Customer Reviews

The Essential Ellison: A Fifty Year Retrospective (Ellison, Harlan)

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I have been reading Harlan Ellison's work for years and can't recommend this book highly enough. Not only is his work enormously entertaining, but also illustrative of the social landscape from where it finds its meaning. The Essential Ellison does more than provide a retrospective of the author's work: it allows the reader to appreciate the social influences that infiltrate the fabric of the prose. Clearly, Ellison's great talent is marrying cultural and personal significance to the most arcane subject matter. Though this ability is more clearly seen in his nonfiction, it also exists perforce in his fiction, where the fantastic settings and narratives tend to divert the reader's attention from the deeper influences that may be seen in the work.

I believe that Ellison's supporters have neglected this literary attribute, as well as his critics, who should know better. Ellison, like most of us, is a product of American culture and its influences, beginning with his early experiences with anti-Semitism, his love for radio drama and comic books, and his early fascination with science fiction, and leading to more mature experiences with racism, political corruption and social irresponsibility. That these experiences influenced his life is very human; that they converted his art from ordinary narrative to meaningful literature is to the credit of the artist, who, despite working in the terribly debilitating media of television and motion pictures, retained his ability to examine human subjects with affinity and insight. Even while working inside the entertainment industry, he was able to understand the corruptive elements of it and translate these symptoms into often painful stories of human neglect and shallow intent.

Though much of Ellison's fiction is fantastic and otherworldly, it is also acutely human and introspective. A book such as this allows the reader to appreciate the artistic and intellectual growth of the artist as well as enjoy the best of that artist's efforts. Ellison's work is part of Americana, and often powerfully illustrates the failure of America idealism. He is one of the best, if not the best, living American fantasists.

Harlan Ellison is likely one of the most influential living authors of what he likes to call "speculative fiction" though most would call Sci Fi. More than any other living author, he is sited by the likes of Gaiman, Strazinski, Spinrad and other current greats as the writer who inspires them. For that reason alone, he should be more widely read.

Ellison has, over his 50 years of writting, covered the gamut of topics, from aliens to vampires, androids to Xenobiology in every medium. However, what makes this author great is that he understands that these topics are also an opportunity to hash out deeper topics of religon, science, and philosophy. His work is thoughtful, well written, and almost always pervocative.

This collection gives you the chance to work your way through his tremendous and often sureal mind though his work. Trust me, it is a journey that you will not want to miss.

This is simply the most thorough and compelling compilation of Ellison's works. Period. It runs the gamut of all his works, from the early days, until the date of the compilation's publication. By far, its a must have for anyone who appreciates Ellison. PERIOD.