Shatterday [Paperback]

The book opens with one of his most well-known stories, "Jeffty is Five." It concerns a child who not only stops aging, but who exists in a kind of temporal stasis with regards to his perception of the world. In other words, the world as it was continues on as such, even though it has moved into the future for everyone else. I found it to be largely an exercise in nostalgia.

"How's the Night Life on Cissalda?" is an uncharacteristically silly story about sexually voracious aliens. It is outrageous, hilarious, and merciless in its satire.

"Would You Do It For A Penny?" is a fascinating study of an expert manipulator who plies his psychological trade on vulnerable women.

A radio call-in show becomes a medium for spreading demonic gospel. An man's thirst to right a wrong alters the reality of others, while another's builds gradually, rising to the surface and emerging as a murderous personality, many years later. A man who has wasted his life finds himself in a limbo specially reserved for such sinners. All the women in a man's life return to him one by one, leading to an inevitable and terrifying confrontation. A woman desperately searches for escape from the world. A man who has always given of himself at last learns to take what he needs to truly live. A writer learns that a person's death does not always free you from him. And we finally find out what the deal is with those odd magical curio shops that always turn up in fantasy fiction.

The title story, and the last in this collection, is about a man who finds himself split in two and helpless as his other self gradually takes over his life. I still remember this as the premiere episode of the 1980s Twilight Zone series.

Preceding each entry is an introduction in which Ellison talks about the inspirations and circumstances that led to its creation. While these are always interesting, occasionally they give a little too much away, making parts of some stories seem contrived. Many of them would have been more appropriate as afterwords. I actually would suggest reading the stories first in most cases.

Ellison's habit of exercising his own demons does, however, lead to some tiresome bitterness in some stories. The overrated "Jeffty is Five" has won awards as a touching treatise on the loss of childhood innocence, but I find it to be little more than a tirade of cranky things-ain't-like-they-used-to-be nostalgia. The novella "The Lies That Are My Life" is little more than Ellison complaining (symbolically, of course) about his poor relations with other hot-headed writers. But despite those two troublesome entries, this collection is still a powerhouse of Ellison's highly unique and biting brand of speculative fiction. Some great not-so-personal selections add to the book's success, such as an unusual take on war and the human spirit in "Django," the bizarre sci-fi comedy "How's the Night Life on Cissalda," and the PKD-like future dystopia tale "The Executioner of the Malformed Children." You can't categorize Ellison, but you can surely be moved by his unique visions. [~doomsdayer520~]