New Writings in SF 27

A decent science fiction collection from 1975.
It wasn't particularly inspiring compared to other books in this series. The editor seemed to rate the more boring stories as his favourites; The Day They Cut off the Power by Vera Johnson (the only female author represented here) and Zone by Peter Linnett were both lifeless expressions of dissatisfaction with the system that could have come from any schoolchild's English essay.

The stories by Keith Wells and Graham Charnock I just plain didn't like. They weren't bad, as such, but there didn't seem to be any point in them existing. Long Time Ago, Not Forgotten by Bob Van Laerhoven, about life in an alien circus is better, but still only barely worth reading, with a dull and unsatisfying payoff. And Heal Thyself by John Rackoff which covers electronic empathy and mind-connections is ok. Yes, just ok. The same ground gets crossed by Kapp's finale so much better that this story is eclipsed.

Brian Aldiss appears for a typically Aldissian series of non-sequiturs in Year by Year the Evil Gains, which is part of a longer series by him that doesn't sit all that well in a science fiction collection. It's nicely-written, though, and thought-provoking.

There were three stand-out pieces for me:

Bartholomew & Son (and the Fish-Girl) by Michael G. Coney gives us a funny world, where sea life has been adapted to land and art quite literally conveys emotion. It's well-written and with only a couple of turns of phrase changed I could imagine it appearing in a “new writings” from this century instead.

Heatwave is just as perfect a piece of science fiction satire as I've ever read, even if one or two of the acronyms he uses could have done without the repetition drawing attention to them. The world is heating up, but it's all just a distraction as bureaucrats and scientists rush to solve the mystery of an intercepted coded message: The Sun Is Going Nova.

Cassius and the Mind-Jaunt by Colin Kapp explored, in 1975, so many of the questions we demanded of shows like Star Trek when the star actors had their bodies swapped, or infiltrated someone's dreams. The questions that got answered decades later in films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Inception could probably all be shown to have been answered here first. It's witty and engaging, and it's a little bit of escapist adventure to end the book with.

I'm rating this as four stars because of these highlights. Overall, it's a disappointing package.