The Honking Big Book of Ellison

Harlan Ellison (edited by Terry Dowling with Richard Delap and Gil Lamont); The Essential Ellison: A Fifty Year Retrospective (Revised and Expanded) (Morpheus International; 2001; ISBN 978-1-883398-60-6; cover artist not indicated).

Fifty years of Ellison. This is one big honking book. If there ever was a book that ought to be an eBook...this is it!

Due to the bulk, I suspect this will spill into 2010, unless I find a burst of reading time. The early stories are amusing, but can be skipped over. The book hits highlights with Ellison's introductory remarks and the Worlds of Terror section onwards. And anybody who ever wonders why science fiction on television generally sucks needs to read the funny and horrifying Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto.

And more. There is much much more. Be prepared to have your soul hurt, in multiple occasions.

Made up of: Front cover interior introduction (Terry Dowling); Prolegemenon: Millennial Musings; Introduction: Sublime Rebel (Terry Dowling); Lagniappe (Terry Dowling); Beginnings (Terry Dowling); The Sword of Parmagon; The Gloconda; The Wilder One; The Saga of Machine Gun Joe; Introduction to Glowworm; Glowworm; Life Hutch; S.R.O.; Worlds of Terror (Terry Dowling); Lonelyahe; Punky and the Yale Men; A Prayer for No One's Enemy; Pulling Hard Time; Worlds of Love (Terry Dowling); In Lonely Lands; The Time of the Eye; Grail; That New Old-Time Religion (Terry Dowling); I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream; Corpse; The Whimper of Whipped Dogs; A Stab of Merriment (Terry Dowling); The Voice in the Garden; Erotophobia; Mom; Ecowareness; The Outpost Undiscovered by Tourists; Dept. of "What Was the Question?" Dept.; Dept. of "Trivial Pursuit" Dept.; Prince Myshkin, and Hold the Relish; Trouble With Women (Terry Dowling); The Very Last Day of a Good Woman; Valerie: A True Memoir; The Other Eye of Polyphemus; All the Birds Come Home to Roost; To the Mattresses With Mean Demons (Terry Dowling); The Tombs: An Excerpt from Memos from Purgatory; "Our Little Miss"; A Love Song for Jerry Falwell; Telltale Tics and Tremors; True Love: Groping for the Holy Grail; Adrift Just Off the Isles of Langerhans: Latitude 38 degrees 53' N, Longitude 77 degrees 00' W; The Function of Dream Sleep; Rococo Technology (Terry Dowling); The Sky is Burning; The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World; Along the Scenic Route; The Song the Zombie Sang (with Robert Silverberg); Knox; With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole; Heart's Blood (Terry Dowling); From Alabama, with Hate; My Father; My Mother; Tired Old Man; Gopher in the Gilly; Strange Wine; Nights & Days in Good Old Hollyweird (Terry Dowling); The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie; Flintlock: An Unproduced Teleplay; The Man on the Mushroom; Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto; Face-Down in Gloria Swanson's Swimming Pool; Petards & Hangins (Terry Dowling); Soldier; The Night of Delicate Terrors; Shattered Like a Glass Goblin; At the Mouse Circus; Shadows from the Past (Terry Dowling); Free With This Box!; Final Shtick; One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty; Jeffty Is Five; Contracts on the Soul (Terry Dowling); Daniel White for the Greater Good; Neither Your Jenny Nor Mine; Alive and Well on a Friendless voyage; The Classics (Terry Dowling); "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman; Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes; A Boy and His Dog; The Deathbird; Paladin of the Lost Hour; Soft Monkey; Mefisto in Onyx; Process (Terry Dowling); Where I Shall Dwell in the Next World; The Museum on Cyclops Avenue; Objects of Desire in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear; Man on Spikes; Introduction to "Tired Old Man"; The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore; Dark Liberation (Terry Dowling); The Thick Red Moment; The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge; Driving in the Spikes; An Edge in My Voice, Installment 55; The Streets, Installment 1; Xenogenesis; Afterword.

Counts as 32 entries in the 2009 Year in Shorts.

FTC Disclaimer: Purchased with 100% of my own funds. Take that, Big Brother!