Troublemakers [Paperback]

Harlan Ellison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 2009

A special new collection of Ellison's short stories, selected especially for this volume by the author, including the newly revised and expanded 6,500 word tale "Never Send to Know for Whom the Lettuce Wilts." In a career spanning more than 50 years, Harlan Ellison has written or edited 75 books, more than 1700 stories, essays, articles and newspaper columns, two dozen teleplays, and a dozen movies. Now, for the first time anywhere, Troublemakers presents a collection of Ellison's classic stories-chosen by the author-that will introduce new readers to a writer described by the New York Times as having "the spellbinding quality of a great nonstop talker, with a cultural warehouse for a mind." Includes the award-winning stories "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" and "Deeper Than the Darkness"

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Harlan Ellison has written or edited 75 books, more than 1700 stories, essays, articles and newspaper columns, two dozen teleplays and a dozen movies. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: e-reads.com (August 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759291985
• ISBN-13: 978-0759291980
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,827,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A master, but again..., December 11, 2001

By 

Scott Woods (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Troublemakers : Stories by Harlan Ellison (Hardcover)

Ellison's work stuns, moves and forces one to ponder...if you're smart and keep a dictionary next to you more times than not. He's a master storyteller, and in this collection are more than a few of the stories that made him an almost-household name, with some other normally overlooked ones. He's an incredible writer - a writer's writer, even - probably one of the most honest writers on the planet (his work is filled with HIM in very visceral, itchy ways) and everyone should have at least ONE Ellison book in their homes. This one is a great place to start.

However.

My only gripe with this colleciton is that it's ANOTHER collection of stories that tend to pop up pretty frequently in Ellison collections (be they book, audio, etc.) and fans and collectors will find themselves grumbling a bit that there isn't much new here to absorb. If you buy his stuff at all you've likely got nearly all of this material already.

Great place to start with Ellison (it's not overly long), and designed for a new, younger audience (complete with pointed introductions to each tale and the book as a whole for teens specifically) that may not know who he is or how important a writer he's been to more than one genre. Great classroom resource.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No excuses, now. READ this book!, June 30, 2002

By 

Wayne B. Spiceland "waynelovesbooks" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Troublemakers : Stories by Harlan Ellison (Hardcover)

Most people today are probably at least familiar with the name Harlan Ellison. Many, however, may never have read a single word he wrote. Some, no doubt, are turned off by the fact that Ellison writes science fiction. Others may object
to the fact that, on occasion, four-letter works escape from his typewriter onto the printed page. Twelve-letter words, too, maybe. Yet others may shy away from the often extremely visceral imagery of his prose. For those who
avoid Ellison, no matter the reason, theirs is a significant loss.

Though relegated to the science fiction section of most bookstores -- and please don't say "sci-fi" lest I feel tempted to toss my cookies -- Ellison defies categorization, perhaps even transcends it. What he is, friends, is a writer, or rather, a Writer. One of the best. One we all need to read. Why? Because he CARES, that's why. Cares about you and me, about humanity, and about this world we've done our best to screw up beyond the saving of it. Think the world's going to hell in a handbasket? Well, fine, he tells us, then get up off your lazy a**es and do something about it!

Ellison's words grab you around the neck. They bash you upside the head. They deliver a telling blow to the gut. They challenge you to wake up from your mickeymouse existence and make a difference. They are a clarion call, an attempt to waken us from our passivity and apathy. They provide a warning. They challenge us to open our eyes. And our minds. Before it's too late.

"Troublemakers" provides us with a wide range of Ellison's work, covering almost fifty years. The collection is composed of stories from the Fifties as well as the recent "Never Send to Know for Whom the Lettuce Wilts." In between are many Ellison "classics," including the oft-anthologized " 'Repent, Harlequin!' said the Ticktockman," the nostalgic and evocative "Jeffty Is Five," the poignant "On the Downhill Side," among others. Despite the consummate skill of the prose, these stories will not be everyone's cup of tea. Which is sad, really, because they are
the kind of stuff we all could stand to read.

Harlan Ellison is, I suppose, a gadfly, in a world grown all too complacent. Resist the shuck, he tells us. Don't believe everything the mickeymice tell you. Learn to think for yourselves. Become at least well enough informed to recognize the ubiquitous dog and pony shows for what they are. So the next time you're tempted to veg out in from of the Tube, absorbing some mind-numbing sitcom or the latest proliferation of gratuitous violence, stop! Open this book. It may not change your life. But...it just might be a beginning. And, certainly, that is well worth the price of admission.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A feast of Ellison!, November 1, 2004

By 

Jeffrey S. Kennedy "director59" (Lansing, Mi) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Troublemakers : Stories by Harlan Ellison (Hardcover)

Having spent the last 30 years voraciously comsuming everything Harlan has written I believe I am well qualified to review this lastest book. My only complaint with the book is that Harlan left out so many great stories that I would have included. However including so many other stories would have made this collection extremely unwieldy to say the least. Suffice it to say that every story is a gem and I hope that this volume becomes a starting point for many new fans of Ellison's remarkable fiction.

I also wish to inform you that contray to another review Gene Roddenberry did not re-write Ellison's Star Trek script, he had others do the vandalism for him. Let it also be noted that Harlan's original script (not the broadcast episode itself) for that same Star Trek episode won the writer's Guild of America award for "Best Episodic Drama" in 1968.

Everyone is entitled to their informed opinion.