Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985. Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre, eds. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2021. 216p. Paper, $24.60 (ISBN: 978-1629638836).

Abstract

This essay collection on mid-20th century American and British science fiction literature is next in a series of overviews of “outsider” print fiction from PM Press that includes Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980 (2017) and Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980 (2019). This review of science fiction features two groundbreaking New Wave science fiction publications in the book’s title: the magazine edited by Michael Moorcock, New Worlds, and Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions short story collections. The era covered by editors and authors Andrew Nette and Iain McIntrye primarily covers what they call the “long sixties,” but also encompasses novels and writers that address “radical” themes such as sexual politics, environmentalism, and social revolution outside that time period. Nette and Mcintyre include writers considered the stars of this era—Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, James Tiptree, Jr., Robert A. Heinlein—but the strength of this collection is its inclusion of writers less well known to science fiction scholarship and fandoms: the Brothers Strugatksy, Judith Merril, Louise Lawrence, Larry Townsend. Other writers included are connected to others in the networks of science fiction history. Luminaries like Octavia E. Butler had an early short story purchased by Harlan Ellison for an as-yet unpublished Dangerous Visions volume.