Rating: 
Summary: No longer quite so dangerous however...
Review: Of course these stories aren't as "dangerous" or revolutionary as they were when they were published 35 years ago. The culture and SF have evolved quite a bit in that time. That said, its still a pretty good collection of stories, and even more interesting as a piece of SF history.
Harlan Ellison deserves a lot of credit for preserving this book as it was, resisting the temptation to update it (like certain directors have futily tried to update their older movies). This includes his introductions, which are written in the venacular of the time, dig, (and which less secure writers might have been embarassed by). To be honest, I found them the most entertaining part of the book, and they give the reader a great insight into the time in which they were written.
Rating: 
Summary: The Original Classic Of "Transgressive" Science Fiction
Review: Say what you will about Harlan Ellison, but you've got to admit he's got great taste.I was lucky enough to this up for a measly $.75 at a local used bookstore. Believe me, it was money well spent. There are a few duds in this collection (doesn't every anthology have some?), but they are by far outweighed by the gems. Some examples of the latter: the outrageous Joycean wit of Philip Jose Farmer's "Riders Of The Purple Wage", the dream-like beauty of Carol Emshwiller's "Sex And/Or Mr. Morrison", John Sladek's shockingly prophetic "The Happy Breed", and Kris Neville's Salingeresque humor in "From The Government Printing Office". If you like science fiction, or just enjoy well-crafted stories, by all means - seek this out.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best sf anthology I've ever read!
Review: This anthology resulted from Harlan Ellison's asking 33 of the sf authors recognized as the best in the genre at that time to submit stories which they felt could not be published elsewhere. Besides being a great read, it can also be used by those unfamiliar with the field as a set of links for discovering authors whose other works they will enjoy. The scarcity of copies in used book stores almost certainly results from readers being unwilling to part with their copies.
Rating:
Summary: Still fresh over thirty years later
Review: This book blasts the lid off of all cliches that choke conventional (i.e. safe) SF. Even thirty odd years later the stories are vibrant and original, and you can see just where the current generation of hackmeisters got some of their best ideas. Find it, buy it, read it.
Rating:
Summary: The first time is still the best
Review: This book is stunning. Most of it is still shocking to this day. Maybe not amongst sf writers and readers. (Certainly not after Delaney's Dalghren.) But in the increasingly hypocritical and fundamentalist world we live in this book still lays down the gauntlet and says, "Non serviam!" The first story, by Lester Del Rey, has humanity hunting down and imprisoning God. Do you seriously see anyone in the clique that runs the Whitehouse for the foreseeable future paying people to say these sorts of things? And Poul Anderson's story takes the sf formula (an average everyday phenomenon seen in a new way) and applies it to incest for incendiary results. For my money the best story in the book is Phillip K. Dick's. The guy was the only American to report on the sacred honestly, in every one of his books. Not only is God a killer. He's the Devil. It's about time someone said it. Ballard's meditation on sex is a close second best. There's a story by William S. Burroughs here about a doll house. It's the usual demented Burroughs stuff, complete with Satanic cackling, only without the cut-up method. Read this book if you want to clear out the cobwebs and confirm that you are thinking correctly after all.
Rating:
Summary: Influential and Still (Mostly) Revolutionary
Review: This classic anthology of speculative fiction (a deeper form that standard sci-fi) deserves the praise and influence it has enjoyed since 1967. These stories were indeed dangerous for their era, and most of them have proven to be well ahead of their time, retaining the power of expanding your literary horizons even today. Some of these stories are downright shocking - including the submissions from Miriam Allen deFord, Robert Bloch, and Carol Emshwiller. Others are bizarre to the point of great insight - like the stories from Brian W. Aldiss, Larry Eisenberg, and Norman Spinrad. Others have the great social commentary and human drama that most sci-fi writers would kill to be capable of - especially the submissions from Frederick Pohl and Howard Rodman. The true key to this compilation is the editing work of Harlan Ellison, whose sarcastic and caustic personality shines through almost every page, even though he only wrote one of the stories himself. (That isn't self-glamorization, because his submission is an endorsed sequel to Bloch's story.) Ellison's introductions to each story combine the best in praising and roasting, and he certainly located many fascinating writers. Here we can see up-and-comers who later went on to greater things, along with intriguing unknowns who encourage where-are-they-now speculation. Another groundbreaking aspect of this collection is Ellison's use of afterwords by each author to comment on their own stories. This is usually successful except for a few cases of self-aggrandizement by the writers, and at least one attempt to explain a sub-par story (J.G. Ballard). Aside from a few minor clunkers, there is just one story that may have once been dangerous but is now a flop. That's the 70-plus-page novella from Philip Jose Farmer, which has aged wretchedly with an overload of creaky 60's politics and an unreadably faddish writing style. That's about the only story here that's not still capable of opening new horizons all these decades later.
Rating:
Summary: Still Dangerous!
Review: This has got to be the best anthology ever written. There are some stinkers in this one but the good far exceeds the bad. I hope that Harlan will publish the Last Dagerous Visions anthology. It's been in the making for over 25 years. Delayed over and over until the stories supposedly in it would take three books to publish. Lets see the last anthology Harlan. You can't keep those who contributed waiting forever.
Rating: 
Summary: Dangerously dated
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Classic anthology of serious SF
Review: This is Harlan Ellison's ground-breaking 60s SF anthology for which he invited writers to explore "dangerous" themes that were generally considered taboo at that time. Even now, many of these tales still retain the capacity to shock. Like most anthologies, the quality of the content is uneven, but the overall result is elevated by Ellison's story introductions, the afterwords to each story by the writers themselves, and the general sense that one is reading a serious attempt to push the genre in a more significant direction. Standouts include stories by Ellison himself, Fritz Leiber, David R. Bunch, Sonya Dorman, JG Ballard, and Norman Spinrad. Interestingly, the only real stinkers in the book are produced by veteran writers: Theodore Sturgeon, Damon Knight, and Poul Anderson.
Rating:
Summary: Classic anthology of serious SF
Review: This is Harlan Ellison's ground-breaking 60s SF anthology for which he invited writers to explore "dangerous" themes that were generally considered taboo at that time. Even now, many of these tales still retain the capacity to shock. Like most anthologies, the quality of the content is uneven, but the overall result is elevated by Ellison's story introductions, the afterwords to each story by the writers themselves, and the general sense that one is reading a serious attempt to push the genre in a more significant direction. Standouts include stories by Ellison himself, Fritz Leiber, David R. Bunch, Sonya Dorman, JG Ballard, and Norman Spinrad. Interestingly, the only real stinkers in the book are produced by veteran writers: Theodore Sturgeon, Damon Knight, and Poul Anderson.
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