Troublemakers: Stories by Harlan Ellison

by Harlan Ellison

Book Overview

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Harlan Ellison has written or edited 75 books, more than 1700 stories, essays, articles and newspaper columns, two dozen teleplays, and a dozen movies. Now,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743423984
• ISBN13: 9780743423984
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: iBooks
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Love the Essays!

Yes, this is a collection of Ellison's stories that have been published many times over. However, the short essays that precede each story are worth the price alone, in my opinion (My personal favorite is the "Soldier" preamble, and I feel this story is very relevant to what's going on today). I admit a certain prejudice to Harlan Ellison's work: My mother introduced me to his books early on, and at difficult times in my life it was good to hear another articulate the anger I felt. Got me through many a sleepless night! Plus, in one of his stories there is a character that has our family name (not a common one). So...Take my review with a grain of (rock)salt if you will, but read at least one of his stories if you haven't already. I would say that this book is a good intro to Harlan Ellison's work.

A feast of Ellison!

Having spent the last 30 years voraciously comsuming everything Harlan has written I believe I am well qualified to review this lastest book. My only complaint with the book is that Harlan left out so many great stories that I would have included. However including so many other stories would have made this collection extremely unwieldy to say the least. Suffice it to say that every story is a gem and I hope that this volume becomes a starting point for many new fans of Ellison's remarkable fiction. I also wish to inform you that contray to another review Gene Roddenberry did not re-write Ellison's Star Trek script, he had others do the vandalism for him. Let it also be noted that Harlan's original script (not the broadcast episode itself) for that same Star Trek episode won the writer's Guild of America award for "Best Episodic Drama" in 1968. Everyone is entitled to their informed opinion.

The Very Best of Harlan...

Troublemakers is the best introduction to the stories of Harlan Ellison in print. Out of the roughly 2,000 stories he has written, some of his greatest are here, including Soldier, Jeffty is Five, and "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Each story comes with a little preface by the author, wherein he loosely ties them all together with the theme of "troublemaking." (In actuality, this is a "greatest hits" collection.) However, this by no means contains ALL of his greatest hits. For instance, The Whimper of Whipped Dogs is absent, as is Demon with a Glass Hand. For something along those lines you'd need to purchase The Essential Ellison - and only Harlan could get away with calling a book the size of the Norton Anthology "essential." However, to begin a study of his work, this is the place to start.

No excuses, now. READ this book!

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 objectto 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 whoavoid 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.

Still great after all this years

Yes, most of these stories I have read in other books, and yes, the common "troublemaking" theme is rather loose, but these are great stories. After the disappointment of "Slippage," I was happy to be reminded that the old stuff is still good.Some of these are not just "greatest hits;" they are classics in fiction, in particular "Repent Harlequin..." and "Jeftty is Five." Even you're not a speculative fiction fan, this work offers a good introduction to Ellison.