Greatest Hits (Herald Classics)

This book saved me. From a lot of things. Things like being beyond tired of movies and television and streaming content. It saved me from brain rot and a feeling of intellectual zombie-fication. It saved me from continuing to follow all the other lemmings off the thought cliff that is modern entertainment. I'm writing this about eighteen months after buying it. Looking back on that I don't know how I never was introduced to Harlan Ellison's writing, but I resent and regret the fact that I wasn't. I'm making up for it now. Since buying and reading this I've gone on to buy a long list of his books which I continue to work thru. As far as this volume goes I can honestly say it made me think, laugh, get angry, think harder and even shed a tear. What more can you ask a writer to do for you? An enthralling, enriching and worthwhile experience. Something our internet connected devices mostly fail to deliver because they seek to drain you; of time, a sense of purpose and individual identity and in doing so, all hope as well. This book does the exact opposite. These stories are best when read over and again. Any one of them can easily be enjoyed in a single sit down, but they invite you to return and challenge you to think on them again. Read one with morning coffee. Go mow the lawn while you mull it over. Then read it again. I can now confidently confirm this is an excellent introduction to anyone who hasn't read him yet. Great job by the editor Michael Straczynski who I feel indebted to for getting this book out in the public and on shelves where it's incredible cover art can grab people's attention and hopefully get them to the checkout. It's very nicely produced, well made and should hold up over time thru the many re-reads it deserves. My copy is a a year and a half old and a 6th printing so it seems to be doing well. A hardcover edition is on the way due in October 2026 so it must be. If this is the only book you buy and read this year, make it this one. Buy a copy for a friend as well, because you're going to be dying to talk to someone "real" about it. If it's your first introduction prepare to be a lot of things, sometimes all at once, and prepare to be angry that you never read him before because for some reason the world is a really dumb place most of the time.

Harlan Ellison is a legend, not just for his extraordinary body of work, but also for his electric personality. And that power and passion is all over the page in this matchless collection of his work. None of these tales have lost one iota of impact in the decades since they were originally published. Every single one is as fresh as the day it was written, even while giving us a bit of a time machine into the social mores of decades past when Harlan was on the edge of everything. There are the crown jewels of his literary life such as “‘Repent, Harlequin,’ Said the Ticktockman”, a dystopian, terrifying look into a future - well, maybe our present, I'm afraid - and what happens when the clockwork engine of technology rolls right over our humanity, and then there are humorous gems such as "Djinn, No Chaser", a delightful and slightly goofy magical tale of a genie, a bottle, a young couple, and all the Jewish jokes you can cram into a short story. I cannot recommend this enough. It is as close to meeting Harlan Ellison you will ever get, and if anyone deserves literary immortality, it is this man. Enjoy.

A solid compilation of some of the best stories from a man who wrote over 1,700 of them in his lifetime. Yes, they're all short stories, but some of them manage to be heavy enough that you need time to digest and you're not going to be reading all of it in one sitting. I've been trying to read this book for about a month now, on my lunch breaks at work, and I'm still not done. In any case, once you read this, you'll see why so many other writers from various forms of media were so heavily influenced by Harlan Ellison, even if before this point you and everyone you know have never even heard of the man before. Just be aware of going into this, Harlan Ellison was a product of his time, very outspoken about every cause he was involved in, and the characters in his stories reflect that. Some characters can be very sympathetic, while others are very very easy to hate. Just remember that the emotions you feel are the intention of the story. Harlan Ellison had a lot to say about a lot of things, and love him or hate him, you cannot deny the man was a literary force.

A lot of the problems with this box of CD's are obviously endemic to the Hard Copy Audio-Book industry, and can wait till after I discuss the good points. 1- A collection of H.E.'s most awarded stories, designed with variety and new readers in mind. They have scoured 40 years of archives to provide a number of these stories read by the author! The audio quality and recording style will vary therefore. Harlan's style fairly jumps off of the page, but is rarely captured by professional readers. NOBODY reads an Ellison story as well as Harlan did. These readers seem more carefully selected here than usual, do a better job, and seem selected, in part, for racial/gender sensitivity to stories written in a voice *clearly*other than HE's own. That being said, "I'm Looking for Kadak" has to be played on at least 1.5X speed to get the performance authentically. 2- Contains 2 Bonus Tracks and some story commentary from Harlan that were from the original recordings. BONUS! - "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin" - “The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World” 3- STRANGELY, it differs from the Audible version! The version on CD, has more of Harlan reading than professional readers. The Audible version (for example) has a different reader on "How's the Nightlife on Cissalda?" Probably because the recording of Harlan, live at what was probably a college, is of poor technical quality, but is AMAZINGLY performed. 4- It contains very influential stories and observations about the human condition that vary from insightful, experimental, heart wrenching, hysterical to bleakest despair. Although not every one is a favorite, and some are of their time, it is a great collection for the reader unfamiliar with his work. Which makes these CD's a bit of a disappointment, that I will add an extra star to recommend. THE PRODUCT ITSELF: The packaging is SO BAD that it MUST be industry standard to get away with it! A stack of numbered CDs on a spindle in a clamshell with NO useful information. No BASIC INFORMATION. . . Like CONTENTS! - No "contents" list on the box, - no titles on the discs, - no insert with contents/ lists, - no track listings on the discs when loaded into a computer's media player. Just 350 or so 3 minute tracks across 14 discs - hope you bought a copy of the book to find your way through! Some of the stories are split onto different discs, so if you're not listening sequentially you have NO WAY to find the story! Especially in a collection where you really might want to skip some stories & replay others like you would songs. Imagine a music CD where every track displays "Track#". as title. A listing on the back cover would've been a reasonable workaround. Does anyone who shops for books on CD do so in a brick & mortar store? Where you might have to worry about using the back to sell the product . . . Can any of you think of a store that SELLS Audio Book CD's in person? No? Neither can I. I think that market is specialty and orders their CDs for themselves or libraries online. Which means that you don't need the back for selling the book as much as using the discs! Shame on Blackstone for dropping the ball on this. Whether this is a good buy for you or not depends on how much you spend & how much you need Harlan's recordings. All that being said, if you are a fan of Harlan Ellison, it really may be worth it just to get recordings of his readings, and hear some of the anecdotes. It was for me. Glory to Blackstone for publishing this.

Great reads

If you don’t know who Harlan Ellison is, or know but don’t know where to start, start here. Pulled from various decades these are many of his best and most well-known short stories. Leaning mostly on sci-fi and fantasy, he resembles a darker and more literary Ray Bradbury. I’m glad I got the kindle edition as I had to define several words while reading that I was unfamiliar with. Really great stories. Highly recommended.

Great gift

Worth it just for I have no mouth but I must scream.

Copertina di qualità con colori fantastici. spessore e resistenza delle pagine nella norma, stampa ben definita e leggibile. Un ottima raccolta!

Used to have a copy, really happy to find it on here. Great book, love the stories

Good quality my daughter loved this book

Excelente selección de cuentos, muy proféticos y muy perturbadores! La entrega del paquete fue muy mala eso sí y se dañó el libro

Discovered Ellison while picking up a copy of I have no mouth and I must scream for Nintendo Switch. Thought I'd read the short story - on paper - before jumping into the game. I just can't seem to put this book down(and have yet to play the game) - and got myself on out of print copy of the 19 gods series from Ellison. Great short stories... some of the best I've read. The fact the there seems to be no editing/consorship - the text is how the author ment it to be; word for word(I believe Ellison was militant about this), makes it all the more interesting! If you like short stories and don't know Harlan Ellison, do yourself a favor and pick this one up without even blinking.