Slippage
by Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison is a much respected and honoured short-fiction writer, having won numerous awards in numerous categories. I suppose his fiction can best be categorised as 'highly emotional' and not fit to be read by those who can't take much emotional tension in their stories.

This collection of stories, subtitled "Previously Uncollected, Precariously Poised Stories,") could well be Ellison's last, as he says in his introduction. He is old, has suffered numerous heart-attacks and had his house hit by a Californian earthquake that had in his words, nowhere to go but up, in this case up through his home (on top of a mountain) with him inside it.

As usual, this collection is a varied mix of fantasy, science-fiction, horror and contemporary fiction. The common thread through them is on emotions and their effect on our lives.

The stories are as follows:

"The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" is a series of shorts, each starting with the word, 'Levendis' and features a man who travels from scene to scene, sometimes in the past, sometimes in the future and the effects he has on individual lives he meets.
"Anywhere But Here, With Anybody But You" is a taut, emotional story of a man who arrives back home to find his house cleaned out, his wife and kids gone and an unknown man in it, who asks him to leave. (My guess is this story is based on what happened to Ellison personally.)
"Crazy As a Soup Sandwich" by a teleplay about a man who makes a deal with a devil and is helped by the last person he wants help from: a loan shark from whom he has borrowed money. The scenes are neatly written and well visualised and has a funny ending. I have no idea if it has ever been made into an actual production, but if it isn't it should be.
"Darkness Upon The Face of The Deep" is a horror story with the standard premise of two people looking for a lost tomb and find something else instead.
"The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke" is a 'cute' little fantasy story about a man who returns to Poland and, while wandering in some woods, is held at gun point by a woman who accuses him of killing her people. The ending is a neat twist.
"The Museum on Cyclops Avenue" is a story about a man who, while overseas at a conference, meets the most beautiful woman in the world and they fall in love. But can they maintain the relationship, especially when he finds out her specialty?
"Go Toward the Light" is Ellison's answer to the mystery of how the Jews, after retaking the Temple on Jerusalem, managed to keep a flame burning for eight days on oil that is suppose to last only one day.
"Mefisto In Onyx" is a impressive story of how a black telepath is asked to scan the mind of a white serial killer to find out whether the killer is, in fact, innocent. Ellison describes in detail the reluctance of the telepath to scan people's minds. The ending of the story is highly unexpected.
"Where I Shall Dwell in The Next World" is a series of short-short stories where Ellison tries to answer that most asked question, "Where do you get your ideas?" As Ellison shows, ideas come from anywhere; including misheard phrases.
"Chatting With Anubis" has two explorers finding a lost tomb guarded by Anubis, Egyptian God of the Dead. The real surprise in this story is the person in the tomb whom Anubis keeps watch over and his reason for guarding it.
"The Few, The Proud" is Ellison's take on the so-called 'glories' of war and their effect on a grandfather and his grandson, both of who got involved in a interstellar war.
"Sensible City" is a horror story around two people, a Prison Warden and his assistant, who are being held in custody for horrific crimes against prisoners under their care. They jump parole and end up in a city they wish they hadn't gone to. The descriptions of the horrors in this story may make for uncomfortable reading for some.
"The Dragon On the Bookshelf" (written in collaborating with Robert Silverberg) is the story of a small dragon, send to our world to repair a rift developing between it and a world of devils and demons. But the dragon falls in love with a girl, causing him to neglect his duties. Will he be able to fulfill his task and protect his love before the rift finally opens, spewing all hell on earth?
"Keyboard" is an uncomfortable story to read as it hits close to home: a 'blood' relation between a computer user and his computer that begins when his keyboard literally bites him and tastes his blood. Perhaps this is Ellison's way of 'getting back' at all of us computer users (he himself uses a manual typewriter to do his writing).
"Jane Doe #112" is a quiet little fantasy story about a man who is followed by several 'ghosts'. What the ghosts want and what he did to them in the past may make you want to look back at your own lives.
"The Dreams A Nightmare Dreams" is Ellison's look at why the dinosaurs died and what is keeping the same fate from befalling us.
"Pulling Hard Time" is Ellison's answer to the question of how to humanely punish criminals doing life in a futuristic prison in space.
"Scartaris, June 28th" is the story of a man who journeys the world, looking and changing people's lives in subtle ways. But the identify of the person itself may turn out to be a bit of a surprise.
"She's A Young Thing And Cannot Leave Her Mother" is a disturbing story based on Scottish History involving two lovers. To say more would give away the horror aspects of the story, so all I'll say is that it involves a family that has lived secluded away for many, many years.
"Midnight in The Sunken Cathedral" has Ellison looking at the mystery of where Atlantis actually is. The answer may surprise you.

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Slippage by Harlan Ellison

Slippage
by Harlan Ellison