collected
Fiction · Short Stories · Speculative Fiction · Science Fiction
About 3 h 15 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 7 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
Five people remain alive on a future Earth destroyed by a military computer that keeps them prisoner solely to torment them. Their ordeal opens I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, a collection whose other stories include a performer searching for lost love in an interplanetary circus, a society that permits no physical imperfection, and a broke gambler playing a slot machine.
Bleak and surreal, these adult science fiction, fantasy and horror stories treat loneliness and desire as harshly as human cruelty. The settings change, but the emotional intensity persists: torture, suicide and strong sexual content make the collection an abrasive read beyond the title story’s ruined world.
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Highly regarded
It’s a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror stories. The title story follows five people imprisoned by a military computer; other stories move to an interplanetary circus, a society that permits no physical imperfection, and a broke gambler’s slot machine.
Somewhat. Experimental, descriptive prose and complex ideas demand attention, while the separate stories vary in pace and point of view. No specialist background is needed, but the sustained emotional intensity can make the collection demanding.
Strong violence and abuse, including torture, accompany suicide and strong sexual content. The cruelty extends beyond the title story: loneliness and desire also receive harsh treatment across the collection.
The settings change, but the bleak, unsettling emotional intensity persists. Surreal situations connect concerns about isolation, power and survival, with ideas and atmosphere central to the collection’s science fiction, fantasy and horror.
162 pages in the Open Road Media 2014 paperback edition.
Open Road Media · 2014 · paperback. ISBN 9781497643079.
About 3 hours 15 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 162-page Open Road Media edition. Dense books can take longer.
Harlan Ellison was an American writer whose career ranged across short fiction, novels, essays, television, and anthology editing, though his most characteristic work lies where science fiction meets horror and social provocation. He favored compressed narratives, volatile first-person voices, abrupt shifts in pressure, and images that make an idea physically immediate. In “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” a tormented survivor narrates from inside a military computer’s underground domain. The narrow viewpoint turns technological catastrophe into a sequence of bodily ordeals, suspicions, and thwarted attempts at escape. Ellison also worked as an editor of speculative fiction. Again, Dangerous Visions sets original stories beside his introductions and the contributors’ afterwords, making the anthology an argument conducted through contrasting forms and authorial commentary. His fiction repeatedly examines power exercised through systems, machines, institutions, and damaged minds. Even when the premise is cosmic, the action tends to remain close to speech, sensation, and conflict.
qntm
Short Stories · Science Fiction · Speculative Fiction
Ursula K. Le Guin
Short Stories · Speculative Fiction · Science Fiction
