Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison

First sentence:

"Tears were impossible, yet tears were his heritage."

Description:

Robert Heinlein says, "This book is raw corn liquor-- you should serve a whiskbroom with each shot so the customer can brush the sawdust off after he gets up from the floor."

Perhaps a mooring cable might also be added as necessary equipment for reading these eight wonderful stories: They not only knock you down. . . .they raise you to the stars. Passion is the keynote as you encounter the Harlequin and his nemesis, the dreaded Ticktockman, in one of the most reprinted and widely taught stories in the English language; a pyrotic who creates fire merely by willing it; the last surgeon in a world of robot physicians; a spaceship filled with hideous mutants rejected by the world that gave them birth. Touching and gentle and shocking stories from an incomparable master of impossible dreams and troubling truths."

Contents:

• Paingod
• "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
• The Crackpots
• Sleeping Dogs
• Bright Eyes
• The Discarded
• Wanted in Surgery
• Deeper Than the Darkness

My thoughts:

Disturbing, poignant, thought-provoking - all terms to describe these intense stories about pain, struggle and courage. All except "Repent, Harlequin!" were new to me and I found some new Ellison favorites in The Discarded, Bright Eyes and Wanted in Surgery.

Date read: 1/29/2008
Book #: 6
Challenge: Short Story Reading Challenge
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0441645763
ISBN-13: 9780441645763
Publisher: Ace Books
Year: 1983
# of Pages: 178
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing Page