The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison
by Harlan Ellison
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"Only connect," E.M. Forster famously said, and Harlan Ellison was canny enough to make that the lifeblood of his achievement from the get-go. New, fresh and different is tricky in the storytelling business, as rare as diamonds, but, as a born storyteller, Harlan made story brave, daring, surprising again, brought an edge of the gritty and the strange, the erudite and the street-smart, found ways to make words truly come alive again in an over-worded world. From the watershed of the '50s and show more '60s when the world found its dynamic new identity, to a self-imitating, sadly all too derivative present, he has kept storytelling cool and hip, exhilarating, unexpected yet always vital, able to get under your skin and change your life. And now we have it. "The Top of the Volcano" is the collection we hoped would come along eventually, twenty-three of Harlan's very best stories, award-winners every one, brought together in a single volume at last. There's the unforgettable power of "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman," "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" and "Mefisto in Onyx," the heart-rending pathos of "Jeffty Is Five" and "Paladin of the Lost Hour", the chilling terror of "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," the ingenuity and startling intimacy of "Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans..." These stories are full of the light and life of someone with things worth saying and the skills to do it, presented in the book we had to have--not just a Best-of (though given what's on offer it may just fall out that way) but in one easy-to-grab volume perfect for newbies, long-time fans and seasoned professionals alike to remind them just how it can be done. -- From dust jacket flap. show lessTags
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It has been decades since I last read or reread Harlan Ellison and that is far too long. To call what he writes science fiction is to name a world by its islands. Ellison's fiction is experimental and old school, horrific and tender, forgiving and merciless, profoundly serious and wickedly snarky. This collection of prize-winning "stories" contains some of the best work of a truly great writer. But be careful. There will be no return to where you once were.
It has been decades since I last read or reread Harlan Ellison and that is far too long. To call what he writes science fiction is to name a world by its islands. Ellison's fiction is experimental and old school, horrific and tender, forgiving and merciless, profoundly serious and wickedly snarky. This collection of prize-winning "stories" contains some of the best work of a truly great writer. But be careful. There will be no return to where you once were.
This is a collection of some of Ellison’s prize-winning short fiction (short stories, novelettes, novellas), and it was my first sustained readthrough of Ellison material. Some of these I’d read before, individually, in anthologies, but most were new to me.
Ellison had a distinctive, unforgiving style. These stories share a harsh view on reality, an almost blasé treatment of the nastiness out there in the universe -- both real-world and in-universe. Sometimes even to the point of showing off, but mostly I liked the interplay between gritty narrator and unpleasant environment. I also found them very visually appealing, in that many would lend themselves very well to a Hollywood treatment.
A good collection. Many more hits than misses.
Ellison had a distinctive, unforgiving style. These stories share a harsh view on reality, an almost blasé treatment of the nastiness out there in the universe -- both real-world and in-universe. Sometimes even to the point of showing off, but mostly I liked the interplay between gritty narrator and unpleasant environment. I also found them very visually appealing, in that many would lend themselves very well to a Hollywood treatment.
A good collection. Many more hits than misses.
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583+ Works 30,509 Members
Harlan Ellison was born in Cleveland, Ohio on May 27, 1934. He was the author of numerous short story collections including Strange Wine; The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World; Harlan Ellison's Watching; Deathbird Stories; Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman; I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream; and Stalking the Nightmare: Stories show more and Essays. He received numerous awards including the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writer's Association, the Edgar Allen Poe Award, and the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2011. He published two collections of his columns on television for the Los Angeles Free Press entitled The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat. He edited several anthologies including Dangerous Visions: 33 Original Stories and Medea: Harlan's World. He received the Milford Award for Lifetime Achievement in Editing. He also wrote scripts for TV series including Burke's Law, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He served as creative consultant on the new version of The Twilight Zone in the 1980s and as conceptual consultant on Babylon 5. He won the Writer's Guild of America's Award for Most Outstanding Teleplay four times. He died on June 27, 2018 at the age of 84. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison
- Original publication date
- 2014-12-31
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- Reviews
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- Languages
- English
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- Paper, Ebook
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