| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the-- if not THE-- greatest short story ever,
By
This review is from: I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream (Paperback)
Buy everything that Harlan Ellison has ever wrote. He is the greatest short story writer of the 20th Century and the 21st century, a true American treasure, and "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" is utterly amazing, shocking, hopeful, and makes a reader feel absolutely, fully human. The world is a better place for this book, and people are better for having read Ellison.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genius,
This review is from: I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream (Paperback)
His best are among humanity's greatest.He is largely unappreciated.The titular story should leave you in tears.This anthology is mid Ellison.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The All-Singing, All Dancing, Extremely Entertaining Audio Ellison#1,
This review is from: The Voice from the Edge, Vol. 1: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Audible Audio Edition)
The All-Singing, All Dancing, Extremely Entertaining Audio Ellison#1:
Having recently purchased -- and seriously enjoyed the hell out of -- Vol. 4 & vol. 5 of Ellison's "The Voice From the Edge" series of Audio book/story & essay collections, I was moved to listen to the first three volumes (purchased as each one came out, earlier this century). I have to admit, like most readers, I have been emboldened and tapdanced by the intelligentsia, so I've always taken it for granted that the title story of this collection, "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream", is (in addition to being an oft-reprinted storie, the latest reprint being in the Library of America's AMERICAN FANTASTIC TALES: 1940s to Now) in the top 10 of best Ellison stories ever. After many decades (in which, one hopes, some wisdom was achieved), I still see it as one of Ellison best, but certainly not one of his top ten best. Even Ellison, in an introduction, says that he feels the last story in this collection ("Grail") is a better-written, better-told, tale (and he's right). That said, "I Have No Mouth..." _does_ remain one of the starkest, bloodiest, most grim post-apocalypse stories ever written (think about that for a minute, and you'll understand how dark this story really is). The first line -- "Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette; unsupported --hanging high above us in the computer chamber, and it did not shiver in the chill, oily breeze that blew eternally through the main cavern." -- is the beginning of a relentless barrage of adjectives and images that deluge the reader (or listener) like an nuclear attack. And Ellison's full-on reading of the story holds nothing back. Fortunately, the next offering, "'Repent Harlequin!' Said the Tick Tock Man" (one of the 12-most reprinted stories in the English language) is also one of Ellison's most comic, and whimsical stories (even though it deals with the importance of civil disobedieance). And Ellison lets loose with a wide range of voices and sounds, becoming a one-man radio show as he pulls out all the stops to deliver a showstopper of reading (and this is only the second story in the collection)! "The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke" and "The Time of the Eye" (the third and fifth stories, respectively) are what have been referred to (in my other reviews of these Ellison audio books) as "entertainments": nothing earthshattering, but still enjoyable listening, with the first story dealing with justice brought to an aging Nazis (by an unusual source) and the second dealing with madness. "Laugh Track", a story that would make my list of top 50 Ellison stories, is not only one of about...12 absolutely hilarious tales written by Ellison, it is also one of his most hilarious readings (and I include the readings of "'Repent..." and "Prince Myshkin" in that assessment). In a story that skewers the television industry -- and deals with the ghost of the Italian protagonist's aunt (who makes her self known in a most unusual way) -- Ellison-the-closet-comedian pulls out all the stops and manages to fit in anecdotes, puns, whimsical asides, and sound gags, all while spinning one funny-as-all-get-out yarn about a Television writer/producer, the strange doings behind the scenes (in the technichian's booths and in the offices of the producers) and a loveable aunt named, Babe. "The Very Last Day of a Good Woman" is another "entertainment," and probably the least worthy of the stories included here (another instance where I would've chosen some other tale..."Ediolons," "Mom", or a story from MINDFIELDS), but it's short, and doesn't subtract from this powerful first collection. A Hugo award-winning novelette (which was written at the same time Ellison penned his WGA-award-winning teleplay of the same name for "The Twilight Zone"), "Paladin of the Lost Hour" is a classic of Ellison's later years, and one of his most powerful stories about friendship and personal responsibility. It involves a black Vietnam War veteran, Billy Kinneta, who meets and befriends an old man who is mugged in a cemetery, while visiting the grave of his long-dead wife. Kinneta discovers that the old man is charged with protecting a magical stopwatch, which contains one very special, very powerful hour of time. Ellison's reading is a heartstopper: funny in all the right spots, energized during the action scenes, and touching, at just the right times. Good stuff. The Nebula-award winning "A Boy and His Dog" is fairly well known (it was even made into an independent movie in the '70s), but for those not in the know: it is an apolcalyptic story set after the last World War, when the surface of the earth is populated mostly by savage boys (and one or two men), who rape (when they find a surviving female) and pillage and plunder and survive as best they can. Some of the boys have dogs with whom they have formed a telepathic link. Genetically altered dogs, which are as intelligent as the boys (sometimes much more intelligent than their human partners). The protagonist of the story, Vic, is partnered with Blood, a wise-cracking and very intelligent dog. Below the surface, there are a few, make-shift cities that survived the nuclear holocaust. And when their paths cross with that of a female, Quilla June, who has "come up" to look for a bit of adventure, the very survival of Vic and Blood is soon at stake. Even though it is set in a future where women are treated like chattel (or worse) by surviving, savage young boys, and even though it is a desolate landscape (and the Downunders are, in their own way, much worse), in addition to being action-packed, this story -- in which the humans are savages and the dogs are more civilized and intelligent --is one of Ellison's most compassionate. To wrap it all up, Ellison reads "Grail", the story mentioned in the introduction to "I Have No Mouth...", and (through a heartfelt, well-performed reading) proves that his story of a man in search of True Love (which, in the story, is a tangible thing, like the Holy Grail), who traverses continents and makes pacts with demons, is, indeed, one of his best stories (right up there with "'Repent...", "Jeffty...", "Soft Monkey", "A Boy and His Dog", "The Function of Dreamsleep" and about forty-three others). A powerful ending to an audio book filled with powerful stories and equally powerful readings. P.S. Ignore the reviews by the mooks from Oz and Illinois, who gave it one star based on their lack of understanding (the perils of opening up the web to dweebs whose life experience revolves around gameboy, video games like "Doom" and "peekachoo") and the vast empty space between each of their ears. Following their advice, and/or their leader, will surely result in your intellectual doom and downfall.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
