The Beast That Shouted Love At the Heart of the World [Paperback]

This is an excellent collection of Harlan Ellison's short stories, ranging in publication date from 1957 to 1969.

The book itself also contains an introduction from Neil Gaiman (from 1993) and Ellison's own introduction from March 1969. Both these are interesting in their own right (though Neil Gaiman is quite correct to point out the slightly cringe-inducing reference to grooving to Hendrix in Ellison's own introduction). Ellison, and rightly I think, decries the practice of pigeon-holing genre authors ("Golden Age" SF or "New Wave" - which Ellison found himself described as).

A lot of the stories in this book are in some ways, admittedly, very much of their time. Some of the concerns are very obviously that mankind may destroy itself in a nuclear war and so forth. Having said that though, even when some of the stories set these stories up to deliver a pay-off in the last line (in, I feel, the way that a lot of SF short stories did - I don't think that makes them less sophisticated, but I've been reading a lot of more recent anthologies lately and that doesn't seem to be something that happens *quite* so much. It's just an observation of mine - I could be wrong!) they are still enjoyable in their own right. Ellison is always an interesting and skilful writer.

The stories are:

"Introduction: The Waves in Rio"
"The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World"
"Along the Scenic Route"
"Phoenix"
"Asleep: With Still Hands"
"Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R."
"Try a Dull Knife"
"The Pitll Pawob Division"
"The Place With No Name"
"White on White"
"Run for the Stars"
"Are You Listening?"
"S.R.O."
"Worlds to Kill"
"Shattered Like a Glass Goblin"
"A Boy and His Dog"

The first Story, the titular "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World" won the Hugo for the best short story in 1969 and "A Boy and His Dog," which later became a film of the same name, was nominated in 1970 for the Hugo for best novella.

Not all are great; there are one or two that feel a little bit one note; but where it is good, it is amongst the best SF short fiction published. The two stories mentioned above, fo example are worthy of their accolades ("A Boy and His Dog" being an excellent, grim, piece of post-apolayptic SF). There are also some good-humoured stories in this: "Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R." being a case in point. Though there's a Spiro Agnew joke that I *think* I got from a little knowledge of that history and context...

I bought this novel to read A boy and his dog.

A boy and his dog is an interesting story. However, the story is short and the rest of the stories are not as engaging. I feel I could have written some of them when I was in puberty and regret the purchase.