[continued from previous message]   
      
   chime in with Evelyn and Mark.  Well-written and well-reasoned,   
   refreshingly free of fandom's frequent strife, the Void is well   
   worth one’s time.  [-ghliii]   
      
   And again in THE ZINE DUMP #60:   
      
   Every week my inbox is visited by an MT Void, and with it the love   
   of SF which brought us to this "thing of ours."  In recent numbers   
   Evelyn and Mark review strange films, mention the passing of Earl   
   Holliman, compare the ancient story "The Brick Moon" to Japan's   
   recent wooden satellite ... sharing their fannishness generously.   
   A subscription to MT is a great way to keep one's interest in the   
   field rolling, week to week.  [-ghliii]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS edited by Harlan Ellison   
   (copyright 2024, Blackstone Publishing, $27.99, hardcover, 433pp,   
   ISBN 979-8-212-18379-6) (book review by Joe Karpierz)   
      
   Anticipation.  Expectations.  Hype.  We generally apply these   
   words when looking forward to events, whether it be sports (the   
   Super Bowl of American football), movies (a new "Star Wars"   
   installment), television shows (a new season of STAR TREK: STRANGE   
   NEW WORLDS), or books.  Ah books.  We all look forward to the   
   publication of a new book from a favorite author.  But whatever   
   the thing is that we're looking forward to, it can either bring   
   elation and joy, or disappointment, or even a vast sense of "meh".   
      
   THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS is one of those books that pretty much   
   nobody expected would see the light of day.  Harlan Ellison was   
   working on it back in the 1970s, but never pulled the trigger on.   
   He bought hundreds of stories for the book.  It grew to three   
   volumes at one point (it should be noted that AGAIN, DANGEROUS   
   VISIONS, the follow up to the original DANGEROUS VISIONS, clocks   
   in at 1141 pages with 46 stories).  It never got published.  The   
   science fiction community resigned itself to never seeing the   
   book.  The reasons why it never saw the light of day were unknown.   
   And the anticipation was high.  Given the success of the first   
   two books, the stories and authors they contained, and the awards   
   that resulted from those two books, who wouldn't want to see THE   
   LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS?   
      
   Then Harlan Ellison passed away, and that was that.   
      
   The story is fairly well known in science fiction circles.   
   J. Michael Straczynski became the executor of the Ellison estate,   
   and he set his sights on publishing THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS.   
   Selecting the stories was a daunting task.  He had a ton of   
   stories that Harlan had bought back in the day and still had the   
   rights to (the rights to some of the stories had been sold back to   
   either the writers themselves or their estates).  Straczynski   
   wanted to include present-day authors, and he wanted to include   
   new authors, since Ellison was a champion for new writers.   
      
   I'm going to say it up front, before I get into the details.  For   
   me, the book brought on a vast sense of "meh".   
      
   There are a few reasons for that.  What was considered "dangerous"   
   back in the 1970s is fairly tame and commonplace today. Stories   
   that were edgy back then are not edgy today.  From what I've   
   gathered from podcasts and reading things about the time LDV (LAST   
   DANGEROUS VISIONS, in case it wasn't obvious) was to be published,   
   authors were getting skittish about publishing things that were on   
   the cutting edge, that were considered "dangerous".  And, quite   
   frankly, not only do the stories that Straczynski included not   
   hold up over time, they are fairly uninteresting.   
      
   If I were to pick a "best" story from what would have been the   
   original LDV, I'd pick Ed Bryant's "War Stories", although "The   
   Final Pogrom", from Dan Simmons, stands out as well (it's hard to   
   believe that Simmons is still out there producing work after all   
   these years, although to be fair it's been awhile since he's   
   published anything).  The astounding (see what I did there) thing   
   is that most of the stories that Strasczynski chose were from   
   authors that I really haven't heard of.  Sure, there are a few,   
   like A.E. Van Vogt ("The Time of the Skin"), Robert Sheckley   
   ("Primordial Follies"), and P.C. Hodgell ("Dark Threshold), but   
   for the most part none of the stories from back in the day were   
   from authors that made it big (unlike those that were already big   
   when they had stories published in the first two "Dangerous   
   Visions" volumes).   
      
   The modern day writers that are included here *did* have stories   
   that were at the least very good, if not terrific.  The best of   
   the bunch was James S.A. Corey's "Judas Iscariot Didn't Kill   
   Himself:  A Story In Fragments", followed closely by Adrian   
   Tchaikovsky's "First Sight" and Corey Doctorow's "The Weight of a   
   Feather (The Weight of a Heart)".  The Corey will be a story that   
   I nominate on my Hugo ballot in 2025.   
      
   Maybe it's not fair to compare this volume to prior installments.   
   I've elsewhere reviewed the original DANGEROUS VISIONS (and listed   
   the authors that came out of that book with awards and award   
   nominations), but as I look at the Table of Contents of AGAIN,   
   DANGEROUS VISIONS (which I have yet to read but now feel like I   
   need to sooner rather than later), I see Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene   
   Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Kate Wilhelm, Joanna Russ, Kurt Vonnegut,   
   David Gerrold, Greg Benford, and a host of other huge names in the   
   field.  I don't see any names that ended up being huge out of the   
   stories that made it to LDV from that era (yes, you could argue   
   Van Vogt, but even that story wasn't that good).   
      
   The two pieces that were interesting to me were "Ellison   
   Exegesis", in which Straczynski tells the story of just why   
   Ellison couldn't get LDV published (which some people have stated   
   is an invasion of Ellison's privacy--I'll leave that up to the   
   reader), and the afterword, entitled "Tetelestai! Compiling THE   
   LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS", which as you might guess is a look at how   
   Straczynski put the book together.   
      
   I don't often reread books these days.  I just have too much on my   
   to-be-read list and not enough time to read what is there.  While   
   I may go back some day and reread DANGEROUS VISIONS, and I have   
   yet to read AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS, I most likely won't go back   
   and reread THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS.  And that makes me sad.   
      
   I also want to issue a formal apology to Blackstone Publishing,   
   which was kind enough to allow me to read an eARC of THE LAST   
   DANGEROUS VISIONS.  Life got in the way, and I'd bitten off more   
   than I could chew in requesting eARCs from NetGalley.  This review   
   is two and a half months past the publication date of LDV, and it   
   is unconscionable that this review is this late.  I'm grateful   
   that the Blackstone gave permission for me to read the book in   
   advance of the publication, and sorry that I didn't get it done in   
   time.  [-jak]   
      
   Evelyn asked for clarification:   
      
   I would think it should more accurately be called "THE LAST   
   DANGEROUS VISIONS edited by Harlan Ellison and J. Michael   
   Straczynski".  [-ecl]   
      
   And Joe replied:   
      
   Good question.  The title page of the book only shows Ellison.   
   The cover only shows Ellison.   If you scan the barcode (I just   
   downloaded an app that will scan barcodes and put them in an   
   online library for you), both are listed, as are "various   
   authors".  [-jak]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: Hannah Arendt (letter of comment by Wesley Brodsky)   
      
   In response to the quote by Hannah Arendt at the end of the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)