Harlan Ellison
The award-winning original teleplay that produced the most beloved episode of the classic Star Trek series—with an introductory essay by the author.
USS Enterprise Starfleet officers Capt. James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock escort a renegade criminal to a nearby planet for capital punishment, and they discover the remains of a city. This ancient civilization is inhabited by the alien Guardians of Forever, who are
3) Strange Wine
From "one of the great . . . American short story writers," comes a collection of dark fantastical fiction (The Washington Post).
In the Locus Award–winning "Croatoan," a man descends into the sewers of New York City to confront the detritus of his irresponsibility.
An "Emissary from Hamelin" presents humanity with an ultimatum, or everyone on Earth will have a dear price to pay the piper.
From the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of Strange Wine: A gritty memoir of life in NYC that became the basis for a Hitchcock TV drama.
Hemingway said, "A man should never write what he doesn't know." In the mid‑fifties, Harlan Ellison—kicked out of college and hungry to write—went to New York to start his career. It was a time of street gangs, rumbles, kids with switchblades, and zip guns made from
Three stories set in the post-apocalyptic world of a boy and his telepathically linked dog—inspiration for the Fallout video games and Mad Max movies.
The cycle begins with "Eggsucker," which chronicles the early years of the association between fourteen‑year‑old loner Vic and his brilliant, telepathic dog. The saga continues and expands in "A Boy and His Dog," in which Blood shows just how much smarter he is
A remarkably trenchant collection of early stories by "the dark prince of American letters" exploring the injustice and desperation of a forgotten America (Pete Hamill, author of A Drinking Life).
Bold and uncompromising, Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-up Generation is a watershed moment in Harlan Ellison's early writing career. Rather than dealing in speculative fiction, these twenty-five short stories
Masterpieces of myth and terror about modern gods from technology to drugs to materialism—"fantasy at its most bizarre and unsettling" (The New York Times).
As Earth approaches Armageddon, a man embarks on a quest to confront God in the Hugo Award–winning novelette, "The Deathbird."
In New York City, a brutal act of violence summons a malevolent spirit and a growing congregation of desensitized worshippers
8) Shatterday
"One of the great . . . American short-story writers" exposes the darkness of the human heart in these speculative tales of terror and tragedy (George R. R. Martin).
A five-year-old boy never ages, living as an immortal in a past that no longer exists while the world encroaches upon his innocence, in the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning "Jeffty Is Five."
An alien attack leaves Earth on the brink of Armageddon, as humans
12) Glow Worm
Originally published in 1962 and updated in later decades with a new introduction, Ellison Wonderland contains sixteen masterful stories from the author's early career. This collection shows a vibrant young writer with a wide-ranging imagination, ferocious creative energy, devastating wit, and an eye for the wonderful and terrifying and tragic. Among the gems are "All the Sounds of Fear," "The Sky Is Burning," "The Very Last Day of a Good
...Seven stunning stories of speculative fiction by the author of A Boy and His Dog.
In a post-apocalyptic world, four men and one woman are all that remain of the human race, brought to near extinction by an artificial intelligence. Programmed to wage war on behalf of its creators, the AI became self-aware and turned against humanity. The five survivors are prisoners, kept alive and subjected to brutal torture by the hateful
Harlan Ellison has won more awards for imaginative literature than any other living author, but only aficionados of Ellison's singular work have been aware of another of his passions...he is a great oral interpreter of his stories. His recordings have been difficult to obtain...by his choice. In 1999, for the first time, he was lured into the studio to record this stunning retrospective. Contents include: "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," "Laugh
...Winner of the Nebula Award: A boy and his telepathic dog fight to survive in a war-torn, postapocalyptic world in this hard-hitting science fiction novella.
In an alternate world in which John F. Kennedy survived and scientific breakthroughs in animal research and telepathy allow for advanced communication with animal companions, fifteen-year-old Vic and his telepathic dog, Blood, scavenge the wastelands of a war-torn United
The Kyben demolished Deald's World and their armada was heading for the Eart. All that stood in their way was a man on Deald's World named Benno Tallant, about as lousy a candidate for hero as one could imagine: junkie, looter, coward, betrayer. So the retreating Earth forces made him the last man on Deald's World. They surgically implanted a cataclysmic bomb in his body, turned him loose and let the Kyben hunt him down. See Benno run. Run Benno.
...This original audio collection, featuring much newly recorded material, is a stunning realization of some of the writer's best and edgiest work, as well as a fiery visit to some of his more secret stories. His words, his voice, what the New York Times has called "liquid lava." Harlan Ellison has won more awards for imaginative literature than any other living author, including the Edgar, Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards.
Contents include:
...Everyone's a critic, especially in the digital age—but no one takes on the movies like multiple award-winning author Harlan Ellison. Renowned both for fiction (A Boy and His Dog) and pop-culture commentary (The Glass Teat), Ellison offers in this collection twenty-five years' worth of essays and film criticism.
It's...
1950s Science Fiction 2 - 23 Science Fiction Short Stories From the 1950s