwell’s 1984 meets the Night of the Long Knives, with racist hangings, castrations and sex. 3 out of 5.

Babel by Alan Burns

Drawing by Mal Dean

An author on his debut here. This is a story that has paragraphs, each a different story. In other words, this is Ballard-type pastiche, which could be good, but this is filled with such stream of consciousness nonsense that it feels like a bad hallucinogenic drug trip. For example: “Men are opening the Moon. Streams of wheels have springs of space.” 2 out of 5.

Between the Tracks by Ron Pagett and Tom Veich

A story with the same events repeated over and over, but slightly different each time. Most begin with a ‘boy’ travelling along ‘the tracks’ but things are not what they seem. Allegorical tale, with nods to Bradbury’s Martian stories, I noticed. Nicely done, but I’m not sure I ‘got it’. 3 out of 5.

Spoor by Alan Passes

Photograph by Gabi Nasemann

A story about a man searching for Jayne in a Royal Park. Along the way a number of people around him are suddenly eaten by dangerous animals – a lion, an alligator. At the end he finds Jayne fornicating with a gorilla. I get the impression that all this is meant to be funny (“Me Tarzan, you Jane”, perhaps?), but I just found it unpleasant and meaningless. Another dream-state tale. 2 out of 5.

Flower Gathering by Langdon Jones

Langdon Jones’s latest piece, text written out in pretty patterns (which is rapidly becoming a prose-thing that I hate) to say THE GARLANDS OF LOVE WEAVE FOR US – or is that WEAVE FOR US THE GARLANDS OF LOVE? I guess this is an attempt to give prose a new form, but for me pretty meaningless. 1 out of 5.

Sub-Entropic Evening by Graham Charnock

Photograph by Gabi Nasemann

We’re back in Graham’s CRIM-world for this one. (The first was in New Worlds in November 1968, the last in the March issue three months ago.) This is a story where nothing is what it seems, another set of descriptions written as if the people are in a drug-induced, dream-like state. Jones, Dragon, Velma, and Cat live near an Arena where people seen as enemies of the state are routinely incinerated, and there’s a music concert played by musicians which can cause blindness and death in some sort of suicide pact. It’s all vivid but odd and rather unpleasant. Not a place I’d want to live in, but I guess that is the point. 3 out of 5.

The Fermament Theorem by Brian W Aldiss

Drawing by Mal Dean

In which Brian Aldiss takes up the mantle to write a Jerry Cornelius story. Earlier in the year Mike Moorcock did say that the sharing of the Jerry Cornelius character was about to happen. Is it any good? It is such a confused mess of satire, social commentary and sex that readers will either think of it as a work of genius or be horrified by the unstructured elements claiming to be a story.

Drawing by Mal Dean

I enjoyed it, even if I’m not sure I understood it all. There’s a story in there about the origin of the solar system being allied to the Moon and sex, comments on popularism and culture, not to mention lots of obscure references to people such as astronomer and science fiction writer Fred Hoyle, the Archbishop of Canterbury and author Robert Graves. In summary, Aldiss manages to take the key characteristics of a JC story – fluid sexuality, references to culture, fashion and society – and turn them into a satirical commentary – I think. What I found most interesting was that although Cornelius barely appears in the story, Aldiss has managed to write a Jerry Cornelius story in Moorcock’s style. It doesn’t feel out of place in the Jerry Cornelius series, although lighter in tone than A Cure for Cancer. I’ll give it 4 out of 5, although I accept that it could score anywhere between 2 (unstructured mess) – and 5 (work of genius!) depending on the person reading it.

Book Reviews: Use Your Vagina by J. G. Ballard

Advertisement from the back cover for the reviewed book.

In which J. G. Ballard reviews in detail a “sexual handbook.” Wouldn’t happen in Analog!

Book Reviews: The Boy from Vietnam by M. John Harrison

More relevant, perhaps, Harrison reviews a collection of two stories, one by Aldiss and one by Ballard in a book entitled The Inner Landscape, with varying degrees of success. Harrison then claims that Aldiss is “on better form” with his collection of five novellas in Intangibles, Inc. Eric Burdick’s Old Rag Bone is a non-genre book seemingly dealing with Catholic guilt.

Lastly and in keeping with contemporary themes, Harrison reviews Norman Mailer’s Why Are We in Vietnam? reminding me that the magazine is sold in the US as well as England. The book was reviewed in more detail by Douglas Hill in the March 1968 issue of New Worlds.

Book Reviews: The Comrade from Ploor by James Cawthorn

James Cawthorn generously reviews E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Subspace Explorers as a book that “offers the kind of entertainment that made the good old days of sf what they were” (ie: not the sort of story found in New Worlds today!), Brother Assassin by Fred Saberhagen which “stretches credibility just a little” and John Brunner’s Double! Double! which has “no credibility whatsoever”. There’s also an Ace Double with Code Duello by Mack Reynolds and The Age of Ruin by John M. Faucett, a review of a new biography of Edgar Rice Burroughs by Richard A. Lupoff, World of the Starwolves—a space opera by Edmond Hamilton, and positive reviews of James H. Schmitz’s This Demon Breed and Hal Clement’s story collection, Small Changes. I was pleased to see some more traditional sf get some positive comments.

Book Reviews: The Machiavellian Method by R. Glynn Jones

R. Glynn Jones reviews a book on tyranny, which is most disconcerting for having photographs of Hitler’s teeth.

Book Reviews: Woman’s Realm by D. R. Boardman

Lastly, D. R. Boardman reviews The Tunnel by Maureen Lawrence, a “competent first novel”. Was mildly pleased to see that it has been written by an ex-academic who is local to me, but not really my sort of thing, being the story of “a bored lonely woman living a boring life”.

Summing up New Worlds

Good news: although the scores may not reflect it, this is a better issue than the last. Although not perfect, the magazine scores with the conclusion of the Moorcock serial and Brian Aldiss’s take on the character. They are recognisably similar yet different, both confusing and subversive. New readers will not have a clue, regular readers will appreciate the word play and anti-establishment satire.

On the other side of the coin, there is also lots of material by relative unknowns, the new lifeblood of the magazine. Most of it is acceptable, though rarely outstanding. For example, the Hawkins was OK, but like Obtuowicz’s story last month really was another unpleasant story without anything really new to offer, Alan Passes’ Spoor was just dreadful.

Anyway, that’s it, until next time.

3 Comments Leave A Comment

55 years ago: Science Fact and Fiction