Did New Wave Science Fiction deliver?
Hindsight's a wonderful thing - you get to be judge, jury and executioner. In the mid 1960s New Worlds Magazine was the premier British SF journal. It was circulated in WH Smith and was a valuable window into the genre. Michael Moorcock then became editor. Moorcock was an evangeliser for New Wave SF. I remember reading about how New Wave SF was going to be good for the genre, and thinking: 'that's impressive'. That was over 40 years back.
New Worlds failed: WH Smith dropped it, it became dependent on Arts Council subsidies and then they pulled the plug. It ceased monthly publication in 1970. The New SF, published just a few months later, laid out all the flaws of the movement to the paying public - yes I bought a copy - it had morphed into a sanctuary for literary self-indulgence.
