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Title: Troublemakers : Stories by Harlan Ellison by Harlan Ellison ISBN: 0-7434-2398-4 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: The thrill is gone.
Comment: 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.
Rating: 3
Summary: A Very Angry Man Makes Trouble
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: No excuses, now. READ this book!
Comment: 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.
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Title: Slippage : Previously Uncollected, Precariously Poised Stories by Harlan Ellison ISBN: 0395924820 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 17 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Angry Candy by Harlan Ellison ISBN: 0395924812 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 17 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison ISBN: 0759229945 Publisher: E-Reads Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Vic and Blood: The Continuing Adventures of a Boy and His Dog : A Graphic Novel by Harlan Ellison ISBN: 0743459032 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Dangerous Visions : The 35th Anniversary Edition by Harlan Ellison ISBN: 0743452615 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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