The best way to describe Harlan Ellison’s prose would be “lyrical.” This short collection of stories varies from from a hopeless, post-apocalyptic landscape to the a contemporary California in an emotional spiral after his divorce. Just describing the plot likely won’t hook you. It’s Ellison’s words that do all the heavy lifting in his stories. This collection of stories was published in the late 1960s and Ellison’s views on women tend to reflect this. But this shouldn’t let it deter you from reading one of the masters of speculative science fiction.
Harlan Ellison is an author that Stephen King recommends a lot. I’ve been meaning to read him for years. Is this collection a good way to start?
Since this is the first Ellison I’ve ever read it’s hard to say if anything else would be better. This is a pretty solid collection with some varied stories so…yes?