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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail
There is certainly a unique writing style that Ellison offers, and it took me a bit to get used to it. But after reading through the whole book of short stories, I deeply enjoy the style and stories. He writes as if he isn’t thinking about what he’s writing, like a haphazard journal entry. Yet if you pause and look closely, you can see a great deal of depth in the stories. My two favorites were I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (an obvious choice) and Pretty Miss Maggie Moneyeyes. Worth a read I think.
misogyny aside it's great, Ellison is a great writer
i ebooked for the first time, not enjoying ebook-ing
"He left my mind intact. I can dream, I can wonder, I can lament. I remember all four of them. I wish—"
i ebooked for the first time, not enjoying ebook-ing
"He left my mind intact. I can dream, I can wonder, I can lament. I remember all four of them. I wish—"
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
one of the most uniquely disturbing horror stories of all time, i’ll never be able to move on from this
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I can see why he was influential on latter scifi, but the stories are also crazy misogynistic and ive read way more gripping stories about awful people doing awful things. shoulder shrug kinda book
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
So impactful in such little text, will definitely be re reading. AMs monologue is devastating and really hi-lights the irony of it’s creation
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
- 'I Have No Mouth ...' was phenomenal. Loved it. Nearly perfect, only stunted by the random and sincerely-not story-relevant misogyny. (He'll claim otherwise, but Harlan's got his BS game down to a science due to his access to all the world's vocabulary.)
- The next story made me question how tolerant a reader I am. In a single page's worth of text, I was so incredibly turned off with the sheer amount of 'sci-fi babble,' which is my meaner way of saying 'too many story-unique nouns.' Like a glonk who splornted a crem and then sphluncted a plorbus halfway to quiltorpin. Too exhausting for a short story.
- 'Eyes of Dust' read mostly well, but the ending felt too outdated to have any meaningful impact on my psyche. People have regurgitated the thematic sentiment every year in all kinds of media for decades since.
And that's where I chose to DNF. Short stories by Harlan are not my jam apparently.
- The next story made me question how tolerant a reader I am. In a single page's worth of text, I was so incredibly turned off with the sheer amount of 'sci-fi babble,' which is my meaner way of saying 'too many story-unique nouns.' Like a glonk who splornted a crem and then sphluncted a plorbus halfway to quiltorpin. Too exhausting for a short story.
- 'Eyes of Dust' read mostly well, but the ending felt too outdated to have any meaningful impact on my psyche. People have regurgitated the thematic sentiment every year in all kinds of media for decades since.
And that's where I chose to DNF. Short stories by Harlan are not my jam apparently.
all of this wouldn't happen if they installed love and deepspace and saved anime boy thirst trap edits in the allied mastercomputer.