New Dimensions Science Fiction: #5

New Dimensions #5

by Robert Silverberg (Editor)

This latest volume is the best-of series of 16 all-original new writings in science fiction.

Contents:

Find the Lady, story by Nicholas Fisk
A Solfy Drink, a Saffel Fragrance, story by Dorothy Gilbert
A Scarab in the City of Time, story by Marta Randall
Theodora & Theodora, story by Robert Thurston
A Day in the South Quad, story by Felix C. Gotschalk
Rogue Tomato, story by Michael Bishop
The Mothers' March on Ecstasy, story by George Alec Effinger
The Local Allosaurus, poem by Steven Utley
Achievements, story by David Wise
The Dybbuk Dolls, novelette by Jack Dann
The Mirror at Sunset, story by Gil Lamont
Report to Headquarters, story by Barry N. Malzberg
Museum Piece, story by Drew Mendelson
White Creatures, story by Gregory Benford
The Contributors to Plenum Four, story by Michael Bishop
Sail the Tide of Mourning, story by Richard A. Lupoff

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction

234 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1975

About the author

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Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fifth in the series of original science fiction story anthologies edited by Silverberg. They're mostly good examples of what was known as the New Wave movement in the field, with the authors perhaps consciously and deliberately writing against the grain of what was accepted as traditional sf genre material. (He even includes poetry; I liked the one by Steven Utley.) There's good stuff here by Richard Lupoff, Michael Bishop, George Alec Efffinger, Gil Lamont, a weird Jack Dann story, and a more traditional Gregory Benford. My favorite is Rogue Tomato by Michael Bishop.

[LyndaIn Oregon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of all-original new writings in science fiction from 1975 is the fifth in a series featuring major writers in the field.

Contributors include Michael Bishop, George Alec Effinger, Barry N. Malzberg, and Gregory Benford, among others. The sixteen pieces in this volume lean heavily to what was being referred to in the 70s as "New Wave" -- a movement away from the traditional ray guns and bug-eyed monsters of the genre's genesis, and move instead to playing with language and concept and time. Readers expecting rocket ships and planetary exploration may come away disappointed or baffled by some of the pieces -- "Dybbuk Dolls", I'm lookin' at you -- and Bishop's "The Contributors to 'Plenum Four' " piece is a self-indulgent spoof of the way the contents of any given sf collection are summarized in collection intros that may be well-nigh incomprehensible to readers new to the genre and its affectations.

There are also more traditional pieces, and even a couple of bits of whimsey. Standouts (and this reviewer admits a bias away from New Wave) include Gregory Benford's "White Creatures" and Marta Randall's "A Scarab in the City of Time".

[Paul Wakelam]

11

[Julio Gagne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite a mixed bag

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many different views of the future in these short stories and poems from the 1970s, but one thing is clear -- the future is going to be confusing.



The best selections are the very first one, N. Fisk's "Find the Lady" and "The Dybbuk Dolls" by Jack Dann. I recommend skipping the last yawner entirely UNLESS you have happened to read New Dimensions 4 which has the first story that the one in New Dimensions 5 is a lame sequel to. Got that? Silverberg promised that the story is a stand-alone -- but he lied. It's not.

Most of the selections just make you go, "Huh? What the hell just happened here?" A prime example would be "The Mothers' March on Ecstasy" where you are not sure if you are supposed to be amused or scared. Perhaps it was a parody like "Rogue Tomato" was a parody on Kafka's Metamorphosis -- or, well, it seemed like a parody of something.



Selections:

* "Find the Lady" by Nicholas Fisk.
* "A Solfy Drink, A Saffel Fragrance" by Dorothy Gilbert. A story to make your Spellcheck go ballistic.
* "A Scarab in the City of Time" by Marta Randall.
* "Theodora and Theodora" by Robert Thurston.
* "A Day in the South Quad" by Felix C. Gotschalk.
* "Rogue Tomato" by Michael Bishop.
* "The Mothers' March on Ecstasy" by George Alec Effinger.
* "The Local Allosaurus" by Steven Utley.
* "Achievements" by David Wise.
* "The Dybbuk Dolls" by Jack Dann. Although he's probably better known as an editor, Dann could write.
* "The Mirror at Sunset" by Gil Lamont.
* "Report to Headquarters" by Barry M. Malzberg.
* "Museum Piece" by Drew Mendelson.
* "White Creatures" by Gregory Benford.
* "The Contributors of Plenum Four" by Michael Bishop. This is more of an overkilled in-joke than anything that's actually funny.
* "Sail the Tide of Mourning" by Richard A. Lupoff. If you skip just one story in this anthology, make it this one.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty weak collection. It was sitting on my shelf for years and I finally got around to reading it. As I read it I realized that this was the third time I have read this book over the last 30 years... the fact that I barely remember reading it the first two times was testament to the weaknesses of the tales. The only stories I enjoyed and would rate slightly above average is the first story- Find the Lady (a depressing update of the HG Wells motif), and A Day in the South Quad (an obscure far future tale that occurs in the South East where people have superpowers and there are four suns but three have gone into different orbits!!!). A couple of stories are mildly amusing (with the emphasis on mild) like Rogue Tomato (about a planet sized sentient tomato) and Theodora and Theodora (about two couples that lead parallel lives) but even these seem pointless. Dybbuk Dolls, a Jewish themed story of the far future I also faintly recalled so it may also be a little bit better than average. The rest are below average. The last story is just bizarre- Sail the Tide of Mourning... about Australian aborigines sailing large interstellar sailing ships. You heard that right. And they make great starship captains because their skin pigment protects them from interstellar radiation- yep, you heard that right. And it gets stranger from there...
The problem with most of the new wave fiction is that frequently they authors have no knowledge of science so most of the stories are social commentary that can seem dated and certainly not creative. They certainly do not even make the future believable. The writing is perhaps a step above the pulp writers of the 30's- 50's but a small step.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair collection of sixteen science fiction shorts.

[Ed]

ISFDB 196777. OCLC 43844071.