Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Roc (2002), Mass Market Paperback, 688 pages
Description
This landmark anthology presents thirty groundbreaking stories from the masters of speculative fiction heralding the future of the genre with original and revolutionary works. All-new, original stories by Ursula K. Le Guin Gregory Benford Joe Haldeman Joyce Carol Oates and many others
User reviews
LibraryThing member figre
This book is not Dangerous Visions. True, that is a tough standard for any book, and it is unfair to expect a book to hit that standard. Rather, if a review is going to start by comparing a book to Dangerous Visions it should only be if that is going to be a positive comparison.
But, the editor of
I still vividly remember reading Dangerous Visions – each story impacting me. Sometimes it was a positive impact, sometimes negative. But every story left an image. I can still look at the titles and be thrown back into those memorable stories. With the pages of Redshift there is nothing memorable. I look back at the titles and recall….nothing. It is not that they are bad stories, they are just not memorable. And that is a great sin when you have set your sights so high.
Where it failed is hard to say. Was it that it takes an Ellisonesque approach to get the best out of people? Was it because this book seemed to lack new, groundbreaking authors? Was it that there just isn’t anything dangerous to be said anymore?
I refuse to believe the last is true. I think there are stories out there that shatter with skill. And I appreciate that the editor tried to do something more than collect new stories. But maybe the greatest failing of this collection is not that it didn’t live up to the hype of being the next Dangerous Visions. Maybe the greater failing is that it became a collection of stories that were just…okay.
But, the editor of
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this collection asks for the comparison. The introduction lays out the editor’s premise – to make a Dangerous Visions for the new millennium. The editor begs the comparison. The collection falls more than short. This collection has some vision, but no danger. And, maybe more importantly, there is little memorable in the stories.I still vividly remember reading Dangerous Visions – each story impacting me. Sometimes it was a positive impact, sometimes negative. But every story left an image. I can still look at the titles and be thrown back into those memorable stories. With the pages of Redshift there is nothing memorable. I look back at the titles and recall….nothing. It is not that they are bad stories, they are just not memorable. And that is a great sin when you have set your sights so high.
Where it failed is hard to say. Was it that it takes an Ellisonesque approach to get the best out of people? Was it because this book seemed to lack new, groundbreaking authors? Was it that there just isn’t anything dangerous to be said anymore?
I refuse to believe the last is true. I think there are stories out there that shatter with skill. And I appreciate that the editor tried to do something more than collect new stories. But maybe the greatest failing of this collection is not that it didn’t live up to the hype of being the next Dangerous Visions. Maybe the greater failing is that it became a collection of stories that were just…okay.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
688 p.; 6.72 inches
ISBN
0451459040 / 9780451459046
Local notes
Dan SIMMONS: On K2 with Kanakaredes. Ursula K. LE GUIN: The Building. Laura WHITTON: Froggies. Kathe KOJA and Barry N. MALZBERG: What We Did That Summer. Michael MOORCOCK: A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club. Thomas M. DISCH: In Xanadu. Joyce Carol OATES: Commencement. James Patrick KELLY: Unique Visitors. Harry TURTLEDOVE: Black Tulip. P.D. CACEK: Belief. Stephen BAXTER: In the Un-Black. Paul Di FILIPPO: Weeping Walls. Gregory BENFORD: Anomalies. Kit REED: Captive Kong. Robert E. VARDEMAN: Feedback. Nina Kiriki HOFFMAN: Between Disappearances. David MORRELL: Resurrection. Elizabeth HAND: Cleopatra Brimstone. Peter SCHNEIDER: Burros Gone Bad. Rudy RUCKER and John SHIRLEY: Pockets. Catherine ASARO: Ave de Paso. Joe HALDEMAN: Road Kill. Jack DANN: Ting-a-ling. Catherine WELLS: 'Bassador. Larry NIVEN: Ssoroghod's People. Michael Marshall SMITH: Two Shot. Al SARRANTONIO: Billy the Fetus. Gene WOLFE: Viewpoint. Ardath MAYHAR: Fungi. Neal BARRETT, Jr.: Rhido Wars