Editor | Harlan Ellison / J. Michael Straczynski (uncredited) |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Dangerous Visions |
Genre | speculative fiction |
Publisher | Blackstone Publishers |
Publication date | October 1, 2024 |
Publication place | United States |
Preceded by | Again, Dangerous Visions |
The Last Dangerous Visions (often abbreviated TLDV, sometimes as LDV) is an original speculative fiction anthology following Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). Like its predecessors, it was edited by American author Harlan Ellison, with introductions to be provided by him. Ellison died in 2018 with the anthology unfinished.
In 2020, the Ellison estate's executor J. Michael Straczynski announced his intention to publish it. It was published by Blackstone Publishers on October 1, 2024.
The third anthology was started but, controversially, failed to be published and became something of a legend in science fiction as the genre's most famous unpublished book. [1] [2] It was originally announced for publication in 1973, but did not seen print until fifty years later. Ellison came under criticism for his treatment of some writers who sold their stories to him, estimated to number around 120. [3] Many of these writers have since died.
British author Christopher Priest, whose story "An Infinite Summer" had been commissioned for TLDV in 1974 and withdrawn after four months without any response, wrote a lengthy critique of Ellison's failure to complete the project. It was first published by Priest in 1987 as The Last Deadloss Visions, a pun on the title of Priest's fanzine Deadloss where it appeared. [4] It proved so popular that it had two more editions, expanded with reader letters and other events, later in 1987 and 1988. In 1994 it was further expanded as The Book on the Edge of Forever (an allusion to Ellison's Star Trek episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever") from American publisher Fantagraphics Books, this was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work. [5] Priest also released the final draft online. [6]
On June 28, 2018, Ellison died, with the anthology still unfinished.
On November 13, 2020, the Ellison estate's executor J. Michael Straczynski announced that he would oversee the project to publish the book. [7] [8] Straczynski's volume did not include withdrawn stories nor stories "overtaken by real-world events", so the final length was just a sixth of the originally intended, but included new stories from major contemporary science fiction writers as well as work from new authors, including one story from an unpublished writer, Kayo Hartenbaum. The book was advertised as containing "one last, significant work by Harlan which has never been published" which "ties directly into the reason why The Last Dangerous Visions has taken so long to come to light," although in practice this turned out to be an essay by Straczynski describing Ellison’s battle with bipolar disorder. The stories were accompanied by artwork from Tim Kirk (who had been commissioned in the 1970s). The rights to all stories not used reverted to the authors.
The contents of The Last Dangerous Visions were announced on several occasions, beginning in the January 1973 issue #7 of the semiprozine Alien Critic . [9] Stories were being added, dropped, or substituted between each announced version. The most complete version was announced in 1979; listed were 113 stories by 102 authors, to be collected in three volumes.
It was announced in the April 1979 issue of the Locus magazine that the anthology had been sold to Berkley Books, which planned to publish the 645,000 words of fiction in three volumes. A table of contents was published in the June 1979 issue (#222). Story titles are followed by an approximate word count (note that the totals given do not match the sum of individual stories; Ellison may have added his introductions to each volume). Authors marked with a '†' have died since submitting their work to Ellison. Stories marked with a '‡' have been published elsewhere by the author or their estate.
34 authors, 35 stories, 214,250 words.
32 authors, 40 stories, 216,527 words.
36 authors, 38 stories, 214,200 words.
The following nine stories were not in the 1979 list but are listed in previous published contents, or known as submitted to Ellison – as Ellison kept on acquiring new stories long into the 1980s, this is the case with most of them.[ citation needed ]
Straczynski notes on p. 393 that the Intermezzos by D. M. Rowles were purchased by Ellison, and on p. 353 that Dan Simmons’s story was accepted by Ellison in 1982 or soon thereafter. Some other stories in Straczynski’s anthology, e.g. “Assignment No. 1” by Stephen Robinett and “The Size of the Problem” by Howard Fast, were presumably accepted by Ellison, as the authors died before Straczynski took over as editor.
Straczynski's anthology includes 31 stories (8 of them short "intermezzos") by 24 authors. [12] 7 of the stories, marked '*' below, were selected by Straczynski; the remainder were selected by Ellison.
As of early 2025, over forty stories purchased for Last Dangerous Visions have been published elsewhere.
Harlan Jay Ellison was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media.
The New Wave was a science fiction style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis on the psychological and social sciences as opposed to the physical sciences. New Wave authors often considered themselves as part of the modernist tradition of fiction, and the New Wave was conceived as a deliberate change from the traditions of the science fiction characteristic of pulp magazines, which many of the writers involved considered irrelevant or unambitious.
Dangerous Visions is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by American writer Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. It was published in 1967 and contained 33 stories, none of which had been previously published.
Orbit was a series of anthologies of new science fiction edited by Damon Knight, often featuring work by such writers as Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ, R. A. Lafferty, and Kate Wilhelm. The anthologies tended toward the avant-garde edge of science fiction, but by no means exclusively; occasionally the volumes featured nonfiction critical writing or humorous anecdotes by Knight. Inspired by Frederik Pohl's Star Science Fiction series, and in its turn an influence on other original speculative fiction anthologies, it ran for over a decade and twenty-one volumes, not including a 1975 "Best of" collection selected from the first ten volumes.
Again, Dangerous Visions (1972) is a science fiction short story anthology, edited by American author Harlan Ellison. It is the follow-up to Dangerous Visions (1967), also edited by Ellison. Cover art and interior illustrations are by Ed Emshwiller.
Mark V. Ziesing is an American small press publisher and bookseller, founded by Mark Ziesing. Active as a bookseller, from 1972 to present; Ziesing was in publishing, from the mid-1980s into 1998. The Ziesing publishing imprint specialized in science fiction, horror, and other forms of speculative fiction. Originally based in Willimantic, Connecticut and in partnership with his brother Michael, he published two books by Gene Wolfe under the name Ziesing Brothers.
Arthur Byron Cover is an American science fiction author.
Jove Books, formerly known as Pyramid Books, is an American paperback and eBook publishing imprint, founded as an independent paperback house in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers. The company was sold to the Walter Reade Organization in the late 1960s. It was acquired in 1974 by Harcourt Brace which renamed it to Jove in 1977 and continued the line as an imprint. In 1979, they sold it to The Putnam Berkley Group, which is now part of the Penguin Group.
"A Toy for Juliette" is a 1967 science fiction and horror short story by American writer Robert Bloch, appearing for the first time in Harlan Ellison's anthology Dangerous Visions.
"The Doll-House" is a short story by Hugh Jones Parry, under the name "James Cross". It was first published in Harlan Ellison's 1967 science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions.
Infinity Science Fiction was an American science fiction magazine, edited by Larry T. Shaw, and published by Royal Publications. The first issue, which appeared in November 1955, included Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star", a story about a planet destroyed by a nova that turns out to have been the Star of Bethlehem; it won the Hugo Award for that year. Shaw obtained stories from some of the leading writers of the day, including Brian Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Sheckley, but the material was of variable quality. In 1958 Irwin Stein, the owner of Royal Publications, decided to shut down Infinity; the last issue was dated November 1958.
Terence William (Terry) Dowling, is an Australian writer and journalist.
The Girl Who Heard Dragons is a 1994 collection of short fantasy and science fiction stories by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It opens with an essay on her celebrity, or lack thereof, and includes 23 drawings by the cover artist Michael Whelan.
Blood! The Life And Future Times Of Jack The Ripper was a set of two record albums that was issued in 1977. The first record has American writer Robert Bloch reading his short stories, "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" and "A Toy for Juliette". The first was published in Weird Tales in 1943; the second appeared in Harlan Ellison's science fiction anthology, Dangerous Visions. On the second record is speculative fiction author Harlan Ellison reading his short story, "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World".
"How's the Night Life on Cissalda?" is a science fiction short story by American writer Harlan Ellison, first published in 1977, in the first volume of the Zebra Books anthology series "Chrysalis". It was subsequently reprinted in Ellison's 1980 collection Shatterday, in OpZone no. 8 in the 1990 Ellen Datlow-edited anthology Alien Sex, and, in Italian, in Fantasex and in Idrogeno e idiozia.
Can & Can'tankerous is a 2015 collection of previously uncollected short stories written by Harlan Ellison. The collection includes the story "How Interesting: A Tiny Man", which won the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Short Story alongside "Ponies" by Kij Johnson. The collection was edited by Jason Davis and includes an introduction to the story "Loose Cannon" written by Neil Gaiman.
Alpha 8 is a science fiction anthology edited by American writer Robert Silverberg, first published as a paperback original by Berkley Medallion in November 1977. No further editions have been issued.
"The Story to End All Stories for Harlan Ellison's Anthology Dangerous Visions" (1968) is a 117-word short story by Philip K. Dick, written as an addendum, or spiritual sequel to "Faith of Our Fathers". It is a simply written account of a decadent, dystopian, post-apocalyptic society, characterised by inter-species sex, infanticide, and cannibalism. The story is symbolic and satirical, reflecting ideas of divinity and the consequences of war, themes which figure large in the author's writing.
Nebula Award Stories 11 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was first published in the United Kingdom in hardcover by Gollancz in November 1976. The first American edition was published in hardcover by Harper & Row in February 1977. Paperback editions followed from Corgi in the U.K. in July 1978, and Bantam Books in the U.S. in August 1978. The American editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories Eleven.
This is a list of works by Harlan Ellison (1934–2018). It includes his literary output, screenplays and teleplays, voiceover work, and other fields of endeavor.