- Hardcover: 608 pages
- Publisher: Roc (TRD); 2nd THUS edition (Dec 7 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0451458591
- ISBN-13: 978-0451458599
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.7 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 862 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In the decades since Michael Moorcock's magazine New Worlds and Harlan Ellison's anthology Dangerous Visions shattered taboos and transformed science fiction, editors have yearned to do likewise. But science fiction and Western society have changed greatly since the 1960s, and though new taboos have been born, there aren't many left. They can still be shattered, but any taboo-challenging fiction that appears in the same year as the movie Freddy Got Fingered has a tough job, and Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction is hardly as extreme as promised. For example, nonwhite and homosexual characters are rare; the status quo goes largely unchallenged; and a few of the 30 stories are young-adult in tone and subject, with the others having little that would disturb new-millennium youth, a generation accustomed to wearing bondage/fetish gear to the dance clubs. The rare examples of taboo breaking include a black character with a disturbingly thick accent and a posthuman race that commits mass murder for policy; but the anthology's potentially most challenging story gets there as a result of publication after September 11, 2001: Harry Turtledove's well-written but traditional modern fantasy "Black Tulip" is sympathetic to Afghanis.
Ignore the subtitle. Redshift is a very good anthology of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with some stories, like Gregory Benford's "Anomalies" and Joyce Carol Oates's "Commencement," that will become classics of speculative fiction. --Cynthia Ward
From Publishers Weekly
For this big, glitzy original anthology, Sarrantonio asked his contributors to write short stories that could "influence the course of sf for the next twenty-five years." That's a fairly pretentious goal. Sarrantonio's working subtitle was "Dangerous Visions for the New Millennium," a nod to Harlan Ellison's revolutionary 1967 story anthology with subjects and/or styles too hot for publishers at the time. Nowadays, there aren't many taboos in SF, so this anthology mostly shows how accessible formerly "extreme" stories have become. Looked at simply as stories, the contents are occasionally disappointing. Some pieces are included because of the writers' reputations, some have a message that overpowers everything else, some are too brief to be much more than displays of style, and some suffer from multiple weaknesses. But there are excellent stories, too, showing the range of contemporary SF, such as Dan Simmons's tale of a human-alien team of mountain climbers, "On K2 with Kanakaredes," and Stephen Baxter's picture of human nature reasserting itself after extreme distortion, "In the Un-Black." In addition, Gene Wolfe ("Viewpoint") and Rudy Rucker and John Shirley ("Pockets") present message stories with real plots. Greg Benford ("Anomalies") offers a short tale as compact and deadly as a coral snake, while Catherine Wells ("'Bassador") and Neal Barrett Jr. ("Rhido Wars") use mind-stretching prose styles effectively. That's a pretty good average, actually, and the rest are worth reading to see how the writers responded to the editor's challenge. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. (Dec. 4)horror fiction.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Collection of Sci-Fi,
By William Thien (Waukesha, WI United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Redshift Extreme Visions Of Speculative Fiction (Hardcover)
Great stuff, a little on the fantasy side at times. The title of the book "Redshift" apparently refers to the measure of planets and the solar systems moving apart from each other, and though I didn't see anything in the collection on that particular subject really, it's a great collection.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An eclectic and entertaining collection,
By
This review is from: Redshift (Paperback)
"Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction," edited by Al Sarrantonio, brings together 30 pieces of fiction of varying lengths; in his intro the editor breaks the pieces down as 22 short stories, 3 novellas, and 5 novelettes. Mainly science fiction, the collection also encompasses fantasy, horror and satire.In his intro, Sarrantonio notes that he was inspired by Harlan Ellison's important 1967 anthology "Dangerous Visions." Many of the stories in this book deal with adult themes: rape, addiction, bondage, war, etc. There is some graphic sex and violence, but I did not find these elements to be gratuitous. Some of the most memorable pieces in the collection include Laura Whitton's "Froggies," about the difficulty of interspecies communication; Harry Turtledove's "Black Tulip," a stylish tale set during the Soviet-Afghan conflict; Robert E. Vardeman's "Feedback," a stunning tale about telepaths and illicit sexuality; Rudy Rucker & John Shirley's "Pockets," a story of higher dimensions which draws on the classic "Flatland"; and Joe Haldeman's "Road Kill," about "a serial murderer with an interesting specialty." Other authors represented in the anthology include Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Joyce Carol Oates. Overall, this is a solid collection. There are some vivid characters, intriguing sci-fi concepts, and memorable scenes.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cutting Edge Is Not Always So Cutting,
By doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Redshift (Paperback)
Here's a collection that is a little too big for its own good. Of course the focus is on "extreme visions of speculative fiction," but what exactly is extreme is a matter of opinion. Just because something is different doesn't necessarily make it good or readable. This book does contain some very intriguing and enjoyable stories that are great in their uniqueness. Favorites include the submissions from Dan Simmons, Stephen Baxter, Robert E. Vardemann, Catherine Wells, and the newcomer Laura Whitton. Probably two-thirds of the stories here are successful for the reader looking for strange new horizons. However, there is a lack of editorial focus that leads to the inclusion of just too many sub-par stories, like the inane and pointless offering from Joyce Carol Oates (whose strengths clearly do NOT include speculation, as shown embarrassingly here), the self-indulgent story from Thomas M. Disch, the sappy and syrupy submission from David Morrell, or the completely unreadable closer by Neal Barrett Jr. Another mistake is most of the story introductions from Sarrantonio, who is a pretty good writer himself but is low in the sense of humor department. This collection could have been much leaner and meaner, and often proves that "cutting edge" isn't always cutting.
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