Harlan Ellison is undoubtedly one of the most audacious, infuriating, brazen characters on the planet. Which may help explain why he is also one of the most brilliant, innovative, and eloquent writers on earth. Slippage simply presents recent, typical Ellison. In a word, masterful. The 21 stories in this 1997 collection, which is encased in black boxes, show Ellison at the height of his powers, with several of the stories (no surprise here) major award-winners. Highlights include a black mind reader who pays a visit to a white serial killer, a husband who falls prey to a vampiric personal computer, and a love affair between a young man and a woman who may be more undead than alive. Perhaps even more fascinating are the painfully candid snapshots of autobiography running throughout the volume. Even if Ellison's unsettling fictions are not enough to dazzle you, his often bizarre life experiences as an author will still keep you compulsively turning the page like a polite voyeur. --Stanley Wiater
Contents:
The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore (1992)
Anywhere but Here, with Anybody but You (1996)
Crazy as a Soup Sandwich (1989)
Darkness upon the Face of the Deep (1991)
The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change: Version 1 (1997)
The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change: Version 2 (1994)
The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke (1996)
The Museum on Cyclops Avenue (1995)
Go toward the Light (1996)
Mefisto in Onyx (1993)
Where I Shall Dwell in the Next World (1992)
Chatting with Anubis (1995)
The Few, the Proud (1989)
The Deadly "Nackles" Affair (1987) essay
Nackles (1964)
Nackles (1987)
Sensible City (1994)
The Dragon on the Bookshelf (1995) with Robert Silverberg
Keyboard (1995)
Jane Doe #112 (1990)
The Dreams a Nightmare Dreams (1997)
Pulling Hard Time (1995)
Scartaris, June 28th (1990)
She's a Young Thing and Cannot Leave Her Mother (1988)
Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral (1995)