Nuevos mundos de fantasía 1

by Terry Carr (editor), Roger Zelazny, Thomas M. Disch

Introduction by Terry Carr
Divine Madness by Roger Zelazny
Break the Door of Hell by John Brunner
The Immortal by Jorge Luis Borges
Narrow Valley by R.A. Lafferty
Comet Wine by Ray Russell
The Other by Katherine MacLean
A Red Heart & Blue Roses by Mildred Clingerman
Stanley Toothbrush by Terry Carr
The Squirel Cage by Thomas M. Disch
Come Lady Death by Peter S. Beagle
Nackles by Curt Clark
The Lost Leonardo by J.G. Ballard
Timothy by Keith Roberts
Basilisk by Avram Davidson
The Evil Eye by Alfred Gillespie

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Anthologies

265 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Carr was born in Grants Pass, Oregon. He attended the City College of San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley from 1954 to 1959.

Carr discovered science fiction fandom in 1949, where he became an enthusiastic publisher of fanzines, which later helped open his way into the commercial publishing world. (He was one of the two fans responsible for the hoax fan 'Carl Brandon' after whom the Carl Brandon Society takes its name.) Despite a long career as a science fiction professional, he continued to participate as a fan until his death. He was nominated five times for Hugos for Best Fanzine (1959–1961, 1967–1968), winning in 1959, was nominated three times for Best Fan Writer (1971–1973), winning in 1973, and was Fan Guest of Honor at ConFederation in 1986.

Though he published some fiction in the early 1960s, Carr concentrated on editing. He first worked at Ace Books, establishing the Ace Science Fiction Specials series which published, among other novels, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin.

After conflicts with Ace head Donald A. Wollheim, he worked as a freelancer. He edited an original story anthology series called Universe, and a popular series of The Best Science Fiction of the Year anthologies that ran from 1972 until his death in 1987. He also edited numerous one-off anthologies over the same time span. He was nominated for the Hugo for Best Editor thirteen times (1973–1975, 1977–1979, 1981–1987), winning twice (1985 and 1987). His win in 1985 was the first time a freelance editor had won.

Carr taught at the Clarion Workshop at Michigan State University in 1978, where his students included Richard Kadrey and Pat Murphy.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first anthology in a series of three that Carr edited for Ace Books that presented modern short stories in the paperback format. There were many such collections of science fiction stories, but fantasy had yet to find as much audience. The subsequent books were more of a mix of new and reprinted stories, but this one only had one new offering, by Avram Davidson, with the majority of the others having originally appeared in the genre digest magazines in the 1960's. The book has a nice Kelly Freas cover, and each of the stories is led by one of his nice illustrations. The authors include Peter S. Beagle, Thomas M. Disch, R.A. Lafferty, Mildred Clingerman, Katherine MacLean, John Brunner, Jorge Luis Borges, etc. My favorites were Comet Wine by Ray Russell, Divine Madness by Roger Zelazny, and Stanley Toothbrush by Carr himself.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was such a disappointment that I'm going to avoid Terry Carr from now on. There were only three decent stories -- which you can find in many other anthologies. Don't waste your time slogging through this one.

Most of these stories would more properly classified as horror, not fantasy. If you're looking for sword and sorcery stuff, you've got exactly one story out of the lot -- and one bad parody of it. The Disch story is usually classified as science fiction.

Both the cover and the black and white ink illustrations were by Kelly Freas. The cover has nothing to do with any of the stories.

Selections:

* "Introduction" by Our Editor. Explains what you can and can't find in this anthology. Carr has a broad definition of fantasy.
* "Divine Madness" by Roger Zelazny. Although on the surface this about a man living backwards in time, underneath this is really all about grief.
* "Break the Door of Hell" by John Brunner. The Neverending Novella. GAWD, this was awful, with a million characters, a doomed city, and quotes from non-existing books.
* "The Immortal" by Jorge Luis Borges. Translated from the Spanish, and the oldest story in this collection. A Roman soldier discovers a river that grants immortality. Not much of a story -- more of a mental exercise than anything else.
* "Narrow Valley" by R. A. Lafferty. Typical crap from Lafferty, the most unfunny "funny" writer in speculative fiction. His depiction of Native Americans is borderline racist.
* "Comet Wine" by Ray Russell. How many times does Faust have to be rewritten? Until someone gets it right?
* "The Other" by Katherine MacLean. No fucking idea, although it might have something to do with one's "inner child." It's just not worth figuring out.
* "A Red Heart and Blue Roses" by Mildred Clingerman. This was more of a horror story than a modern fantasy. A houseguest refuses to leave, and begins stalking a woman. There were too many useless characters in here, especially the narrator, who seems to be a housewife suffering from a nervous breakdown.
* "Stanley Toothbrush" by Our Editor. Oh, Jesus Christ ... reading Lafferty is bad enough, but to read an imitation of Lafferty is damn near suicide. There's a 19 year old Irish Wolfhound -- which would be a miracle, since they never live beyond 10.
* "The Squirrel Cage" by Thomas M. Disch. This was one of his first published stories, and one of the best things he ever wrote. Makes you wonder what happened to him. Anyway, a prisoner in a small room with a typewriter punches out his thoughts about his strange existence.
* "Come Lady Death" by Peter S. Beagle. Odd to read, in Our Editor's intro, about Beagle being a relative unknown. This story is so sharply different from the preceeding stories that the prose seems to rise off of the page.
* "Nackles" by Curt Clark. Just as Santa Claus is God, Nackles is the Devil. Scary to me -- a story from 1963 mentioning the Christmas season starting in October. Sadly, you can't blame a supernatural being for that.
* "The Lost Leonardo" by J. G. Ballard. This begins with a theft from the Louvre in 1968, which I'm reading soon after there was another theft from the Louvre of jewelry. This story may have been considered cool by the predominantly white guys in sci-fi of the 1960s, but this is obviously anti-Semetic, whether intentionally or not.
* "Timothy" by Keith Roberts. And now we have an anti-woman story. Although Our Editor praises Roberts' use of dialect, it was nearly impossible to read. This is a predictable "magic only makes things worse" kind of story. It begins funny, and ends very sadly.
* "Basilisk" by Avram Davidson. This is the sequel to "Bumberboom" -- which I've never read ... and, after this one, never care to. A parody of sword and sorcery fantasies, the joke gets stale swiftly. Especially since the Basilisk never appears.
* "The Evil Eye" by Alfred Gillespie. Once a dog appeared, I had a bad feeling she'd be killed. I started skimming ... and the beagle gets hit by a car. Fuckin' hell.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of fantasy stories by established fantasy and science fiction authors.

[EmBe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich habe gute Erinnerungen an dieser Anthologie. Terry Carr war eine sehr rühriger und auch geschmackssicherer Anthologist. Mit Fantasy meint er einfach fantastische Literatur, die keine SF ist. Die Stories sind außergewöhnlich. In Roger Zelazny erlebt ein Mensch bei vollen Bewusstsein sein Leben rückwärts. John Brunner erzählt eine Geschichte von seinem Reisenden in Schwarz. Der kann Wünsche erfüllen, aber nicht so wie die Wünschenden es wollen. "Der Unsterbliche" von J.L. Borges ist ein klassische Erzählung und gibt ein gutes Beispiel für die Phantastik dieses Autors. "Das schmale Tal" ist ein typische literarische Schnurre von R.A. Lafferty, der SF-Lesern wegen anderer SF-Geschichten bekannt sein dürfte. "Kometenwein" von Raymond Russel ist eine Geschichte um einen unbekannten russischen Komponisten im ausgehenden 19.Jahrhundert, der eine Pakt mit dem Teufel eingegangen ist. Aber das wird in alten Briefen Stimmungsvoll erzählt. In "Der Andere" von Katherine MacLean und "Ein rotes Herz und blaue Rosen" von Mildred Clingerman geht um besondere psychische Bewusstseinslagen, um den sogennanten Innerspace, die in der Zeit der New Wave sehr beliebt waren, wie auch die Story von Zelazny zeigt. Selbst John Brunner hat eine Reihe von Innerspace Romanen geschrieben. MacLean gehörte in den 50er und 60er Jahren zu der ersten Garde der SF-Autorinnen. Clingerman schrieb Stories für das Magazin of Fantasy und Science Fiction. Bei "Ein rotes Herz und blaue Rosen" bleibt ein beunruhigendes Gefühl, was ist Alptraum, was Realität? Die Erzählerin ist unzuverlässig weil psychisch krank. Aber es wird für mich zu viel angedeutet.
Beim Lesen der anderen Reviews hatte ich übrigens WTF-Momente.

[Travis Heermann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished maybe half of the stories in this volume. The ones I didn't came across as too dated or trying too hard. There's a reason some of these authors are not read anymore. Some of them are, and those stories shine.
This book would be good for someone with a strong nostalgia or curiosity for late 60s fantasy or doing literary research.