Ellison Wonderland

Tales of terror and wonder from a winner of the Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, Bram Stoker, and many other awards. Originally published in 1962 and updated in later decades with a new introduction, Ellison Wonderland contains sixteen masterful stories from the author’s early career. This collection shows a vibrant young writer with a wide‐ranging imagination, ferocious creative energy, devastating wit, and an eye for the wonderful and terrifying and tragic. Among the gems are “All the Sounds of Fear,” “The Sky Is Burning,” “The Very Last Day of a Good Woman,” and “In Lonely Lands.” Though they stand tall on their own merits, they also point the way to the sublime stories that followed soon after and continue to come even now, more than fifty years later.

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format. With CliffsNotes on Invisible Man, you accompany a young black man in Harlem during his process of self-discovery and individuality. Through a difficult passage into manhood, author Ralph Ellison writes of the alienation of humans in everyday life, yet remains whole and optimistic. This concise supplement to Ellison's Invisible Man helps you understand the overall structure of the novel, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author. In addition to chapter-by chapter summaries and commentaries, other features include Character analyses of major players A character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the characters Critical essays on the novel's symbolism and setting, profiles of leadership, and more A review section that tests your knowledge Background of the author, including career highlights and literary influences Classic literature or modern-day treasure—you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

“An enjoyable, irascible collection” of smart and sometimes-scathing film criticism from a famously candid author (Library Journal). Everyone’s a critic, especially in the digital age—but no one takes on the movies like multiple award-winning author Harlan Ellison. Renowned both for fiction (A Boy and His Dog) and pop-culture commentary (The Glass Teat), Ellison offers in this collection twenty-five years’ worth of essays and film criticism. It’s pure, raw, unapologetic opinion. Star Wars? “Luke Skywalker is a nerd and Darth Vader sucks runny eggs.” Big Trouble in Little China? “A cheerfully blathering live-action cartoon that will give you release from the real pressures of your basically dreary lives.” Despite working within the industry himself, Ellison never learned how to lie. So punches go unpulled, the impersonal becomes personal, and sometimes even the critics get critiqued, as he shares his views on Pauline Kael or Siskel and Ebert. Ultimately, it’s a wild journey through the cinematic landscape, touching on everything from Fellini to the Friday the 13th franchise. As Leonard Maltin writes in his preface, “I don’t know how valuable it is to learn Harlan Ellison’s opinion of this film or that, but I do know that reading an Ellison essay is gong to be provocative, infuriating, hilarious, or often a combination of the above. It is never time wasted. . . . Let me assure you, Harlan Ellison is never dull.”

The Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author probes topics ranging from departed pets to Lenny Bruce and San Quentin in this provocative collection of essays. A major collection of Harlan Ellison’s incomparable, troublemaking, uncompromising, confrontational essays and newspaper columns, The Harlan Ellison Hornbook mines deep into the author’s colorful past. Failed love affairs, departed pets, a defense of comic books—in lesser hands, these subjects would be pabulum or treacle. When Harlan Ellison is behind the typewriter, the mundane becomes an all‐out intellectual brawl. Emotionally moving and verbally stimulating, these columns cannot be missed, especially Ellison’s article on controversial comedian Lenny Bruce or the chilling account of the author’s trip to visit a death row inmate in San Quentin State Prison.

Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no one in the world has slept the night before, or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same golden dream. After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead. Paul, a writer, continues to sleep while his partner Tanya disintegrates before his eyes, and the new world swallows the old one whole.