Science fiction short story anthology From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
| |
| 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 |
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controversially, failed to be published and became something of a legend in science fiction as the genre's most famous unpublished book.[1][2] It was originally announced for publication in 1973, but did not seen print until fifty years later.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British author Christopher Priest, whose story "An Infinite Summer" had been commissioned for TLDV in 1974 and withdrawn after four months without any response, wrote a lengthy critique of Ellison's failure to complete the project.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Straczynski announced that he would oversee the project to publish the book.[7][8] Straczynski's volume did not include withdrawn stories nor stories "overtaken by real-world events", so the final length was just a sixth of the originally intended, but included new stories from major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.
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