Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook247 pages4 hours
Approaching Oblivion: Stories
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
“Ellison’s stories punch where it hurts . . .and span from baroque far future speculations to near future warnings” (Science Fiction Ruminations).
Over the course of his legendary career, Harlan Ellison has defied—and sometimes defined—modern fantasy literature, all while refusing to allow any genre to claim him. A Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association, as well as winner of countless awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, Edgar, and Bram Stoker, Ellison is as unpredictable as he is unique, irrepressible as he is infuriating. Over thirty titles in Ellison’s brilliant catalog are now available in an elegant new package featuring Ellison himself. Genius never felt so combustible. The New York Times called him “relentlessly honest” and then used him as the subject of its famous Sunday Acrostic. People said there was no one like him, then cursed him for preventing easy sleep. But in these stories, Harlan Ellison outdoes himself, rampaging like a mad thing through love (“Cold Friend,” “Kiss of Fire,” “Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman”), hate (“Knox,” “Silent in Gehenna”), sex (“Catman,” “Erotophobia”), lost childhood (“One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty”), and into such bizarre subjects as the problems of blue‑skinned, eleven‑armed Yiddish aliens, what it is like to witness the end of the world, and what happens on the day the planet Earth swallows Barbra Streisand. Oh yeah, this one is a doozy!
Over the course of his legendary career, Harlan Ellison has defied—and sometimes defined—modern fantasy literature, all while refusing to allow any genre to claim him. A Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association, as well as winner of countless awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, Edgar, and Bram Stoker, Ellison is as unpredictable as he is unique, irrepressible as he is infuriating. Over thirty titles in Ellison’s brilliant catalog are now available in an elegant new package featuring Ellison himself. Genius never felt so combustible. The New York Times called him “relentlessly honest” and then used him as the subject of its famous Sunday Acrostic. People said there was no one like him, then cursed him for preventing easy sleep. But in these stories, Harlan Ellison outdoes himself, rampaging like a mad thing through love (“Cold Friend,” “Kiss of Fire,” “Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman”), hate (“Knox,” “Silent in Gehenna”), sex (“Catman,” “Erotophobia”), lost childhood (“One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty”), and into such bizarre subjects as the problems of blue‑skinned, eleven‑armed Yiddish aliens, what it is like to witness the end of the world, and what happens on the day the planet Earth swallows Barbra Streisand. Oh yeah, this one is a doozy!
Unavailable
Read more from Harlan Ellison
Blood Is Not Enough: Stories of Vampirism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grave Predictions: Tales of Mankind's Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian and Disastrous Destiny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy & Science Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFantastic Stories of the Imagination (with linked TOC) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Approaching Oblivion
Related ebooks
A Song Called Youth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Plane to Heaven: The Final Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Painted Black: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Alice In Virtuality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBradbury Speaks: Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ray Bradbury Super Pack Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Into the Out Of Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Waker Dreams Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo the Vanishing Point Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Forgotten Sci-Fi Classics: A Compilation from Galaxy Science Fiction Issues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNeutrino Drag: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Asleep in Armageddon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Entropy Means to Me Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Beyond Lies the Wub Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cat's Pajamas: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5One and Wonder: Piers Anthony's Remembered Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Search of Wonder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOffbeat: Uncollected Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Side Laughing: Stories Unlike Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsL. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 30: The Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnidentified Funny Objects: Unidentified Funny Objects, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Day Dark, Night Bright: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRubber Soul: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Apex Magazine: Issue 26 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCreating K-Pax -Or- Are You Sure You Want to Be a Writer? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSF in Dimension Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelcome to Hell: A Working Guide for the Beginning Writer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhilip K. Dick Super Pack: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Missing Signal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Short Stories For You
Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Short Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sex and Erotic: Hard, hot and sexy Short-Stories for Adults Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Explicit Content: Red Hot Stories of Hardcore Erotica Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5100 Years of the Best American Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Tuesdays in Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sour Candy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burning Chrome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Past Midnight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skeleton Crew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ficciones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: A Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Breath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Was Just Another Day in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Approaching Oblivion
Rating: 4.142857142857143 out of 5 stars
4/5
7 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After seeing a documentary film about kind of cuckoo firebrand author, Harlan Ellison, called "Dreams with Sharp Teeth," I wanted to read his autobiographical short story of a fraught childhood in northeastern Ohio, since I share that kind of background. The story is called "One Life Furnished in Early Povery" and is contained within "Approaching Oblibivion." "...Oblivion" was not easy to locate. Several copies that New York & Brooklyn Public Libraries had were listed as 'missing' and the other few that had not been stolen were constantly checked out. It is also out of print, so it's not so easy to buy a copy, either. When I did finally get my hands on a copy, I enjoyed the story. It qualifies as science fiction in that the narrator has arrived back at his childhood via time travel. The spring semester 09 was starting, so I did not have time to read many more stories besides "One Life.." but from what I understand, it is atypical of his work, being light on the classic sci-fi elements.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yet another collection from the amazingly prolific Harlan Ellison. While these stories were all new to me, my response to them was consistent with how I have reviewed previous Ellison collections: some of them work beautifully, some of them fall flat, but I have to admire the imagination and ambition behind all of them. Ellison is an author who wants to shake you up, who never treads on safe ground. And who seems to have no shortage of things to be angry about. My favorite stories in the collection were "Kiss of Fire," set in a distant future in which people's attempts relieve the monotony of their extraordinarily long, excruciatingly boring lives have unintended consequences; "Paulie Charmed the Sleeping Woman," a short little story in which an extraordinary jazz musician tries to wake the dead; and "Catman" another far future story in which the society of man has evolved in strange ways (especially and explicitly in the ways we pleasure ourselves). And while I wouldn't add "Knox" to my list of Ellison favorites, it was a very memorable story.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Part of my mission to go back and read books I'd left unfinished for no good reason. This was one of the featured selections in the very first month of my Science Fiction Book Club subscription (in 1974). The collection is a bit raggedy and uneven, but sometimes brilliant and bold and moving. Ellison takes risks, and I admire the effort even when it doesn't work and sometimes marvel at the results when it does. This was from a time when "sci-fi" was morphing into "speculative fiction," making its bid as literature, experimental, political, graphic, and profound. It also brought back the whole time period to me, but that's another story...