What do you think?
Rate this book
Best SF Stories from New Worlds #4
Best SF Stories from New Worlds, Vol. 4
Book by Moorcock, Michael
Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1969
About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,228 books3,840 followersMichael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
Moorcock has mentioned The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edward Lester Arnold as the first three books which captured his imagination. He became editor of Tarzan Adventures in 1956, at the age of sixteen, and later moved on to edit Sexton Blake Library. As editor of the controversial British science fiction magazine New Worlds, from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States. His serialization of Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron was notorious for causing British MPs to condemn in Parliament the Arts Council's funding of the magazine.
During this time, he occasionally wrote under the pseudonym of "James Colvin," a "house pseudonym" used by other critics on New Worlds. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by "William Barclay" (another Moorcock pseudonym). Moorcock, indeed, makes much use of the initials "JC", and not entirely coincidentally these are also the initials of Jesus Christ, the subject of his 1967 Nebula award-winning novella Behold the Man, which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using "Warwick Colvin, Jr." as yet another pseudonym, particularly in his Second Ether fiction.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 7, 2024
Not as epic and bizarre as previous volumes of 'Best SF Stories from New Worlds' (US, Berkeley), but still elevated with a couple of selections that cross the lines into body horror and anti-corporate misanthropy with a refreshing doom and gloom.
The Ship of Disaster • (1965) • short story by Barrington J. Bayley [as by B. J. Bayley] - how can one take a wayward ship full of warmongering elves seriously? Well, Bayley, of course, an odd writer who can play the offhand SF tropes with a classic and modern whimsy. This one is of human stowaway on a slave ship people with Tolkein's leftovers. When Bayley throws in a timeslip to the future, this tale turns into territories once penned by William Hope Hodgson, Van Vogt, and Benny Hill.
The Square Root of Brain • (1968) • short story by Fritz Leiber - Perhaps red-eyed by too much Acapulco Gold, Leiber turns his fantastical wit into a anti-Hollywood weapon here. Future glam has never been so vapid as golden-age-scribe Fritz plays the cynic at this LA soiree where celebrities of the future appear as shallow as ever. Solid even though the ending feels like an afterthought.
In Seclusion • (1966) • novelette by Harvey Jacobs - More hip counterculture slapstick that may feel more suited in the pages of Playboy and not New Worlds. Two celebrities are confided to a crumbling mansion on the Pacific coast, where a hungry B.E.M. crawls off-shore for a dubious snack. Really tawdry and tongue-in-cheek, but there's something about the energy of it that reminds me of Pynchon and Coover at their most playful.
Transient • (1965) • short story by Langdon Jones - a brilliant short piece about human intelligence transferred to an inferior primates brain. A concept that's been done to death, but here becomes a bittersweet rumination. Kind of blue, most definitely, and if there was a collection on 'sad & melancholic' SF stories, this would be a definite inclusion.
The Head-Rape • (1968) • poem by D. M. Thomas - the poem surely does not live up to the title. Lukewarm at best.
The Source • (1965) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss - a married couple visit Earth to study the hippies taking over the country side. Lots of amnesia, domestic discourse, and ghosts of a disabled technology appears in random sweeps, but in the end, quite forgettable for an Aldiss tale.
Period of Gestation • (1964) • short story by Thom Keyes - a brutal piece of madness that belongs in the Malzberg Beyond Apollo universe. Here, five male astronauts go batshit insane as they travel back towards Earth. When one shows signs of being pregnant, the dynamics devolve into outright horror. Who is Thom Keyes? Where are you? Quite excellent!
Dr. Gelabius • (1968) • short story by Hilary Bailey - bold in how Bailey writes of abortion & revenge in a future world. Grim, and a perfect companion to the superior Keyes short-story ahead of it.
The Valve Transcript • (1968) • short story by Joel Zoss - a tunnel rat works for a corporation whose timecard limits on a job have unsettling implications. Very vague, however, and feels more like an experiment than an actual story.
Linda and Daniel and Spike • (1967) • short story by Thomas M. Disch - Disch is at his acidic best here. A really downer of a tale where a woman confuses her ovarian cancer with immaculate conception. Really vile concept, and would be more gruesome if it weren't for Disch's devilish sense of wit. HORROR.
Masterson and the Clerks • (1967) • novella by John Sladek - this would make Stanislaw Lem proud. Bureaucratic sadism in a business that has no goal and no true product, but manages to survive in abundant idiosyncrasies where toilet paper is used as sheet stock, automatic erasers malfunction, and where you get fired for no apparent reason. Nothing subtle about this novella besides the strange ending that unfortunately takes its time resolving itself. Sladek is a comic genius who sometimes goes three-steps too far with his rib-tickling entropics. Still, a nice close-out to a solid, if average, entry into the New Worlds lore.
The Ship of Disaster • (1965) • short story by Barrington J. Bayley [as by B. J. Bayley] - how can one take a wayward ship full of warmongering elves seriously? Well, Bayley, of course, an odd writer who can play the offhand SF tropes with a classic and modern whimsy. This one is of human stowaway on a slave ship people with Tolkein's leftovers. When Bayley throws in a timeslip to the future, this tale turns into territories once penned by William Hope Hodgson, Van Vogt, and Benny Hill.
The Square Root of Brain • (1968) • short story by Fritz Leiber - Perhaps red-eyed by too much Acapulco Gold, Leiber turns his fantastical wit into a anti-Hollywood weapon here. Future glam has never been so vapid as golden-age-scribe Fritz plays the cynic at this LA soiree where celebrities of the future appear as shallow as ever. Solid even though the ending feels like an afterthought.
In Seclusion • (1966) • novelette by Harvey Jacobs - More hip counterculture slapstick that may feel more suited in the pages of Playboy and not New Worlds. Two celebrities are confided to a crumbling mansion on the Pacific coast, where a hungry B.E.M. crawls off-shore for a dubious snack. Really tawdry and tongue-in-cheek, but there's something about the energy of it that reminds me of Pynchon and Coover at their most playful.
Transient • (1965) • short story by Langdon Jones - a brilliant short piece about human intelligence transferred to an inferior primates brain. A concept that's been done to death, but here becomes a bittersweet rumination. Kind of blue, most definitely, and if there was a collection on 'sad & melancholic' SF stories, this would be a definite inclusion.
The Head-Rape • (1968) • poem by D. M. Thomas - the poem surely does not live up to the title. Lukewarm at best.
The Source • (1965) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss - a married couple visit Earth to study the hippies taking over the country side. Lots of amnesia, domestic discourse, and ghosts of a disabled technology appears in random sweeps, but in the end, quite forgettable for an Aldiss tale.
Period of Gestation • (1964) • short story by Thom Keyes - a brutal piece of madness that belongs in the Malzberg Beyond Apollo universe. Here, five male astronauts go batshit insane as they travel back towards Earth. When one shows signs of being pregnant, the dynamics devolve into outright horror. Who is Thom Keyes? Where are you? Quite excellent!
Dr. Gelabius • (1968) • short story by Hilary Bailey - bold in how Bailey writes of abortion & revenge in a future world. Grim, and a perfect companion to the superior Keyes short-story ahead of it.
The Valve Transcript • (1968) • short story by Joel Zoss - a tunnel rat works for a corporation whose timecard limits on a job have unsettling implications. Very vague, however, and feels more like an experiment than an actual story.
Linda and Daniel and Spike • (1967) • short story by Thomas M. Disch - Disch is at his acidic best here. A really downer of a tale where a woman confuses her ovarian cancer with immaculate conception. Really vile concept, and would be more gruesome if it weren't for Disch's devilish sense of wit. HORROR.
Masterson and the Clerks • (1967) • novella by John Sladek - this would make Stanislaw Lem proud. Bureaucratic sadism in a business that has no goal and no true product, but manages to survive in abundant idiosyncrasies where toilet paper is used as sheet stock, automatic erasers malfunction, and where you get fired for no apparent reason. Nothing subtle about this novella besides the strange ending that unfortunately takes its time resolving itself. Sladek is a comic genius who sometimes goes three-steps too far with his rib-tickling entropics. Still, a nice close-out to a solid, if average, entry into the New Worlds lore.
September 13, 2022
Pretty hit and miss but worth reading for the last story
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews