AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS

This is the second of three Dangerous Visions with commentaries by Ellison and the 46 contributors to this original ""speculative fiction"" collection -- and it's worth its considerable weight (approx. 6 lbs.) in gilded Hugos, Nebulas, and similar cult monuments. In an introduction and between selections, Ellison, with a burst of punchy confidence, airs prides and prejudices about the genre, offers anecdote fair and foul, and greets peers around the circuit. Among the veterans (there is a scattering of newcomers): Blish/Disch, Sallis/Saxton, Wolfe/Wilhelm, Russ, Le Guin, etc. Although the stories may not represent the best of each in some cases, they do form a revealing composite of avant trends. Most of the writing bristles with angry-to-gloomy relevancy. Oppression, in traditional and contemporary manifestations (exploitation of ""under developed"" peoples, children, women, animals, misfits in time and society, and captives of rigid or militaristic establishments) is scored via futuristic or inner speculations. Some tales are grainy, fragmented, and abrasive; others have a more settled form with turns into the bizarre. An invigorating, if often irritatingly obtuse extension of human possibility; and if one allows for Ellison's lively bias, this is a useful reference guide to what has been going on since those nice monsters withered away and space has become spaced out to new psychological frontiers.