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Best SF Stories from New Worlds #1
The Best SF Stories from New Worlds
Here, from the pages of New Worlds SF, are seven of the most exciting expressions of the new spirit in SF today, seven voyages into the unknown by writers wh are fresh, modern, original, disturbing, and above all, different.
158 pages, Paperback
First published February 19, 1967
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About the author
Michael Moorcock
1,207 books3,745 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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 18, 2019
"The Keys to December" was moving and powerful. "Nobody Axed You" was a very funny and sickening satire. Those were my favorites, although both of them are too upsetting to re-read to the end. I can't make sense of "The Assassination Weapon." I didn't much care for "The Squirrel Cage." Not to steal someone else's observation, but it did feel self-indulgent. Thomas M. Disch wrote half of one of my favorite books, Black Alice.
I kind of liked "A Small Betraying Detail." Slowly building creepiness. "The Music Makers" felt like a discarded Martian Chronicles story, and for some reason didn't make much of an impression on me. Maybe because it came after "The Two-Timer," a simple time travel story that went on and on about how the world of 1964 would look like to a seventeenth-century Englishman. There weren't any twists, that was pretty much it. The author clearly knew his seventeenth-century literature. Like another reviewer said, I felt like I'd read stories like this before, but I can't remember when or where, so I didn't really mind. It was rather interesting.
I've owned this book for years, and I'm glad I've finally read it.
I kind of liked "A Small Betraying Detail." Slowly building creepiness. "The Music Makers" felt like a discarded Martian Chronicles story, and for some reason didn't make much of an impression on me. Maybe because it came after "The Two-Timer," a simple time travel story that went on and on about how the world of 1964 would look like to a seventeenth-century Englishman. There weren't any twists, that was pretty much it. The author clearly knew his seventeenth-century literature. Like another reviewer said, I felt like I'd read stories like this before, but I can't remember when or where, so I didn't really mind. It was rather interesting.
I've owned this book for years, and I'm glad I've finally read it.
February 4, 2024
And here the British New Wave comes to the American shores via this US edition of the 'Best SF Stories From New Worlds.' (fascinating Paul Lehr cover). While this volume doesn't rewire and reconstruct the genre with its lofty intentions ('Dangerous Visions' surely had a stranglehold on exclaiming it was so brashly different and NEW, NEW, NEW), Moorcock carefully picks seven to show the various seeds of the 1st big wave.
Brian Aldiss' proves his consummate glamour with both psyche and physical landscapes. Here in 'The Small Betraying Detail', he plays the line of pre-history and evolution through the veil of a mundane daytrip to the fields outside London. Perhaps the true genesis of mankind really is a result of man's story being told backwards, and while understated and brief, Aldiss gives us a haunting last image that evokes J.G. Ballard's 'The Reptile Enclosure.' Yes, we are not who we seem to be any longer. Whimper, we must.
'The Keys to December' - Roger Zelazny. While I tend to be wary of Zelazny, this tale proved me wrong. With the 'human' race at its conclusion, hybrid cat-human scientists take a rogue planet and bomblast and re-engineer the planet's atmosphere to resemble what was once Earth. Not only does their science fuck with the native aliens (little bigfoots) and deviate the strata and skies, how will they fare in the far future, and whom will pray to who? Fine tale that achieves a high ceiling in such a short page count.
'The Assassination Weapon' - J.G. Ballard. His cut-up stories are experiments that have to be read as such. Throw the narrative rope out the window. One has to read these atrocity exhibitions in the delirious dreamscape Ballard intended them to be framed. Insane astronauts, celebrity worship, desert skies, sculptures without meaning, industrial death marches, illicit affairs running on empty. Very much in the vein of Paul Bowles and William Burroughs. Oddly, it's like his prose is intended to be dead on the page. Brilliant, most brilliant.
John Brunner's 'Nobody Axed You.' While it initially comes across as a story of a souring relationship within the societal presses of not being able to have children, our couple here (one a TV producer/actor, the other wife/actor) play equally conniving parts in a reality-TV deathshow. As subtle as a train wreck, but powerful and sardonic play into future-backward media shenanigans. I forget how hard Brunner can punch.
'A Two-Timer', David Masson. Why this was included in a New Wave collection, I can't understand. It is a flat time-travel exposition that meanders far too long. Not without its mild entertainments, we find our 17th century traveler suddenly in 1965 London. Problem is, nothing happens. While there is some adultery, the lack of tension affects a lack of wonder. A bit crusty, with nothing much NEW about it.
Langdon Jones' 'The Music Makers'. While the story is underdeveloped, mainly by its length, the tale evokes Mars as a ghost planet. While settlers are not quite the humans they were back on Earth, a violinist finds out what actually affects the human spirit on this angry red planet, and soon finds out that his music illuminates the ghosts of Mars in a way both cosmically attuned to alien horrors unseen, yet very much alive...and hungry.
And lastly, the lone Yank, Thomas Disch, turns out a schizophrenic tale of a prisoner in a cell armed with nothing by a stool, desk, typewriter, and a feeding tube that protrudes from the white wall. His 1st-person scattered mind contemplates the pogonophore, the sea worm without a mouth, and he divulges about his crumbling and hopeless state of being, which is not much different than the story's title, 'The Squirrel Cage.' Fine Disch but not his finest.
Important SF. Moorcock keeps reminding me of his power in the genre. Massive.
Brian Aldiss' proves his consummate glamour with both psyche and physical landscapes. Here in 'The Small Betraying Detail', he plays the line of pre-history and evolution through the veil of a mundane daytrip to the fields outside London. Perhaps the true genesis of mankind really is a result of man's story being told backwards, and while understated and brief, Aldiss gives us a haunting last image that evokes J.G. Ballard's 'The Reptile Enclosure.' Yes, we are not who we seem to be any longer. Whimper, we must.
'The Keys to December' - Roger Zelazny. While I tend to be wary of Zelazny, this tale proved me wrong. With the 'human' race at its conclusion, hybrid cat-human scientists take a rogue planet and bomblast and re-engineer the planet's atmosphere to resemble what was once Earth. Not only does their science fuck with the native aliens (little bigfoots) and deviate the strata and skies, how will they fare in the far future, and whom will pray to who? Fine tale that achieves a high ceiling in such a short page count.
'The Assassination Weapon' - J.G. Ballard. His cut-up stories are experiments that have to be read as such. Throw the narrative rope out the window. One has to read these atrocity exhibitions in the delirious dreamscape Ballard intended them to be framed. Insane astronauts, celebrity worship, desert skies, sculptures without meaning, industrial death marches, illicit affairs running on empty. Very much in the vein of Paul Bowles and William Burroughs. Oddly, it's like his prose is intended to be dead on the page. Brilliant, most brilliant.
John Brunner's 'Nobody Axed You.' While it initially comes across as a story of a souring relationship within the societal presses of not being able to have children, our couple here (one a TV producer/actor, the other wife/actor) play equally conniving parts in a reality-TV deathshow. As subtle as a train wreck, but powerful and sardonic play into future-backward media shenanigans. I forget how hard Brunner can punch.
'A Two-Timer', David Masson. Why this was included in a New Wave collection, I can't understand. It is a flat time-travel exposition that meanders far too long. Not without its mild entertainments, we find our 17th century traveler suddenly in 1965 London. Problem is, nothing happens. While there is some adultery, the lack of tension affects a lack of wonder. A bit crusty, with nothing much NEW about it.
Langdon Jones' 'The Music Makers'. While the story is underdeveloped, mainly by its length, the tale evokes Mars as a ghost planet. While settlers are not quite the humans they were back on Earth, a violinist finds out what actually affects the human spirit on this angry red planet, and soon finds out that his music illuminates the ghosts of Mars in a way both cosmically attuned to alien horrors unseen, yet very much alive...and hungry.
And lastly, the lone Yank, Thomas Disch, turns out a schizophrenic tale of a prisoner in a cell armed with nothing by a stool, desk, typewriter, and a feeding tube that protrudes from the white wall. His 1st-person scattered mind contemplates the pogonophore, the sea worm without a mouth, and he divulges about his crumbling and hopeless state of being, which is not much different than the story's title, 'The Squirrel Cage.' Fine Disch but not his finest.
Important SF. Moorcock keeps reminding me of his power in the genre. Massive.
August 30, 2015
Reading Moorcock’s The Whispering Swarm, much of which is set during his days as an editor of New Worlds magazine, made me want to read a bit of the fiction that magazine published, and which defined the ‘New Wave’ in SF (which, basically, was about bringing the ‘fiction’ part of the ‘science fiction’ equation as up to date as the ‘science’ part).
The seven stories collected herein appeared between 1965 and 1966. The thing that strikes me, reading them now, is how they basically read like modern science fiction — and, by extension, modern fiction. (Which could mean that the New Wave ‘won’, or at least that it was absorbed by the great, protean blob of science fiction as a whole.)
Of the seven, Ballard’s ‘condensed novel’, ‘The Assassination Weapon’ is the most obviously experimental — and the least science fictional, in that it contains no fantastic element. I certainly found it the most interesting story, though. Least interesting was Thomas Disch’s ‘The Squirrel Cage’, which also seemed the most dated (and self-indulgent), not really a story at all, more a ramble, a stream of invention that never amounts to anything but a display of stylistic variation. Of the rest, John Brunner’s ‘Nobody Axed You’ is the most obviously satirical, set in an over-populated future where televised entertainment is rated on how many murders it inspires; David Masson’s ‘A Two-Timer’, about a 17th century man who happens upon a time machine and comes forward to the present (i.e., the 1960s), is also basically satirical, and soon leaves any story behind for the straight ‘satire’ of a Jacobean man’s views on 1960s England. Brian Aldiss’s ‘The Small Betraying Detail’ is about a sick man trying to work out if he’s slipped into another reality; Roger Zelazny’s ‘The Keys to December’ is the most obviously science fictional (at least in terms of boldness and brashness of invention), about a group of genetically engineered humans seeking to adapt a planet to their own requirements. My favourite story, aside from Ballard’s, was Langdon Jones’s ‘The Music Makers’, too short to describe without spoiling it, so I’ll just say it touches on the use of music as a weapon, though perhaps only useful against those who can appreciate it.
An interesting dip into a key period in SF history, I’ll certainly read some more of the New Worlds anthologies that followed.
The seven stories collected herein appeared between 1965 and 1966. The thing that strikes me, reading them now, is how they basically read like modern science fiction — and, by extension, modern fiction. (Which could mean that the New Wave ‘won’, or at least that it was absorbed by the great, protean blob of science fiction as a whole.)
Of the seven, Ballard’s ‘condensed novel’, ‘The Assassination Weapon’ is the most obviously experimental — and the least science fictional, in that it contains no fantastic element. I certainly found it the most interesting story, though. Least interesting was Thomas Disch’s ‘The Squirrel Cage’, which also seemed the most dated (and self-indulgent), not really a story at all, more a ramble, a stream of invention that never amounts to anything but a display of stylistic variation. Of the rest, John Brunner’s ‘Nobody Axed You’ is the most obviously satirical, set in an over-populated future where televised entertainment is rated on how many murders it inspires; David Masson’s ‘A Two-Timer’, about a 17th century man who happens upon a time machine and comes forward to the present (i.e., the 1960s), is also basically satirical, and soon leaves any story behind for the straight ‘satire’ of a Jacobean man’s views on 1960s England. Brian Aldiss’s ‘The Small Betraying Detail’ is about a sick man trying to work out if he’s slipped into another reality; Roger Zelazny’s ‘The Keys to December’ is the most obviously science fictional (at least in terms of boldness and brashness of invention), about a group of genetically engineered humans seeking to adapt a planet to their own requirements. My favourite story, aside from Ballard’s, was Langdon Jones’s ‘The Music Makers’, too short to describe without spoiling it, so I’ll just say it touches on the use of music as a weapon, though perhaps only useful against those who can appreciate it.
An interesting dip into a key period in SF history, I’ll certainly read some more of the New Worlds anthologies that followed.
September 27, 2022
3.5/5 estrellas.
Me gustó un montón.
Me gustó un montón.
January 23, 2020
Fresh off of Langdon Jones’ wonderful New Wave collection The Eye of the Lens (1972) I decided to see if any of my unread anthologies contained his work—queue The Best SF Stories From New Worlds (1967). Unfortunately, Jones’ contribution is far from the best in this absolutely stellar collection.
This 1967 volume was the first in a series of eight Best Of New Worlds anthologies edited by Michael Moorcock between 1967-1974. I reviewed The Best SF Stories From New Worlds 3 (1968)—i.e. the one with Pamela Zoline’s must-read “The Heat Death of the Universe” (1967)—a while back.
The takeaway: The majority of stories in are required reading for fans of New Wave SF [..]
For the complete review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
This 1967 volume was the first in a series of eight Best Of New Worlds anthologies edited by Michael Moorcock between 1967-1974. I reviewed The Best SF Stories From New Worlds 3 (1968)—i.e. the one with Pamela Zoline’s must-read “The Heat Death of the Universe” (1967)—a while back.
The takeaway: The majority of stories in are required reading for fans of New Wave SF [..]
For the complete review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
October 17, 2025
Vintage sci-fi from the 1960s. Most of the stories are multi-layered, but has an easily followed plot, and at least one point to make. However, New Wave had reached and breached the White Cliffs of Dover, so there is inevitably a head-scratcher or two.
Moorcock, best known for writing the Elric saga, was also a formidable and influential editor. This is the first in a series of anthologies of pieces from his magazine New Worlds. It's good enough to make me search for others on the Internet Archive. This is a short anthology. The print is quite large for small paperback pages, so the book seems a lot shorter than it's official page length. This features authors from both sides of the Atlantic.
Selections:
* "Introduction" by Our Editor. Short and to the point that sci-fi is like any other literary genre, in that it says something about our lives on Earth underneath the sci-fi paraphernalia. Mostly, though, this contains brief intros to the stories which follow.
* "The Small Betraying Detail" by Brian W. Aldiss. Aldiss, also an editor, managed to do quite a lot of writing on the side. This journey to a tuberculosis sanitarium (oh, those glorious Sixties) with arguing, archeologist brothers leads to a slip into an alternative Earth.
* "The Keys to December" by Robert Zelazny. Life on an entire planet is slowly wiped out to accommodate over 28,000 bioengineered people who can't live outside of a modified room. But one of the species going extinct proves to be human-like, THEN the problem arises. It's incredibly sad ... but there's a point to this.
* "The Assassination Weapon" by J. G. Ballard. No idea what happened here. Was surprising to see that this was written soon after JFK's assassination.
* "Nobody Axed You" by John Brunner. One of the sub-genres of sci-fi is television of the future. Here, TV is used to promote murders to reduce the staggering overpopulation in England, where empty car seats are illegal, and nursery rhymes promote both frigidity and axe murder.
* "A Two-Timer" by David I. Mason. "So, you're from the 1600's. Cool. Come meet the wife."
* "The Music Makers" by Langdon Jones. A master violinist plays an impromptu concert ... on Mars. This was written when Jones was in his early 20s, and it shows.
* "The Squirrel Cage" by Thomas M. Disch. Arguably the best thing Disch ever wrote. A man, named Disch, is confined to one room and has no idea why he's there or even who his captors are.
Moorcock, best known for writing the Elric saga, was also a formidable and influential editor. This is the first in a series of anthologies of pieces from his magazine New Worlds. It's good enough to make me search for others on the Internet Archive. This is a short anthology. The print is quite large for small paperback pages, so the book seems a lot shorter than it's official page length. This features authors from both sides of the Atlantic.
Selections:
* "Introduction" by Our Editor. Short and to the point that sci-fi is like any other literary genre, in that it says something about our lives on Earth underneath the sci-fi paraphernalia. Mostly, though, this contains brief intros to the stories which follow.
* "The Small Betraying Detail" by Brian W. Aldiss. Aldiss, also an editor, managed to do quite a lot of writing on the side. This journey to a tuberculosis sanitarium (oh, those glorious Sixties) with arguing, archeologist brothers leads to a slip into an alternative Earth.
* "The Keys to December" by Robert Zelazny. Life on an entire planet is slowly wiped out to accommodate over 28,000 bioengineered people who can't live outside of a modified room. But one of the species going extinct proves to be human-like, THEN the problem arises. It's incredibly sad ... but there's a point to this.
* "The Assassination Weapon" by J. G. Ballard. No idea what happened here. Was surprising to see that this was written soon after JFK's assassination.
* "Nobody Axed You" by John Brunner. One of the sub-genres of sci-fi is television of the future. Here, TV is used to promote murders to reduce the staggering overpopulation in England, where empty car seats are illegal, and nursery rhymes promote both frigidity and axe murder.
* "A Two-Timer" by David I. Mason. "So, you're from the 1600's. Cool. Come meet the wife."
* "The Music Makers" by Langdon Jones. A master violinist plays an impromptu concert ... on Mars. This was written when Jones was in his early 20s, and it shows.
* "The Squirrel Cage" by Thomas M. Disch. Arguably the best thing Disch ever wrote. A man, named Disch, is confined to one room and has no idea why he's there or even who his captors are.
March 1, 2019
Entertaining collection of short stories, has aged well - agree with another reviewer here, Ballard’s Assassination Engine is the best of them, followed by Keys to December.
February 26, 2015
Good collection of stories, except for David Masson's A Two-Timer, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with it, just it's a kind of story I've read or seen multiple times, and this added nothing, save the language in which it's written.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews