Customer Reviews

Troublemakers

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Troublemakers is the best introduction to the stories of Harlan Ellison in print. Out of the roughly 2,000 stories he has written, some of his greatest are here, including Soldier, Jeffty is Five, and "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Each story comes with a little preface by the author, wherein he loosely ties them all together with the theme of "troublemaking." (In actuality, this is a "greatest hits" collection.) However, this by no means contains ALL of his greatest hits. For instance, The Whimper of Whipped Dogs is absent, as is Demon with a Glass Hand. For something along those lines you'd need to purchase The Essential Ellison - and only Harlan could get away with calling a book the size of the Norton Anthology "essential." However, to begin a study of his work, this is the place to start.

I find it somewhat difficult to sum up an entire book of short stories in a single review. Many of the stories in TROUBLEMAKERS are magical, thought-provoking and wonderful. But on the other hand, others in the collection simply bored me, and left me impatient for the next story to begin. The book as a whole I found to be mostly hit and miss, with some real standouts that do manage to make the collection a welcome one.

Like a belligerent Rod Serling with a chip on his shoulder, Harlan Ellison angrily provides an introduction to each of his stories (sometimes being more entertaining in his factual summary than in the work of fiction itself) and describes some of the themes that he was attempting to inject into the particular story. The overall hook of this collection is, as you may have guessed from the title, troublemakers and the, er, trouble that they make. Included are stories ranging from 1956 up through the year of publication (2001), many of which are products of their era, yet still manage to have a timeless feel to them. For example, the utterly sixties "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said The Ticktockman" is dripping with the feeling and sensibilities of that decade, but can be read today in the 21st century without losing any of its original passion. The stories here make a good suite of tales, though you'll have to squint your eyes a bit to squeeze some of them under the troublemaking heading.

As I mentioned, some of the stories here are absolutely amazing. When Ellison's talents are clicking he can create stories that boggle the imagination and rank up with the best of Ray Bradbury, another master of the fantastical short story. Yet there are several selections here that I found to be a bit dreary and inconsequential. I wondered briefly if I had missed something, but after skimming what I had just read I came to the conclusion that I had, indeed, "got" the story, I just hadn't cared for it. The worst of this collection tend to be uninteresting and contain foreseeable conclusions, sharply clashing with the imaginative heights of the best. It's a pity that the collection is a bit haphazard because the really good stories definitely make this collection worth a purchase.

This was the first collection of Ellison's short stories that I've read and I certainly plan on reading more in the future. Although I didn't care for several of the stories in this particular anthology, I recognized a quality that I liked. TROUBLEMAKERS features stories that can be raw in places, have a sense of faint futility and aren't assured of a happy ending. Many of them were genuinely unpredictable (and by unpredictable, I mean that I honestly didn't see the ending coming rather than guessing it but assuming that the author wouldn't go there) and occasionally unsettling. The best stories in TROUBLEMAKERS did what any good anthology should do -- make me want to read more by this author.

Harlan Ellison will always provide you with at least five stories worth reading, in any of his books. This one just happens to have more. It has a good inroduction, about which my only complaint is that it's almost a retread of his essay "Why I Fantasize About Killing Teenagers Etc." Sorta wish he'd chosen to cover new ground. On the plus side, each story has a new introduction, explaining its "troublemaker message" as Ellison calls it, I guess something sorta like the "moral" of the story without sounding so puritanical, and each of the stories that follow is very good. The book includes a 6,500 word story (that's 10% of a novel, guys) worth the price of entrance on its own. The story's called "Never Send to Know for Whom the Lettuce Wilts." The other stories are either classics or somehow-overlooked goodies. Not Ellison's best, and I don't like the fact that the expletives have a hyphen running through their middle instead of being printed themselves, but overall, it's great and definately deserves four stars.

Harlan Ellison is at the top of the list of my favorite writers, and this collection proves why. Many of his classics are here in a handy and low cost volume. My only gripe is that I already have all these sories in one form or another. That is the only point that keeps me from giving Troublemakers five stars.

Regardless, if you have no prior experience with Ellison's work, this is a perfect introduction. Hardcore Ellison fans will enjoy the new introductions to the stories. (As every Ellison fan knows, often hiss commentary is more riotous tan his fiction.)

Troublemakers is worth a look regardless of your familiarity with Ellison. You'll enjoy it.

Yes, this is a collection of Ellison's stories that have been published many times over. However, the short essays that precede each story are worth the price alone, in my opinion (My personal favorite is the "Soldier" preamble, and I feel this story is very relevant to what's going on today).
I admit a certain prejudice to Harlan Ellison's work: My mother introduced me to his books early on, and at difficult times in my life it was good to hear another articulate the anger I felt. Got me through many a sleepless night! Plus, in one of his stories there is a character that has our family name (not a common one). So...Take my review with a grain of (rock)salt if you will, but read at least one of his stories if you haven't already.
I would say that this book is a good intro to Harlan Ellison's work.

Yes, most of these stories I have read in other books, and yes, the common "troublemaking" theme is rather loose, but these are great stories. After the disappointment of "Slippage," I was happy to be reminded that the old stuff is still good.

Some of these are not just "greatest hits;" they are classics in fiction, in particular "Repent Harlequin..." and "Jeftty is Five." Even you're not a speculative fiction fan, this work offers a good introduction to Ellison.

Several years ago, Harlan Ellison was vital, Harlan Ellison was angry, Harlan Ellison was a force of chaos that upset the applecart any chance he got. Time hasn't been kind either to him or to the stories collected herein. He's become the unapologetic, misanthropic crank who stands in the middle of the square railing at all the fools around him and ultimately is tiresome to read or listen to. If you're in your late teens or early twenties, this and his other collections will shake you up...but probably only for one read-through. Harlan, get a life. Given an extra star for nostalgia's sake.