Angry Candy

by Harlan Ellison

Other authorsBenno Friedman (Cover artist)

Hardcover, 1988

Status

Available

Call number

PS3555.L62 A87

Genres

Publication

Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston, 1988). 1st trade edition, 1st printing. 324 pages. $18.95.

Description

"Don't be alarmed, folks! He can't break those shackles -- they're forged of chrome-steel!" -- Penultimate words of Carl Denham. Winner of the World Fantasy Award for best short story collection, this volume by one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century takes an intense look at how the specter of death haunts everyday life. Seventeen astonishing tales include the Hugo Award-winning novelette "Paladin of the Lost Hour" and "Soft Monkey," winner of the 1988 Edgar Allan Poe Award for short story fiction. This edition includes a new Introduction by actor/comedian Patton Oswalt. Harlan Ellison has written and published 120 books and has been lauded by sources as impressive as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, which noted, "It is long past time to call Harlan Ellison the twentieth-century Mark Twain." His name is a Registered Trademark and impassioned praise comes to him from Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, and Dean Koontz. Online (harlanellisonbooks.com) and a laudatory YouTube site put up by Ellison's celebrity friends has over 1,000,000 hits on his "Pay the Writer" shout-out. You could look him up: he can't break those shackles.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member TadAD

This isn't Ellison's best, in my opinion, but it's still good reading.

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LibraryThing member Lyndatrue

I wept when I first read the introduction, since many of the deaths he referred to were still fresh. Even now, it makes me sad. I'd like to read this again, some day, but for now, it still hurts.

LibraryThing member DanielAlgara

I am awed, inspired and a little disappointed. Whoever reads this will be most attracted by the last description–but wait, there's more.

Harlan Ellison is one of the finest story tellers that has ever lived. No arguments. I'll not entertain them. His metaphors and colorations are so unique and

strange that his ability to transport a reader into a scene is nothing less than immersive. The stories I read here were tight, at times intellectual, at times challenging, at times humorous with a pinch of gross. Stories like 'The Paladin of the Lost Hour' were so believable one might go a looking for the current holder of that arcane pocket watch. The story 'Broken Glass' was a master class in the art of story, character, and setting. Readers who found no pleasure in this collection of important works are either put off by Ellison's reputation as an asshole, or lack the intelligence to read with a "critical eye". It's not often I'll knock someone's opinion as founded on idiocy, but if you like fiction and didn't like this collection, there's something wrong and it's not the book.

Having gushed a bit, there are problems. Ellison's characters are always intelligent and have a rather authorial way of noticing things. Now, this is just his style, which is fine, but far too many narratives give way to authorial intrusion and Ellison at times wishes us to note how great a writer he is. Which we all understand, but perhaps his characters should remain in the dark on the matter. This complaint is petty, but I must counter a gush with a slam lest I be accused of the old "sack-riding" epithet. I don't ride scrotums, certainly not to gain favor with any group of people who think they're literary critics, but I do like Ellison's work. I'm not a critic. I'm a dude.

Now that that is settled, I have one more minor complaint. Actually it's a big one and it is closely related to the previous complaint: Far too often Ellison likes to tell us what his politics are. This to me is not OK. It robs the story and ALWAYS stops it cold. We all get it, Ellison's a big liberal and he hates republicans. This is fine, but when it crops up it feels so forced and blatant that it turns me off to the story. Not because the hero is always a liberal (which is always the case) but because I feel like Ellison is creeping in on the story I'm trying to enjoy. Granted, he is subtle and quick about it, but I HATE it when religious authors do it and I would like to think Harlan is above that preacher-as-author nonsense.

It's a five. Don't argue, just read it. You'll be entertained and a better thinker for it.

That was a good review...nailed it.

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LibraryThing member LisaMorr

This collection of 18 short stories is centered on the theme of death. Ellison writes a great introduction and I really enjoyed a lot of these stories. My favorites were Paladin of the Last Hour, The Region Between, Chained to the Fast Lane in the Red Queen's Race and The Function of Dream Sleep.

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