Dangerous Visions

Harlan Ellison is probably best known as a script writer for sci-fi and fantasy movies and TV series such as the original Outer Limits, The Hunger, Logan's Run, and Babylon Five. But his range is much broader than that, encompassing stories, novels, essays, reviews, reminiscences, plays, even fake autobiographies. The Essential Ellison, a special limited edition personally signed and numbered by Ellison, contains 74 unabridged works, including such classics as "A Boy and His Dog," "Xenogenesis," and "Mefisto in Onyx."

First published in 1967 and re-issued in 1983, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream contains seven stories with copyrights ranging from 1958 through 1967. This edition contains the original introduction by Theodore Sturgeon and the original foreword by Harlan Ellison, along with a brief update comment by Ellison that was added in the 1983 edition. Among Ellison's more famous stories, two consistently noted as among his very best ever are the title story and the volume's concluding one, Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes.

Since Ellison himself strongly resists categorization of his work, we won't call them science fiction, or SF, or speculative fiction or horror or anything else except compelling reading experiences that are sui generis. They could only have been written by Harlan Ellison and they are incomparably original.

CONTENTS
"I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream"
"Big Sam Was My Friend"
"Eyes of Dust"
"World of the Myth"
"Lonelyache"
"Delusion for Dragonslayer"
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes"

Harlan Ellison is undoubtedly one of the most audacious, infuriating, brazen characters on the planet. Which may help explain why he is also one of the most brilliant, innovative, and eloquent writers on earth. Slippage simply presents recent, typical Ellison. In a word, masterful. The 21 stories in this 1997 collection, which is encased in black boxes, show Ellison at the height of his powers, with several of the stories (no surprise here) major award-winners. Highlights include a black mind reader who pays a visit to a white serial killer, a husband who falls prey to a vampiric personal computer, and a love affair between a young man and a woman who may be more undead than alive. Perhaps even more fascinating are the painfully candid snapshots of autobiography running throughout the volume. Even if Ellison's unsettling fictions are not enough to dazzle you, his often bizarre life experiences as an author will still keep you compulsively turning the page like a polite voyeur. --Stanley Wiater

Contents:
The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore (1992)
Anywhere but Here, with Anybody but You (1996)
Crazy as a Soup Sandwich (1989)
Darkness upon the Face of the Deep (1991)
The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change: Version 1 (1997)
The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change: Version 2 (1994)
The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke (1996)
The Museum on Cyclops Avenue (1995)
Go toward the Light (1996)
Mefisto in Onyx (1993)
Where I Shall Dwell in the Next World (1992)
Chatting with Anubis (1995)
The Few, the Proud (1989)
The Deadly "Nackles" Affair (1987) essay
Nackles (1964)
Nackles (1987)
Sensible City (1994)
The Dragon on the Bookshelf (1995) with Robert Silverberg
Keyboard (1995)
Jane Doe #112 (1990)
The Dreams a Nightmare Dreams (1997)
Pulling Hard Time (1995)
Scartaris, June 28th (1990)
She's a Young Thing and Cannot Leave Her Mother (1988)
Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral (1995)

Harlan Ellison's masterwork of myth and terror as he seduces all innocence on a mind-freezing odyssey into the darkest reaches of mortal terror and the most dazzling heights of Olympian hell in his finest collection.

Deathbird Stories is a collection of 19 of Harlan Ellison's best stories, including Edgar and Hugo winners, originally published between 1960 and 1974. The collection contains some of Ellison's best stories from earlier collections and is judged by some to be his most consistently high quality collection of short fiction. The theme of the collection can be loosely defined as God, or Gods. Sometimes they're dead or dying, some of them are as brand-new as today's technology. Unlike some of Ellison's collections, the introductory notes to each story can be as short as a phrase and rarely run more than a sentence or two. One story took a Locus Poll Award, the two final ones both garnered Hugo Awards and Locus Poll awards, and the final one also received a Jupiter Award from the Instructors of Science Fiction in Higher Education (discontinued in 1979). When the collection was published in Britain, it won the 1979 British Science Fiction Award for Short Fiction.

"His stories will rivet you to the floor and change your heartbeat...as unforgettable a chamber of horror, fantasy and reality as you'll ever experience." -Gallery

"Brutally and flamboyantly shocking, frequently brilliant, and always irresistibly mesmerizing." -Richmond Times-Dispatch

Contents:

· Introduction: Oblations at Alien Altars
· The Whimper of Whipped Dogs · ss Bad Moon Rising, ed. Thomas M. Disch, Harper&Row, 1973
· Along the Scenic Route [“Dogfight on 101”] · ss Adam Aug’69; Amazing Sep’69
· On the Downhill Side · ss Universe 2, ed. Terry Carr, Ace, 1972
· O Ye of Little Faith · ss Knight Sep’68
· Neon · ss The Haunt of Horror Aug’73
· Basilisk · ss F&SF Aug’72
· Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes · nv Knight May’67
· Corpse · ss F&SF Jan’72
· Shattered Like a Glass Goblin · ss Orbit 4, ed. Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam’s, 1968
· Delusion for a Dragon Slayer · ss Knight Sep’66
· The Face of Helene Bournouw · ss Collage Oct’60
· Bleeding Stones · ss Vertex Apr’73
· At the Mouse Circus · ss New Dimensions I, ed. Robert Silverberg, Doubleday, 1971
· The Place with No Name · ss F&SF Jul’69
· Paingod · ss Fantastic Jun’64
· Ernest and the Machine God · nv Knight Jan’68
· Rock God · ss Coven 13 Nov’69
· Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38°54’N, Longitude 77°00’13"W · nv F&SF Oct’74
· The Deathbird · nv F&SF Mar’73

In a thirtieth anniversary edition of the classic, the Harlequin, a rebel, inhabits a world where conformity and punctuality are top priorities, and the Ticktockman cannot accept the Harlequin's presence in his perfectly ordered world. 25,000 first printing. IP.