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From the Land of Fear
A mind bending voyage into the reaches of the imagination. Winner of The Hugo & Nebula awards.
In Praise of His Spirits Noble & Otherwise by Roger Zelazny
Where the Stray Dreams Go contains 3 unfinished stories: The/One/Word/People, Moth on the Moon & Snake in the Mind
The Sky Is Burning/If Aug ’58
My Brother Paulie/Satellite Dec ’58
The Time of the Eye/The Saint Detective Magazine May ’59
Life Hutch [Kyben]/If Apr ’56
Battle Without Banners/Taboo, New Classics House, 1964
Back to the Drawing Boards/Fantastic Universe Aug ’58
A Friend to Man/Fantastic Universe Oct ’59
We Mourn for Anyone [Mourners for Hire]/Fantastic May ’57
The Voice in the Garden/Lighthouse Jun ’67
Soldier [Soldier from Tomorrow]/Fantastic Universe Oct ’57
Soldier [tv script]/American Broadcasting Corporation Sep ’64
In Praise of His Spirits Noble & Otherwise by Roger Zelazny
Where the Stray Dreams Go contains 3 unfinished stories: The/One/Word/People, Moth on the Moon & Snake in the Mind
The Sky Is Burning/If Aug ’58
My Brother Paulie/Satellite Dec ’58
The Time of the Eye/The Saint Detective Magazine May ’59
Life Hutch [Kyben]/If Apr ’56
Battle Without Banners/Taboo, New Classics House, 1964
Back to the Drawing Boards/Fantastic Universe Aug ’58
A Friend to Man/Fantastic Universe Oct ’59
We Mourn for Anyone [Mourners for Hire]/Fantastic May ’57
The Voice in the Garden/Lighthouse Jun ’67
Soldier [Soldier from Tomorrow]/Fantastic Universe Oct ’57
Soldier [tv script]/American Broadcasting Corporation Sep ’64
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
34 people are currently reading
336 people want to read
About the author
Harlan Ellison
1,076 books2,798 followersHarlan Jay Ellison (1934-2018) was a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism.
His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.
Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".
His literary and television work has received many awards. He wrote for the original series of both The Outer Limits and Star Trek as well as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour; edited the multiple-award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions; and served as creative consultant/writer to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5.
Several of his short fiction pieces have been made into movies, such as the classic "The Boy and His Dog".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 30, 2019
While most of the stories in this collection could be described as dark, I don't think they are particularly dark for Ellison. I had read five of these before, although I did not remember reading all of them.
In "The Time of the Eye" an ex-marine falls in love with a blind woman in an asylum.
In "Back to the Drawing Boards" a misanthropic inventor designs an exploration robot and sets in motion a very long game of vengeance.
"The Voice in the Garden" is a post-apocalyptic short-short with a mildly humorous punchline.
In "Life Hutch" a man must figure out how to outwit the killer robot with which he's trapped.
"My Brother Paulie" is a classic Twilight Zone style story in which an astronaut is stalked by his malevolent twin brother aboard his solo spacecraft.
In "Soldier" a freak accident sends the titular character from a future war back to our time, but what place could there be for a man who knows only war? This story is probably most famous for having ideas swiped by James Cameron for The Terminator. (Later versions of the film bear an acknowledgement to Ellison.)
A few other stories are included, as well as a teleplay for "Soldier" (used for The Outer Limits) and some fragments of unfinished stories, which are kind of interesting.
In "The Time of the Eye" an ex-marine falls in love with a blind woman in an asylum.
In "Back to the Drawing Boards" a misanthropic inventor designs an exploration robot and sets in motion a very long game of vengeance.
"The Voice in the Garden" is a post-apocalyptic short-short with a mildly humorous punchline.
In "Life Hutch" a man must figure out how to outwit the killer robot with which he's trapped.
"My Brother Paulie" is a classic Twilight Zone style story in which an astronaut is stalked by his malevolent twin brother aboard his solo spacecraft.
In "Soldier" a freak accident sends the titular character from a future war back to our time, but what place could there be for a man who knows only war? This story is probably most famous for having ideas swiped by James Cameron for The Terminator. (Later versions of the film bear an acknowledgement to Ellison.)
A few other stories are included, as well as a teleplay for "Soldier" (used for The Outer Limits) and some fragments of unfinished stories, which are kind of interesting.
November 13, 2017
This is a very good collection of early Ellison pieces. It contains both the published and teleplay versions of Soldier, Life Hutch (one of my early favorites of his works; Campbell could have used it in Analog!), a nice introduction by Roger Zelazny, and several other fun, solid stories, along with a trio of unfinished ones that illustrate his creative process. It's a good choice for Ellison fans.
June 29, 2018
Commento scritto su Anobii nel luglio 2016, lo ricopio per commemorare Ellison, morto il 27 giugno 2018:
Negli Stati Uniti Harlan Ellison è una specie di star, certi suoi atteggiamenti egocentrici, narcisistici e capricciosi hanno contribuito a conferirgli uno status di controverso divo. In Italia invece è quasi sconosciuto; a causa, penso, della difficoltà a trattare con lui, sono state tradotte nella nostra lingua solo tre antologie di racconti, veramente poche per un autore così prolifico, più qualche altro scritto sparso su raccolte varie, inclusa quella Dangerous Visions da lui stesso curata che si propose come il manifesto della nuova fantascienza a metà anni ’60.
Dei tre libri che i pochi cultori cercano, con difficoltà, nel mercato dell’usato, questo Se il Cielo Brucia è forse il meno significativo, dato che si compone di racconti giovanili ancora un po’ ingenui (se lo trovate vi suggerisco di leggere Idrogeno e Idiozia, pubblicato da Fanucci nel ’99, in molti qui su aNobii mi hanno contattato per chiedermi di vendere o scambiare la mia copia, che io però mi tengo stretta). Qui sono comunque già presenti le caratteristiche principali della narrativa di Ellison, quel suo modo tipico di prendere il lettore per il bavero ed aggredirlo. Ellison scrive quasi solo racconti perché è ossessionato dall’idea di voler dare vita a tutte le storie che gli girano per la testa, ed anche perché ritengo sia soprattutto interessato ad escogitare una trovata, un colpo di scena che sorprenda e scuota il lettore. Per quanto mi riguarda ci riesce quasi sempre, e senza che il suo stile diventi rozzo, qui pare anzi già consapevole e padrone dei propri mezzi letterari. Nonostante siano ancora gli ultra-conformistici anni ’50 riesce già a lanciare alcuni velenosi strali anti-estabilishment, in particolare contro il militarismo, nel racconto “Soldato”, che non lesina dettagli strazianti sugli orrori della guerra, e contro il razzismo in “Guerra senza bandiere”, che tra l’altro non ha nulla di fantascientifico e fantastico, anzi è disperatamente realistico, e potrebbe essere stato ispirato dall’esperienza vissuta in gioventù da Ellison, quando con false generalità si unì per alcuni mesi ai Barons, una gang di giovani delinquenti di Brooklyn.
E’ difficile consigliare la lettura di Ellison, l’eventuale apprezzamento dipende molto dal legame che il lettore riesce ad instaurare con la personalità e l’ego ipertrofico dello scrittore, che si esprime soprattutto nelle presuntuose e prolisse introduzioni che ama anteporre ai suoi libri ed ai singoli racconti, ma al quale vanno senz’altro riconosciute una straordinaria energia espressiva, una rabbiosa vitalità e una creatività senza limiti.
Negli Stati Uniti Harlan Ellison è una specie di star, certi suoi atteggiamenti egocentrici, narcisistici e capricciosi hanno contribuito a conferirgli uno status di controverso divo. In Italia invece è quasi sconosciuto; a causa, penso, della difficoltà a trattare con lui, sono state tradotte nella nostra lingua solo tre antologie di racconti, veramente poche per un autore così prolifico, più qualche altro scritto sparso su raccolte varie, inclusa quella Dangerous Visions da lui stesso curata che si propose come il manifesto della nuova fantascienza a metà anni ’60.
Dei tre libri che i pochi cultori cercano, con difficoltà, nel mercato dell’usato, questo Se il Cielo Brucia è forse il meno significativo, dato che si compone di racconti giovanili ancora un po’ ingenui (se lo trovate vi suggerisco di leggere Idrogeno e Idiozia, pubblicato da Fanucci nel ’99, in molti qui su aNobii mi hanno contattato per chiedermi di vendere o scambiare la mia copia, che io però mi tengo stretta). Qui sono comunque già presenti le caratteristiche principali della narrativa di Ellison, quel suo modo tipico di prendere il lettore per il bavero ed aggredirlo. Ellison scrive quasi solo racconti perché è ossessionato dall’idea di voler dare vita a tutte le storie che gli girano per la testa, ed anche perché ritengo sia soprattutto interessato ad escogitare una trovata, un colpo di scena che sorprenda e scuota il lettore. Per quanto mi riguarda ci riesce quasi sempre, e senza che il suo stile diventi rozzo, qui pare anzi già consapevole e padrone dei propri mezzi letterari. Nonostante siano ancora gli ultra-conformistici anni ’50 riesce già a lanciare alcuni velenosi strali anti-estabilishment, in particolare contro il militarismo, nel racconto “Soldato”, che non lesina dettagli strazianti sugli orrori della guerra, e contro il razzismo in “Guerra senza bandiere”, che tra l’altro non ha nulla di fantascientifico e fantastico, anzi è disperatamente realistico, e potrebbe essere stato ispirato dall’esperienza vissuta in gioventù da Ellison, quando con false generalità si unì per alcuni mesi ai Barons, una gang di giovani delinquenti di Brooklyn.
E’ difficile consigliare la lettura di Ellison, l’eventuale apprezzamento dipende molto dal legame che il lettore riesce ad instaurare con la personalità e l’ego ipertrofico dello scrittore, che si esprime soprattutto nelle presuntuose e prolisse introduzioni che ama anteporre ai suoi libri ed ai singoli racconti, ma al quale vanno senz’altro riconosciute una straordinaria energia espressiva, una rabbiosa vitalità e una creatività senza limiti.
June 8, 2025
This was the weakest of the 3 short story collections I’ve read from Harlan Ellison. 6 out of 12 will remain with me but couldn’t care about the rest tbh. Would’ve been the epitome of mid if like 3 of the 6 weren’t nigh perfect themselves:
The Sky is Burning:
Honestly so profound and thought provoking about humanity's position in the universe from such an interesting perspective too.
Back To The Drawing Boards:
Requires no small amount of suspension of disbelief but how much this story hits once you've done that infinitely trumps that. Again the perspective used to tell the message is what actually spoke so much to me.
"We Mourn For Anyone":
The meta message intended with this story in light of the thought provoking intro only gets reinforced by this excellently conveyed concept through the story. Feels like a futuristic parable, well the two before feel so too but this one actually feels the most as that to me tbh.
All 3 of these will stay with me, other good ones include My Brother Paulie, Battle Without Banners and Soldier. The rest like I said before were forgettable.
All in all, my final score is 3 stars. Harlan Ellison will be an author I revisit often tho.
The Sky is Burning:
Honestly so profound and thought provoking about humanity's position in the universe from such an interesting perspective too.
Back To The Drawing Boards:
Requires no small amount of suspension of disbelief but how much this story hits once you've done that infinitely trumps that. Again the perspective used to tell the message is what actually spoke so much to me.
"We Mourn For Anyone":
The meta message intended with this story in light of the thought provoking intro only gets reinforced by this excellently conveyed concept through the story. Feels like a futuristic parable, well the two before feel so too but this one actually feels the most as that to me tbh.
All 3 of these will stay with me, other good ones include My Brother Paulie, Battle Without Banners and Soldier. The rest like I said before were forgettable.
All in all, my final score is 3 stars. Harlan Ellison will be an author I revisit often tho.
August 16, 2024
I’m starting to think that this guy has a lot of anxieties and I get it
October 25, 2014
This book is basically a collection of odds and ends from Harlan Ellison, several of which never made it into "true story form". As such, it's an interesting collection and a fine insight into Ellison's working processes, but essentially second-rate Ellison. It should, by all rights, fall into the "completists only" category as a result, but hey, this IS Harlan Ellison we're talking about - even stray half-complete plot overviews by Ellison are worthy of note and, to be perfectly honest, some of these stories are very good. One of the biggest bugbears I have with the collection is that some of the tantalising story snippets (what a friend of mine used to call "stroy"s) would have been well worth reading as full length stories. The other big concern is that the longest story is presented twice, once as a straight story and once as a screenplay. While the story is good, Ellison in 1967 would have no inkling of how television would change over the decades after the screenplay was written, and by today's standards it is very clunky and hokey. Good, then, but far from essential - and certainly not the book to introduce new fans to Ellison with!
June 9, 2020
Una delle poche raccolte pubblicate in italiano del grande Harlan Ellison, "se il cielo brucia" è un tuffo nell'arte della fantascienza di un'epoca ormai lontanissima: intrisa di satira, disperata (il futuro previsto in "soldato" e "battaglia senza bandiere" è agghiacciante) pur con sprazzi di speranza quasi sempre antiautoritaria (un saluto particolare al robot walkway!).
Ellison come sempre è maestro nell'arte di creare interi mondi in poche pagine, pagine che personalmente suggerirei a chiunque volesse provare a scrivere racconti e/o storie brevi (e non solo fantascientifiche...): anzi, vien da riflettere su come sia ingiusto che un autore di genere così importante sia da anni irreperibile sugli scaffali...
Ellison come sempre è maestro nell'arte di creare interi mondi in poche pagine, pagine che personalmente suggerirei a chiunque volesse provare a scrivere racconti e/o storie brevi (e non solo fantascientifiche...): anzi, vien da riflettere su come sia ingiusto che un autore di genere così importante sia da anni irreperibile sugli scaffali...
July 13, 2022
I started with I have no mouth and I must scream and was thrown into Ellison's style. To be fair this is a new genre for me but the style in which Ellison writes women had me cringing and rolling my eyes. Of course she's written as a whore of course she gets r*ped! But I read paingod and from the land of fear after I have no mouth and I slowly began to honestly appreciate the stories and the way they made my brain work. Honestly still think the way almost all of the women were written is unnecessary but this is a man writing this after all... and if his intention was shock and outrage he definitely got that initial reaction from me when I first started reading his works. I went from wondering why I picked it up to looking to read more of his work.
August 31, 2017
I have watched Ellison speak with wit and vigour on his "Watching" series - and hoped I'd similarly enjoy his short stories. Ellison certainly knows how to create a scene in only a few sentences, but I only really dug maybe one third of his stories in this compilation. I found the more military-based ones kinda boring. Some stories just seemed rushed, like verbal diarrhoea, and they just weren't memorable. However, I did enjoy the little personal intros by Ellison to each story - a nice touch.
May 18, 2019
Interesting collection of early stories. For just that reason, these are not his best, but he's the first to admit that in his own introductions, and there are nonetheless some gems in the rough here.
July 10, 2024
I think I'm enjoying the introductions more than the stories, and it really makes me want for a biographical Harlan Ellison book, or at least a Vonnegut style sudo biography.
The/One/Word/People
An interesting thought but not really explored. "There are some that can be met, strange and twisted ones you know by aura a scent a feel about them that is you had one single work like junkie or nympho or hooker or burcher, one word that if you had you would understand all the inexplicable or off centre things about them."
My Brother Paulie/Satellite
A Delusion causes a paranoid astronaut to fight for his life, but if it's a Delusion what blasted the bulkhead.... no real explanation and leans heavily into the nothing is scarier with a twist that doesn't make a lot of sense.
The Time of the Eye
If this is ellisons attempt at a boy meets girl love story he seems to be working harder than usual to twist it.
Life Hutch
I remember this from the Love Death and Robots series. Liked the resourcefulness of the immobilised guy but the flashlight seems a little arbitrary.
Battle Without Banners
Can a motivated insurgency defeat a horde of robots (use of robots is a war crime) he'll yeah America (but also nobecause this is ellison.
Back to the Drawing Boards
The perfect human experience recorder who's salary bankrupts earth (seems like an oversight) is a gimmick that Ellison says wouldn't work in real life which really undercuts the story. The idea that humanity goes through phases of looking inwards and outwards is interesting but not really development much.
We Mourn for Anyone
Two perfect murders, somehow. The plans are those that could only work with the introduced devices in the story, the vitriol against funerals seems to miss that funerals are meant to be for the living, not those who have died.
From the author "Let all and sundry know that being of sound mind and body I want the cheapest funeral possible one of those dollar 98 funerals with a cardboard coffin, then after a ceremony where only my enemies are in attendance, I don't see why my loved ones should stand by a casket surrounded by mourners and necrophiliacs."
The Voice in the Garden
I'm not sure is there's a deeper meaning to this post apocalypse than the joke at the end but the environment didn't seem massively engaging.
Soldier
Somehow very optimistic and also bleak. The future soldier coming back with a warning on how terrible war is in the future but also questioning if time can be changed seems to spend a lot of time on the set up and not much on the climax/payoff.
The alienness of one out of time was really brought home by "He thinks the year is k79 he doesn't know when the time changed over but he has heard about a time of GV."
The/One/Word/People
An interesting thought but not really explored. "There are some that can be met, strange and twisted ones you know by aura a scent a feel about them that is you had one single work like junkie or nympho or hooker or burcher, one word that if you had you would understand all the inexplicable or off centre things about them."
My Brother Paulie/Satellite
A Delusion causes a paranoid astronaut to fight for his life, but if it's a Delusion what blasted the bulkhead.... no real explanation and leans heavily into the nothing is scarier with a twist that doesn't make a lot of sense.
The Time of the Eye
If this is ellisons attempt at a boy meets girl love story he seems to be working harder than usual to twist it.
Life Hutch
I remember this from the Love Death and Robots series. Liked the resourcefulness of the immobilised guy but the flashlight seems a little arbitrary.
Battle Without Banners
Can a motivated insurgency defeat a horde of robots (use of robots is a war crime) he'll yeah America (but also nobecause this is ellison.
Back to the Drawing Boards
The perfect human experience recorder who's salary bankrupts earth (seems like an oversight) is a gimmick that Ellison says wouldn't work in real life which really undercuts the story. The idea that humanity goes through phases of looking inwards and outwards is interesting but not really development much.
We Mourn for Anyone
Two perfect murders, somehow. The plans are those that could only work with the introduced devices in the story, the vitriol against funerals seems to miss that funerals are meant to be for the living, not those who have died.
From the author "Let all and sundry know that being of sound mind and body I want the cheapest funeral possible one of those dollar 98 funerals with a cardboard coffin, then after a ceremony where only my enemies are in attendance, I don't see why my loved ones should stand by a casket surrounded by mourners and necrophiliacs."
The Voice in the Garden
I'm not sure is there's a deeper meaning to this post apocalypse than the joke at the end but the environment didn't seem massively engaging.
Soldier
Somehow very optimistic and also bleak. The future soldier coming back with a warning on how terrible war is in the future but also questioning if time can be changed seems to spend a lot of time on the set up and not much on the climax/payoff.
The alienness of one out of time was really brought home by "He thinks the year is k79 he doesn't know when the time changed over but he has heard about a time of GV."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2024
Foreword: In Praise of His Spirits Noble and Otherwise by Roger Zelazny
Introduction: Where the Stray Dreams Go: the intros to the books I have read so far usually include a why or explanation of the theme of the set of short stories. While this into explains that some of his short stories are just being republished, I was intrigued by the inclusion of short stories he hasn’t written yet. He has included the openings of a handful of short stories that he has started, but not finished. Including a solicitation of help from readers to get these stories off of the ground. From some research, it appears that 3 of the stories he shares in this intro came to fruition.
The Sky Is Burning: I totally feel like Stargate ripped off their story from this Ellison book 😒 *****
My Brother Paulie: Super creepy… was Paulie real or not? *****
The Time of the Eye: “you didn’t ask if Pereta (sp) accepted the religion” 😱 *****
Life Hutch: Too much trust in technology 😬 As Ellison says, we are born alone and we die alone. ***
Battle Without Banners: be prepared for racial slurs. This riot makes you feel for the prisoners, I’m interested in the backstories of these characters. ****
Back to the Drawing Boards: massively sticking it to the man, even after death…. I love it! *****
A Friend To Man: anti war story in the future. ***
We Mourn For Anyone…: Dang…. He got played by his cheating wife 😳 *****
A Voice in the Garden: this is the shortest short story I’ve ever read! What would it be like to be the last two people on earth? ***
Soldier (Short Story): a great read about a soldier from the future appearing in the past. Ellison believes that Terminator ripped off this story for their movie. ****
The Discarded: this story was included in Paingod and Other Delusions as a short story. I actually listened to “I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream and Other Works” where this is the last story, read by Ellison himself (instead of the Soldier Screenplay for Outer Limits). There was so much passion in his reading of his own novel, it was great!
Introduction: Where the Stray Dreams Go: the intros to the books I have read so far usually include a why or explanation of the theme of the set of short stories. While this into explains that some of his short stories are just being republished, I was intrigued by the inclusion of short stories he hasn’t written yet. He has included the openings of a handful of short stories that he has started, but not finished. Including a solicitation of help from readers to get these stories off of the ground. From some research, it appears that 3 of the stories he shares in this intro came to fruition.
The Sky Is Burning: I totally feel like Stargate ripped off their story from this Ellison book 😒 *****
My Brother Paulie: Super creepy… was Paulie real or not? *****
The Time of the Eye: “you didn’t ask if Pereta (sp) accepted the religion” 😱 *****
Life Hutch: Too much trust in technology 😬 As Ellison says, we are born alone and we die alone. ***
Battle Without Banners: be prepared for racial slurs. This riot makes you feel for the prisoners, I’m interested in the backstories of these characters. ****
Back to the Drawing Boards: massively sticking it to the man, even after death…. I love it! *****
A Friend To Man: anti war story in the future. ***
We Mourn For Anyone…: Dang…. He got played by his cheating wife 😳 *****
A Voice in the Garden: this is the shortest short story I’ve ever read! What would it be like to be the last two people on earth? ***
Soldier (Short Story): a great read about a soldier from the future appearing in the past. Ellison believes that Terminator ripped off this story for their movie. ****
The Discarded: this story was included in Paingod and Other Delusions as a short story. I actually listened to “I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream and Other Works” where this is the last story, read by Ellison himself (instead of the Soldier Screenplay for Outer Limits). There was so much passion in his reading of his own novel, it was great!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2023
Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) was a loudmouth. He was combative (or call it outspoken) - about just about everything. His attack-mode seems to have been the default (and sometimes that also led to physical altercations). Call him brutally honest, or garrulous, or stuck-up, or abrasive or cantankerous … he was all of that and more and, from what I’ve read and seen, I think all of that friction actually supercharged him into writing, according to his own calculation, around 1’800 stories, essays and scripts.
When you look up the word ‘prolific’ you’ll likely find a picture of Harlan Ellison next to it. Well, you’ll probably see a picture of Isaac Asimov first - but Harlan Ellison would be right there with him. Ellison is not as known as Asimov (who is currently introduced to a new generation with Apple TV’s awesome Foundation series) … but if you’ve never heard of him, he’s definitely worth discovering. His short stories attest to Ellison’s exuberant - and dark - imagination. Not all stories will equally grab you - but they are all truly rich in creative power, insight and language. The width and breadth of the man’s imagination was staggering - for us readers his stories are often mind-expanding.
When you look up the word ‘prolific’ you’ll likely find a picture of Harlan Ellison next to it. Well, you’ll probably see a picture of Isaac Asimov first - but Harlan Ellison would be right there with him. Ellison is not as known as Asimov (who is currently introduced to a new generation with Apple TV’s awesome Foundation series) … but if you’ve never heard of him, he’s definitely worth discovering. His short stories attest to Ellison’s exuberant - and dark - imagination. Not all stories will equally grab you - but they are all truly rich in creative power, insight and language. The width and breadth of the man’s imagination was staggering - for us readers his stories are often mind-expanding.
July 4, 2018
A very uneven collection showing both the best and worst of Ellison from early in his career. “Soldier” is perhaps the best here, presented both in the original form and as an Outer Limits tv script. Strangely the tv version is more effective, and changes the rather silly ending of the short story. But I still don’t see that it’s similar enough to Terminator for Ellison to be able to successfully sue.
For the rest, there are some clunky, dated military sf stories, a couple of interesting weird psychological tales, and some supposedly ideas-based SF stories which are usually sunk by unconvincing premises which haven't been properly thought out. An as usual with Ellison, each story comes with an unnecessary, self-aggrandizing introduction by the author.
Overall, probably not the best place to start if you’re new to this writer.
For the rest, there are some clunky, dated military sf stories, a couple of interesting weird psychological tales, and some supposedly ideas-based SF stories which are usually sunk by unconvincing premises which haven't been properly thought out. An as usual with Ellison, each story comes with an unnecessary, self-aggrandizing introduction by the author.
Overall, probably not the best place to start if you’re new to this writer.
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July 18, 2024Life hutch robot plays the “whoever moves first is gay” game with idiot space marine... I’m quite overdue… I should have been at my lubrication hours ago…
“Man would remember and curse and live with his name forever[…] There was no need for him to go on living a worthless life. That was bitterness. He had a tool that would and could and needed to drive forward to his ordained destiny.”
That’s a wrap on the Harlan Ellison collection narrated by Luis Moreno (who did a fantastic job by the way, I was starting to wonder if my unpleasant last few experiences with audiobooks — novels specifically — were just a personal dislike of the format but nah I think those other ones were just poorly narrated). What more can you really say! This is what happens when you give a guy who’s 5’2” a typewriter and publishing deal. I think I saw him in my dreams recently. Good shit!
“Man would remember and curse and live with his name forever[…] There was no need for him to go on living a worthless life. That was bitterness. He had a tool that would and could and needed to drive forward to his ordained destiny.”
That’s a wrap on the Harlan Ellison collection narrated by Luis Moreno (who did a fantastic job by the way, I was starting to wonder if my unpleasant last few experiences with audiobooks — novels specifically — were just a personal dislike of the format but nah I think those other ones were just poorly narrated). What more can you really say! This is what happens when you give a guy who’s 5’2” a typewriter and publishing deal. I think I saw him in my dreams recently. Good shit!
May 22, 2018
This is a collection I've been trying to find for over 40 years. Something made me check the public library shelf to see what they had of my favorite author. And there it was, a tiny paperback. But in this tiny book are mighty stories. Life Hutch, Time of the Eye, The Sky is Burning, a few that I had never read! and, joy of joys, both the short story and screenplay of Soldier, one of my favorite Outer Limits episodes. I kvelled. (Ellison fans, and speakers of Yiddish, you know what I mean.)
July 14, 2018
I read this four one reason...
For years, I've wanted to read the story Soldier (aka Soldier of Tomorrow), which became the excellent Outer Limits Episode, "Soldier", with Michael Ansara and Lloyd Nolan. This book also includes the teleplay. I'll be brutally honest here, the teleplay is better. But soldier was well worth reading.
For years, I've wanted to read the story Soldier (aka Soldier of Tomorrow), which became the excellent Outer Limits Episode, "Soldier", with Michael Ansara and Lloyd Nolan. This book also includes the teleplay. I'll be brutally honest here, the teleplay is better. But soldier was well worth reading.
January 17, 2022
A collection of short stories of Ellison’s early work from the 1950’s. A couple stories I loved but many were just OK.
Where the Stray Dreams Go
The Sky Is Burning
My Brother Paulie
The Time of the Eye
Life Hutch
Battle Without Banners
Back to the Drawing Boards
A Friend to Man
We Mourn for Anyone
The Voice in the Garden
Soldier
Where the Stray Dreams Go
The Sky Is Burning
My Brother Paulie
The Time of the Eye
Life Hutch
Battle Without Banners
Back to the Drawing Boards
A Friend to Man
We Mourn for Anyone
The Voice in the Garden
Soldier
March 1, 2018
aggiornamento vecchio libro letto chissà quando
Read
June 9, 2019This is the french edition: Du pays de la peur
February 5, 2023
I liked my My Brother Paulie.
February 8, 2023
Like PKD, reading Ellison is like taking mind expanding drugs.
April 2, 2023
Audiobook
January 3, 2014
If one has never read Ellison, this might not be the ideal starting point, but for one that has read Ellison if not exhaustively than at least encouragingly, this is a solid review of his early work and reminds us all that what he has put out there is not the sum of all his works. If nothing else, this work gives us examples like "The/One/Word/People" to show that there is much that he started that he did not finish and even these beginnings seem timeless - the aforementioned example in modernity could be easily assigned to a high school English course as an examination of bullying just as easily as it would have had impact had it been finished when he penned it in the 1950s.
Notable for the two versions of "Soldier" it contains, I find it equally quotable for the other content it provides that recall to mind that Ellison is not always easiest to read if one is not ready to critique society, but is best read when one is ready to, even just slightly, upset the apple cart. In truth, works such as Battle Without Banners may show their age a little, but the closing still sparks things and we are reminded that, if we let them be, there will always just "be too many of them", those that are part of the problem and not open to the new.
As a collection, it works very well as an overview of the various topics Ellison has wrote upon and the real treasure may be the works he includes that are not finished. I recommend it with the only caution being that, if it is your first voyage with Ellison, the bumps may be harsher than you expect and you should be prepared to read some of his other works and not judge the artist he is on these works alone.
Notable for the two versions of "Soldier" it contains, I find it equally quotable for the other content it provides that recall to mind that Ellison is not always easiest to read if one is not ready to critique society, but is best read when one is ready to, even just slightly, upset the apple cart. In truth, works such as Battle Without Banners may show their age a little, but the closing still sparks things and we are reminded that, if we let them be, there will always just "be too many of them", those that are part of the problem and not open to the new.
As a collection, it works very well as an overview of the various topics Ellison has wrote upon and the real treasure may be the works he includes that are not finished. I recommend it with the only caution being that, if it is your first voyage with Ellison, the bumps may be harsher than you expect and you should be prepared to read some of his other works and not judge the artist he is on these works alone.
November 15, 2020
A collection of Ellison stories written in the 50s plus a television script from 1964. Two non-speculative fiction stories are included. There’s also a forward by Roger Zelazny and some fragments of unfinished stories.
It was interesting comparing the original “Soldier” short story with the Outer Limits version. I like them both a lot but I think the changes made in the teleplay version improve the story. The teleplay has a little more conflict. The original ending is deeper but I like the suddenness of the teleplay ending better.
Ellison introduces each story. I enjoyed the introductions just as much as, and in some cases, more than the stories.
The Sky is Burning (4/5)
My Brother Paulie (3/5)
The Time of the Eye (3/5)
Life Hutch (4/5) (Earth/Kyben War)
Battle Without Banners (4/5)
Back to the Drawing Boards (4/5)
A Friend to Man (3/5)
“We Mourn For Anyone…” (2/5)
The Voice in the Garden (3/5)
Soldier (5/5)
Soldier (tv script) (5/5)
It was interesting comparing the original “Soldier” short story with the Outer Limits version. I like them both a lot but I think the changes made in the teleplay version improve the story. The teleplay has a little more conflict. The original ending is deeper but I like the suddenness of the teleplay ending better.
Ellison introduces each story. I enjoyed the introductions just as much as, and in some cases, more than the stories.
The Sky is Burning (4/5)
My Brother Paulie (3/5)
The Time of the Eye (3/5)
Life Hutch (4/5) (Earth/Kyben War)
Battle Without Banners (4/5)
Back to the Drawing Boards (4/5)
A Friend to Man (3/5)
“We Mourn For Anyone…” (2/5)
The Voice in the Garden (3/5)
Soldier (5/5)
Soldier (tv script) (5/5)
August 21, 2013
Harlan Ellison is a talented author with a vivid, varied imagination. When he is at the top of his form, he can spin a first-class tale. This is a rather mixed bag of some of his early work. Some are reminiscent of early Asimov stories. I enjoyed "Life Hutch", which is part of Ellison's action-oriented Earth-Kyba cycle, and "Soldier", a clever anti-war tale.
Also of note is the screenplay based on "Soldier", which was adapted for The Outer Limits in 1964. Decades later, this episode inspired The Terminator movie franchise.
Also of note is the screenplay based on "Soldier", which was adapted for The Outer Limits in 1964. Decades later, this episode inspired The Terminator movie franchise.
August 12, 2010
The screenplay version of the last story 'Soldier' is sort of like The Terminator with two future enemy soldiers time traveling into the present. Supposedly 'Demon with a glass hand' is the true inspiration, but that story isn't in this collection. I think it was made into a forgettable movie with Mario Van Peebles with the time travel removed.
February 25, 2011
Decent collection of eleven science fiction stories by Harlan Ellison with a foreword by Roger Zelazny. If you like Ellison, you'll like this.
October 31, 2010
A late '60s collection of SF stories mostly written in the late '50s, this is notable for "Soldier" in both story and teleplay forms but overall is second-rate Ellison.
December 1, 2012
Awesome as always. Even early, second-rate Ellison is a joy to read.
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