I have seen countless interviews with Harlan Ellison, and am convinced he is putting on an act, like all the crazed writers we knowingly worship, or still worship. Like James Ellroy, the act puts kind of a distance between the fans of the writer, and the writer’s emotional fragility, and it comes out looking like they are real overbearing assholes who are so mean to their everyday fan, you can’t help but feel that they see them as lesser beings. It is behavior that is supposed to enhance the quality of their books, or how people view them, which is a shame, because these stories in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, when they are good, don’t need any of Ellison’s bullshit antics. They work on many different levels, and even the stories that somewhat go over my head with the science fiction jargon, still have a kernel of reality to them, as well as tons and tons of heart. The title story really is good enough to warrant an RPG game. The story of a super computer wiping out all of existence with the exception of five people, which it proceeds to torture mercilessly for hundreds of years, packs quite a wallop, with an ending both noble in its view of self-sacrifice and horrifying in its implications. The middle stories don’t have as much power, but that is coming from a non-Sci-Fi fan (and for someone so adamant about copyright and the stealing of others work, “World of Myth is eerily similar to an old Twilight Zone episode). The last story “Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes” is a cool yarn about a haunted slot machine, which, again, is pretty creepy towards the end. If you can find the collection cheap, get it. It is worth it to read these tales from a master storyteller, despite the asshole writing them.
Rating: 4/5
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