New Worlds: An Anthology edited by Michael Moorcock
01/11/2004 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Thunder Mouth's Press. 394 page enlarged paperback. Price: $18.95 (US). ISBN: 1-56858-317-6. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.avalonpub.com
I have to confess to always having mixed feelings about the original run of Mike Moorcock's 'New Worlds' books when I read any I could get a few decades back. At the time, they were deemed as SF's 'New Wave' with a desire for quality writing that would hit back at the critics who condemned our genre for poor writing. As such, much of the writing was experimental and occasionally into areas where only adult readers were 'entertained'. As Moorcock himself comments in the introduction here that the magazine was invariably banned, taken off of distribution lists and Parliamentary debates amongst its other troubles.
The problem this reviewer finds is that perhaps it went too far in the other direction. The writing might have been better but it held thinly put together plots that really could have had a lot more work put into them. There is also the possibility, as required today, that writers submit to the guidelines requested as much as finding the publication that fits their ideals. I can't help but wonder if some of these writers just knew how to write with big words and were glad to have an outlet. Mind you, as editor Moorcock comments, payment didn't always happen either. Then again, this is a perspective from this century not nearly 40 years back now as well. SF has always been an ideas medium and poor writing didn't affect all writers or the better ones wouldn't still be in print today. Somewhere up the line, a balance between writing well and ideas had yet to be reached and 'New Worlds' certainly contributed to bringing in some new talent.
As a time capsule into the past and seeing a lot of nascent writers before they found a bigger market, this will be of intense interest to fans of them with 23 assorted short stories and novelettes and 7 articles, one of which is a semi-interview with Tolkien. If you're after the early work of such as Ballard, M. John Harrison, Disch, Sladek, Spinrad, Aldiss and even Mervyn Peek, then you've come to the right place. However, the lighter read reader should beware as this is an extremely heavy read that might not be to everyone's cup of caffeine.
GF Willmetts |
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