Medea: Harlan's World

by Harlan Ellison (Editor)

Proceedings of one session of a seminar on science fiction writing held Apr. 15, 1975, in conjunction with the Dept. of Humanities and Communications, the Dept. of the Arts, UCLA Extension, and the stories written as a follow-up.

Cosmic hod-carriers, by Harlan Ellison. --
The specs. --
The concept seminars. --
The extrapolations, the questions. --
Second thoughts. --
Farside stations. --
Flare time. --
With Virgil Oddum at the east pole. --
Swanilda's song. --
Seasoning. --
Concepts. --
Songs of a sentient flute. --
Hunter's moon. --
The promise. --
Why dolphins don't bite. --
Waiting for the earthquake.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction, Writing, Collections

532 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1985

About the author

Harlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.

His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.

Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very interesting exercise in which a group of famous sf authors designed a world under the direction of Ellison, and then wrote stories set on it. It's a fascinating look at the creative process, and the depth and detail that went into the work is impressive. The writers included Jack Williamson, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, Hal Clement, Thomas M. Disch, Frank Herbert, Poul Anderson, Kate Wilhelm, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Silverberg, and Ellison himself. The book is beautifully illustrated by Kelly Freas. The only drawback is that not all of the stories are really good... my favorite was the Niven.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

MEDEA was an an ambitious shared-world project based on a seminar Ellison taught at UCLA in 1975. I reread part of it in 2002. Niven's Flare Time is the standout story, one of his finest stand-alone shorts. The Silverberg and Poul Anderson stories were OK, and I barely remember the other stories. TOC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea:_...

The introductory and world-building matter is alternately dull and pretentious, and there is a stunningly self-indulgent transcript of a panel discussion of the project that goes on and on and on -- it's like reading a 30-year old Usenet discussion: there's a certain queasy fascination at the start, but tedium quickly sets in. Niven's backstory essay is well worth rereading. The others weren't.

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Come see how sausage is made! This is a great book for purveyors of sausage, historians, scholars, fans and maybe other writers. I purchased Medea to learn about writing. I purchased it y e a r s ago and am finally getting around to reading it. One-half to two-thirds of the book is about making sausage (sorry if you don't understand the metaphor), the rest is what is now valuable to me; stories by recognized authors.
Reading through the discussions and exchanges, I wish I hadn't learned everything I have about language.
Some stuff I learned reading the first part of the book: Recognized authors, gathered together, behave, act and talk no differently than most other people in many of the writers' groups I've visited. Also, put anybody on a stage and they'll perform whether they mean to or not. Next came the recognition that authors are entertainers at the end of the day.
I'm sure the entire book will be useful to some. That last section, the actual stories, was more valuable to me. I didn't need the first part of the book to use the second as a learning tool. Here the learning was that authors - even brilliant authors - put different energies in their stories when they are internally driven versus externally driven.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you haven't read Harlan Ellison, you haven't read." ~ Richard Halasz

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

What do they say about too many chefs in the kitchen?

Interesting concept with a bunch of well established sci fi authors of the day contributing to building a whole universe and livable planet ripe for colonisation by humans who then interact with the local indigenous population. The most interesting part is the first half with the discussions that go on between authors as they flesh out the concept in front of an audience.

Unfortunately, the short stories themselves vary widely in quality. Probably the best are Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg's. Harlan did the best one because he was the project manager and had a passion for the concept overall. Unfortunately, Harlan having dragged his mates along for the ride can't be as cut-throat about the stories contributed as he was with Dangerous Visions so.... the story are what they are...

It doesn't help that the setting they come up with did not make for worthwhile reading material, mostly. I found myself struggling with most of them over a year and they just didn't engage me. Oh well...

[Mark Cofta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this sitting on my shelf forever. It's a big book, and can be tough reading in the first part, in which Ellison provides transcripts and other documents relating to his fascinating experiment in science fiction world building. Asked to teach an SF writing course, he instead gathered SF writers to imagine a world together with the class and then write stories on and about that world. As often happened with Ellison projects, it took a decade to come together in book form, but the ideas and their development are fascinating (if a little science-heavy and dry for some readers) and the stories are worthwhile. It's of particular interest for anyone who dreams of writing SF.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept is great - gather a bunch of sci-fi writers and create stories based on a fictional planet. The first half of the book is IN-DEPTH discussion and planning of every aspect of the world, the creatures, etc. We're talking atmosphere density, etc. It's a nerd's heaven (and surprisingly a bit too much for me). The stories themselves didn't amaze me. Rampant sexism aside, many of the stories were not very engaging. I expected more.

[Gingaeru · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had tried desperately to identify this book since I first saw the epic Kelly Freas cover art out of context in the opening credits of "Gentlemen Broncos" (2009). In that film, the cover art was pasted onto a mock-up of a well-worn mass-market paperback. Google Images had been no help in identifying the source of the artwork. Only after abandoning my search did I finally find this book (entirely by accident).

Even though I went in with low expectations, I was still disappointed. Conceptually, it could have been great, but it was ultimately doomed to failure. For me, it's still worth owning. If for nothing else, then for Frank Kelly Freas' artwork (though a few of the illustrations are less interesting than they should be).

In addition to the 11 short stories themselves, the book contains the original specs and concept seminar (in written form). All the science in the specs section was hard to get through, although the biology was somewhat enjoyable. The dialogue between Thomas M. Disch, Frank Herbert, Robert Silverberg and Theodore Sturgeon (Harlan Ellison was barely involved) at the concept seminar is probably the most entertaining thing included (apart from a couple of the short stories). It was frustrating to see the participants repeatedly misunderstand the biology of Medea. They went on for far too long on tangents that ignored already-established facts from the specs. To be fair, it's pretty clear Harlan rushed them, not giving them nearly enough time to read and absorb the material. The title "Harlan's World" almost seems to be in mockery (maybe it's just me).

While reading the stories, it became painfully evident that the individual authors didn't do much in the way of comparing notes. Aside from maybe Larry Niven himself, they still did not have a real grasp of the "fuxes" or the "balloons." While some minor connections (locations, technology, etc.) exist between the various stories, they don't feel like they occur within the same universe/timeline, which was the whole point of this project to begin with.
...

"Farside Station" by Jack Williamson
5/10
The writing failed to paint a clear picture in my mind and I didn't care for the story.
...

"Flare Time" by Larry Niven
4/10
Stupid and confusingly written.
...

"With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole" by Harlan Ellison
6/10
Shockingly, one of the better ones. But I don't like the author's choice of words. For some reason, this story gets a second illustration, whereas all the others have just one.
...

"Swanilda's Song" by Frederik Pohl
4/10
Reads like a gross "Futurama" or "Rick and Morty" episode. Humorous, perhaps, but disgusting, nonetheless.
...

"Seasoning" by Hal Clement
5/10
Man vs. AI (à la "2001"). I couldn't quite grasp what was happening with the weather or the geography. Otherwise, the writing was okay.
...

"Concepts" by Thomas M. Disch
5/10
Not at all the story Mr. Disch proposed at the seminar. It starts out clear enough, but the writing gets very murky after a while. I missed certain plot points entirely (how Bobolink was able to profit, the nature of Octave, etc.). Also, our introduction to Bobolink is needlessly foul.
...

"Songs of a Sentient Flute" by Frank Herbert
6/10
Well-written, but the ending is awful.
...

"Hunter's Moon" by Poul Anderson
5/10
The basis for the cover art. I'm not a fan of Poul Anderson's writing. That said, this is the least poorly-written story I've read from him. Terrible human characters, though.
...

"The Promise" by Kate Wilhelm
5/10
I thought it was pretty decently written, but the ending was dumb. I liked the brief dream sequence. I guess Kate Wilhelm didn't get the memo from Larry Niven clearly stating that "FUXES" DON'T FLY!
...

"Why Dolphins Don't Bite" by Theodore Sturgeon
7/10
Unsurprisingly, this is the best story here. But the way "fuxes" are presented as a complete mystery to the humans doesn't corroborate with the other stories. The ending was good for once.
...

"Waiting For the Earthquake" by Robert Silverberg
5/10
Unlike the others, Mr. Silverberg actually went through with the story he proposed at the seminar (sort of). It wasn't bad. But I'm really not into the whole "acceptance of avoidable death" thing.
...

There were many places where I felt there should have been punctuation. I didn't notice any typos, except for (maybe) this:
"And in one manner or another or another the thousand-year-old colony had melted away in little more than a decade."
...

6/10 overall

[Nik Markevicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost gave this one only three stars, and perhaps if I wasn't a writer, I probably would. However, I am creative, and I'm fascinated by the creative process - the way story comes into being, how it grows and changes, and - especially in this case - how many different writers begin from an established set of guidelines and build their own stories from that point. How different they all are! Most barely share more than you probably share with the family down the block. Maybe you have the same type of pet, say, a cat, but yours is black and theirs is calico. That's the idea here.

Does it work perfectly? No. Are there inconsistencies between the stories? Yes...but I'd argue that perhaps the world of Medea, as a barely exokored world, has room for all sorts of stories. Think about our own planet. Can the same human beings have enough room for diversity to be cowboys, samurai, Catholic, etc, and still be the same creatures, at the core? Why shouldn't we apply that standard to the greater universe?

I'm going on too much about this, and like I said, this is more a book for creative people interested in watching an idea grow from seed to a smattering of full plants raised by different gardeners. None of them look quite like one another, but they're obviously the same basic thing. So what if they don't look as pretty as other plants we see. This one's not ugly, and the stories, even dated by nearly thirty years of tech advancement, are well told and entertaining to those who enjoy the genre.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, sad to say. The concept should have been a slam-dunk: a collection of science-minded authors creating a whole WORLD, including all the details of biology, society, everything. And they they write stories about it.

In practice...blah. I ran across Larry Niven's story from this in "Playgrounds of the Mind" I believe, and Harlan's in one of his many collections. Those are pretty much the only two worth reading. Even the artwork falls short. Disappointing.

[L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, inspired by HE, was a collaboration of many of sf's finest talents, including Hal Clement, Kate Wilhelm, Fred Pohl, and Robert Silverberg. Together, they created the world Medea, defining the world, its indigenous creatures, and the interaction between these creatures, and human colonists. For the intricasy and detail of the shared-world construct, there is no finer work.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Put several of the greatest Sci-Fi writers of the 70's in one room. Have them create a world. Then each writes a story about that world. Finally, see how they all try to mesh together and fail, but each story in itself is grand. Well, most are great.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great idea. Harlan's shared world anthology.