In an interview on Science Fiction

Your fourth choice is an anthology of stories edited by Harlan Ellison, Dangerous Visions.

So in my last two books I’m cheating a little, by giving you collections that provide you with the best possible entry into science fiction. These are, in fact, the books that gave me my doorway into the field – they are books that I loved.

Harlan Ellison is one of the giants of the sci-fi field. Like Bradbury, his work is mostly short stories, and from masterpieces like “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” and “I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream” Ellison became the heart of the new wave. But it is in his role as the creator of anthologies that I recommend him here. He came up with the idea of a collection of stories that could not be published in the somewhat rule-bound magazines of the day. He found a publisher and the writers responded to his call.

The result was Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, two of the greatest original anthologies ever created in any genre. Almost all the giants in the field responded, giving if not their best work then credible, delightful samples of what they brought to sci-fi. The only fly in the ointment is that the anthology was so successful, influential and widely read that today, any magazine would be proud to publish any of these stories. This collection remade the field.

One of the best things about a Harlan Ellison anthology or collection is reading his introductory essays. Ellison puts on no disguises, and he shuns the notion of anonymity or even aesthetic distance. His essays are personal, entertaining, smart. As much as the stories, they will shape your thinking about science fiction, then and now.