New Worlds magazine was founded before WW2 and taken over by Michael Moorcock in the sixties. With the aid of an Arts Council grant Moorcock turned New Worlds into the monthly journal of the British New Wave in sci fi: Moorcock himself, Ballard, Aldiss etc. Around 1970 the magazine started to flounder. Moorcock persuaded Sphere to continue it as a 'quarterly' paperback. By 1975 when this eighth and last edition came out, Moorcock's wife Hilary Bailey was editor and their close longterm collaborator M John Harrison was literary editor.
Bailey made a good job of editing this one. The stories appear in descending order of quality. We start with Harrison's 'Running Down', a Yorkshire-set tale combining his interest in climbing with nature horror. Then we have 'White Stars', an interlude from Moorcock's long-running and intricate Dancers at the End of Time thread. I was initially put off Moorcock by Dancers when I was a young teenager, but I thoroughly enjoyed 'White Stars'. Barrington Bayley's 'The Bees of Knowledge' is different and well-written. Peter Jobling's 'Building Blocks', which Bailey in her introduction suggests might be a debut piece, is equally interesting but not quite so well written. The other, shorter, stories did not greatly appeal.
I was fascinated by the two book reviews at the end, one by Harrison, the other by John Clute. Is this what sci reviews were like in the Seventies? By way of illustration, I give you title of Clute's ten-page review of Brian Aldiss's novel, The Eighty-Minute Hour: 'I say Begone! Apotropaic Narcosis, I'm Going to Read the Damn Thing, Ha Ha.' Worryingly, Harrison's marginally shorter review of Thomas M Disch's collection Getting into Death is in similar vein.
John Clute went on to become one of the founders of Interzone, which is in many ways was the successor to New Worlds. The issue I have just acquired contains work by Harrison and Aldiss and Thomas M Disch. I'll report on it shortly.
No comments:
Post a Comment