Harlan Ellison Books

I read this short story in a book of post-nuclear stories called "Beyond Armageddon". If you haven't read this story already, DO SO NOW!!! It's about Vic and his dog Blood in post-World War III America. The "thing" to do for fun there is to...well...RAPE women. And Vic does it well. And soon, something happens... read on!!

Harlan Ellison is riveting as he portrays the tough & desperate "Vic" and his dog "Blood". Post World War III survivors are a tough bunch & Vic & Blood fit the bill. Companionship & trust go hand in hand, and in the violent remains of a nuclear nightmare, you can't have one without the other. This futuristic, suspenseful, roller coaster of a short story will be played again, and again. I've read the book, but Harlan Ellison's reading is spellbinding! Lucky enough to own a copy? HELP! Mine fell victim to a car burglary. Manofsilk1@aol.com

I loved the story when I first read it and actually enjoyed the movie (although Benjy the dog out-acted Don Johnson), but I never really appreciated the tempo, cadence and force of Ellison's writing until I heard him read his own work. Absolutely stellar! The best audio book I have ever heard. You will drive around the block until the finale!

Harlan Ellison has long been known for his great science-fiction writing. On this reading of "A Boy and His Dog," Harlan's smarmy voice gives a great reading as the confident Vic and Blood. I usually don't like straight reading in audio-books. I like audio-dramas a lot more. However, with Ellison, you get a great reading of a classic story and also "Repent Harlequin, Said the Tick-Tock Man." Too bad it's out of print. I had a copy and lost it. Now I'll have to wait to get it through some used bookstore. Don't make the same mistake if you already have this gem of an audio-book. By the way, if you have a copy and would like to get rid of it, let me know!

Jack Sprat

A collect series of columns running the gamet of movie criticisms to automobiles, from friends to foes. This is Ellison at his very best. An absolute must for fans of the written word.

Harlan Ellison has a tremendous gift as an essayist and columnist. At the beginning of the 1980's he agreed to do a regular column for the LA WEEKLY on the condition that they publish whatever he wrote, without revising it or suggesting rewrites. He demanded, and got, the freedom to choose any target, no matter how sensitive to the paper's interests or its readership. A wise editor agreed. The results are collected in this volume.

His columns are not formally structured, but don't be misled into thinking these columns were easy. He writes in a conversational voice, but it is that of a brilliant, nimble conversationalist. Ellison cajoles, caresses, eulogizes, and excoriates. The columns are witty and passionate, and evoke the tensions, the hopes and the lies, of the Reagan Era; of Hollywood, advertising, and journalism in that time; of Ellison's advocacy of the Equal Rights Amendment and gun control. By turns, he is riotously funny, righteously indignant, and capable of issuing a devastating, fatwa-like call to outrage and democratic retribution.

Ellison contends that we should dispense with the notion that every common person is entitled to an opinion; but that every person should be entitled to an informed opinion and the means to express it, as befits a citizen of this nation. In this, it is call not only to outrage but to excellence.

For those of you who only know Harlan Ellison from his fiction, you'll enjoy this collection of essays written for the LA "Weekly" newspaper. A very eclectic collection of subjects, from critiques of local restaurants, to an emotional account of his early life, to a hilarious recounting of pranks he's pulled.

Seldom have I been as engaged by a writer's views as I was with Ellsion. I found myself engaged in a mental debate with Ellison on many issues. Don't miss out on this book!

For those of you who only know Harlan Ellison from his fiction, you'll enjoy this collection of essays written for the LA "Weekly" newspaper. A very eclectic collection of subjects, from critiques of local restaurants, to an emotional account of his early life, to a hilarious recounting of pranks he's pulled.

Seldom have I been as engaged by a writer's views as I was with Ellsion. I found myself engaged in a mental debate with Ellison on many issues. Don't miss out on this book!

Throughout this book Harlan Ellison, in the introductions to the short stories herein, talks about how writers take tours through other people's lives. But you can tell that Ellison usually takes tour through his own life, and brings us along for the ride. That ride can encompass all the emotions you could think of, which can be seen in the highly varied stories in this great collection. Great examples of emotional introspection here include a man wrestling with his own dark side, almost literally, in both "The Fourth Year of the War" and "Shatterday," while a guy's disastrous relations with women over the years come back to haunt him in "All the Birds Come Home to Roost." Loneliness and disconnection are tackled in the highly moving "Count the Clock That Tells the Time," my favorite of the collection.

Ellison's habit of exercising his own demons does, however, lead to some tiresome bitterness in some stories. The overrated "Jeffty is Five" has won awards as a touching treatise on the loss of childhood innocence, but I find it to be little more than a tirade of cranky things-ain't-like-they-used-to-be nostalgia. The novella "The Lies That Are My Life" is little more than Ellison complaining (symbolically, of course) about his poor relations with other hot-headed writers. But despite those two troublesome entries, this collection is still a powerhouse of Ellison's highly unique and biting brand of speculative fiction. Some great not-so-personal selections add to the book's success, such as an unusual take on war and the human spirit in "Django," the bizarre sci-fi comedy "How's the Night Life on Cissalda," and the PKD-like future dystopia tale "The Executioner of the Malformed Children." You can't categorize Ellison, but you can surely be moved by his unique visions. [~doomsdayer520~]

Different from Philip K Dick, but Ellison was in similar territory in a way here. You can't read these stories without being affected by them. Even the less grinding stories like Arlo - The Great White Hunter have an edge to them.

This is the perfect book to read during the weekend. Help yourself to a healthy helping of Harlan, the short story master. Unlike some of his collections (Deathbird Stories, Angry Candy) which deal with certain themes, Shatterday has a nice variety. What's really nice is that each of these stories is prefaced by an introduction, which is both entertaining and informative. Now for my personal favorites: FLOP SWEAT: an impromptu short-story that Harlan wrote in 6 hours appears unedited here. It deals with a radio talk show host and an evil guest. COUNT THE CLOCK THAT TELLS THE TIME: A very moving piece of fiction that shows us the value of LIVING our lives instead of just wasting our time. I believe this one won an award, and rightly so. There were several other stories that I found enjoyable in this book, but the two mentioned above are the ones I like best. These stories certainly make this book worth reading.

This is a 1980 collection of works culled mostly from magazine sources as well as two pieces that were originally done as live readings for radio and television. It isn't one of Ellison's themed anthologies, so the content is varied.

The book opens with one of his most well-known stories, "Jeffty is Five." It concerns a child who not only stops aging, but who exists in a kind of temporal stasis with regards to his perception of the world. In other words, the world as it was continues on as such, even though it has moved into the future for everyone else. I found it to be largely an exercise in nostalgia.

"How's the Night Life on Cissalda?" is an uncharacteristically silly story about sexually voracious aliens. It is outrageous, hilarious, and merciless in its satire.

"Would You Do It For A Penny?" is a fascinating study of an expert manipulator who plies his psychological trade on vulnerable women.

A radio call-in show becomes a medium for spreading demonic gospel. An man's thirst to right a wrong alters the reality of others, while another's builds gradually, rising to the surface and emerging as a murderous personality, many years later. A man who has wasted his life finds himself in a limbo specially reserved for such sinners. All the women in a man's life return to him one by one, leading to an inevitable and terrifying confrontation. A woman desperately searches for escape from the world. A man who has always given of himself at last learns to take what he needs to truly live. A writer learns that a person's death does not always free you from him. And we finally find out what the deal is with those odd magical curio shops that always turn up in fantasy fiction.

The title story, and the last in this collection, is about a man who finds himself split in two and helpless as his other self gradually takes over his life. I still remember this as the premiere episode of the 1980s Twilight Zone series.

Preceding each entry is an introduction in which Ellison talks about the inspirations and circumstances that led to its creation. While these are always interesting, occasionally they give a little too much away, making parts of some stories seem contrived. Many of them would have been more appropriate as afterwords. I actually would suggest reading the stories first in most cases.

Anyone who has ever read Harlan Ellison knows he throws a lot of personnel information and views into his writing. This book is all that. In this collection of essays from the 70s, repackaged nicely, Ellison is angry, funny and sick at the same time. Reading these somewhat tall tales, I was taken back to the days of my childhood. Back to when one of my more crazy "uncles" used to tell me stories of his youth on hot summer days. Ellison is a better writer now than he was then, but the essays still hold up. They hold up even though references to Nixon and Lenny Bruce may leave some younger readers feeling a little unattached to the stories at times. I promise by the time you finish reading this one, you'll find it hard to forget some of the tales told by crazy Uncle Harlan.

Harlan Ellison has made quite a reputation for himself as an "angry man" of sorts, with his infamous attacks against amateurs in the numerous writing classes that he has taught, or his essays, which are collected herein. Some people claim that he has no emotions, and is unable to sympathize with so-called "normal" people because of this; but he is, in fact, the exact opposite, a man of such fierce emotion and opinion that he may come off as being caustic, or angry. Others claim that he has no "soft" side; if you believe this, read his essay, Ahbhu. These essays display his great intelligence, and tremendous "cultural warehouse of a mind," (The New York Times) and Ellison calls the shots as he sees them - by simply stating his opinion. In doing this, he has created a highly refreshing book, one that I highly recommend to anyone and everyone.

My father had been a fan of Ellison's ever since I can remember and so I've always had his writing around. Alas, many of his books are out-of-print. I must have taken Harlan Ellison's Hornbook out of the library countless times, re-reading it cover to cover again and again. It's that good.

Most people, if they know of Ellison's work, know mostly of his short stories but this book collects essays he wrote in the 1970s about whatever struck his fancy... a great restaurant, some publisher who ripped him off once, the death of his beloved dog, a woman who double-crossed him, lamenting Lenny Bruce's death... Ellison writes with such authority and with such style--pithy yet degenerate is the best description I can think of. This book hums with intensity as the last greatest angry young man lets loose on all kinds of topics (to read his rant on why he hates Christmas is incredibly funny, even if you don't agree with his sentiments). This is one helluva read.

Even though I've read this book countless times, I keep coming back to it because Ellison's style of writing is endlessly entertaining and thought-provoking. It really gets under you skin and stays there.

Do yourself a favor and track down this book. It is definitely worth it.

Like the others said before me, words will not convey the sheer volume and quality of this book. I can barely hold this book in my arms, much easier to look at and enjoy on a coffee table hah. Anyway, there is more wonderful Lovecraft-inspired art in this book than you could ever imagine. From the 1930's pulp comic art to current CGI enhanced portraits, this book has it all. It even has pictures of SOTA's Nightmares Of Lovecraft figurines that quickly went out-of-print last year! If the price of this book had been a grand, I would still have bought it. It is a one-of-a-kind item that Lovecraft fans will be talking about from here to oblivion. I can safely say that no Lovecraft fan's collection will be complete without this book. Simply amazing.

I received my hardbound slipcased edition of this last week. Jerad and Co. have done an absolutley amazing job in compiling, editing and reproducing at the highest quality level years and years of Lovecraft-related images. I cannot really add much more to Matthew Carpenter's review - he really covered everything and excellently so. The old paperback covers he alluded to were the same for me - my introduction to Lovecraft - and I was very excited to see them here. This is a one of a kind publishing event well worth the seemingly heavy money, but as was stated my Matthew, in a few years you won't miss the money and you will have a fantastic gem of art and craft that will be irreplaceable. Congratulations to all involved in the production of this piece, may it have a long long life.

A Lovecraft Retrospective is a stunning achievement. I truly do not have adequate skill with words to convey its magnificence. It is the most glorious book in my library. Everything about this books is larger than life, it seems. The dimensions are 16.1 x 12 .6 x 2.3, pages large enough that we may better appreciate in the artists' craftsmanship. Shipping weight was 13.6 lbs, indicating the high quality of the paper used. I do not have any of the special limited editions; my copy is cloth bound with a slip cover and a slip case. The cover is Michael Whelan's brilliant Lovecraft Mythos Diptych from 1980, which also appears in the book as a 4 page fold out. Production qualities are flawless; Centipede Press did not take any shortcuts with this books. Page count is 400. There is no index, well enough, as my copy has no numbering on the pages. Instead, and more usefully, each illustration is shown in the back in a large thumbnail giving the artist, the date of production, the context and the medium. Yes there is some text, including Harlan Ellison's introduction, Bob Price's essay on the Necronomicon and the afterward by Thomas Ligotti. There are some introductions to put the works into context and brief biographies of the artists. The largest part, however, of the pages are devoted to the art. Many paintings are given an entire page, with a generous number of double page pull outs to allow us to revel in the artists' visions. A Lovecraft Retrospective shows the art inspired by Lovecraft ever since the first publication of his works to the present day; the artists use very conceivable medium: ink, oil, acrylic, collage, brass. The incredible beauty of this book beggars my ability to describe it so I will just share some of my favorite things about it. Most of the covers from our favorite books are here. There is a depiction of a Pickman painting by Hannes Bok! Ever since I read Lin Carter's introduction to Beyond the Golden Stair I have longed to see Bok's paintings! If only there were more. I literally became breathless and choked up when I saw the reproduced covers of the Lancer, Beagle and Ballantine issues of Lovecraft's works from the 1970s. These are the books that introduced me to Lovecraft and my own copies crumbled away so very many years ago, read into oblivion. There is a very generous selection of HR Giger's illustrations from the Necronomicon, many as two page fold outs. Keith Evans' 2004 Cthulhu and Dave Carson's Cthonian show what may be done with digital media. Tim White's masterful covers get their due. Gahan Wilson's Wilbur Whately rubs shoulders with Jeff Remmer's Night Gaunt. Bob Eggleton's covers are here in all their glorious colors. Previously I have lamented that John Coulthart's R'lyeh was done an injustice in its previous reproductions. Here we see it as it was meant to be seen, and in full color. It is impossible to choose a favorite; it is impossible to do justice to this book.

I am forever indebted to Centipede Press for A Lovecraft Retrospective. Much inadequate kudos goes to Jerad Walters and Joseph Wrzos, and the entire dedicated team who gave this to us. Some may balk at the price tag ($276.50, heavily discounted at Amazon) but it's only money. If you buy this book you will never regret it. Years from now you won't miss the money and you will have something irreplaceable.

It's difficult to easily categorize these dark works of fantasy: they are short stories written by such notables as Ray Bradbury, Michael Bishop, Nina Kiriki Hoffman and others, blending literature and art and all based on the strange kinetic sculpture Crowded After Hours by Lisa Snellings. Dark carnival stories probe the limits of humanity.

Strange Attraction is a fascinating anthology that combines quality writing, art and binding into a unique synthesis. This showcase volume presents memorable and highly recommended work by Michael Bishop, Ray Bradbury, Ed Bryant, Richard lee Byers, Nancy A. Collins, Jack Dann & Janeen Webb, Charles de Lint, James Dorr, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Alexandra Elizabeth Honigsberg, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Brad Linaweaver, Jason Miller, Fred Olin Ray, Robert J. Sawyer, Darrell Schweitzer, John Shirley, S.P. Somtow, Chet Williamson, David N. Wilson, and Gene Wolfe.

Strange Attraction is a fascinating anthology that combines quality writing, art and binding into a unique synthesis. This showcase volume presents memorable and highly recommended work by Michael Bishop, Ray Bradbury, Ed Bryant, Richard lee Byers, Nancy A. Collins, Jack Dann & Janeen Webb, Charles de Lint, James Dorr, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Alexandra Elizabeth Honigsberg, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Brad Linaweaver, Jason Miller, Fred Olin Ray, Robert J. Sawyer, Darrell Schweitzer, John Shirley, S.P. Somtow, Chet Williamson, David N. Wilson, and Gene Wolfe.

Sure, Harlan Ellison wrote the classic stories, but my first exposure to the adventures of Vic and Blood came through Richard Corben's comic adaptations. I read Ellison's stories later and was happy to find that the comics were very faithful adaptations. It's good to see, therefore, that the iBooks paperback edition of VIC & BLOOD - THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF A BOY & HIS DOG gives you the chance to compare the comics with the original stories, all in one book! You get both comic and text versions of "Eggsucker", "A Boy and His Dog", and "Run Spot Run", and the texts are accompanied by a handfull of highly detailed Corben illustrations, along with sidebar quotes from Blood (The Wit and Wisdom of Blood). It's a very attractive package, led off with a humorous introduction by Ellison that touches on his supposed upcoming novel BLOOD'S A ROVER (will we ever see it? I can only hope). While this type of literature might not be everyone's cup of tea, I give this book 5 stars for presentation, as well as its appeal to fans of Ellison and Corben - they will love it.

For me Richard Corben is the most original artist in the field. While his older work is certainly inspired by the old EC horror and crime masters, his style and aesthetic became (during the late 70's) something completely unique. His style and skill allow him to slip from realistic to iconic (or cartoony) without any of it seeming out of place. His characters have a presence and weight to them that I have seen no other comic book artist achieve. The effect is sometimes unnerving and bizzare but always engrossing.

Harlan Ellison has a similiar ability with prose. He can go from comical to downright heartbreaking without missing a beat. A Boy and His Dog is a great showcase of Ellisons ability in this respect. The combination of he and Corben is perfectly suited for this story of humor and horror on a post apocalyptic landscape. An evironment Corben seems to have mastered (see his brilliant Mutant World, recent Punisher comic, or short story An Angel Shy of Hell for other examples).

In an industry full of cheesy clenched-teeth hunched-over superheroes, or generic drawn-from-digital-photos-of-artists-friends characters and Mike Mignola rip off's it's refreshing to look at a work of art done by two rebel/masters who made their own masterpiece on their own terms with their own aesthetic.

If you love "A Boy and His Dog", you will LOVE this book. Great stories well done in a comic style. Most women hate this series for some reason :). A wonderful read. Ellison is at his dark, bitter best, and the drawings are great.

This set contains six discs featuring 16 different futuristic science fiction audio dramas by various authors.
The clamshell binder holds the cds in sleeves which you might want to convert to slim cd cases for protection.
Disc One:
Blood by Frederic Brown
By His Bootstraps by Robert A. Heinlein
The Choice by Wayland Young
Disc Two:
RUR by Karel Kapek
Disc Three:
Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler
Merchant by Henry Slesar
Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Disc Four:
Shambleu C.L. Moore
And Miles to go before I sleep by William F. Nolan
Even The Queen by Connie Willis
Disc Five:
Revival Meeting by Dennie Placta
Pillar of Fire by Ray Bradbury
Sentience Today by Yuri Rasovsky
Disc 6:
Knock by Frederick Brown
Dear Pen Pal by A.E. Van Vogt
"Repent Harlequin" Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison

These full cast audio productions are crystal clear on CD and feature humorous introductions by Harlan Ellison who hosts the series. Highly Recommended!

The best sci-fi radio drama I've ever heard, this volume anthologizes selections from an NPR series that ran in 1999-2000. All stories take place in the future. Lushly and meticulously produced, wonderful acting and nicely written, these plays of various lengths dramatize stories by greats such as Butler, Heinlein, Vonnegut and Bradbury, plus the stage play R.U.R., an international hit of the 1920s that gave us the word "robot." The sheer breadth of themes -- mensturation, over-population, miscegenation, scholarly folly, etc., etc. -- is astonishing, not to mention the mix of styles. Ellison, who introduces the stories, is his usual annoying self, but (thank God!) uncharacteristically brief.

In this early collection of mainstream fiction, Harlan Ellison looks at the violent subculture of the punk, the addict, any person who finds themselves of the underside of life. Mr. Ellison has gone underground as a member of a street gang, among other jobs, and his experiences ring through in every story. HE pulls no punches, and the cumulative effect brings a truth to these urban fables.

"Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation" is the short story collection that got Harlan Ellison to Hollywood, which, in retrospect, may not have been a good move, but it was certainly an important move. The key factor is all of this was a book review in "Esquire" by the legendary Dorothy Parker whose description of "Daniel White for the Greater God," far and away the best story in this collection, deserves repeating: "It is without exception the best presentation I have ever seen of present racial conditions in the South and of those who try to alleviate them." When I was teaching "To Kill a Mockingbird" I had my students read Ellison's story, to give them some idea of what things were like in the South before they were born. It is, simply put, a short story that makes the purchase of this entire volume well worth the money.

For the record, or more specifically for those of you trying to find Ellison stories you have not read in other collections, here are the short stories you will find within these pages: "Final Shtick," "Gentleman Junkie," "May We Also Speak?", "Daniel White for the Greater Good," Lady Bug, Lady Bug," "Free With This Box!" (a personal favorite), "There's One on Every Campus," "At the Mountains of Blindness," "This is Jackie Spining," "No Game for Children," "The Late, Great Arnie Draper," "High Dice," "Enter the Fanatic, Stage Center," "Someone is Hungrier," "Memory of a Muted Trumpet," "Turnpike," "Sally in Our Alley," "The Silence of Infidelity," "Have Coolth," "RFD #2," "No Fourth Commandment," and "The Night of Delicate Terrors."

Since we are talking Harlan Ellison there is really no reason to engage in any further advocacy. I am either preaching to the converted or spitting into the wind. There is no middle ground with Ellison. Consequently the point here is to be informative. "Gentleman Junkie" is a collection of dark stories dealing more with the real world than you usually find in Ellison's more famous works of speculative fiction. These are stories about racial prejudice, drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, anti-Semitism, alienation, violence and other fun topics. Consequently, these are tales best consumed one at a time, because to sit down and read this book cover to cover would be a bit much for most souls.

Whether you've just gotten interested in Ellison's work or have been a fan for decades (I've been hooked since 1984 when a friend lent me "Strange Wine" at summer camp), this book offers an indispensable look at both the context and substance of HE's work--the 1950s pulp markets in which he published his earliest short stories; his seminal contributions to SF's "New Wave" of the late 1960s; and the various themes that run throughout his more mature stories of the 1970s and onward. Weil and Wolfe deserve high marks for their objectivity, neither excessively praising HE's unique talents nor damning his occasional lapses. Nearing 70, HE's output has slowed in recent years, so perhaps this is the ideal time for retrospective criticism of his career. This volume aptly summarizes one of the most notable talents in the history of speculative fiction.

Harlan Ellison: The Edge Of Forever by Ellen Weil (Professor of Humanities and English, Roosevelt University, Chicago) and Ellen Weil (Humanities and Holocaust Studies, Roosevelt University and the Newberry Library, Chicago) is a broad ranging volume of literary criticism concerning the short stories, novels, TV scripts and movie scripts of the world-famous author Harlan Ellison, best known to the general public for his unique contributions to the science fiction and fantasy genres. Harlan Ellison: The Edge Of Forever explores Ellison's impact upon the science fiction literary genre, as well as Ellison's numerous other works including his early crime stories and his latest experimental narratives. Harlan Ellison: The Edge Of Forever is a "must-read" for the legions of Ellison's fans, and an invaluable addition to academic 20th Century American Literature reference collections.