I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

“He was offering a private demonstration of his etchings.”

This collection of short stories is intriguingly narrated by the author, introducing each story and providing a kind of meta story within a story. My reason for reading this particular book was that I could then tick off all six of the six most disturbing written works, a list I got from somewhere on the net and now cannot find to attribute to its source. Nevertheless, this is the first time in about a year that I've finished one of my lists on Goodreads so I am happy as the proverbial.

Back to the stories. They are great. Dark, disturbed and even more disturbing with the intros. Think a literary Black Mirror  but written in the fifties and sixties. This adds a further level of interest. Look they are short stories so I'm not about to delve to deep. My theory with short stories is that they should be read; rather than reviewed.

The title story won a Hugo Award - newsflash there's a supercomputer and I took so long to read these in fits and starts that my contribution here is minimal. Take my advice, start reading. Some of these are fantastic.


5 out of 5 short stories can have a lengthy impact.