Hello LFS,

Thank you for bringing the novel Triton and Samuel Delany to my attention. My knowledge of SF is not wide, but I was unaware of the branch of SF called “New Wave” until this review.

What other authors fall under “New Wave”? This could be the beginning of a fresh avenue of Libertarian sf exploration!

Thanks,
—Michael Serafin

[Editor replies: New Wave broke upon the shores of science fiction in the late 1960s, primarily in the magazine New Worlds. Writers included Brian Aldiss and J.G. Ballard, but perhaps the name most associated with New Wave is Michael Moorcock, a left wing anarchist. Tending more to the literary aspects of science fiction, rather than the hard science focus in the US at this time. New Wave was also noted for its social and psychological emphasis, rather than on what they perceived the focus of then current sf, gadgets and ideas.

Other writers who were caught in the New Wave net by critics included Harlan Ellison, Thomas Disch, and Robert Silverberg. Silverberg, often nominated for the LFS Hall of Fame for A Time of Changes, recently confessed to some libertarian leanings, but the first two fall in the liberal political camp. These three writers all deal with freedom and social relations, and have won great critical acclaim. New Waver John Brunner was noted for his writings on Dystopias, such as Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up.

Supplemental source: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, John Clute and Peter Nichols.]