Here’s something a little different. In the late 60s and into the 70s, the Science Fiction genre was rocked by the rise of a new philosophy of how to tell stories…and what sort of stories could be told. Championed by British writers J.G. Ballard and Michael Moorcock, the New Wave of SF (as it came to be known) embraced experimentation and artistic ambition. Here in America, one of its most celebrated authors was Samuel R. Delany. In this volume he, with fellow editor Marilyn Hacker, presented a selection of New Wave short stories for the general public.
So how do I feel about this book? Sorta how I feel about the New Wave in general, really. Occasional moments of brilliance are beset by long, LONG passages of barely comprehensible prose that, if they are about anything, tend to be about how their sensitive male characters can’t get laid. Often. Still, when it’s good, it’s VERY good. I highly recommend Delany’s short story “Dog in a Fisherman’s Net”, a dreamlike tale about a young man living on an isolated Greek Island struggling with the death of his brother. Joanna Russ’s “The Zanzibar Cat”, an admitted homage to fantasy writer Hope Mirrlees is also a fun tale with arresting prose, about a town encountering strange affronts by a member of the aristocracy who may be the devil himself.
As for the rest of the book, it stands as a testament to an era when, for better or for worse, pretty much nothing was taboo. It remains an item of interest, just for that. Me like books.
Me Like Books 