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3.0 out of 5 stars
Dangerously dated, Aug 13 2003
This is a difficult review for me to write. I really didn't like the collection though I wanted to. I believe the problem is that the success of this book has made it seem nowhere near dangerous 35 years later. They pushed the envelope, now everbody goes there and their works seem commonplace. On the plus side we get some early works from Zelazny and Delany, Harlan's acerbic, biting introductions cannot hide the love he actually feels for his other writers. There are some quite good stories in here, typically these stories are where the author didn't feel the need to try to be "edgy", or "dangerous" or "relevant" and let the pushing of the mores come from the story, not the other way around. The stories where it seems the authors wanted to be "dangerous" don't come across well now. They are either irrelevant, naive and some even seem to come across as little children playing potty-mouth in the absence of their parents. When the stories are bad, they are very, very bad. Good works do abound in this collection, thus the three stars. However some are so bad you'll wonder if it's worth continuing. The last stories are generally stronger. The stories that begin the collection are the duller and poorer ones. I am disappointed I did not find this to be revolutionary, and it does not live up to its hype, nor legend. It is a look at a certain time in the field, a time when the style of writing changed, or tried to change with some good stories and some bad ones. That's all it is now I'm sorry to say.
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