The Greatest Science Fiction Anthology Ever? (+ 'Dangerous Visions' Production Quality Gripes)

#bookcollecting #sciencefictionbooks #booktube #books #sciencefiction
Steve idly finds time to fire up his steampowered webcam and review 'The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One' after complaining about the production quality of the 'Dangerous Visions' reissues.....

[@waltera13]

That collection is an education in so many different vectors! OMG - the Heinlein story was so bellicose, that I think it's what everyone in the 50s *thought* SF was. It's great to read it here and contrast Heinlein's "Square jawed tight-fisted hero" with Cordwainer Smith's "Scanners Live in Vain!" Which is the sort of square jawed, tight-fisted weirdness that the readers *actually* craved. Besides, It's also worth reading the terrible Heinlein in this book to contrast it with the surprisingly, good Heinlein: "Universe" in the novellas collection!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, I love "Universe" - and your choice of the word 'bellicose' is spot on!

[@neilburkinshaw2818]

Yet another video which forces me to retrieve a book thas been unread for 30odd years and add it to the TBR pile. You make perfect videos to bag books to. At the moment its my Foss collection thank you

[@willk7184]

Excellent use of the word "protean", sir. 👍

[@kid5Media]

So glad you mentioned Van Vogt. Sort of lost in the backwater these days.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, he is- I think part of the problem is that there is so much substandard later work expanded from stories into novels sitting around secondhand- I always see LOADS of AEVV when I go bookhunting and if someone picks up the wrong one, they're put off the good stuff....

[@silex9837]

I've had this very anthology on my shelf in softback for years and didn't realise it's so important (even though I know some of the stories)! Thank you very much for this look-through - quite teasing and inspiring.

[@1cathexis]

Literally, a TON of content to unpack here, thanks always Stephen! You referenced masks a few times as a theme in some SF. It recalled "The Moon Moth," a classic story of Jack Vance's to my mind. One of his best short stories, IMHO. Was this perhaps a trend at some point? Much else to go over but I think a 2nd watch is called for which, unlike you perhaps, will be after Sunday's Euro Cup Final. Since I am now a Fafhrd & Grey Mouser fan thanks to you, and since that is Sword & Sorcery, then clearly I must root for St. George over El Cid!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Well, masks are only one of many themes in SF of course- I wouldn't say it was a trend at any particular time as such. 'The Moon Moth' was one of his most acclaimed tales when published, you hear much less of it these days, shame.

[@LiminalSpaces03]

This was a great watch! I read The Science Fiction Hall of Fame a few months back, so the stories are still fresh in my mind, so it was fun to hear your take on all of them!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, it's a good anthology, must be said.

[@AlienBigCat23]

I was considering the paperback. You've just saved me £15. Thanks. Another great video, as per usual. 👍

[@thomasp6034]

Thanks for this! I have been wondering about tackling this anthology, so it's great to have a rundown of the contents. Good to hear that it mostly lives up to the hype.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

It's essential for an understanding of what US SF writers in the mid sixties were most influenced by, for better or worse. Overall, a must read.

[@athoszubiaur2144]

hi, steve. loved this video and would enjoying a video about other stories you like with your amazing commentary. cheers

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I will cover more shorts. I may do my top ten sf shorts at some point.

[@TBRKyle]

Agreed about the production quality of the DV books, though I did appreciate that this edition was an improvement on the 35th anniversary hardcover that iBooks put out back in the day, which had slightly blurry text that was getting a trifle frustrating to look at with my slowly worsening eyes. Also, one point of credit to JMS or Blackstone on this entire project, the audiobook for Dangerous Visions is superb. They get a murderer's row of talent with a different reader for each story and have the same reader doing all of Harlan's intros. (Conversely, at least here in the states, the Greatest Hits anthology is around 75% comprised of Harlan recordings. On the Downhill Side somehow gets more haunting when he reads it to you)

[@reynoldsmathey]

A wonderful exploration of one of my favorite anthologies. All of the stories you mentioned are fantastic, of course. Scanners Live in Vain is probably my favorite, and 'The Quest for St. Aquin (Anthony Boucher) is another good one. For Best anthology, I would also nominate 'The Science Fiction Century' (1997, ed. David Hartwell) and 'The Hard SF Renaissance' (2002, Hartwell and Cramer, eds) and 'The Ascent of Wonder' (1994, Hartwell and Cramer, eds.). I have a decent 35th Anniversary edition of Dangerous Visions that I got in the used shop for $14. Thanks again, Steve and enjoy the rest of the summer.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Thanks, you too!

[@leakybootpress9699]

A great anthology and certainly among the best. Short on British writers, unfairly I feel, but nonetheless a useful primer for anyone interested in discovering the true breadth of SF .... beyond space opera that is. A good review, Steve. On the Dangerous Visions anthology reissued, don't be so hard on them, the production values are no worse than most hardcover books these days, as a bookseller you know that's so. The paper is about the same as in my Doubleday first editions, there are about 1800 pages in those two books and they're heavy already, thicker paper would mean even more weight.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Thanks James. I have to say that although I'm far from impressed with many books these days in terms of production quality, those Blackstone Ellisons really feel very different to me than over 90% of hardcovers I handle- for books that are so heavy, which as I say is usually an indicator of quality for me, they just feel monolithic and clodhopping...so I guess I'll be sticking with the paperbacks.

[@altonbrek]

SF has always been one of my passions.

[@mike-williams]

I remember many of those stories from my early reading. The Bixby story was adapted into an episode of "Twilight Zone".

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I'd forgotten that, never seen that episode, I must remedy that.

[@joebrooks4448]

Great video! I reread "The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame" volume one every few years since the late 1960s. Simak has a huge catalog, but "Desertion" has stood out to me for 6 decades. My degree was in Engineering. In "The Cold Equations" a solution to her few pounds very likely could have been found. Jettison some cargo, water, clothes, tools, toilet paper, books, whatever.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Hi Joe- yeah, the Godwin thing never sat well with me either- that's one reason why I always forget it was published mid 50s, seems like something from 1940 to me...as you say, there must have been a solution....

[@barrrie]

Enjoying the low fi grunts and groans 😂. Thanks for the heads up on the dangerous visions production quality. I really fancied these but cant do the thin paper thing. Cheers.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

No problem, mate. Thin paper is always a dealbreaker for me, except with LOA as they are such beautiful books.

[@kennyrh9269]

Hi Stephen. The Dangerous Visions books - thanks, you've saved me another few shillings. I'll stick with my US paperback of DV and my Millington UK 1st of ADV. Both far superior IMHO.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

The Millington is much, much better than the Blackstone, believe me.

[@razzaclart4553]

Lovely 'Warrior' T-Shirt....😃

[@christ5783]

I always appreciate hearing your expertise. You talk about handling your books so they remain like new. Do you think you'd ever do a video that shows how to handle them that way? When I come across a pristine paperback that looks unread, I'm usually more hesitant to read it than if I'd got a hardback because I'm worried I will put creases in the spine. Especially books over 350 pages I don't think you could read it without bowing the spine.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I can't really demonstrate how this is done visually as there would be nothing to show, it's just a matter of training yourself to take extreme care when handling books and as I say, it comes over many years. Obviously there are clear 'Don'ts' such as "Keep your hands clean,", "gently bend covers rather than spine" etc....

[@Jason_Quinn]

The two-volume "A Treasury of Great Science Fiction" compiled by Anthony Boucher is another great anthology.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, great stuff.

[@SlowDazzle11]

I've just read Kevala-Lee's "Astounding" which has inspired me to read/re-read Golden Age SF. I read van Vogt when v young, so it was inevitable that I would come to Dick. Great section on "Dangerous Visions". I think I would stick with the paperback version, as that new edition looks like an arm breaker!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes the Kevala-Lee book is very good, mentioned it on the channel around 6 months back.

[@zetectic7968]

Interesting. It is only available in paperback or ebook now. Read 9 billion... many years ago & can't recall it. Need to reread Nightfall as I have forgotten that as well. In the TV series Person of Interest by Jonathan Nolan (Christopher's brother), the computer need/prodigy's favour book is Flowers for Algernon.

[@waltera13]

It has mostly been only paperback over the years. It used to be a second-hand store SF mainstay.

[@waltera13]

The SF Hall of fame was part of my Covid return to SF (thanks to people like you and MDC.) In the States it was in print *forever* in a single volume paperback. I found getting through all three volumes was really quite an education. The novellas volumes I like in part because they contain earlier, concise versions of things that became famous books like: -Flowers for Algernon & -Rogue Moon. (Ironically it was my decision this read through that life is too short and I DNF'd Rogue Moon!) I will attempt to make these comments in separate bites, so no reader need to choke upon their girth. @vintagesf Richard, You would LOVE the introduction to SF Hall of Fame! Facts! Figures! Math! Rules!! (I'm actually quite fond of it myself.)

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Richard is always admirably systematic. I'm more that way inclined when I write, but as I improv most of my videos, I employ my barroom style, which works sometimes! I find the novellas collection a much more mixed bag, but there are great things -"With Folded Hands" by Williamson, "Vintage Season" by Kuttner/Moore are two that stand out for me.

[@chocolatemonk]

I guess it is time again to read this great book. I remembered seeing the cover after ordering it for my freshman college English class and being so disappointed. I found really 1 out of 10 books assigned to me up to that point were usually bad and the cover did not help. Luckily I was wrong.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I can't imagine being presented with this as a choice on a literature course- what joy!

[@psychonaut56]

I agree so much re: Straczynski. We all appreciate the work he's done for the HE estate, but he's an intellectual lightweight who seems to worship HE in a way that you queasily suspect HE wouldn't like. The book left me wanting a lot more for the cover price. Also, I too shall forgo the Last DV...by now it's only an imposter of a book.

[@paulcampbell6003]

I think _The Science Fiction Hall of Fame_ anthology is peerless! 😍

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I can't think of another anthology as historically important, though for my tastes I'd go to 'The New Tomorrows' by Spinrad.

[@paulcampbell6003]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I was saying over on Kenny's channel that this and _Top Science Fiction_ (1984) edited by Josh Pachter turned me into an SF fan. The Pachter volume is sadly forgotten, but is excellent. Highly recommended, as is the companion volume _Top Fantasy_ published the following year. The stories are chosen and introduced by the authors themselves. 👍

[@themojocorpse1290]

What a shame you didn’t like your new dangerous visions books . It’s always disappointing when you feel let down by new editions . The Hall of fame anthology on the other hand looks quality and a great way to be introduced to new authors I’ve always thought. I have often discovered new authors by picking up random anthologies over the years. I still feel van Vogt is a little under appreciated these days .Great stuff as always Steve.

[@salty-walt]

@@themojocorpse1290 I really didn't know that they made SF Hall of Fame in hardcover! So much disagreement around those new DV's ! Those covers! I love harlan, but I'm waiting for the obvious, and inevitable reminder sales to even consider them.

[@ChrisBadenoch]

I just picked up Book One and Book Two of 100 Years of Science Fiction edited by Damon Knight in the Pan Lozenge livery. They are 2 very nice anthologies.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, they are good ones too.

[@davea136]

I would like to hear you speak at greater length on _The Weaponshops of Isher_. I read it recently and I am ambivalent about it. I haven't given it enough thought to have a fully formed opinion. Thank you.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I need to re-read both novels in the sequence thoroughly, as it's been some years, though as you saw in this video, I re-read the short version of the first novel ("The Weapon Shops") recently. For me, it's the sense of strangeness inherent in Van Vogt at his best I enjoy- in the story, the idea of a far future society with a cruel Empress smacks of Fantasy in tone- and the inverse logic of how the Weapon Shops are actually part of a resistance against the Empire. Even the idea of the weapon shops themselves is redolent with oddness to me. Although his writing was sometimes crude, Van Vogt captured the very essence of Conceptual Breakthrough in SF - the moment when, with a few words, best placed at the end of a novel or story, implies a whole new paradigm of existence- this comes at the end of 'The Weapon Makers', the second book in the dyptich. This climax has been used in critical writing- notably in 'The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction' in its entry on Conceptual Breakthrough as a cardinal example of this keye element of SF. If you watch my video series 'The Elements of Science Fiction', I explore Conceptual Breakthrough there.

[@classicsfwithandyjohnson]

I really enjoyed Wolfbane when I read it earlier this year - so radically different to The Space Merchants and Gladiator-at-Law (which I also liked a lot).

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Well, you'll hear my thoughts in an upcoming vid as I say. I've read the other two as well, incidentally.

[@classicsfwithandyjohnson]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Looking forward to it!

[@strelnikoff1632]

I find myself using the book terminology from your sessions, usually to the apparent bafflement of my local bookstore staff😅. I feel like a book expert of rapidly improving calibre 😅

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

To be fair, most booksellers don't know many of these terms- the people I work with do, as I use them all the time and they catch on. In my view, all booksellers should know them as they actually have a positive impact on sales - when you can say "Lovely book this, decorated end papers, full cloth binding..." etc I find that customers are pleased that they are talking to a professional and it gives them confidence in production quality.

[@ggm024]

Wow, I was just wondering yesterday why there aren't many good videos about SF anthologies and then you upload this today! What sort of synchronicity is this? Thanks!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Glad you liked it. Poor production quality I know, not my usual standard, but it was an impulse thing.

[@salty-walt]

Loved this video; could have done another 20 minutes if you could go in depth in some of the other stories! Really love that collection, both its successes and its failures. I agree with you in general about Clarke, but I like "The 9 Billion Names of God" (in a 1950s America reading it in the Saturday Evening Post perspective.) I like to imagine what so many people, casually brought up with religion as an elemental part of their lives, thought of a story like that. And I thought "The Marching Morons" was in that collection - it must be in one of the novellas volumes. How can the folks who made "idiocracy" go back and read that story afterwards and then think that they actually wrote idiocracy without it? Who would have thought that it was the most prescient story in the collection? Weinbaum!!! A martian Odyssey is so good!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Hi Walt- well, I threw it together on a whim, hence lack of indepth, but some of this material I will return to. I struggle with Kornbluth at times - he gets into a very whacky and frenetic mindset and the prose goes wobbly and a bit silly, but that's satire for you- so I've never enjoyed "The Marching Morons" in itself as much as the idea behind it. I actually prefer Sheckley, whose more clipped tone works more for me. Great book overall though.

[@salty-walt]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I understand. I'm not really a fan of deliberately comedic SF or Fantasy; I just found Marching Morons a breath of fresh air in the anthology (even though I enjoyed most of it.) And that Leiber story! I read it for the first time during Covid! So this previously unknown story about people wearing masks and anxieties about wearing them and anxieties about taking them off was. . . Resonant. Weak end I thought though.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@salty-walt I prefer Kornbluth's causes to his effects if you see what I mean. I get what you say about the Leiber as well.

[@disconnected22]

Glad I have my original U.S. hardcovers. I’ll take some page browning... I’m wondering, did the drawings carry over as well?

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

No illustrations inside the editions I show.

[@rickkearn7100]

I think all literary awards are important, and I believe they used to have the best of motives and integrity. That said, in the instance of the Nebula, there is no doubt it's been corrupted. I'm no fool, I know good literature when I read it, and great authors regardless of the genre. And when I read some of the "masterpieces" touted by the publishers these days, it's obvious to me that integrity in that institution has long since gone extinct. As always, OB, you make so many excellent points it's impossible to comment on all of them so instead, I choose one or two that speak the loudest to me. I've not heard of this anthology before this episode of Outlaw Bookseller and I am looking forward to acquiring it. Cheers!

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Hi Rick, great to hear from you as ever my friend! The integrity has gone from a lot of awards, true, but they are basically vital sales tools for the industry while creating a false impression in inexperienced readers about what quality really is- young readers now want everything to be 'easy' and 'clear', it seems. Hope you are keeping well, Dean of Men!

[@OXyShow]

Just read Dangerous Visions and ICE by Anna Kavan 😃

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

How did you get on with 'Ice'?

[@OXyShow]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal loved it, can't say the same about Dangerous Visions, some story's really great, others didn't understand anything like the Purple Wage one and some storys borig, i did really love the Moderan story by David R Bunch

[@Spacejack-xx2yp]

Dangerous Visions is a special one, because while it's composed mostly of exemplary SF writers, the stories themselves were unproven at the time of publication; it's a sort of elaborated magazine with only two issues

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Yes, it was arguably pioneering in that it was original stories rather than ones culled from magazines, however it was not the first anthology that did that- E. J. Carnells' 'New Writings in SF ' series had already done that for some years- but it was a triumph in that it moved the goalposts for allowable content in US SF publishing.

[@garrywhiteheadful]

Super enjoyable as ever!

[@kid5Media]

Never really warmed to Clarke, either.

[@davea136]

Thank you for your stated opinion on Clarke. I always felt very alone in that. Clark'e ideas can eb interesting, but I find his writing dull.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Terribly dull. I find his work is dead on the page- which is a shame, as I read when with reasonable enthusiasm when young and I've been recollecting him of late.

[@carltaylor6452]

Re your dislike of thin paper, I wonder what you'd make of the Flamingo PB collection of JG Ballard's short stories. Thinnest paper of any book I can recall. They shouldn't have tried to squeeze Ballard's short fiction into one volume.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I hate those 'collected' Ballards, they suck, never owned them, I've stuck with the actual original collections which I have multiple copies of.

[@kid5Media]

Well, how could you top the original Leo and Dianne Dillon covers?

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

True.

[@AlienBigCat23]

Looking fit & well, Steve. Keep it up.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

I wish I felt that way. I'm tired as a dog, had a terrible day generally, feel dreadful. I'm apparently very good at hiding the issues! Thanks.

[@AlienBigCat23]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Do something unusual, but not stressful. Sometimes body fatigue is caused by neural habits.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@AlienBigCat23 My fatigue is caused by the polymyalgia rheumatica I've been suffering from for the last 17 months and in-life stress due to circumstances. There is no easy cure for either

[@meesalikeu]

LOOKING FOWARD TO FINAL DANGEROUS VISIONS THIS FALL -- WHAT WILL MAKE THE CUT?

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

You can now find the contents online if you dig. As the final selection wasn't made by HE, I'm leaving it myself as I said.

[@garryrickenbacker]

Enjoyed the video, disappointed in the I'm Welsh there English outlook.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

It's a joke, no offense intended.

[@garryrickenbacker]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal none taken, thanks for a wonderful video.

[@rogerpetersen794]

I can’t help thinking Simak is just too rural American for you. He’s terrifically imaginative but very nice, folksy, stoic and gentle, and his conflict is usually the inevitable march of time. Not everyone’s cup of coffee.

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

@@rogerpetersen794 Well, I love Bradbury and a massive amount of the true tradition of British SF is based on the pastoral - many of my favourite SF writers of all -Wyndham, Priest, Roberts, Aldiss- have a strong ability to convey the pastoral- so I think it's more that I'm comparing him to Bradbury and the other writers I cit and finding him wanting stylistically, so it's a literary issue rather than a content/setting one perhaps.

[@rogerpetersen794]

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I didn’t mean place, so much as mindset. In the way Gary Cooper was once the face of American movies. He clearly didn’t have the range of superior actors, but what he presented was America. Solid, dependable Yankee ingenuity.

[@mohammedhanif6780]

England won

[@kid5Media]

Won what?

[@rvt_h3d]

this is a sf channel, not a soccer fan channel lol

[@outlawbookselleroriginal]

Thanks for pointing that out- though I will add I like variety here, but this will NEVER be a Sport channel.

[@erikpaterson1404]

​@outlawbookselleroriginal Thank the SF gods for that.

[@AlienBigCat23]

It won't last. 'Diversity' is not our greatest strength, despite the Agenda.