I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (The Voice from the E… (2025)

Harlan Ellison:…Brash, insightful observer of the human condition?...

OR

bitter, crotchety old man who just hates everyone?...

Uh…YES…

He’s also one of my favorite short story authors. That said, you don’t go into Ellison’s stories looking for a life-affirming dose of the warm and fuzzies. There will be no walking away whistling and basking in the glow of a renewed joy of living. These stories are fingers of ice clutching at your insides and freezing your core. Raw, visceral and powerful and full of an anger born, I believe, of Ellison’s hope that humanity would begin to display its better nature and his constant disappointed when we instead exercise our baser instincts.

This unabridged audio collection contains 7 stories that range from “as good as it gets” to “decent but not worth gushing over.” Thus my overall rating of 4 stars might be a bit misleading because several of these are among the best pieces that short fiction has to offer. Therefore, I’m going to rate each of them individually so I can spend a little more time on the gems.

All of the stories in this collection are read by Ellison himself. For some this might be a negative because they find Ellison’s frenetic narration style to be like nails on a chalkboard. I am NOT one of them and think that Ellison is masterful in the performance of his own material He reads them the way he wrote them and so you get a perfect translation between author’s intent and narrative tone.

At least that's how I see it.

THE STORIES:

However, AM was not being merciful to these 5 people (remember this is an Ellison story). AM’s hatred of humanity is so intense that he keeps these individuals around to torment and brutalize them. AM has complete mastery over the environment and can even alter the survivors’ appearance at will, transforming each into vile caricatures of their former selves. As AM explains in its only dialogue in the story:

From one amazing story to another, next up is

The Fourth story is one with which I was previously familiar.

Another less than stellar story is

With

The last story is another of Ellison’s more famous tales.

Overall, another great group of Ellison stories. However, I was disappointed that both

4.0 stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Wondering whether to read early Harlan Ellison is a complete no-brainer. I admit to avoiding Harlan for most of my life despite calling myself a master fan... but why? Oh, the several reasons seemed good at the time, like I prefer novels over short stories and it's such an investment in time and Hey, isn't that the guy always surrounded by controversy and you either hate him or love him and sometimes waffle in the same day?

Well. Haberdash. His writing is what counts. I've been asinine and idiotic.

So here I am, falling off the wagon and reading whole short story collections, starting with his earliest, and you know what?

OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME!

I mean, sure, I read a few of these classics before, like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream and A Boy and his Dog and I've heard of even more, but I didn't quite realize that every single story is as playful as his most well-known.

I'm surprised to not like the titular story as much as all the rest, but it was still quite fun to see a planetary AI torture the last humans.

Moving on to the lighter and fun stuff, Laugh Track really set me back and made me go... ooooh COOL. :) Some heady SF ideas here, but most importantly... it's LIVELY AS HELL. :) Quicksilver, even.

The same is true for most, but not all. Ticktock and Harlequin is trippy as hell.

And Harlan's favorite story of all, Grail, is maybe not the lightest one of the bunch, but it IS the most interesting intellectually. :) Tons of ideas, history, religions, and heart went into this one, culminating in perhaps one of the most stimulating sex stories to be handed down through the ages. :)

I loved The Very Last Day of a Good Woman because it shocked me. A great avant-garde snub piece. :)

The Time of the Eye had the same feel, aiming more for the bashing over our heads kind of twist that was so GREAT about A Boy and His dog and Good Woman. :)

In all, I was laughing and being creeped out and enjoying just how much of our modern culture and SF markets can be traced from this acerbic and fearless collection.

Truly. I am an idiot to have put this off for so long.

:)

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1: Ellison narrates his best stories brilliantly
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Harlan Ellison is probably one of SF’s biggest personalities. By all accounts, he’s brash, cocky, arrogant, abrasive, and obnoxious. He is also one of the most brilliant practitioners ever to hammer away at a typewriter, producing over 1,700 screenplays, novellas, short stories, essays, and pieces of criticism, etc. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the SF field was his watershed anthology Dangerous Visions (1967), which championed the New Wave movement and challenged the genre to redefine itself.

I’ve never been to a SF convention or met many SF authors or fans (Hawaii and Japan are not the biggest hotspots for that, believe it or not), so I have never met or heard Ellison speak. Therefore, I will not comment on all the notorious stories about his belligerence. I will simply weigh in on his work, which is what I have to judge him by. And within minutes of listening to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1, I was completely hooked.

This guy is a born storyteller, without question the most passionate, intense and brilliant audiobook narrator I’ve ever experienced. He’s just that good and he knows it. He captures the characters quirks, personalities, attitudes, and delivers the stories at exactly the right pace and tone, which is obvious because he’s reading his own stories. And the 5-volume THE VOICE FROM THE EDGE series is the ideal showcase for him to strut his stuff and read his favorite stories from a career spanning over 60 years. He has a huge pile of awards (Hugos, Nebulas, Bram Stokers, Edgars, World Fantasy) and Lifetime Achievement Awards, so there are plenty of excellent stories to choose from.

Vol. 1 features some of his most famous and impressive work, and are narrated to perfection. I’m not sure there’s anything more that can be said about the man or his stories, but it was my first time to encounter his work, so I assume there are other SF fans out there, especially younger ones, who may not have heard anything. If so, this is a great way to hear his stories read exactly the way he’d want. Absolutely brilliant. My favorites in this collection:

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (1967, Hugo Winner): The collection leads off with one of Ellison’s most famous stories, about an insane and sadistic AI named “AM” who has killed off the rest of the human race but has saved five unlucky individuals for eternal torture. It’s narrative with such enthusiasm and energy that you can picture Ellison with a maniacal grin in the recording studio. The vitriol that AM bears toward humanity is fearsome to behold, and it’s a very different take from the cold, detached approach of HAL. Overall, it’s a chilling story and brilliant performance.

"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (1965, Hugo & Nebula Winner): This is another classic favorite set in a dystopian future society controlled by the Ticktockman, who regulates the lives and daily routines of all its citizens. Everything runs smoothly until a man dressed as a clown starts to disrupt things, involving jelly beans of all things. In addition to the great title and narration, the audio production has added a number of amusing sound effects.

Laugh Track (1984): This is a later story that ruthlessly skewers the cynical entertainment business that Ellison worked in for decades, in particular the insipid and mind-numbing TV programs that Hollywood has cranked out for generations. Ellison reads this story with incredible energy in a New York wiseguy style, about a young guy in the business who hears the voice of his dead Aunt Babe on one of the laugh tracks, and starts to pick out her voice on other sitcoms. He decides to track down the source of the recording by talking with an ultra-secretive “sweetener” who produces the laugh tracks. His description of the “unmentionable” sweeteners, the unspoken dirty secret of the industry, is hilarious, and when he finally tracks downs dear old Babe, the story takes a very unexpected turn. This was one of my favorites just for the biting humor and ridiculing of sitcoms.

Paladin of the Lost Hour (1985): This story took me completely by surprise. After the dystopians horrors of “I Have No Mouth..” and “Repent Harlequin…”, I was unprepared for a story as poignant, emotional, and sublime as this. Is this really the same writer? Ellison, showing his versatility as a storyteller, switches from wiseguy mode to sensitively tell the story of a young man in a dead-end job as a midnight convenience story manager who encounters an old man being beaten by hoods in a graveyard one night. Although he isn’t looking for friendship, the old man is so clearly lonely (he visits his wife at the cemetery all the time), that the young man lets him stay at his place out of pity. Eventually they develop a very close friendship, and both reveal very unexpected backgrounds that moves the story into a completely different direction than I was expecting. This story moved me to a surprising degree, and again proved that Ellison is too versatile a writer to be pigeon-holed.

A Boy And His Dog (1969, Nebula Winner): Here’s a story listeners are likely to either love or hate. It’s the story of Vic and Blood, the eponymous Boy and his Dog. The are a team that roves a post-apocalyptic United States where civilization has collapsed into savagery and roving gangs. The only bastions of civilization are underground shelters where pre-war society has been recreated in caricatured terms. Vic is not a sympathetic figure – he is a shallow and vicious hoodlum who seeks simply to survive, kill rival scavengers, and track down women to rape. So are we supposed to sympathize with him? I certainly don't.

The story gets going when Vic and Blood are at a movie theatre showing vintage stag films, and among the many solo scavengers watching the film Blood informs Vic that he smells a woman. They follow her trail to a building where he corners and rapes her. Despite himself, he starts to develop feelings for her. She encourages his feelings, despite the misgivings of Blood. They then find themselves under attack from other solos who’ve tracked her as well. Eventually the girl Quilla lures him underground to Topeka, a cartoonish version of the lost middle-America. However, it turns out he’s been lured on purpose to serve as a ‘stud’ to impregnate the women there as the men there have lost the ability to do so. The sound-effects here are really great – incongruously cheerful and hokey music plays as Vic and Quilla spread death and mayhem in Topeka in their bid to escape to aboveground. When they get there, they discover that Blood is injured and starving, and Vic has to choose between his loyal dog and his newfound love.

This story was filmed in 1975 by L.Q. Jones, and features a young Don Johnson as Vic. I saw it many years ago and I think it’s meant as dystopian satire, at least I hope so because otherwise it’s a pretty unpleasant choice between the vicious hood Vic and the creepy artificial world underground. In the end neither is particularly appealing, but Ellison’s sympathies are clearly with the anarchic freedom outside and the bond between Vic and Blood. What’s more questionable is how he treats Quilla in the story, as she quickly gets over her initial rape and quickly latches onto Vic as a ticket out. It’s not a very pleasant story, but undeniably gripping. And Ellison of course invests the storytelling with such gusto that you can’t help being carried along.

Grail (1981): This is the last story in the collection, and according to Ellison’s opening intro, this is one of his favorites. In fact, he is confounded by the fact that his other more famous stories were written very rapidly, while he spent a great amount of time and research on ‘Grail’ but it never really gained a major readership.

The story itself is certainly interesting. After losing his love in a mortar attack during the Vietnam War, a man hunts across the world for ‘true love’, which she told him about in her dying words. After much travail, he discovers a means to find it – forming a pentagram and contacting a demon from the nether realms. Things get pretty strange afterward, and the demons are not what you’d expect. Finally, he finds his long sought-after grail. But once again, Ellison delivers a twist that boils down to “beware what you wish for.” Definitely an original story, though not perhaps as superior as he believes. But then it all comes down to preference.

Holy shit!

Ok!...Let's see. Where shall I begin?

I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless jumps of soft slippery matter....

Does... Holy shit! work?

A fellow reviewer on goodreads posted a review of this short story. I read a ton of reviews, and although many are quite intriguing, I do not find myself drawn or beckoned to read them.

This story is many things. Suffocating misery. Delicious torture. Frustrating envy of monkey sized penis lust.

His monkey-like face was crumbled up in an expression of beatific delight and sadness, all at the same time.

Creation. Immortality seeking death. Holier than thou god complex with a brilliant twist of extreme perversion.

Hot, cold, hail, lava, boils or locusts-it never mattered: the machine masturbated and we had to take it or die.

I thought of it as a him, in the masculine ... the paternal ... the patriarchal ... for he is a jealous people. Him. It. God as a Daddy of Deranged.

Five creators of a machine that (or would it be proper to say who as the machine is now a who? Hmm...) has destroyed the human race, snatching those five and keeping them for his own little sadistic pleasure. I have read a lot of twisted shit...

Wandering desolate lands with inserted thoughts of hope and food, those five left to survive a profoundly degradation that lasts over one hundred years. One hundred years of hiking towards food you believe is awaiting your arrival, only to find putrified feces or canned of foods without a can opener. Which would you find worse?

This book is positively phenomenal. Their suffering was arousing and incredible in every essence of the word.

My mind was a roiling tinkling chittering softness of brain parts that expanded and contracted in quivering frenzy.

I recommend this book to ... I suppose replacing "Santa won't visit bad children" with this book and saying... "This is what happens if you don't clean your room" would work? HA!

Ok seriously...

I recommend this book to ... *thinks* ... I recommend this book to those who feel as if their life is falling apart, to those who believe that it could never get any worse... To those who boo fkn hoo all the damned time and invite others into a pity party of pathetic wowness.

I recommend this book to those with a brain who are willing to explore a world of pain, suffering and ironic creation, control and passion.

Extreme descriptive violence, torture and many other beautiful things that I would give my right leg to avoid ...

Line of the book:

There was an eternity beat of soundless anticipation.

Holy hellsticks, Batman.

Review to come.

This short story was the title of the first anthology of Ellison's that I ever read. I can't recall any more if it had any of the same stories, but I'm fairly sure all weren't the same.

Here's the TOC from the Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voi...
Introduction to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (1967) (Hugo Award winner)
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (1965) (Nebula award winner)(Hugo Award Winner)
The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke (1996)
Laugh Track (1984)
The Time of the Eye (1959)
The Very Last Day of a Good Woman (1958)
Paladin of the Lost Hour (1985)
A Boy and His Dog (1969) (Nebula Award winner)
Grail (1981)

I really liked all the award winning stories. The others were iffy; some excellent, others OK, & one just sucked. If you've read any of his stories, you'll already know how some just go to the heart while others miss by a mile. He's that sort of writer. If you haven't read him, this is a good place to start - on paper - & you owe it to yourself. He is a true master of the short story.

Produced by Stefan Rudnicki, one of my favorite audio book narrators, & read by the author himself, I thought I'd enjoy this a lot more. I'd give it 4 stars. It's great hearing the author give voice & emotion to his own stories. Ellison's voice isn't my favorite, but quite serviceable. Unfortunately, Ellison is a loose cannon & his reading reflects that. He whispers, yells, & screams. Listening through the car speakers was awful. I couldn't hear the whispers & then would get blown away by the screams. Just earbuds wasn't quite as bad. With ear protection over the ear buds, it was still rough going, but better. I've never worked the volume control as often as I did with this book, though. I HAD to. It was actually painful at times, so I'm taking away a star.

Originally posted at FanLit.
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

Probably everyone who knows anything about Harlan Ellison knows he’s a jerk (please don’t sue me, Mr. Ellison). I had to consciously put aside my personal opinion of the man while listening to him narrate his audiobook I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1. I was disgusted by some of these stories, but I have to admit that even though I suspect Ellison delights in trying to shock the reader with his various forms of odiousness (mostly having to do with sex), the stories in this collection are all well-crafted, fascinating, and Ellison’s narration just may be the best I’ve ever heard. Here are the stories:

“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” — (1967, IF: Worlds of Science Fiction) Harlan Ellison spends the introduction to I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1, arrogantly expressing his annoyance that this titular story, which he dashed off in one draft during a single evening, has been so well received while “Grail,” his favorite story, which took him many hours of research, is almost unknown. I think “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” is so popular because it’s so gut-wrenchingly horrible in exactly the right way. This is the story of AM, a supercomputer that has become conscious and resents not being able to break free from its programming. To take revenge upon humanity, AM has killed off all but five humans and made them essentially immortal while he constantly tortures them by creating a hellish virtual reality for them to live in. I will never forget some of the imagery in this story. It’s both horrible and wonderful at the same time. I loved it, though I could have done without the occasional loud electronic sound effects in this audio version. “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” won the Hugo Award in 1968.

“‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” — (1965, Galaxy Science Fiction) This story, which won both a Hugo and Nebula Award, is a social satire with an interesting premise: what if everyone was charged for the time they were late or caused others to be late? The currency? Minutes off your lifespan. “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” was also written in only a few hours. I thought it was a little silly and the whole thing seemed too obvious to me, but maybe that’s just because I’ve read too much Philip K. Dick.

“The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke” — (1996, Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor Quarterly) A man who was one of the Nazis at Auschwitz is walking in the woods when he’s accosted by a woman with a gun. This very short tale is a revenge story with a supernatural twist.

“Laugh Track” — (1984, Weird Tales) A TV writer tells the story of how he’s been hearing his dead aunt’s distinctive cackling on the laugh tracks of stupid sitcoms for years, and even in live studio audiences. Eventually he solves the mystery. As the story unfolds, Ellison takes the opportunity to rail against insipid Hollywood writing, getting downright nasty in parts. (Harlan Ellison has plenty of experience writing for television.) Those familiar with sitcoms from the 60s and 70s may feel nostalgic about this one. I think I loved the science fiction element best. All of Ellison’s narration has been superb, but this story really highlights what a great storyteller he is. He doesn’t read the text exactly (I checked) but changes it slightly to make it sound better, even adding the occasional groans, chuckles, sighs, snorts, sound effects and such:

"…abruptly, out of nowhere — out of nowhere! — I heard — huh! Ha! — my Aunt Babe clearing her throat, as if she were getting up in the morning. I mean, that.. that phlegmy [hawking sound effects here]… that throat-clearing that sounds like quarts of yogurt being shoveled out of a sink."

“The Time of the Eye” — (1959, The Saint Detective Magazine) Two lonely people in an insane asylum befriend each other. At first this seems like a sweet story, perhaps a romance. At first….

“The Very Last Day of a Good Woman” — (1958, Rogue) A 40 year old man realizes that the world is about to end and decides he doesn’t want to die a virgin. While reading this story I thought to myself “I bet this was published in Playboy because it has no value other than titillation.” (Not that I have ever read an issue of Playboy, but I have read some stories originally published there.) It turns out I was wrong. It wasn’t Playboy, but its competitor Rogue which was once edited by Harlan Ellison.

“Paladin of the Lost Hour” — (1985, Universe 15) After Billy Kinetta saves Gaspar, an old man who’s being mugged, Gaspar insinuates himself into Billy’s life. Both of them are alone in the world and both have their secrets, regrets, and a lot of emotional pain. Billy finds himself opening up to Gaspar and eventually learns that Gaspar is more than he seems. This sweet story made me cry. It won a Hugo Award and is the basis for an episode of The New Twilight Zone.

“A Boy and His Dog” — (1969, New Worlds) I was disgusted, yet fascinated, by this story. Reading it was sort of like gawking at a car wreck or a mangled animal in the road. It’s a post-apocalyptic story about a boy named Vic and his dog Blood who share a telepathic bond. They live above ground on the ruined Earth, always hunting for food to eat and girls to rape, murdering whoever gets in the way. When they find and follow a girl who’s come up from the civilized bunker below ground, a lot of trouble ensues and Vic and Blood’s bond is tested. I loved the setting and the telepathic dog, but Vic is one of the most horrid people I’ve ever met in a book. Ellison’s characterization of the girl and the way she reacts to being raped by Vic is totally off. In some ways, it feels like this story was written by a hyped up 14 year old. I was repulsed by “A Boy and His Dog” and I’m pretty sure my lip was curled in disgust the entire time I listened, but the story and the narration is brilliant. “A Boy and His Dog” won the Nebula Award in 1970. Ellison wrote more stories about Vic and Blood and, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll probably take a look at those someday.

“Grail” — (1981, Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine) This is the story that Ellison is so enamored of. It tells the tale of Christopher Caperton who is searching for True Love. As she was dying, Christopher’s most recent girlfriend told him that True Love is an object, like the Holy Grail, and that she’s been searching for it for years, so she gives her knowledge to Christopher and he continues the search. This involves magic and demon summonings, lots of money, and many years of travel, but eventually Christopher discovers where it is. There’s an ironic lesson at the end of this story. It’s at once depressing and hopeful. I liked it.

Summarizing my feelings about I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1 is difficult. There’s an awful lot to like in this story collection. Some of these stories were unforgettable and there were one or two I loved, or almost loved. Most, if not all of them, were also crude, nasty, and disgusting in parts. All of them were wonderfully narrated. If you’re a fan of Harlan Ellison’s stories, you absolutely must hear him read them himself. If you haven’t tried Ellison, this is the perfect starter collection.

Interesting note: As I was writing this review, the mailman delivered advanced review copies of two new Harlan Ellison story collections that will be published by Subterranean Press later this year. When I opened the package, my stomach kind of turned. I was both excited and revolted at the same time. I’ve never had such mixed feelings about books before. I’m still not sure whether or not I’ll read them.

Incredible experience! I will never read anything by Ellison again. I will only listen to him reading.

Ah, Harlan "You're all stealing my ideas, I'm going to sue!" Ellison. Along with George R. R. Martin, he is in the "angry authors who seem to hate their readers" club. Ellison does things like writing a story for the sole purpose of killing characters that fans love so that they will stop bothering him about writing about them.

So, anyway, this collection was a big hit or miss with me. I loved "I Have no Mouth", really liked "Grail", and thought "A Boy and His Dog" was ok, and tried really hard not to fall asleep during everything else.

The problem with Harlan Ellison is that everything he writes reads like a "Twilight Zone" episode (he did a bit of writing for the show, and "Paladin" was actually made into an episode of the '80s incarnation). All of the stories have a strange premise and a weird twist at the end. This works a few times, but by the time I was halfway through this collection, I had long since stopped being shocked or surprised. I think Ellison's stories probably work best in smaller doses rather than an entire collection at once.

I recently read some old pulp that Ellison had done at the start of his career and, even though it was basically "kinky trash" that he churned out to make a buck, I liked that collection a lot more than this one.

My god. Perfection. Truly, I love it so much, this mam has such way with words I've never experienced. Despite being short, the ending didn't feel rushed , but organic

OK I've read everything Harlan Ellison has ever written but hearing him read his own work was amazing. His machine gun mind is on full display here. He sprays the words faster than you can read them and it gives the stories a frenetic tension that I loved. In places the words seem to attack you and you get an even better sense of just what an phenomenal mind this man had.

Even if you know his work well, LISTEN TO THIS AUDIOBOOK. It will give you a renewed appreciation for one of the best writers of his generation.

to bylo za mocne na moja psyche.

I liked a number of the stories in this Audiobook, though Ellison’s voice was not very well suited to most of them. The stories set in the present worked, his ‘expressive curmudgeon’ style of delivery worked. The ones with more unique settings, fantastical or futuristic, not so much. The stories themselves impressed me a bit less than I might have guessed based on the esteem Ellison’s work is held in. A pretty good collection, though I feel only one or two of these were stories I’d be interested in reading or listening to ever again.

Pretty good book which suffers from the fact that I have read the two main stories in this collection, I Have no Mouth And I Must Scream and "Repent Harlequin", Said the Ticktock Man. About 30 times each. Even so, Ellison is one of the great deranged lunatic geniuses in the history of literature and any time he reads his stories himself, you can be sure it will be entertaining.

The author has quite a distinct style - puts a lot of emphasis on describing the grotesque. Often uses long lists of adjectives towards a scene or a character that just goes on and on. I can appreciate the clever use of comparisons here and there, however, as a whole the topics of fiction in these stories are not my cup of tea.

This is an audio book of Harlan Ellison reading his short stories. Fantastic! He reads as though he was actually telling the story. Fast, slow, loud, mumbled.

While I can’t say I liked each story - especially the more grotesque parts - he is undeniably a master of the genre.

Harlan Ellison was known as a lot of things in his lifetime. A self-taught writer, a staunch humanitarian, a crotchety old shit with a bad temper, impossible to work with, trademarked his own name, the list goes on. But for me, Ellisons stories went a long way to influencing my own writing style. Before that China Mieville and H.P Lovecraft were my main influences but it was Ellison who showed me you can pair flowery prose with a brisk, no-nonsense style.

The Voice from the Edge Volume 1 was my first exposure to Ellison's work and while not all of the stories are AWESOME SHOW GOOD JOB levels of awesome, they're engaging enough that a number of them are still my favourites.

I have no Mouth and I must Scream: Throughout WW3, the three big superpowers constructed supercomputers to run the war. Until the day they merged to form AM. Now, 109 years into the future in a nightmarish wasteland, the last five humans, made immortal by AM, live in a perpetual state of torture and misery.
Ellison's most well known work is also one of his bleakest. The entire story has a kind of magical nightmare quality to it, AM's world feels at times like a hideous version of Oz with AM as the Wizard/Wicked witch. The five humans are somewhat barebones but we get enough of who they are to get a feel for the depths of their misery, although Nimdok and Gorrister I reckon got the least of the lot. That's because AM really is the star here and you feel his presence throughout the whole story. Some of the bits and bobs feel a little dated, but it isn't enough for me to ruin the whole story. And then there's this:

Repent Harlequin, Said the Tick-Tock Man: In a dystopic future slightly akin to 1984, the world runs on a strict time schedule where everything has its own time and place and nothing is spontaneous or out-of-place. Until the Harlequin steps in and starts causing trouble.
I got the impression that Ellison was channelling a little of 1984 in this one, albeit with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour. The Harlequin isn't some criminal mastermind; he's just a ordinary bloke who fucks about for shits and giggles in addition to upsetting the status quo. The writing for this story is very crisp and flavourful, filled with time-related nods to flesh out the world and give the reader enough of an idea of what the world is like. The ending is a little....odd. I don't know how to describe it without spoilers and if anyone knows what the ending is meant to be, let me know.

The TIme of the Eye: Set in a psychiatric hospital, the main character is a bitter war veteran who meets a blind woman who calls herself Peretta. Over the course of the story, he finds himself drawn to her until the shocking and unsettling conclusion.
This one shows that Ellison was never afraid to branch out into different genres. While the previous two were Sci-fi and horror, this one is more of a domestic drama/thriller. The main character - who only ever goes by a false name - is a bitter, self-loathing bloke with more than a few chips on his shoulder and mainly acts as the surrogate for the reader. Peretta is the main draw here and right from the get-go, Ellison writes her in an unsettling way. There's always something off about her, from her mannerisms, to her speech, to her actions and right at the end it all comes crashing down in a way that was foreshadowed heavily but still felt shocking.

Laugh Track: Angelo is a script-writer working in Hollywood. He hates it there, mainly because his boss, Bill Tidy, is your typical Hollywood exec with about as much creative juice as a vomit milkshake. Except one day, he comes upon something that will change his life. Something related to an old laugh-track and his dear departed Aunt Babe.
In this whole anthology, this story is probably my favourite. It's primarily a light-hearted comedy piece that nevertheless is filled with dry barbs levelled at the creative deadheads in the Hollywood industry. You get the impression that Ellison was channelling some of his inner disdain for those very same dumbfucks he had to deal with himself. Angelo is a decently sympathetic lead whose goals you want to root for, even in the face of a braindead arsewipe like Bill Tidy. And when we finally hear from Aunt Babe, whose personality and tits have been sung to the high heavens, Ellison writes her in a way that immediately makes her likeable.

The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke: A former Auschwitz employee meets his end at the hands of one who seeks revenge, but in the way you might think.
This is a quick revenge tale but once again Ellison takes a familiar concept and twists it in a subtle way. Quick, razor sharp and simple, not the greatest short piece I've read but engaging and interesting if for a quick five minute skim.

The Very Last Day of a Good Woman: Arthur Fullbright is a partial clairvoyant. He sometimes gets snippets of the future and one day he sees the end of the world. But Arthur is not a hero. He's just a man and he wants one thing before the end of the world. He wants to have sex, not die a virgin.
In the hands of any other writer, this sort of scenario would become some bombastic action-hero plot or some grim hardened survival drama. Ellison takes the road less travelled and makes it a simple story about a simple man. Arthur isn't this:

....or this....

He's this:

Albeit without the building temper and pyromania...

And that's what makes his quest for one final shag all the more meaningful. He's socially awkward, meek and desperate, but he's also genuinely sincere, polite and determined and never crosses that line that would outright turn him into a villain. And by the end when he finally does do the deed, his final moments feel earned and almost pleasant.....

.....except, you know, for the world turning into a cinder.

Paladin of the Lost Hour: Billy Kincaid is at his local funeral when he sees an old man being attacked by a trio of teenage dipshits. When he intervenes, the old man - Gaspar - rewards him with a place to crash and a meal. But Gaspar isn't any ordinary old man. He's a keeper of something very important. Something that he must pass on.
I don't know what it is about this story that doesn't grab me, but this is one of the lesser stories on my list. The premise is indeed interesting - that title isn't just for show - and the characters are engaging. But I think the problem for me is that neither of them are as interesting as some from the previous stories. Billy for the most part is the reader surrogate with Gaspar being the instigator of the plot. But so much of the plot is spelled out in an infodump of which we never really see the effects. The "Lost Hour" as the title implies is interesting in concept but never really feels organic to the story. I dunno, maybe a reread is in order but for now, not at the top of the list.

A Boy and his Dog: Vic and his telepathic dog Blood are prowling the wasteland looking for a piece of arse. They take a break at a local movie theater run by one of the gangs. While there, Blood sniffs out a girl. And that girl is going to be trouble.
Probably the second most well-known of Ellison's work - because of the movie based on it - A Boy and his Dog is right up there being one of my favourite works. Ellison constructs the world of the story in an organic way, by giving the reader enough info through wasteland lingo, background details and Vic and Blood's characters to understand what a bleak shitty world this is. And when I mean shitty, it is a septic tank filled with week old curry diarrhea level of shitty. Make no mistake, Vic and Blood are not good guys. Vic's a brute, who will get what he wants however he wants it. And Blood is no better. But its the dynamic between them that reminds us that even in shitty circumstances, we still love our dogs.

Grail: Christopher Capperton has spent much of his life pining for his lost love. But now he's seeking the Grail, the chalice that will grant him a single wish.
In his foreword for this anthology, Ellison remarked how this was one of his favourite stories while "I have no Mouth..." is better publically known. And while this story is indeed well written, I think I can see why. The story itself is very beautifully written albeit with a plot that is both simple but engaging. Capperton seeks out the Grail, he enacts a complicated rite involving an ancient Sumerian demon of locks, the wish carries out, a monkey's paw style ending. I think the problem however is that unlike "I have no Mouth..." nothing about Grail stands out from the crowd. Capperton is a sympathetic character, a sad lonely man with no-one in his life, but he's no AM. His journey is admirable but lost love doesn't hold much of a candle compared to a desperate tale of survival.
And the ending didn't help things. Maybe it's just me. Maybe my brain has shrunk too much from all the times I spent huffing brake fluid and tsetse fly extract but the ending to Grail felt a wee bit too abstract and weird for all the domestic drama/supernatural fantasy buildup. But ultimately, I think that was its major failing. A good story let down by the others around it.

So yeah, that's Volume 1 of The Voice from the Edge. A pretty good bunch of stories, well above the typical bunch of randomised pick-and-mix I usually get from an anthology series. A few standouts, a few lesser ones but no real flubs or shithouse rats.
Now Volume 2.....that's one a little more.....divisive.

One of the most messed-up books I've ever read (or listened to in this case). All because of a video essay on YouTube of someone talking about the most messed-up villain in fiction, AM.
Genuinely thought, to be writing about a sentient AI in 1966 and it seeming like we approach the day where that may be a possibility... Haunting.

Ridiculously haunting. I want more!

yeah this seems like something you tiktok edgelords would like

Reading alongside the audiobook is chilling.

If it wasn't for the title story -- an excellent story -- I would write Ellison off completely. The only other approaching that quality here is A Boy and His Dog. So, a bad selection?; he wrote a lot of stuff. But I'm not encouraged to delve any further. The problem with most of these stories is a paucity of imagination -- something I often find with urban fantasy. The usual parade of schlock is here, all the ingredients of Hollywood movies and the trashy novels they're based on: satanic cults, Satan himself, show business, 'Nam, Nazis. There is a humane, American, feeling that is appealing, particularly as it comes through in Ellison's own voice, obviously spectacularly in the title story, but it's not enough elsewhere. Only in the title story was he able to successfully counterpoint his twin themes of personal and collective destruction.
The two promising stories, “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman, and A Boy and his Dog are marred by silliness. The latter has some scenes that cause pause for thought, but it is does not seem to me worth analysing.
It's funny when writers are so wrong about their own work, in the face of overwhelming public opinion. Ellison though that The Grail was a better story than I Have No Mouth ....

What a great collection of Ellison! His stories never fail to make you think. I've been a H.E. fan for years, and decided to go back to re-read his works. I'm SO glad I did. After about 30 years, one tends to forget the subtleties of short stories. And, for the most part, the stories in this compilation DO stand up to the test of time - being mostly about universal human foibles. (Okay - sure, there are some dated references, but they are minor, and easily allowed!) So it is no wonder that so much of his work has been made into television shows or movies - OR, that he has written so much specifically for visual media. And, as an extra treat, I listened to the audiobook version, and it was read by Harlan Ellison himself. There was a brief intro to put a few of the stories into perspective - then BAM - full-on Harlan! What better way to get yourself into the (twisted? complex! disturbed?) mind of Harlan Ellison than by having him read the stories they way they bump around inside his head! I look forward to listening to the other volumes in this series ("The Voice from the Edge"). Good stuff!

A wonderful collection from the single most stirring author of the 20th century, read in his inimitable style, enthusiasm and love for the craft of writing.
One caveat: "Fantastic Audio" certainly doesn't live up to their name. The CDs were taken from poorly recorded analog tape and the hiss is annoying. Have to turn the treble waaaay down to compensate and you can still hear it. However, the stories and Harlan's performances are, as ever, striking.

I was really just looking to reread 'I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream' but I was pleasantly surprised by the rest of these. Harlan Ellison is always surprising in his originality. From the idea that spirits can be trapped in recorded laugh tracks in a sort of purgatory, to a future where dogs and their owners have psychic linkages and there are sterile underground dwellers. I enjoyed all of it. It's like Philip K Dick but without all the religious overtones.

Audiolibro ascoltato su youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmQXl...

Bravo narratore, con il giusto senso di pathos e fatalità nei toni.

Racconto eccezionale, di quelli che ti colpiscono, ti segnano, ti rimangono impressi, come un buco nel cervello con all'interno un monolito d'acciaio: il mondo è finito, l'umanità distrutta, solo 5 persone sono ancora vive e abitano sotto la superficie del pianeta in balìa di un super computer che li tortura in ogni modo.

From a voice-acting point of view this was incredible! He really lived the characters and brought them to life. By far the best performance I've heard. The bad part is that most of the stories were just "meh". About three were really good. Very worth the listening though thanks to the authors performance as the reader.

I don't think I've read anything by Harlan Ellison in 25 years and was pleasantly surprised the find that his material held up very well. The stories are written very well, are violent, tragic and subversive by turn and have a tremendous range of emotional depth (something not usually expected in science fiction). Very nice.

This is some of Harlan Ellison's best stories, narrated by the author himself.

I have read many of these stories previously, but hearing the author himself read them, they take on a whole new meaning.

I'm looking forward to listening to more in this series.