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New Worlds of Fantasy
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
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
253 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Terry Carr
201 books32 followersCarr 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 25, 2021
This is the second of three anthologies that Carr edited for Ace Books that collected short modern fantasy stories for encompassing exposure. It appeared in 1970, at which time almost all science fiction outsold any fantasy titles by a very wide margin, as hard as that is to imagine now. This one contains five new stories and thirteen reprints, most from the genre magazines of the 1960s but some from quite obscure sources. The authors include Robert Sheckley, Keith Roberts, Jorge Luis Borges, Joanna Russ, Harry Harrison, Kris Neville, a very early R.A. Lafferty, Thomas M. Disch, Katherine MacLean, and others. I particularly remember liking the Robert Bloch and Roger Zelazny stories.
March 20, 2025
This is the final of three New Worlds of Fantasy volumes that Carr edited for Ace from '67 - '71. I read the first two when they were new but somehow missed this third volume until I recently stumbled across it on an antiquarian rack, so my enthusiasm is enhanced by a sense of accomplishment and completion. It starts with a wonderful Peter S. Beagle story, Farrell and Lila the Werewolf, followed by a curiosity by R.A. Lafferty and an Avram Davidson oddity. Next up is Longtooth by Edgar Pangborn, a horror story set in Maine that should be as well-known of a classic as Stephen King's; I enjoyed it for the nth time. There's a Fritz Leiber story that makes you worry how bad his alcohol dependency was, then Von Goom's Gambit, a nifty Lovecraftian chess story that's the only published prose of renowned poet Victor Contoski, as well as a very nice non-series story by the under-appreciated Zenna Henderson. (Think Laura Ingalls Wilder with teeth.) The Stainless Steel Leech is a short and sweet and cute-with-a-punch Roger Zelazny story that was first published under a pseudonym, Harrison Denmark, because he had two stories in the same issue of a magazine (Amazing Stories, April 1963) back when there was an unwritten rule that the same author couldn't have two stories in the same issue. (Or maybe someone did write it down, I don't really know. Anyway, it was a rule.) It's followed by a story by editor Terry Carr (Carr frequently included one of his own pieces; it didn't hurt anything, I guess), a cute little monster tale by Robert Bloch, and a pair of high-literary pieces that are a little nebulous by Jorge Luis Borges and J.G. Ballard. The final story is a nice little cross-time romance by William M. Lee, A Message from Charity. Lee wrote eight or nine stories that were pretty good from the '60s into the '70s but isn't much known anymore. This one was adapted as a Twilight Zone episode. It's a telepathy-across-centuries romance, the kind of thing that became really popular with Matheson et al in subsequent decades. The book has a really neat bug-bird wearing a spacesuit cover painting by Kenneth Smith. (All three volumes in the series had striking covers, you should check them out.)
June 27, 2021
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.
July 11, 2025
✭✭✭½
“Farrell and Lila the Werewolf”, Peter S. Beagle (1969) ✭✭✭✭
“Adam Had Three Brothers”, R. A. Lafferty (1969) ✭✭✭½
“Big Sam”, Avram Davidson (1970) ✭✭✭✭
“Longtooth”, Edgar Pangborn (1970) ✭✭✭½
“The Inner Circles”, Fritz Leiber (1967) ✭✭
“Von Goom's Gambit”, Victor Contoski (1966) ✭✭✭✭✭
“Through a Glass — Darkly”, Zenna Henderson (1970) ✭✭✭½
“The Stainless Steel Leech”, Roger Zelazny (1963) ✭✭
“Sleeping Beauty”, Terry Carr (1967) ✭✭✭
“The Plot Is the Thing”, Robert Bloch (1966) ✭✭✭✭
“Funes el memorioso” (“Funes the Memorious”), Jorge Luís Borges (1942) ✭✭✭½
“Say Goodbye to the Wind”, J. G. Ballard (1970) ✭✭✭
“A Message from Charity”, William M. Lee (1970) ✭✭✭
“Farrell and Lila the Werewolf”, Peter S. Beagle (1969) ✭✭✭✭
“Adam Had Three Brothers”, R. A. Lafferty (1969) ✭✭✭½
“Big Sam”, Avram Davidson (1970) ✭✭✭✭
“Longtooth”, Edgar Pangborn (1970) ✭✭✭½
“The Inner Circles”, Fritz Leiber (1967) ✭✭
“Von Goom's Gambit”, Victor Contoski (1966) ✭✭✭✭✭
“Through a Glass — Darkly”, Zenna Henderson (1970) ✭✭✭½
“The Stainless Steel Leech”, Roger Zelazny (1963) ✭✭
“Sleeping Beauty”, Terry Carr (1967) ✭✭✭
“The Plot Is the Thing”, Robert Bloch (1966) ✭✭✭✭
“Funes el memorioso” (“Funes the Memorious”), Jorge Luís Borges (1942) ✭✭✭½
“Say Goodbye to the Wind”, J. G. Ballard (1970) ✭✭✭
“A Message from Charity”, William M. Lee (1970) ✭✭✭
February 18, 2025
A collection published in 1970 and containing mainly stories from the 1960s. I was unfamiliar with some of these authors, such as BJ Bayley and David Redd. It seems as though some of these authors did not have many other publications at all and it is interesting to have a sample of works that might otherwise be lost to time. There are also a couple of very well-known authors included as well, such as Roger Zelazny and Robert Bloch.
Overall the pieces in this collection just didn't work for me. There were exceptions, of course, but the majority were short and frustratingly vague. Sometimes I felt like I had read a better version of the same story elsewhere.
The Petrified World by Robert Sheckley
A man has a recurring nightmare that he lives in a world unlike his own. His waking world contains a sort of bizarro-style elastic reality, in which people and objects are in a constant state of flux, changing shape, color and other properties.
Scarlet Lady by Keith Roberts
One of the stronger stories in the collection, though I would classify it as "horror" rather than "fantasy." Interesting to see an evil car story that predates Stephen King's Christine! A mechanic's car-loving brother buys a huge 1930s-era car that seems to have an evil sentience and a taste for blood. This one is very solid.
They Loved Me in Utica by Avram Davidson
I did not like this one at all. An old man with a much younger wife is presented as a famous singer and then at the end we learn it's Homer about to sing The Iliad. That . . . doesn't make it fantasy. It just makes it a weirdly anachronistic story about Homer.
The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
I feel like I should like this - it's a fabulist piece about a library that is also the universe - but I found it very confusing.
The Ship of Disaster by BJ Bayley
A cruel elf named Elen-Gelith commands an elvish ship rowed by troll slaves. The elves and trolls are embroiled in a war and utterly disregard humans as mere animals. However, it seems that the Earth itself may have other ideas. This was well-written but very much in the vein of Moorcock's (superior) Elric novels.
Window Dressing by Joanna Russ
A mannequin in a department store window longs to have a man fall in love with her. However, when that exact thing happens she becomes annoyed and disappointed with him because he's such a nerd. I guess it's meant to be funny? Is this satire? It really didn't do anything for me.
By the Falls by Harry Harrison
A reporter interviews an old man who has lived at the base of a gigantic waterfall for 40 years. As the interview progresses, it seems that an entire alternate universe may exist at the top of the Falls. This is frustratingly vague but intriguingly dreamlike.
The Night of the Nickel Beer by Kris Neville
A man on the night of his fortieth birthday gets out of bed and begins wandering the misty streets. He comes upon a bar with some young people in it, reminding him of his youth. He finds himself attracted to a teenage girl but after hanging around with her and her friends for an hour he leaves and goes home to his wife. Did he time travel? Is that what makes this "fantasy?" It is very vague and I think the only point of it (besides ogling an underage child ew) was to wallow in a sort of meandering, pre-War nostalgia.
A Quiet Kind of Madness by David Redd
Maija - a woman living on her own in a snowy wilderness - comes across a sick animal. She's not sure what it is, noting that it is similar to a polar bear but not exactly a polar bear. She calls it "Snowfriend" and takes it back to her cabin, where she nurses it to health. I could have really liked this story based on this set-up but it's quickly ruined when the plot abruptly shifts to Maija encountering a hunter named Igor who tried to rape her previously. He returns and she's ready to kill him but he says he's "sorry" and that magically fixes everything. Suddenly, Maija forgives him and starts thinking about possibly getting back together with him?!
Thanks, I hate it.
A Museum Piece by Roger Zelazny
An unsuccessful artist decides to "become" art by taking up a spot as a sculpture in the museum. Then a hot girl starts doing it too and they fall in love and decide to go back to the real world. The other living statues (because all of the statues are apparently retired art critics) try to stop them . . . even springing a hypnotized lion on them (??) This one was clearly meant to be funny but the humor just didn't land for me. It's written in an ornate purposely pretentious style (making fun of artists, I guess?)
The Old Man of the Mountains by Terry Carr
This is a quiet, contemplative story. The narrator is a young man in his twenties returning to a place in the Oregon mountains where he spent his childhood and reminiscing about times spent with his uncle and stories of the "Old Man of the Mountains" - a local bogeyman. A quiet and sweet short story.
En Passant by Britt Schweitzer
The point of view of a decapitated head as he looks at his own body. Since no one comes along to help him, he decides he will have to work out how to reunite back with his body. First, he learns how to move across the ground by moving his jaw and then climbing up his body by biting it. This one is gross. Did not like it.
Backward, Turn Backward by Wilmar H Shiras
Okay - this one I liked! A thirty-year-old woman makes an off-hand comment to a professor about how she would change things if she could live her life over again. Suddenly, she finds herself back in the body of her 15 year old self, though she still remembers her adult life! This one was interesting and makes me curious to track down her novel Children of the Atom.
His Own Kind by Thomas M Disch
A hamadryad recounts the life story of an English gamekeeper who was also a werewolf. The humor worked better for me in this tale. The ending is very sad, though.
Perchance to Dream by Katherine MacLean
An extremely short story (only 3 pages!) but one of the more interesting ones. Posits a world in which people spend all of their time in some sort of shared dream (ala the Matrix, though of course predating it) but the danger is that their bodies - going through the motions of life - are wasting away.
Lazarus by Leonid Andreyeff
An older Russian story apparently from the 1920s. It retells the Biblical tale of Lazarus. However, in this version of events Lazarus returns still looking corpse-like and with haunting eyes that cause everyone he meets to enter profound despair and depression for the rest of their lives. It's beautifully written (or translated? But there is no translator credited) but grim.
The Ugly Sea by RA Lafferty
A loan shark falls in "love" (lust) with a 12 year old child. And then he becomes a sailor in order to "woo" her. Gross.
The Movie People by Robert Bloch
This is a fun story involving movie extras in Hollywood. Jimmy Rogers is an old man but was working as an extra in movies all the way back in the 1920s. His girlfriend back in the day was also a movie extra who tragically died on set during an accident. Now an old man, Jimmy is constantly rewatching the old black and white silent films to catch glimpses of her . . . but it's stranger than that. I liked this one.
Overall the pieces in this collection just didn't work for me. There were exceptions, of course, but the majority were short and frustratingly vague. Sometimes I felt like I had read a better version of the same story elsewhere.
The Petrified World by Robert Sheckley
A man has a recurring nightmare that he lives in a world unlike his own. His waking world contains a sort of bizarro-style elastic reality, in which people and objects are in a constant state of flux, changing shape, color and other properties.
Scarlet Lady by Keith Roberts
One of the stronger stories in the collection, though I would classify it as "horror" rather than "fantasy." Interesting to see an evil car story that predates Stephen King's Christine! A mechanic's car-loving brother buys a huge 1930s-era car that seems to have an evil sentience and a taste for blood. This one is very solid.
They Loved Me in Utica by Avram Davidson
I did not like this one at all. An old man with a much younger wife is presented as a famous singer and then at the end we learn it's Homer about to sing The Iliad. That . . . doesn't make it fantasy. It just makes it a weirdly anachronistic story about Homer.
The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
I feel like I should like this - it's a fabulist piece about a library that is also the universe - but I found it very confusing.
The Ship of Disaster by BJ Bayley
A cruel elf named Elen-Gelith commands an elvish ship rowed by troll slaves. The elves and trolls are embroiled in a war and utterly disregard humans as mere animals. However, it seems that the Earth itself may have other ideas. This was well-written but very much in the vein of Moorcock's (superior) Elric novels.
Window Dressing by Joanna Russ
A mannequin in a department store window longs to have a man fall in love with her. However, when that exact thing happens she becomes annoyed and disappointed with him because he's such a nerd. I guess it's meant to be funny? Is this satire? It really didn't do anything for me.
By the Falls by Harry Harrison
A reporter interviews an old man who has lived at the base of a gigantic waterfall for 40 years. As the interview progresses, it seems that an entire alternate universe may exist at the top of the Falls. This is frustratingly vague but intriguingly dreamlike.
The Night of the Nickel Beer by Kris Neville
A man on the night of his fortieth birthday gets out of bed and begins wandering the misty streets. He comes upon a bar with some young people in it, reminding him of his youth. He finds himself attracted to a teenage girl but after hanging around with her and her friends for an hour he leaves and goes home to his wife. Did he time travel? Is that what makes this "fantasy?" It is very vague and I think the only point of it (besides ogling an underage child ew) was to wallow in a sort of meandering, pre-War nostalgia.
A Quiet Kind of Madness by David Redd
Maija - a woman living on her own in a snowy wilderness - comes across a sick animal. She's not sure what it is, noting that it is similar to a polar bear but not exactly a polar bear. She calls it "Snowfriend" and takes it back to her cabin, where she nurses it to health. I could have really liked this story based on this set-up but it's quickly ruined when the plot abruptly shifts to Maija encountering a hunter named Igor who tried to rape her previously. He returns and she's ready to kill him but he says he's "sorry" and that magically fixes everything. Suddenly, Maija forgives him and starts thinking about possibly getting back together with him?!
Thanks, I hate it.
A Museum Piece by Roger Zelazny
An unsuccessful artist decides to "become" art by taking up a spot as a sculpture in the museum. Then a hot girl starts doing it too and they fall in love and decide to go back to the real world. The other living statues (because all of the statues are apparently retired art critics) try to stop them . . . even springing a hypnotized lion on them (??) This one was clearly meant to be funny but the humor just didn't land for me. It's written in an ornate purposely pretentious style (making fun of artists, I guess?)
The Old Man of the Mountains by Terry Carr
This is a quiet, contemplative story. The narrator is a young man in his twenties returning to a place in the Oregon mountains where he spent his childhood and reminiscing about times spent with his uncle and stories of the "Old Man of the Mountains" - a local bogeyman. A quiet and sweet short story.
En Passant by Britt Schweitzer
The point of view of a decapitated head as he looks at his own body. Since no one comes along to help him, he decides he will have to work out how to reunite back with his body. First, he learns how to move across the ground by moving his jaw and then climbing up his body by biting it. This one is gross. Did not like it.
Backward, Turn Backward by Wilmar H Shiras
Okay - this one I liked! A thirty-year-old woman makes an off-hand comment to a professor about how she would change things if she could live her life over again. Suddenly, she finds herself back in the body of her 15 year old self, though she still remembers her adult life! This one was interesting and makes me curious to track down her novel Children of the Atom.
His Own Kind by Thomas M Disch
A hamadryad recounts the life story of an English gamekeeper who was also a werewolf. The humor worked better for me in this tale. The ending is very sad, though.
Perchance to Dream by Katherine MacLean
An extremely short story (only 3 pages!) but one of the more interesting ones. Posits a world in which people spend all of their time in some sort of shared dream (ala the Matrix, though of course predating it) but the danger is that their bodies - going through the motions of life - are wasting away.
Lazarus by Leonid Andreyeff
An older Russian story apparently from the 1920s. It retells the Biblical tale of Lazarus. However, in this version of events Lazarus returns still looking corpse-like and with haunting eyes that cause everyone he meets to enter profound despair and depression for the rest of their lives. It's beautifully written (or translated? But there is no translator credited) but grim.
The Ugly Sea by RA Lafferty
A loan shark falls in "love" (lust) with a 12 year old child. And then he becomes a sailor in order to "woo" her. Gross.
The Movie People by Robert Bloch
This is a fun story involving movie extras in Hollywood. Jimmy Rogers is an old man but was working as an extra in movies all the way back in the 1920s. His girlfriend back in the day was also a movie extra who tragically died on set during an accident. Now an old man, Jimmy is constantly rewatching the old black and white silent films to catch glimpses of her . . . but it's stranger than that. I liked this one.
November 2, 2025
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.
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.
October 1, 2015
I'd put this book at no later than 1972. I bet it has been out of print since the Ford administration.
Look at that cover. It's an oil painting (I think) and it shows a black cat in the rain. His eyes are as yellow as the reflected light on the pavement behind him. If this cover doesn't draw you in, pass by. But I was unable to pass it by when, as an eleven-year-old looking for a comic book or a Snickers bar in Pinelli's stationary store in Greenlawn, NY, I was caught by the allure of this cover.
It seems to me the edges of the book were blood-red, the standard color of the edges of paperbacks then. This was the sort of book probably sold at train station kiosks. Pinelli's was across the street from Greenlawn train station, and the nine-to-fivers, with their tweed suits and shiny shoes, probably were the likely buyers of this book. But were they counting on a child growing tired of RICHIE RICH? Superheroes weren't my thing, and even then Science-Fiction was not my thing. But "Fantasy" was in the title, and I liked fantasy as a thing in itself. RICHIE RICH was fantasy. Sci-Fi was worlds resembling Earth. Whoop-de-do!
I probably also meant to impress my father, who had collections from twenty-five years before, of science-fiction. Yes, I was anti-Sci-Fi, but I was for impressing my father, and this was something I would not only like to be seen reading but which I probably could read.
The story which I know I read all the way through is the one I remember. It was my introduction to Robert Bloch and it was called "The Movie People." It was the last story in the book and had an illustration of a woman's eyes. The eyes looked like loops of film, with the sprockets. It was a story about a down-and-out young man passing each afternoon at a run-down Hollywood movie palace which showed silent westerns. An old man in the audience sidled up to him and befriended him. I re-read it recently and Bloch really was trying to play with sexual subtext here, but he makes it all very innocent. The old man just wants to see the old scenes featuring his dead wife, an extra in some crowd scenes. This seedy old theater becomes the road to nostalgia for the young man and a little history of the film industry comes across in seven or so pages. This was pulp writing of a most perfect sort. It was somehwere between John Rechy and Norman Rockwell. Of course, Rockwell was a painter, but this was a highly visual story.
By the way, Goodreads has the title wrong. This is NEW WORLDS OF FANTASY 2. [Correction: Actually, I just noticed the title is complete here. But I like this paragraph.] I've never seen the first one and I've never noticed another copy of this one again. I have mine somewhere.
I can just make out the names on the cover in Goodreads' image. Roger Zelazny has one in here. I'm certain I started reading some of the other stories, but "The Movie People" is locked in my heart. When I saw PSYCHO on TV not long after this and saw the credit for Robert Bloch as the author of the novel it was based on, I felt entirely connected to the cinematic world he describes in this story. I pictured him hammering away at his typewriter, Hollywood contracts piling up on his desk.
To be very direct, this book is an example of what was then very prevalent: Highly readable, entertaining, inexpensive collections of current stories, either in book form or as periodicals, found near the newspapers in drug stores, train stations or other places which were not out-and-out bookstores. Even in 1972 this was a dying form. But the old hands were still capable of crafting this stuff.
I would also wager "The Movie People" has never been included in any other book. It is as elusive as the fleeting images of the old movie-goer's girlfriend looking out at him from the silver screen. Wave at this book if you see it. You may never spot it again.
Look at that cover. It's an oil painting (I think) and it shows a black cat in the rain. His eyes are as yellow as the reflected light on the pavement behind him. If this cover doesn't draw you in, pass by. But I was unable to pass it by when, as an eleven-year-old looking for a comic book or a Snickers bar in Pinelli's stationary store in Greenlawn, NY, I was caught by the allure of this cover.
It seems to me the edges of the book were blood-red, the standard color of the edges of paperbacks then. This was the sort of book probably sold at train station kiosks. Pinelli's was across the street from Greenlawn train station, and the nine-to-fivers, with their tweed suits and shiny shoes, probably were the likely buyers of this book. But were they counting on a child growing tired of RICHIE RICH? Superheroes weren't my thing, and even then Science-Fiction was not my thing. But "Fantasy" was in the title, and I liked fantasy as a thing in itself. RICHIE RICH was fantasy. Sci-Fi was worlds resembling Earth. Whoop-de-do!
I probably also meant to impress my father, who had collections from twenty-five years before, of science-fiction. Yes, I was anti-Sci-Fi, but I was for impressing my father, and this was something I would not only like to be seen reading but which I probably could read.
The story which I know I read all the way through is the one I remember. It was my introduction to Robert Bloch and it was called "The Movie People." It was the last story in the book and had an illustration of a woman's eyes. The eyes looked like loops of film, with the sprockets. It was a story about a down-and-out young man passing each afternoon at a run-down Hollywood movie palace which showed silent westerns. An old man in the audience sidled up to him and befriended him. I re-read it recently and Bloch really was trying to play with sexual subtext here, but he makes it all very innocent. The old man just wants to see the old scenes featuring his dead wife, an extra in some crowd scenes. This seedy old theater becomes the road to nostalgia for the young man and a little history of the film industry comes across in seven or so pages. This was pulp writing of a most perfect sort. It was somehwere between John Rechy and Norman Rockwell. Of course, Rockwell was a painter, but this was a highly visual story.
By the way, Goodreads has the title wrong. This is NEW WORLDS OF FANTASY 2. [Correction: Actually, I just noticed the title is complete here. But I like this paragraph.] I've never seen the first one and I've never noticed another copy of this one again. I have mine somewhere.
I can just make out the names on the cover in Goodreads' image. Roger Zelazny has one in here. I'm certain I started reading some of the other stories, but "The Movie People" is locked in my heart. When I saw PSYCHO on TV not long after this and saw the credit for Robert Bloch as the author of the novel it was based on, I felt entirely connected to the cinematic world he describes in this story. I pictured him hammering away at his typewriter, Hollywood contracts piling up on his desk.
To be very direct, this book is an example of what was then very prevalent: Highly readable, entertaining, inexpensive collections of current stories, either in book form or as periodicals, found near the newspapers in drug stores, train stations or other places which were not out-and-out bookstores. Even in 1972 this was a dying form. But the old hands were still capable of crafting this stuff.
I would also wager "The Movie People" has never been included in any other book. It is as elusive as the fleeting images of the old movie-goer's girlfriend looking out at him from the silver screen. Wave at this book if you see it. You may never spot it again.
June 13, 2019
The Mindwebs audiobook (##18) #52 part 1 is the story “En Passant” by Britt Schweitzer which was taken from this book.
Quite a shocker to start with. Deliciously surreal as it progresses, I personally found its serious style absolutely hilarious, and although preposterous in the extreme it was nevertheless highly entertaining.
Volume two contains The Mindwebs audiobook 770805 ##18 of "The Petrified World" by Robert Sheckley. My fav author so 5 stars, b4 I listen!
The protagonist awakes from a recurrent nightmare dream unsure of reality. Rapidly reality is revealed to be rather different in this universe, but our hero finds the status quo illogical and it disturbs him greatly...he just doesn't seem to be able to accept it like everyone else. His irritating wife and even more annoying companion Tornstein encourage him to get help from the doctor.
Dr Samson gets him to open up about his fear that his horrific dream will become reality. Doc explains that his dream world is a rationalisation which it is impossible to refute and argues that reality is whatever the majority believe. Hmnn ?
I would like to add...It's absolutely true of course, for example in this universe we all believe we live on a planet with infinite resources, we've all been lucky enough in this, our most respected country, to worship the one true God, (and so we secretly known we are members of the chosen race), therefore we were naturally all blessed with above average IQ so most of us vote for the best political party. Most know he is also the best leader we have ever had, a genius (he explained down to us) who is spearheading our fight against the nay-sayers..You know, those evil non-belivers who claim our sacred golf course environment and exclusive resort on which we live is actually almost spherical. Phootey. And that is our reality....no wonder I prefer Sheckley's :)
Volume 2 also contains Mindwebs audiobook ##24 “The Night Of The Nickel Beer” by Kris Neville. A haunting introverted story of a man turning 40, he decides, against his normal habits, to go for a beer. He enjoys the company of some young people and is tempted by his imagination to get involved with a girl. Subconsciously he fears loosing his youth but also knows he loves his wife.
This inward detailed analysis of his thoughts is a gentle paced honest description of his feelings and desire to belong and stave off his existential loneliness. Fascinating. four stars.
24 Mindwebs-771007_TheNightOfTheN Kris Neville
Quite a shocker to start with. Deliciously surreal as it progresses, I personally found its serious style absolutely hilarious, and although preposterous in the extreme it was nevertheless highly entertaining.
Volume two contains The Mindwebs audiobook 770805 ##18 of "The Petrified World" by Robert Sheckley. My fav author so 5 stars, b4 I listen!
The protagonist awakes from a recurrent nightmare dream unsure of reality. Rapidly reality is revealed to be rather different in this universe, but our hero finds the status quo illogical and it disturbs him greatly...he just doesn't seem to be able to accept it like everyone else. His irritating wife and even more annoying companion Tornstein encourage him to get help from the doctor.
Dr Samson gets him to open up about his fear that his horrific dream will become reality. Doc explains that his dream world is a rationalisation which it is impossible to refute and argues that reality is whatever the majority believe. Hmnn ?
I would like to add...It's absolutely true of course, for example in this universe we all believe we live on a planet with infinite resources, we've all been lucky enough in this, our most respected country, to worship the one true God, (and so we secretly known we are members of the chosen race), therefore we were naturally all blessed with above average IQ so most of us vote for the best political party. Most know he is also the best leader we have ever had, a genius (he explained down to us) who is spearheading our fight against the nay-sayers..You know, those evil non-belivers who claim our sacred golf course environment and exclusive resort on which we live is actually almost spherical. Phootey. And that is our reality....no wonder I prefer Sheckley's :)
Volume 2 also contains Mindwebs audiobook ##24 “The Night Of The Nickel Beer” by Kris Neville. A haunting introverted story of a man turning 40, he decides, against his normal habits, to go for a beer. He enjoys the company of some young people and is tempted by his imagination to get involved with a girl. Subconsciously he fears loosing his youth but also knows he loves his wife.
This inward detailed analysis of his thoughts is a gentle paced honest description of his feelings and desire to belong and stave off his existential loneliness. Fascinating. four stars.
24 Mindwebs-771007_TheNightOfTheN Kris Neville
September 17, 2012
Borges and Leiber were very good. The first and last stories were fun. I don't care for J.G.Ballard's writing, but his story reminded me of Crash (which I also did not like). There was a Lovecraftian story about chess that was pretty amusing. Not bad for a random fantasy book from the early 70's!
October 29, 2016
I may have bought this new, in 1971, since there are no penciled in 25 cent price, as it would have been in the mid '70's. I re read this to see if the stories, which were very good at the time still held up from whatever viewpoint. They do.
September 28, 2011
A decent collection of fantasy stories by established fantasy and science fiction authors.
December 26, 2021
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.
Beim Lesen der anderen Reviews hatte ich übrigens WTF-Momente.
November 11, 2019
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.
This book would be good for someone with a strong nostalgia or curiosity for late 60s fantasy or doing literary research.
March 7, 2013
This is the third of Terry Carr's late-sixties anthology series, containing stories by Roger Zelazny, Jorge Luis Borges, Robert Bloch, Peter S. Beagle and others. Not quite as good to reread as the first two in the series, but that may be because there are fewer stories I don't already know well. Still excellent—Carr had a really good eye for a fine story.
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