The Last Dangerous Visions, Finally?

J. Michael Straczynski, acting as the executor for the estate of Harlan and Susan Ellison, has announced that The Last Dangerous Visions will be submitted to publishers in April 2021. 

This is a major piece of news for the science fiction field. The Last Dangerous Visions was to be the third in a series of ground-breaking anthologies edited by Harlan Ellison. The first two, Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions were published to great acclaim in 1967 and 1972, respectively, but the third volume never appeared. 

In an open Patreon post, Straczynski said:

Over a hundred stories written in the early 1970s were slated to be part of TLDV. As the years passed, a number of them were withdrawn by the writers and published elsewhere, and it makes no sense to republish stories that are otherwise available. Some of the remaining stories have been overtaken by real-world events, rendering them less relevant or timely, and regrettably will be omitted, but many more are as innovative, fresh and, in some ways, even more relevant now than when they were first written. These are rich, compelling stories by some of the best known science fiction and fantasy writers to work in the genre that deserve to be seen by the world.

The rights to the few stories from the original batch that will not be included in this volume will be freely and formally returned to the writers and/or their estates so that they can be allowed to see the light of day elsewhere.

Previously unseen artwork by the phenomenal Tim Kirk commissioned for the original volume

He will also be soliciting new stories from a wide range of authors to appear in the anthology. It will be interesting to see how the stories originally submitted almost fifty years ago compare with the newer stories. 

This will probably be a major publishing event and some publishers have already indicated interest in the project. I will certainly buy it as soon as it becomes available.  

Straczynski is soliciting contributions to help defray costs of getting the anthology ready for publication. See his Patreon post for details.

So if there are any fans of Harlan’s work or SF in general who would like to help defray some of those costs in return for the exclusive opportunity to see The Last Dangerous Visions come together in real-time, there is a tier here that will only remain online for five months, through April, when the book is slated to be completed. 

Patrons will be the first to know the names of the authors contributing to TLDV, first to see partial manuscripts and story excerpts before the book is published, and will be given peeks at Tim Kirk’s amazing art. Beat by beat, they (and other Patrons operating at that level or above) will be a part of the process of finishing one of the most discussed and eagerly anticipated books in the history of modern science fiction.

It starts right here, right now, today.