Harlan Ellison Books

Gideon's Fall: When You Dont Have a Prayer, Only a Miracle Will Do If you can only own one Ellison collection,this is the one. This is the author at his crisp ,clean best. There is no meandering or sky larking. Not a word wasted. Everything is bare boned essential. Famous or infamous for his introductions there is one story that intro states "I have nothing to say about this story." Chilling. You will enjoy this....Think of that.

This book fell far short of the standards I had for it. The narrative jumped not just between characters, but also between planets and time periods. There's very little adventure or excitement and what really enraged me was that a character description in the book lied about one professional who is enraged and plots to make the protagonist pay for ruining his life's dream to study the Martian volcanoes, but yet he does nothing! He fumes and is enraged, but that is it!

Parts of the book seemed too much like a textbook for my taste, and even got redundant with the author constantly reminding the reader that Mars' sky is not blue.

Add it all together with stereotypical cardboard characters and it makes for a most dissatisfying read, not as bad as Allen Steele's Coyote Trilogy though.

A fascinating sci-fi novel about the first manned expedition to Mars. The story's more about the science than the fiction, which makes it very interesting to this reader, who suffers from a deplorable case of science deficiency. My only complaint was the poor development of the characters. I just didn't really care if anyone lived or died, which is a shame in an otherwise interesting novel.

Ben Bova has written a masterful novel about the first humans to explore the planet Mars.

Jamie Waterman is a young half-Navajo geologist who dreams of exploring Mars. Due to an illness, Jamie is bumped up to the first team that is going to Mars. Also aboard are Joanna Brumado, a Brazilian biologist; Mikhail Vosnesensky, a Russian and overall mission commander; Ilona Malater, an Israeli scientist; Antony Reed, a British flight physician; Pete Connors, an American astronaut and co-pilot; and Ravavishnu Patel, a Hindu geologist. The flight from Earth to Mars took 9 months, but the crew finally lands on the red planet and begins their exploration.

Jamie and Mikhail have decided to explore Tithonium Chasma, the great canyon that stretches for thousands of miles on the Martian surface. While there, Jamie discovers a rock formation that looks like it could have been made by intelligent beings. Immediately, Mikhail and Jamie head back to camp to collect the others and return for closer observations. Meanwhile, Patel is angered because, due to the change in mission plans, he will have much less time to explore the Tharsis volcanoes. Jamie and Mikhail have also discovered a mist that hangs over the canyon. It is decided to go down to the bottom of the canyon to see if there is any type of life forms living there.

Joanna and Ilona indeed discover lichen-type organisms living in the rocks at the bottom of the canyon. After collecting samples of the lichen-like organisms, the group then climbs back into their rover to return once again to camp. However, a huge dust storm comes sweeping down the canyon, burying the rover in dust. To make matters worse, all of the members of the expedition except for Reed have come down with some mysterious illness that no one can explain. After further analysis, it was determined that the group had contracted scurvy from lack of vitamin C intake. The group's vitamin storage was damaged in a meteorite strike and now, the crew is slowly dying. Ultimately, it comes down to Jamie to save the group. Will he succeed, or will the winds of Mars confine the group there forever?

This is a great book. The character development, especially that of Jamie, Joanna, and Mikhail, is excellent and the story is fast-paced and exciting. Bova also throws in some interesting true facts about Mars along the way. I've read several of Bova's books, and I rate Mars as being one of the best. This book is a must-read for fans of great science fiction.

In the midst of all the politics, please remember your vitamins.


A Soviet dominated mission to Mars is put together, and a rather late inclusion is a Native Amreican geologist. When they actually arrive, after a few hair-raising moments on the trip there, he ignites controversy by speaking his native tongue instead of what the cue cards suggest.

While landed successfully, the mission has some serious problems to overcome, to survive.

The theme of "Mars", Ben Bova's extraordinary vision of a first manned expedition to Earth's planetary neighbour, is hardly unique and imaginative. In fact, it's been pounded into submission on hundreds of previous occasions. Bova succeeds nonetheless and has served up a particularly compelling and realistic entry into the pantheon of space exploration sci-fi that unflinchingly explores the politics, the psychology, the emotion and humanity as well as the danger and excitement of an extended exploratory space mission that would in fact last almost two years. A healthy serving of science and day to day scientific realism rounds out this exciting and eminently readable story of a group of planetary explorers that are ultimately shown to have "the right stuff".

Nominally the hero of the tale, Jamie Waterman is a Navajo geologist selected to be part of the multi-national scientific ground team that will explore the red planet. The story opens as Jamie steps onto the surface of Mars and, overwhelmed with the power and emotion of the moment, he utters his first words to a waiting populace on Earth in Navajo instead of the carefully scripted English he was supposed to use. The resulting political firestorm that erupts on Earth is somehow sadly predictable in its powerful and dramatic realism.

Told primarily from Jamie's perspective, the main plot line unfolds around a debilitating and almost certainly fatal illness that every single member of the ground crew except the doctor contracts. While the forensic medical investigation into the illness is told with an urgent drama that will have every reader on the edge of their seat right to the literally cliff-hanging climax, it's the ultimate discovery of its cause that will leave readers slack-jawed with amazement at Bova's brilliant imagination and the almost absurdly humourous irony of the problem.

The Iron Curtain and the US-Russian Cold War are now relegated to the pages of history so the political structures and international rivalries portrayed in the story clearly date the writing of "Mars" to the latter part of the 20th century. But that takes nothing at all away from Bova's masterful development of full, complex characters whose well-being and success will matter to the readers. What more could a happy science fiction fan ask for - characters, plot and a heaping plate full of informative, entertaining and realistic science!

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

If you haven't read Harlan, this is not the place to start. Ellison put a lot into his teleplay, and there are surprising, literary aspects, primarily in asides and instructions for the director ( if, indeed, tv directors every took those seriously ). The "screenplay" is not first-class Ellison; for that, see his short story collections, or The Essential Ellison and many other anthologies of his great fiction. Aside from the screenplay, there is a long, rambling rant about the grave injustices Harlan suffered after writing the screenplay. The rant is funny and interesting for the details it reveals about the television industry. But I can't recommend this book to those who aren't big Ellison fans.

This is not only the original script and a few of the re-writes, it is an epic essay on why Harlan Ellison is so angry with Star Trek. Seems that all the twisted stories told by Gene Roddenberry because they got a laugh or promoted the Star Trek mystique tended to have victims. Harlan was one of them, and he isn't gonna take it anymore.

Although he is justifiably upset, he sort of comes out firing an uzi in each hand when maybe wagging a finger would have done. I get it Harlan. I don't need to have 50 pages of the same thing over and over to get it!

But it's a good look into the Hollywood TV production business. And maybe into the area of fragile Hollywood egos. I am not sure that truth, justice, and purity can explain why Harlan is doing this. Clearly some of his own stories are exaggerated and become rhetoric. His is guilty in his own book of what he seems so upset about in others.

Despite all this, Ellison is a great writer and this book is well worth the read. Be forewarned that Ellison spares no expletives or insults for the likes of Gene Roddenberry, Gene Coon, Bill Shatner and others. In fact, it seems as if he can not say enough about them.

He does go on and on and on a bit, and you have to be careful not get bile on yourself as it gushes out of the book, but if you're hungry for behind-the-scenes ST info, whether truthful or not, it's enjoyable.

I loved this book. It gives us more insight into the original version of a great episode. I love Harlan Ellison, warts and all, however, my holding back from giving this book 5 stars is that there is no insight into the production process. Harlan feels that his script was wronged somehow. As pointed out in various reviews here on Amazon, if he didn't want changes made, he shouldn't have written it for a series.

Here is an idea Harlan... what with all the interest in fan films, and since you own the rights to the script lock, stock and barrel, why don't you get together a group of actors and crew, and make your version of "City..." yourself. Believe me, this would be a great thing, since there is no Star Trek fan film activity being done in LA except "Hidden Frontier."

Unless there is a WGA rule that prohibits this, maybe you should think about it. Walter Koenig and George Takei are working with the "New Voyages" group trying to get something they never got from Gene and Paramount; respect for their characters. Maybe you should think about it.

I see that I ordered this book from Amazon nearly 10 years ago...so perhaps I should get around to my review. (No, it didn't take me that long to read the book.) As I recall, I bought it less out of interest in the original script (Star Trek hasn't appealed to me since my teens, aka the 1970s) than in order to have a complete version of Ellison's splenetic denunciation of "those amoeba-brained barbarians who butchered his masterpiece." I had read a brief excerpt of same in Harper's, nearly wet myself laughing (at Ellison's self-righteous ego, not from anything he wrote for intentional comic effect), and had to have the whole thing. And I did. But a little bit goes a long way, as the cliche states, and Mr. Ellison's screed tires before very long. (Thinking that a grown man, a professional writer, wrote these complaints is finally pretty sad.) At the very least, his original teleplay was obviously much too long for an actual aired episode of Trek, so it was going to have to be cut one way or another, so what was that baby crying about?

On the other hand, don't miss out on The Oscar, the 1966 bomb co-written by Ellison, which is MST3K-worthy. So bad it was referenced MORE THAN ONCE on SCTV, including an extended parody called The Nobel.

So, in conclusion, I love it when hack writers (Steven King, I mean you too) whine about how they're just not appreciated...but keep it to a three-page maximum, okay boys?

I originally purchased the book simply for the cover and the interesting title. Within the first 30 pages Mr. Shirley has you entirely wrapped up in a world of terror and suspense and he subtly mixs in a clever allegory on the nature of humanity. I have few if any qualms with this book it was a delightful read, and I truly think this would make an excellent movie.

A great novel in two parts. What happens when Demons take over? Does the world end, or does it continue in an eerily similar way... covert predation replaced with the overt? Justice, horror, and a lot of thought provoking ideas make this book well worth the read.

If you are looking for spatterpunk, Shirely's other books, like New Noir (my favorite), may be more up your alley. If you are looking for something a little more thought provoking, however, read on. Brushing away the constraints of genre, Demons is an allegory for the ages. Exploring political, spiritual and environmental undercurrents in out lives, Shirley's not-to-distant demonic tale is anything but your standard "horror" story. The tale does exact full participation from the reader to reap its bounty, but if you are looking for a more cerebral scare, Demons is your ride.

There were very interesting ideas in this book, as well as a couple of great "moments." But I was expecting more of a horror novel and less of a philisophical/science fiction/environmental/political novel. There were basically no demons in the 2nd part of the story!! A couple of scenes, sure, but overall, it was much slower paced than the first part. I really liked the idea of a secretive group of people joined via special powers, and liked the character of Ira. Also enjoyed the dialogue from some of the demons - creepy and funny all at once. I recommend this book, but be warned it's not what you expect.

Scary book. A normal day dissolves into what seems tantamount to judgement day and "Jesus was a no-show." Demons materialize and sweep across the planet. But these aren't the 20 story mantises of 50's B movies (although the requisite attacks with firearms are attempted with the usual results). These are like Blue Meanies with extreme makeovers by H R Giger that chat it up with their eventual victims like a psychotic David Spade. It seems they know a thing or two about mankind. Things we don't even tell each other.

Shirley can write scary stories. After years of being a confident adult who chuckled all the way through The Exorcist, completely unafraid of the dark and its attendant strange noises, I read In Darkness Waiting and ever since have looked over my shoulder - constantly - whenever I'm up in the attic.

Demons has a good helping of that creepy fear combined with the hopelessness of a deluge and on that level it's a great read, with enough twists to give its scifi/horror blend a fresh Lovecraftian edge.

There are really two books here. The first launches with the adrenaline rush of demonic invasion while the second spreads out, weaving character and plot threads into an increasingly overlapping tapestry that builds to a phantasmagoric climax.

But there's more. At the opening of the book, one of the characters, an eccentric professor steeped in mystical knowledge, is writing a book called The Hidden Reality, and in a way, that's what we have here. On a deeper level Demons addresses the spiritual and moral issues we all face as imperfect humans. The unfolding of the story largely hinges on individual moral failures and the subsequent collective hell that results. And although there are plenty of pulp heroic moments, it really boils down to redemption as the ultimate weapon against the forces of darkness. Not surprising for someone who wrote a book on Gurdjieff.

Either way, or both, it's a great read, one that makes my list of fav Shirley novels.

I found myself right there watching every scene unfold, just when you think you're out of a spot something else pops up. This has been a wild journey across the realms of space.

I couldn't put this book down - I threw it down. Sorry, I couldn't finish it. The writing style was amateurish and the characters were as dull as a butter knife. There was absolutely no set up - no tension building - no character development, that is except for Ram who was as annoying as he was fakey. I picked this book up because of the authors association with the sci-fi legend Fredrick Pohl. Too bad this book was so stinky as I will probably avoid this author in the future.

If they make a movie out of this it will probably be one of those so-bad-it's-good hits. It is too hard to take this story seriously. I tried, but I lost it at the above quote. I was listening to a book on CD I checked out of the library so imagine Harlan Ellison's voice delivering the line....

The not so intrepid heroes of this story start belly-aching about wanting to go home barely seconds after passing through the mysterious ancient gate. (Think Stargate rip-off.) This would not be so bad except they invested a lot of time and money preparing for the trip. The story is therefore kinda ruined from the get-go.

_The Stonehenge Gate_ by Jack Williamson reminds me of some of the older, "Golden Age" science fiction stories I read in anthologies growing up, in books I found in my Dad's collection or in used bookstores, where educated, adventurous but otherwise seemingly normal people come across alien artifacts, hints of lost civilizations, technology so advanced it looks like magic, the stories not jaded at all but filled with a sense of wonder, of "gee-wiz," of amazement at the bigger-than-life mysteries of the universe.

The novel's four main protagonists, at least at first, are four poker buddies, college professors at Eastern New Mexico University. Derek Ironcraft is a physicist and astronomer, Lupe Vargas is an archaeologist (the sole woman of the group), Ram Chenji is an African linguist that Vargas met on a dig in Africa and got him to the United States on a scholarship, and Will Stone (the narrator) is a English literature professor specializing in Shakespeare; together they call their little group the Four Horsemen. One night Derek shows the group interesting NASA images of a buried structure deep in the sand seas of the Sahara Desert, images that appear to show a megalithic, Stonehenge-like structure. Though Lupe is tremendously skeptical of the image, or at least of Derek's interpretation of it, saying that the region is not known for such artifacts and is located in an area that the last time it was decently habitable by humans was hundreds of thousands of years ago, well before they were building such structures, she eventually embraces the group's enthusiasm and the four of them manage to make their way to the very remote site, initially hoping during a break between classes to find enough there to justify a grant and a return trip.

Dropped off by chartered helicopter among the remote dunes, many days travel from the nearest thing approaching civilization, they do indeed find that the satellite image was correct, that there are buried megalithic structures. They also find prior to their arrival that Ram had a very unusual background, that he grew up in Kenya, partially raised by his elderly grandmother that he called Little Mama, a woman who spoke a strange language and had taught some to Ram against his father's wishes and given him a strange pendant that had defied the few attempts he had tried to analyze it, covered with enigmatic writings and made of some unfamiliar material. Little Mama before she died had told Ram of having come from some other world, of having to go through Hell before she found the road to Heaven. Perhaps a little convenient, at least in my mind, but it becomes apparent to the group that Little Mama had somehow come through these megalithic structures from some other world.

In very short order they find that they are gates to another world. Indeed, gates to worlds, plural, as the Four Horsemen hop from world to world, for a time separating, seemingly permanently though there are hints that the missing members are alive and well. The first world they encounter was deadly, apparently a trap for unwary gate travelers, but after overcoming those difficulties the remaining team members come to an apparently very Earth-like world, complete with familiar plants and animals. Perfectly maintained (and to my mind a tad too familiar) buildings, roads, parks, and farms are present on the planet, lovingly tended by bizarre robots, but not a sign of people or what had happened to them. Though most things look pristine and untouched, they do come across evidence that what ever had happened to the people had happened a very long time ago.

The tone of the book changed abruptly though when they journeyed to another world, one that is very much inhabited, having a series of adventures on it that encompass a great portion of the book. Though touching on the possible destiny and strange origins of Ram and his people, the interlude on this world, one they later called Delta, had an entirely different, almost jarring tone from what came before and after in the story. Delta has two continents - Norlan and Hotlan - that are inhabited each by a native race of humans. Norlan is home to a race of mostly blonde imperialist European types, technologically close to that of late 19th century Earth as far as I could tell, while Hotlan was home to black African-like tribes and villages in the dense rain forest of a wilderness continent, largely beyond the reach of most Norlanders. The main characters become embroiled in the lives of individuals from both Hotlan and Norlan and in the growing conflict between the two groups (as the Hotlanders are for the most fantastic racists, not regarding the Hotlanders as human and at least officially condemning all mixed race individuals and their parents to death). Though the story was a decent tale of adventure and fairly atmospheric, it didn't flow well with the odd, otherworldly place they found before Delta and their discoveries about the builders and their origins in the incredibly distant past later on. It was as if I was reading an entirely different novel.

The best drawn out characters are Will, who comes across as timid and passive at times, at other times willing to risk everything to save a friend, including friends he makes in Hotlan, and Ram, who is a fairly complex character, constantly at war with himself, struggling with what may be some sort of preordained destiny that was thrust upon him in Hotlan and the life he really wants to lead. Derek and Lupe were a bit less well drawn and not as major characters as either Will or Ram, their time and energy almost single-mindedly spent on trying to solve the riddle of the gates, the builders, and their various worlds and what that means for all of human history.

Certainly not a bad novel, it was a fast read.

When I first read the synopsis of this book, I thought that it would be an interesting read. After the first 20 or so pages I was not sure what I had gotten myself into. The writing style seemed awkward and the phrase "I'd like to know" came up so often it became extremely annoying and at times out of place.
Writing style aside, the premise of this book was very similar to the movie and series "Stargate" but less interesting and more confusing. The book itself seemed to be a mishmash of different stories and ideas. The book never seemed to flow. Sometimes the story went quickly and the reader was left trying to figure out what was going on. The author created situations without any explanation and many times I was left to wonder "how did that happen?"
In other sections of the book, the author seemed to drag on forever. The longest subplot in the book seemed to be an odd take on Slavery in American and Colonial History. It seemed out of place and more of a rant on black and white culture and relations.
This book was so odd that I never could figure out what the author was trying to accomplish in writing this book. Of course, Williamson did leave an open ended ending which leads me to believe he was thinking of writing other books about the different subplots he created. In the end, who knows? All I know is that after reading this story I am not inclined to purchase another book from this author.

With a titillating title like Alien $ex, I was expecting stories a little more disturbing, perhaps something with a touch of the squishy to it, flavored with the tangy taste of repulsion. What I discovered was mostly mild, neither horrifying or $exual, and only vaguely imaginative.

Table of contents:
1) Her Furry Face by Leigh Kennedy
2) War Bride by Rick Wilber
3) How's The Night Life On Cissalda? By Harlan Ellison
4) The Jamesburg Incubus by Scott Baker
5) Man Of Steel, Woman Of Kleenex by Larry Niven
6) The First Time by K.W. Jeter
7) The Jungle Rot Kid On The Nod by Philip Jose Farmer
8) Husbands by Lisa Tuttle
9) When The Fathers Go by Bruce McAllister
10) Dancing Chickens by Edward Bryant
11) Roadside Rescue by Pat Cadigan
12) Omnisexual by Geoff Ryman
13) All My Darling Daughters by Connie Willis
14) Arousal by Richard Christian Matheson
15) Scales by Lewis Shiner
16) Saving The World At The New Moon Hotel by Roberta Lannes
17) And I Awoke And Found Me Here On The Cold Hill's Side by James Tiptree Jr.
18) Picture Planes by Michaela Roessner
19) Love And Sex Among The Invertebrates by Pat Murphy

The five good stories are 'Her Furry Face', dealing with an orangutan rather than an alien; 'Roadside Rescue', which really does display the strange $exuality of aliens; 'Scales', a story of infidelity with a Lamia; 'And I Awoke And Found Me Here On The Cold Hill's Side', a futuristic glimpse as to where mankind might head if copulation with aliens became a mainstream practice; and 'Love And Sex Among The Invertebrates', a post apocalyptic scientist tries to breathe life back into the world.

The rest of the stories all suffered from what I term "Abstracting and Distracting". Some SF tales, mostly the older pieces in the genre, tend to believe that the more abstract their prose is, the more "alien" it appears, when in reality it is simply too distracting to read. Chunky, clunky sentences strewn haphazardly across a page and using a form of "guess what I'm thinking" detachment does not make for a smooth story. I was particularly surprised at how awful Harlan Ellison's contribution to this anthology was, but even the masters must slip once in a while. Unfortunately, too many of the stories in this collection suffer this affliction, and there are too few good ones for me to recommend this book as a 'buy'. Grab it from the library, or find a used copy.

... the rest was fairly disappointing and not well written.

As advertised, 19 tales on the theme of sex involving humans and aliens.

Sex is an important part of our lives. It is not so far fetched to believe that the same might be the case for at least some alien species. But, this area is not one that has featured widely in SF writings. Around half of the stories here are published for the first time in this collection.

This is not a collection of erotic writing, indeed it is more disturbing and sometimes funny than arousing.

Horror fiction has a much stronger tradition of covering sexual matters and some of the stories here wander along the boundary of the two genres.

Particularly "The First Time" by K.W.Jeter. This gruesome story is not an easy read but it is also one of the strongest in the collection.

"All My Darling Daughters" by Connie Willis and Leigh Kennedy's "Her Furry Face" also dwell on aspects of the human condition that you wouldn't want to discuss with your mother. Nonetheless, they are good stories that use the "alien" setting to good effect.

The collection is not confined to such serious, or even disturbing material. There are some genuinely funny stories here too. Especially the classic "How's the Nightlife on Cissalda" by Harlan Ellison and "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" by Larry Niven.

Many of the stories deal with the theme of aliens as a sexual threat to humans. From lighthearted stories such as Pat Cadigan's "Roadside Rescue" to the macabre "Dancing Chickens" by Edward Bryant.

I'd rate about three quarters of the stories in here as being above agerage or better. A couple were rather weak and the book would have been better had they been left out but, overall, this is a good collection.

As advertised, 19 tales on the theme of sex involving humans and aliens.

Sex is an important part of our lives. It is not so far fetched to believe that the same might be the case for at least some alien species. But, this area is not one that has featured widely in SF writings. Around half of the stories here are published for the first time in this collection.

This is not a collection of erotic writing, indeed it is more disturbing and sometimes funny than arousing.

Horror fiction has a much stronger tradition of covering sexual matters and some of the stories here wander along the boundary of the two genres. Particularly "The First Time" by K.W.Jeter. This gruesome story is not an easy read but it is also one of the strongest in the collection.

"All My Darling Daughters" by Connie Willis and Leigh Kennedy's "Her Furry Face" also dwell on aspects of the human condition that you wouldn't want to discuss with your mother. Nonetheless, they are good stories that use the "alien" setting to good effect.

The collection is not confined to such serious, or even disturbing material. There are some genuinely funny stories here too. Especially the classic "How's the Nightlife on Cissalda" by Harlan Ellison and "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" by Larry Niven.

Many of the stories deal with the theme of aliens as a sexual threat to humans. From lighthearted stories such as Pat Cadigan's "Roadside Rescue" to the macabre "Dancing Chickens" by Edward Bryant.

I'd rate about three quarters of the stories in here as being above agerage or better. A couple were rather weak and the book would have been better had they been left out but, overall, this is a good collection.

Ellen Datlow, long-time fiction editor of Omni, had quite a brainstorm when she edited this book full of alien sex stories in 1990. While 9 stories are reprinted, 10 are new to this book. All are worth reading, and a few fall into the good to very good range. None are classics, though, if the word even applies to material published since 1960. Of the reprints, the best material is Connie Willis's "All My Darling Daughters" (1985), which was too dangerous (in the Ellisonian sense) to appear in the genre magazines before being published in her first story collection, Firewatch. In it women discover that their boyfriends are keeping marsupial-like animals because the animal's reaction to sex is much like that of a woman being raped. It's a disturbing, effective story. Of the new material, I liked Richard Christian Matheson's "Arousal" a lot. It's a very brief tale of a woman who makes the mistake of wanting constant sexual arousal and gets it. A short tour de force. The remaining material, while interesting at times, does not quite come off (pun intended). Datlow's notion of horror veers towards the creepily disgusting, which doesn't bother me but doesn't appeal that much to me either. You might like that style better, and if so you should immediately turn to K. W. Jeter's "The First Time," with enough bloody disgustingness for several stories--a record of sorts, I suppose. I am not disrecommending the book, though. It's worth reading and having. Note: another writer with an alien take on sex is Lucy Taylor, whose book Unnatural Acts & Other Stories is more consistent than this one overall.

As with all yearly compilations, this book contains the best and the worst of 2001 Science Fiction. I found four stories in the book to be great the remaining stories were boring. One plus for the book, however, is that it did expose me to several new authors. I recommend browsing the stories before purchasing.

A short introduction here about Year's Bests and mentioning they hope there was room for a third. There was for me, as some different stories here, and a rather good volume indeed to start, averaging 3.82.

Starts and finishes with the best stories with Kelly's Undone, and Dan Simmons' story of a really big mountain.

SF Best of 2001 : Undone - James Patrick Kelly
SF Best of 2001 : Know How Can Do - Michael Blumlein
SF Best of 2001 : From Here You Can See the Sunquists - Richard Wadholm
SF Best of 2001 : Keepers of Earth - Robin Wayne Bailey
SF Best of 2001 : Anomalies - Gregory Benford
SF Best of 2001 : One of Her Paths - Ian Watson
SF Best of 2001 : The Dog Said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick
SF Best of 2001 : And No Such Things Grow Here - Nancy Kress
SF Best of 2001 : Sun-Cloud - Stephen Baxter
SF Best of 2001 : Into Greenwood - Jim Grimsley
SF Best of 2001 : On K2 with Kanakaredes - Dan Simmons

Future escape a problem of many dimensions.

4.5 out of 5


Madam I'm Adam, and smart for a worm, too.

4 out of 5


Self-referential trip.

3 out of 5


Alpha not a tractor.

3.5 out of 5


Error observation religion.

4 out of 5


Q-Space solo separation Tee-Cee colony baby avatar Voice.

4 out of 5


Canine anti-tech adventures.

4 out of 5


The seeds of crime bear fitter fruit.

4 out of 5


Corpuscle calling.

3.5 out of 5


Alien family fortunes.

3 out of 5


On a really big mountain, a human and an alien mountaineer come to an understanding.

4.5 out of 5




4.5 out of 5

Its been a while since i last picked up an SF compilation. Im thoroughly pained by the quality of this book. Though i have yet to finish it, completed only stories 1 - 5... i realised that they are pretty much a rehash of old themes

- creation
- adam and eve
- looking back at the past... travelling there then accidentally changing it... urgh... (how star trekky can u be)
- the purpose of life from the eyes of a robot... (asimov!)

i mean, come on? are there no more original stories... im still looking for the class that was so apparent from authors of old nebula and hugo award winners. its sorely missing in the crop presented by this compilation...

Classics like Hyperion from Dan Simmons (his story is last in this compilattion - im saving it.. hopefully its worth waiting for!)

then there's the ever inspiring - Border's of Infinity.
a multitude of gems from Asimov, or the very few from Arthur C Clarke.

are sf authors really dead? have they all sink to the semi space opera sf works of Peter F. Hamilton? Or the many ... so called authors which produce the commercial star wars series?

surely u can do better than this.

In this case, to those who wait for the Hartwell and Dozois collections, both coming out in the summer. Yeah, this one came out early in the year - but doesn't that make you stop to wonder, right there? How can Silverberg and Haber possibly have time to thoroughly review the field, make well-considered best-story choices, put the book together, copyedit, publish, and have it on shelves in the first couple of months of the year? They can't, or at least they didn't here. Enormous typeface cheats the reader out of the number of stories one would expect from a volume of this thickness and price. Not to mention that my (admittedly brief) perusal of the contents did not impress me. These stories are not *bad*, but they are not particularly outstanding and seem about average for what you'd get if you picked up any random month's top 3 or 4 sf magazines - and the stories are all you get; no review of the year in sf the way you get from Dozois, and no strong feeling of consistency like you get from Hartwell. Use the money to buy copies of the best sf collections of years past - Dozois or Hartwell or, going back further, Carr or Wollheim.

I had high hopes for "Science Fiction: The Best of 2001," the anthology edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber. The main reason I was so enthused about the book was due to the presence of science fiction legend Silverberg as co-editor; I figured, "This guy knows sci-fi." Well, I was not disappointed. "2001" is a marvelous collection of 11 tales about humans, extraterrestrials, robots, and/or genetically engineered creatures.

My favorite tales in the anthology are as follows: Michael Blumlein's "Know How, Can Do," told in the first-person by a genetically engineered "chimeric life form"; Richard Wadholm's "From Here You Can See the Sunquists," about a couple's visit to a town that is enveloped by a temporal anomaly; Robin Wayne Bailey's "Keepers of Earth," the story of a devastated earth, abandoned by humanity and populated by robots; Michael Swanwick's "The Dog Said Bow-Wow," in which a genetically engineered superdog has an adventure in a future London; Nancy Kress's "And No Such Things Grow Here," which opens with the protagonist learning that her sister has been arrested for GMFA (Genetic Modification Felony Actions); and Dan Simmons's "On K2 with Kanakaredes," the rather touching story of an interspecies mountain climbing expedition.

But the best story in the collection, in my opinion, is Jim Grimsley's haunting "Into Greenwood." This tale takes place on a planet where neutered, genetically altered humans serve as symbionts for a race of intelligent trees. "Into Greenwood" is a superb blend of a compelling sci-fi concept, great character development, and wonderful descriptive writing. I recommend "Science Fiction: The Best of 2001" both for pleasure reading and as a classroom literature text.

A fine book that will help anyone who wants to produce a graphic novel or comic book.

I was eagerly anticipating the information from this book, having studied the narrative artform for the past 3 years and having read through the Mcloud, Eisner, Janson and various books on film.
I couldnt believe how little actual information is in this book, it jumps from here to there with no flow and it's lack of content hidden in examples obviously from the works of those adding to the book.
Don't waste your time, buy Both Will Eisners Books on storytelling then Scott Mclouds books, leave this boring jumble of arse on the shelf.

This book belongs in the library of anyone who is or would like to be a storyteller whether it be comics, animation, film or any multimedia field. This is one of those rare books that doesn't get published enough. The fact that it covers more than one medium makes this an invaluable reference title. Besides, how often do you find a book that tells you how Steranko does it?

This book is unfortunately very misleading in its content - Aimed as a multi format guide, the book rarely strays away from comic book technique.
For filmmakers/animators, this book offers little beyond rudimentary film theory and skills. Plus the majority of the example material is very sub-standard. Avoid this one.

There is no doubt this book is good value for money. What basically lets it down is its illustrations - much of the text is explained by illustrations and some significant examples are so poorly reproduced or so small that the meaning is lost.

On the whole, with a few exceptions, I found it skirting around the topics offering little depth.

The books gave a good general coverage and pointed out the areas to follow up with further reading/viewing.

This said, I still would recommend this book for anyone interested in the techniques of visual storytelling.

A few of the stories were very good, and a few weren't very good at all, but most were just average. The average stories were just too predictable. Usually they ended with someone turning into a gargoyle, or there was a gargoyle protector killing people, things like that. I was really excited about finding this anthology, because I recognized a lot of authors I liked in it: Neil Gaiman, Katherine Kurtz, Jane Yolen, Jo Clayton, Charles de Lint. Unfortunately, most of the stories weren't nearly as good or as original as I had thought they'd be. I enjoyed Charles de Lint's "May This Be Your Last Sorrow" the most, but the rest was really just so-so.

Judging by some of the authors who contributed tales to this anthology, you'd expect something of very high caliber. Sadly, most of the stories are fairly run-of-the-mill, and I barely remember them just a few days after finishing the book. Even Caitlin Kiernan's beautifully written short is a bit predictable. It's nice to have Harlan Ellison's vicious "Bleeding Stones" back in print, but otherwise this is one theme anthology that is more or less missable.

Gargoyles have often been harbingers of fear, fascination, and fun -- from the creepy, beclawed critters that glower down from the impressive heights of the Notre Dame cathedral, to the friendly felines in pseudo-Goth mail order catalogues with their batwings and big grins.

In the Shadow of the Gargoyle brings us the stony sentry in all his expected guises -- fearsome, fascinating, and funny -- and a few more for good measure. This is a well rounded collection, with a least a story or three to suit everyone's taste.

Charles L. Grant's `The Soft Sound of Wings' starts the collection off, but I found it to be one of the weakest stories of the bunch -- it's about an old widower who heads up a neighborhood watch, and... well, does the neighborhood watch group symbolize modern-day gargoyles, or are they watching for actual gargoyles? I didn't get it.

Neil Gaiman's `Gargoyle of the Heart' is interesting and engaging, despite its lack of an actual ending. That's okay -- the obsessed lover, whose heart turns as hard and lifeless as the gargoyle he sculpts, is an interesting character, so I didn't mind following him essentially nowhere.

Katherine Kurtz's `The Gargoyle's Shadow' is a humorous, modern-day jaunt that transports the reader to "gargoyle powwows" in which the protectors of church treasures lament, "We used to be avenging angels. But now we don't get to kick ass like we did in the old days. The Boss has gotten a little soft on sinners..."

Don D'Amassa's `Scylla and Charybdis' follows shy Kim from the age of nine into adulthood, and her two gargoyle friends, Scylla and Charybdis, who are always there for her. There to listen, there to protect. This story was engrossing and somber, and it captured a gloomy mood while maintaining an interesting, if predicable, plotline.

Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris, collaborators on `Studies in Stone,' present a story that is similar to `The Gargoyle's Shadow' in that it takes a light, humorous look at the gothic icons, but I enjoyed this story a lot more in its' utter daftness -- cleverly titled, this "study in stone" follows the escapades of Gryx, a Scottish rainspout gargoyle who breaks free from his ledge and goes off to study at University.

Melanie Tem's `Hagoday' follows guilt-wracked ex-con Eric, who accidentally killed an acquaintance of his. He's haunted by gargoyles, and while the idea is interesting, I didn't think it panned out. The strange, unsatisfying ending left me feeling, well... strangely unsatisfied.

Charles deLint's `May This Be Your Last Sorrow' takes place in Bordertown (the creation of Terri Windling and Marc Alan Arnold). Never having read any Bordertown novels (or whatever they are -- no background or explanation was given), I got absolutely nothing from this story, although it was well-written.

Nancy Holder's `Little Dedo' was perhaps one of the most creative uses of the gargoyle in this collection, though personally, I do prefer a more traditional view. Sam and Jeannie, a married couple, go to Paris on vacation. She's more interested in Euro-Disney than she is Notre Dame, despite the fact she's pregnant with a little gargoyle... or is she? This story was engaging and appealing, even when nothing was "happening" (which was, actually, most of the time).

Alan Rodgers's `The Gargoyle's Song' is about the siren song of an ancient stone sentry who sits upon the ledge outside a lonely woman's New York apartment. And then, she invites him in. What unravels is a slow-moving, but sweetly romantic story of love found, lost, and found again.

Brian Lumley's `The Luststone' was listed as an excerpt. An excerpt from what, I don't know -- a novel? If so, if must have been taken from the middle of the novel, as it has no distinct beginning, middle and end. I didn't care for this one at all and don't consider it a true "short story" in keeping with the theme of the collection.

Christa Faust and Caitlin R. Keirnan's `Found Angels' starts off with a completely dead-on description of Mann's Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood tourist scene, and the scruffy, heroin-addicted kids who live and die on the sidewalk of stars. `Found Angels' follows one of these kids, who is lucky enough to hook up with an avant-garde artist who wants to immortalize him in stone. While I could see the ending of this one coming, it didn't matter, because Faust and Keirnan made the trip so much fun.

Jo Clayton's `The House of Sisters' began with what, for me, is the kiss of death: spelling out all the dialogue phonetically. A little bit of this goes a long way, and unfortunately Clayton didn't employ the "less is more" rule here. Added to that distraction is an almost incomprehensible plot. I read about four pages before realizing I had no idea what I had just read. I think it was something about a game between two sisters, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Wendy Webb's `Smiling Sisters' presents a day in the life (and death) of social worker, Rebecca Stern, in Atlanta, Georgia. Webb makes the most of the dark, decadent, decaying, sultry Southern atmosphere when she describes the clinging vines, the sickly sweet scent of flowers, and the crooked old mansion that Lillian, the old woman Rebecca is sent to see, lives in. Rebecca is convinced that Lillian can't take care of herself, and should not be living alone. What Rebecca doesn't know is that Lillian doesn't live alone.

Marc Levinthal and John Skipp's collaboration, `Now Entering Monkeyface' is one of the more creative uses of the gargoyle theme in this collection. The only science fiction story, it won me over right away with its excellent writing, sense of black humor, and fast, interesting pacing. Normally, I don't like fiction written in present tense, and I don't enjoy traditional science fiction, particularly stories set on other planets, but this one was, er... stellar.

Lucy Taylor's `Tempters' is a fascinating foray into the seamy, insidious underneath of the gargoyle. In most of these stories, and indeed throughout history, they are portrayed as protectors. Not so with `Tempters,' the tale of an English gentleman troubled, then obsessed, by a pair of 12th century Franking gargoyles posed in lewd, lascivious postures. I had not read anything by Lucy Taylor before, but her wicked writing style has inspired me to seek out more. This one is a standout.

Harlan Ellison's `Bleeding Stones' is more a vignette than a structured story -- here we follow gargoyles who are tired of being the protectors of the "Jesus people." They want to fly, they want to roam... they want to kill. It all begins at St. Patrick's Cathedral, when one, then another, and then another of the sentries breaks free during mass and takes revenge on the religion that enslaved them for so many centuries. The story dissolves into a bloody, unflinching look at the carnage these winged, beclawed, befanged creatures could inflict, should they choose to.

In the Shadow of the Gargoyle is a thought-provoking, entertaining collection overall, despite the additions of the two stories (Lumley's "excerpt" and the one set in Bordertown) that the average reader probably won't enjoy or understand. In short, it's a rockin' good time! (Note: no bad puns were hurt in the writing of this review.)

Staci Layne Wilson

In the Shadow of the Gargoyle was a really good book, all the stories were really cool, and some of them even sad. My favorite was Scylla and Charybdis. It is really cool, though some of the stories, especially the second one, are kind of weird and nasty. But without those it's a really great book and I think everyone should read it!

I think lots of people know this anthology, split here into two pieces isn't as good as the first. Still better than The Last Dangerous Visions though. Lots of not too good stories here. Bernard Wolfe supplies good booze, or something perhaps, to get two stories. Only a bit over a 3 average here, and 50-50 if the stories are any good, which overall spells a big steenkin' average.

Funny to hear Piers Anthony rant about editors not taking chances and later on go and write more fluffy kids fantasies in a series than you can probably count on your digits.

The intros and afterwords are pretty much done in the same style and spirit as the earlier volume.

Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Ching Witch! - Ross Rocklynne
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : The Word for World Is Forest [short story] - Ursula K. Le Guin
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : For Value Received - Andrew J. Offutt
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Robot's Story - Gene Wolfe
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Against the Lafayette Escadrille - Gene Wolfe
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Loco Parentis - Gene Wolfe
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Time Travel for Pedestrians - Ray Faraday Nelson
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : King of the Hill - Chad Oliver
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : The 10:00 Report Is Brought to You By... - Edward Bryant
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : The Funeral - Kate Wilhelm
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Harry the Hare - James B. Hemesath
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : When It Changed - Joanna Russ
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : The Big Space Fcuk - Kurt Vonnegut
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Bounty - T. L. Sherred
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Still-Life - K. M. O'Donnell
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : Stoned Counsel - H. H. Hollis
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : The Bisquit Position - Bernard Wolfe
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : The Girl with Rapid Eye Movements - Bernard Wolfe
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : With a Finger in My I - David Gerrold
Again Dangerous Visions 1 : In the Barn - Piers Anthony

Wapoo ips SF.

3 out of 5


Apart from the fabulous title, a pretty interesting book.

A planet of aliens that are similar but different to humans is a target of exploitation.

The forests hold the whole ecology together in a more important way than on Earth. The natives know nothing of violent conflict, but when brutality and violence is used by the invaders to try and get what they want, the locals learn quickly.

4 out of 5


Resident patient intern cost.

4 out of 5


Real, maybe, dope.

2.5 out of 5


Balloon chick, maybe.

3 out of 5


Substitute boy.

2.5 out of 5


W@nker trip.

3 out of 5


Humans history, give the furry Titans a go.

4 out of 5


Literal newsmakers.

4 out of 5


Getting hairy.

3.5 out of 5


Cartoon copyright escape.

3.5 out of 5


Separation anxiety.

3.5 out of 5


Stupendous space spoof load launch.

3 out of 5


Robbery removal, high calibre.

3.5 out of 5


Third man pissoff whiner.

3 out of 5


Dream lawyers.

2.5 out of 5


Napalm death dog.

3.5 out of 5


Dream rock psi transfer rubbish.

2.5 out of 5


Malleable reality.

3 out of 5


Udderly alternate Earth Prime.

3.5 out of 5

Flush with the success of the briliant Dangeraus Visions, Harlan Ellison and his publishers leapt into the creation of a mulit-volume sequel. They should have quit while they were ahead. Most of the stories are good, but they have not dated well. Also the book runs needlessly long, with Ellison's hyper ego prattling on in the introductions and needless double header works by the writers. It took me a year to read it all and, for someone who goes through 3 to 5 books a month, that is NOT praise.

To anyone who has read the original collection of science fiction stories by renowned Sci-Fi masters of the 70's that Harlan Ellison released, this sequel packs all these that were missed, such as Philip Jose Farmer's "Riders of the Purple Wage". Even doubters of repeat success will enjoy this book, as the one refreshing rule (rarely broken) is that each author could only submit ONE story. There were no other rules.

Oh yeah, and Kurt Vonnegut's in it too!