NIGHTMARE, a previously-published collection of essays, has some of the best moments of his career. Only Ellison could have gotten himself fired after working HALF A DAY for Disney/Buena Vista... and for coming up with the stunningly witty notion of a porno Disney flick. (And having compounded that piece of insanity with a side-splitting impromptu imitation of same, to the stone-faced unamusement of his co-workers.) But Ellison just isn't writing 'em like this anymore -- and when you look at it a little harder, he did write 'em like this only fairly infrequently. His more recent stuff is even more farcical: his atrocious script for I, ROBOT comes to mind. Also, NIGHTMARE shows up Ellison's willingess to entertain opinions that people usually regret after they get through whatever remaining adolescent complexes remain in their system. So pick this one up for a good dose of Ellison and a fun chunk of reading regardless of your tastes, but as far as everything goes with him currently, stop kidding yourself, okay?


The Author bio on the end flap alone is worth the price.   November 19, 1997
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I give this book a 9 because a 10 would be for perfection and Mr. Ellison is not perfect. The endflap presents a benevolent side of the nearly perfect author that has been carefully concealed from his readers in the past. This book is yet another collection of short stories. They are nearly all wonderfully crafted morality tales driven by white-hot anger. I have many paperbacks by this author, including one where the author is identified as "Hal" Ellison. They are crumbling with age and I fear to open them. Thank you, White Wolf Publishing, for bringing them out in these great new editions. Included is an author's introduction which puts a personal context around these stories. This intro is an important part of the stories. The reader would be as impoverished without this as one who views a play by George Bernard Shaw without reading the author's commentary.


Love that bleeds   March 4, 2003
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

The jacket flap sums up this book perfectly, 'Here are two big books in one volume. Each has the word "love" in the title. But don't let that get your hopes up. Yeah, these are stories that sing... but they also draw blood.' That's the core of this book, real love, not the pampered and idealistic stuff that preaches "love will conquer all." This is about love that hurts.

This volume is divided into two books, I prefer the second, with all stories on the different kinds of love. My favorites are the two bookend stories that open and close this book. "The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World" is beautifully crafted and shows how good a short story can be. The last story in the collection, "A Boy and His Dog," is a great way to end the book and the collection. The first book in this volume, although not my favorite, is still very good, and contains stories that reach into different faucets of life, and show the love between people and their different lives.

When Shakespeare saw love, he saw the kind that ends in a double suicide, Harlan Ellison hits pretty close to the same nail with this collection. Even though not every story in here is top notch, I still highly recomend this volume for a great look on real love, and for containing some of the best short stories Ellison has written.