Stellar

So it's now a mere three and a half hours since I went to sleep. My sister came home after a night of drama and reiterated it, loudly, at 7:30am to her friend. It woke me up and I started listening in; by the time she was done I was completely mentally alert. So I shuffled out of bed and made the most delicious breakfast: three organic free-range eggs, two pieces of Ralph's brand (so not good) bacon, a handful of crimini mushrooms, two pieces of sourdough bread, and a cup of blood-orange soda. I'm still awake, so I might as well get on with catching up on blogging the books I've been reading.


I first heard of Harlan Ellison only last year, when he was mentioned in this fascinating article by Josh Olson, the writer of A History of Violence. Olson tells the true story of an insane internet predicament that happened to his friend; it's pretty crazy and worth the read. I looked up Ellison afterwards, and discovered that he's known mainly for his sci-fi short stories. Now, while I'm not a big sci-fi fan (it's hard to relate to characters when they're living on the planet Goober of the 62nd dimension), I happen to love short stories. How can I be adverse to something that often packs as strong a punch as a novel, but for only a fraction of the length?!

Plus, you're way more likely to find short stories posted up on a webpage somewhere, for instant gratification. Unfortunately, from my brief research, Mr. Ellison seems to have a reputation for being a bit of a pompous ass, and is very tenacious when it comes to tracking down and destroying any distributed work of his over the internet. However, he was gracious enough to share a couple of stories, Susan and Paladin of the Lost Hour. The moment I read those, I knew I had to read more. So I did more research and ordered Angry Candy, apparently his most acclaimed collection of short stories.

Like I said, I'm not a sci-fi kind of gal...but some of these tales were so beautifully rendered that the whole fantasy element didn't even detract from my enjoyment. My top three are On the Slab (so wrenching that I can't even bring myself to reread it), Paladin, and the vividly entertaining Quicktime. The weirdest shit was The Region Between; I have never encountered a short story as wacky as that one. But mostly, it's just a really well-written collection, powerfully paired with an incredible imagination. If this is sci-fi, it's good shit, and I wouldn't mind getting in on more of it.