Deathbird Stories: A Pantheon of Modern Gods is a 1975 collection of short stories

Short Stories

Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...

 written by Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison

Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...

 over a period of ten years; the stories address the theme of modern-day "deities" that have replaced the older, more traditional ones. The collection, with its satirical, skeptical tone, is widely considered one of Ellison's best. The book includes a 1973 introduction and a stern caveat lector page advising the reader against enjoying the volume in one sitting. The title of the book comes from "The Deathbird", the nineteenth and last story in the collection.

Contents

It contains the following stories (along with an introduction):

• "Introduction: Oblations at Alien Altars"
• "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs
  The Whimper of Whipped Dogs
  "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" is a speculative fiction short story by Harlan Ellison. It was first published in the 1973 anthology Bad Moon Rising: An Anthology of Political Forebodings edited by Thomas M. Disch. It was also published in several other anthologies such as Deathbird Stories...
  
  "
  • Inspired by the Kitty Genovese
    Kitty Genovese
    Catherine Susan "Kitty" Genovese , was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York on March 13, 1964....
    
     murder.
• "Along the Scenic Route"
• "On the Downhill Side"
• "O Ye of Little Faith"
• "Neon"
• "Basilisk"
• "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes"
• "Corpse"
• "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin"
• "Delusion for a Dragon Slayer"
• "The Face of Helene Bournouw"
• "Bleeding Stones"
• "At the Mouse Circus"
• "The Place with No Name"
• "Paingod"
• "Ernest and the Machine God"
• "Rock God"
• "Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W"
• "The Deathbird
  The Deathbird
  The Deathbird is a well-known novelette by Harlan Ellison. It won the 1974 Hugo and Locus Poll awards for best novelette. It is written in a style which allows for much examination; it is nonlinear but gradually forms a picture of the situation...
  
  "

Reception

New York Times reviewer Gerald Jonas found that the stories "offer a mixture of overheated Hype and genuine concern for the human condition," noting that on occasion Ellison "raises excess and pretension to a form of art." In 1993, the Times described a reissue of the collection as "Fantasy at its most bizarre and unsettling." Writing in Galaxy

Galaxy Science Fiction

Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...

, Spider Robinson

Spider Robinson

Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York City, Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the State...

reviewed the collection favorably, despite faulting Ellison's "unrelieved pessimism."

One academic biography describes Deathbird Stories as "a kind of spiritual autobiography" and notes that Ellison's modern gods "gain their influence not from revelatory or charismatic social movements but from the driving anxieties of mid-twentieth century American culture."

External links

• "Deathbird Stories: A Pantheon of Modern Gods" -(entry in the Harlan Ellison bibliography website "Islets of Langerhans" http://www.islets.net/about.html)