Slippage

Slippage is a collection of short stories by Harlan Ellison that explores moments when life unravels and certainty gives way to chaos. The book includes award-winning stories like "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" and "Chatting with Anubis," along with personal narratives from the author's own experiences. The collection features the acclaimed novella "Mefisto in Onyx" and includes the screenplay for "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich," which appeared on The Twilight Zone. Multiple pieces in this collection earned prestigious recognition, including Bram Stoker Awards and Locus Poll Awards. The stories span multiple genres, from speculative fiction to personal essay, united by the central concept of "slippage" - those pivotal moments when established realities begin to crumble. Through this lens, the collection examines human nature and the fragile structures we build to create order in our lives.

Readers find Slippage to be among Ellison's more uneven short story collections. The stories "Mefisto in Onyx" and "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" receive particular mention as highlights. Readers appreciate: - The raw emotional intensity of the writing - Complex character studies - Experimental narrative structures - The included story introductions by Ellison himself Common criticisms: - Several stories feel underdeveloped - The collection lacks cohesion - Some pieces read like writing exercises rather than complete works - The quality varies significantly between stories Ratings: Goodreads: 3.8/5 (450+ ratings) Amazon: 4.1/5 (30+ reviews) Multiple reviewers note this isn't the ideal starting point for new Ellison readers. As one Goodreads reviewer states: "The hits are incredible but the misses really miss." Another adds: "Worth it for 'Mefisto' alone, but prepare for an uneven journey through the rest."

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury This collection of interconnected short stories uses tattoos as portals to tales about human nature and the collapse of certainty.

Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison This groundbreaking anthology presents stories from multiple authors who push boundaries in speculative fiction and explore moments of societal upheaval.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang These precise, scientifically-grounded stories examine how human perspectives shift when confronted with paradigm-altering events.

Burning Chrome by William Gibson The short stories in this collection probe the edges where technology and human experience intersect, revealing fractures in perceived reality.

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link These genre-defying stories blend supernatural elements with mundane reality to create narratives where established rules dissolve.

🔹 The story "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" was selected for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 1994, making it one of the rare science fiction pieces to break into this mainstream literary anthology. 🔹 Harlan Ellison wrote many of these stories from the front window of A Change of Hobbit bookstore in Los Angeles, composing them in full view of passersby as part of his famous "stories written in bookstore windows" series. 🔹 This collection was published in 1997, the same year Ellison was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America - their highest honor for lifetime achievement. 🔹 The author famously mailed a dead gopher to a publisher who delayed payment for one of the stories included in this collection, demonstrating his notorious reputation for confrontational business practices. 🔹 Several stories in "Slippage" were written while Ellison was dealing with severe health issues, including a heart attack and clinical depression, which influenced the collection's themes of mortality and sudden life changes.