The Last Dangerous Visions


The Last Dangerous Visions is a 2024 original speculative fiction anthology following Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions. 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.

Background

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controversially, failed to be published and became something of a legend in science fiction as the genre's most famous unpublished book. It was originally announced for publication in 1973, but did not see print until over fifty years later. Ellison came under criticism for his treatment of some writers who sold their stories to him, estimated to number around 120. Many of the writers died in the interim between Ellison's initial story acquisitions and the book's eventual publication more than five decades later.
British author Christopher Priest, whose story "An Infinite Summer" had been commissioned for TLDV in 1974 and withdrawn after four months without any response, wrote a lengthy critique of Ellison's failure to complete the project.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. 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 from American publisher Fantagraphics Books, and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work. Priest also released the final draft online.
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. Straczynski's volume did not include withdrawn stories nor stories "overtaken by real-world events", so the final length was just a sixth of the originally intended, but included new stories from major contemporary science fiction writers as well as work from new authors, including one story from an unpublished writer, Kayo Hartenbaum.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". 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. The rights to all stories not used reverted to the authors.

Ellison contents

The contents of The Last Dangerous Visions were announced on several occasions, beginning in the January 1973 issue #7 of the semiprozine Alien Critic. 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.

Contents as of 1979

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. Story titles are followed by an approximate word count. Authors marked with a '†' died between the time they submitted their work to Ellison and the actual completed TLDV was released. Stories marked with a '‡' were published elsewhere by the author or their estate, after this announcement was published but before the final completed version of TLDV was released. Stories in bold type were included in the completed TLDV.

Book One

34 authors, 35 stories, 214,250 words.
  1. "Among the Beautiful Bright Children"‡ by James E. Gunn†
  2. "Dark Night in Toyland"‡ by Bob Shaw† – published in 1988; withdrawn by Shaw's estate after his 1996 death
  3. "Living Inside" by Bruce Sterling
  4. "The Bing Bang Blues" by Delbert Casada
  5. "Ponce De Leon's Pants" by Mack Reynolds†
  6. "The True Believer" by A. Bertram Chandler†
  7. "The Bones Do Lie"‡ by Anne McCaffrey†
  8. "Doug, Where Are We? I Don't Know. A Spaceship Maybe" by Grant Carrington
  9. "Child of Mind" by Lisa Tuttle
  10. "Dark Threshold" by P. C. Hodgell
  11. "Falling From Grace" by Ward Moore†
  12. "The 100 Million Horses of Planet Dada" by Daniel Walther†
  13. "None So Deaf" by Richard E. Peck
  14. "A Time for Praying" by G. C. Edmondson†
  15. "The Amazonas Link" by James Sutherland
  16. "At the Sign of the Boar's Head Nebula"‡ by Richard Wilson†
  17. "All Creatures Great and Small" by Howard Fast†
  18. "A Night at Madame Mephisto's" by Joseph F. Pumilia
  19. "What Used to be Called Dead"‡ by Leslie A. Fiedler†
  20. "Not All a Dream"‡ by Manly Wade Wellman†
  21. "A Day in the Life of A-420" by Felix C. Gotschalk†
  22. "The Residents of Kingston" by Doris Piserchia†
  23. "Free Enterprise"‡ by Jerry Pournelle†
  24. "Rundown" by John Morressy†
  25. "Various Kinds of Conceit"‡ by Arthur Byron Cover
  26. "Son of 'Wild in the Streets'" by Robert Thom†
  27. "Dick and Jane Go to Mars" by Wilson Tucker†
  28. "On the Way to the Woman of Your Dreams" by Jud Newborn under the pen name Raul Judson
  29. "Blackstop" by Gerard Conway
  30. "Ten Times Your Fingers and Double Your Toes"‡ by Craig Strete
  31. "The Names of Yanils"‡ by Chan Davis
  32. "Return to Elf Hill" by Robert Lilly
  33. "The Carbon Dream"‡ by Jack Dann
  34. "Dogs' Lives"‡ by Michael Bishop

Book Two

32 authors, 40 stories, 216,527 words.
  1. "Universe on the Turn"‡ by Ian Watson
  2. "The Children of Bull Weed" by Gordon Eklund
  3. "Precis of the Rappacini Report"‡ by Anthony Boucher†
  4. "Grandma, What's the Sky Made Of?" by Susan C. Lette
  5. "A Rousing Explanation of the Events Surrounding My Sister's Death" by David Wise†
  6. "The Dawn Patrol" by P.J. Plauger
  7. "I Had No Head and My Eyes Were Floating Way Up in the Air"‡ by Clifford D. Simak†
  8. "To Have and To Hold"‡ by Langdon Jones
  9. "The Malibu Fault" by Jonathan Fast
  10. "√-1 Think, Therefore √-1 Am" by Leonard Isaacs†
  11. "The Taut Arc of Desire" by Philippe Curval
  12. "A Journey South"‡ by John Christopher†
  13. "The Return of Agent Black" by Ron Goulart
  14. "The Stone Which the Builders Rejected"‡ by Avram Davidson†
  15. "Signals"‡ by Charles L. Harness†
  16. "Thumbing it on the Beam and Other Magic Melting Moments" by D. M. Rowles
  17. "End" by Raylyn Moore†
  18. "Uncle Tom's Time Machine" by John Jakes†
  19. "Adversaries" by Franklin Fisher†
  20. "Copping Out" by Hank Davis
  21. "Stark and the Star Kings"‡ by Edmond Hamilton† and Leigh Brackett†
  22. "The Danaan Children Laugh" by Mildred Downey Broxon
  23. "Play Sweetly, In Harmony" by Joseph Green
  24. "Primordial Follies"‡ by Robert Sheckley†
  25. "Cargo Run" by William E. Cochrane
  26. "Pipeline to Paradise"‡ by Nelson S. Bond†
  27. "Geriatric Ward"‡ by Orson Scott Card
  28. "A Night at the Opera" by Robert Wissner
  29. "The Red Dream" by Charles Platt
  30. "Living Alone in the Jungle"‡ by Algis Budrys†
  31. "The Life and the Clay" by Edgar Pangborn†

Book Three

36 authors, 38 stories, 214,200 words.
  1. "Mama's Girl"‡ by Daniel Keyes†
  2. "Himself in Anachron"‡ by Cordwainer Smith†
  3. "Dreamwork, A Novel" by Pamela Zoline
  4. "The Giant Rat of Sumatra, or By the Light of the Silvery" by the Firesign Theatre
  5. "Leveled Best" by Steve Herbst
  6. "Search Cycle: Beginning and Ending" by Russell Bates†
  7. *"The Last Quest"
  8. *"Fifth and Last Horseman"
  9. "XYY" by Vonda McIntyre†
  10. "The Accidental Ferosslk"‡ by Frank Herbert†
  11. "The Burning Zone" by Graham Charnock
  12. "Cacophony in Pink and Ochre" by Doris Pitkin Buck†
  13. "The Accidents of Blood" by Frank Bryning†
  14. "The Murderer's Song"‡ by Michael Moorcock
  15. "On the Other Side of Space, In the Lobby of the Potlatch Inn" by Wallace West†
  16. "Two From Kotzwinkle's Bestiary" by William Kotzwinkle
  17. "Childfinder"‡ by Octavia E. Butler†
  18. "Potiphee, Petey and Me"‡ by Tom Reamy†
  19. "The Seadragon" by Laurence Yep
  20. "Emerging Nation" by Alfred Bester†
  21. "Ugly Duckling Gets the Treatment and Becomes Cinderella Except Her Foot's Too Big for the Prince's Slipper and Is Webbed Besides" by Robert Thurston
  22. "Goodbye" by Steven Utley†
  23. "Golgotha" by Graham Hall†
  24. "War Stories" by Edward Bryant†
  25. "The Bellman"‡ by John Varley
  26. "Fantasy for Six Electrodes and One Adrenaline Drip "‡ by Joe Haldeman
  27. "A Dog and His Boy"‡ by Harry Harrison†
  28. "Las Animas" by Janet Nay
  29. "False Premises" by George Alec Effinger†
  30. * "The Capitals Are Wrong"
  31. * "Stage Fright"
  32. * "Rocky Colavito Batted.268 in 1955"
  33. *"Fishing With Hemingway"
  34. "The Senior Prom"‡ by Fred Saberhagen†
  35. "Skin" by A. E. van Vogt†
  36. "Halfway There" by Stan Dryer
  37. "Love Song"‡ by Gordon R. Dickson†
  38. "Suzy is Something Special" by Michael G. Coney†
  39. "Previews of Hell"‡ by Jack Williamson†

Missing, withdrawn, or added stories

The following 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.
  • "Where Are They Now?" by Steven Bryan Bieler was sold to LDV in 1984 and withdrawn in 1988."The Great Forest Lawn Clearance Sale: Hurry Last Days!" by Stephen Dedman, was sold to LDV in 1990.
  • "Squad D" by Stephen King was submitted to LDV in the late 1970s, but reportedly not accepted in its initial draft.
  • "How Dobbstown Was Saved" by Bob Leman was sold to LDV in 1981.
  • "The Swastika Setup" by Michael Moorcock was withdrawn and replaced by "The Murderer's Song" between the 1973 and 1979 lists ; it was published in a 1972 magazine and a 1976 collection The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius.
  • "An Infinite Summer" by Christopher Priest was commissioned, ignored and withdrawn in 1974 and published in 1976.
  • "The Sibling" by Kit Reed† was originally sold to LDV and published in 2011.
  • "The Isle of Sinbad" by Thomas N. Scortia† was listed in the 1973 Alien Critic but not in the Locus 1979 list.
  • "A Thin Silver Line" by Steve Rasnic Tem was announced as "forthcoming in The Last Dangerous Visions" in 1994.“The Size of the Problem” by Howard Fast was sold to Ellison as a replacement for Fast's "All Creatures Great And Small", as announced for the unpublished 1979 version
  • The eight brief "Intermezzos" by D.M. Rowles were sold to Ellison as either a replacement for or a revision of Rowles's "Thumbing it on the Beam and Other Magic Melting Moments". as announced for the unpublished 1979 version“Assignment No. 1” by Stephen Robinett was accepted by Ellison sometime in the 1980s.“The Final Pogrom” by Dan Simmons was accepted by Ellison in 1982 or soon thereafter.

Stories published elsewhere

As of early 2025, over forty stories purchased for Last Dangerous Visions have been published elsewhere.

Straczynski contents

Straczynski's anthology includes 31 stories by 24 authors. Seven of the stories, marked '*' below, were selected by Straczynski; the remainder were selected by Ellison.
  • "A Brief Introduction to The Last Dangerous Visions" by J. Michael Straczynski
  • "Ellison Exegesis" by J. Michael Straczynski
  • “Assignment No. 1” by Stephen Robinett
  • “Hunger” by Max Brooks *
  • “Intermezzo 1: Broken, Beautiful Body on Beach” by D. M. Rowles
  • “None So Deaf” by Richard E. Peck
  • “War Stories” by Edward Bryant
  • “Intermezzo 2: Bedtime Story” by D. M. Rowles
  • “The Great Forest Lawn Clearance Sale—Hurry, Last Days!!” by Stephen Dedman
  • “Intermezzo 3: Even Beyond Olympus” by D. M. Rowles
  • “After Taste” by Cecil Castellucci *
  • “Leveled Best” by Steve Herbst
  • “The Time of the Skin” by A. E. van Vogt
  • “Rundown” by John Morressy
  • “Intermezzo 4: Elemental” by D. M. Rowles
  • “The Weight of a Feather ” by Cory Doctorow *
  • “The Malibu Fault” by Jonathan Fast
  • “The Size of the Problem” by Howard Fast
  • “Intermezzo 5: First Contact” by D. M. Rowles
  • “A Night at the Opera” by Robert Wissner
  • “Goodbye” by Steven Utley
  • “Primordial Follies” by Robert Sheckley
  • “Men in White” by David Brin *
  • “Intermezzo 6: Continuity” by D. M. Rowles
  • “The Final Pogrom” by Dan Simmons
  • “Intermezzo 7: The Space Behind the Obvious” by D. M. Rowles
  • “Falling from Grace” by Ward Moore
  • “First Sight” by Adrian Tchaikovsky *
  • “Intermezzo 8: Proof” by D. M. Rowles
  • “Binary System” by Kayo Hartenbaum *
  • “Dark Threshold” by P. C. Hodgell
  • “The Danann Children Laugh” by Mildred Downey Broxon
  • “Judas Iscariot Didn’t Kill Himself: A Story in Fragments” by James S. A. Corey *
  • "Afterword: Tetelestai! Compiling The Last Dangerous Visions" by J. Michael Straczynski

Reception

The book was met with mixed to negative reviews. Gary K. Wolfe of Locus Magazine noted: "While there are some fine stories in The Last Dangerous Visions, and some that may evoke a degree of nostalgia among older readers... is unlikely to produce any classics like the award-nominated tales from Le Guin, Russ, Delany, Leiber, Dick, and Farmer that emerged from Ellison’s original volumes." Bill Caposerre of fantasyliterature.com gave the book a 2.5/5 "Not recommended" rating, saying: "Disappointing... of the 32 pieces I could only name five or six I’d call good to excellent, with a pretty steep drop-off from that handful." Rob Latham of The Los Angeles Review of Books concluded: "There are a few excellent stories — to be precise, four — plus many mediocre-to-adequate ones, and a handful of genuine stinkers... Maybe this whole tragic enterprise should have been left on the shelf where it fitfully lay for half a century, instead of being gathered into this feeble public cenotaph."