Deathbird Stories

Deathbird Stories

by Harlan Ellison

Narrated by Harlan Ellison, Luis Moreno

Unabridged — 16 hours, 15 minutes

Deathbird Stories

Deathbird Stories

by Harlan Ellison

Narrated by Harlan Ellison, Luis Moreno

Unabridged — 16 hours, 15 minutes

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Overview

For more than three decades this singular collection of stories in which the New Gods of freeways and slot
machines, internal combustion deities and evil so enormous that it swallows the streets in shadow has compelled the
attention of not only readers of imaginative bent, but the praise of hard-line literary critics. One cannot codify modern
literature of the fantastic without including a reference or selection from this dark book of godly and troubling stories
that will not be ignored.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

This expanded edition of Ellison's most reprinted collection includes three new myths of "the new gods, the new devils... the gods of the freeway, of the ghetto blacks, of the coaxial cable; the paingod and the rock god and the god of neon; the god of legal tender...." "From A to Z, in the Sarsaparilla Alphabet" is an encyclopedia of dead and buried gods. In "Scartaris, June 28th," an ancient god struggles with the corrupt modern world. In the 20 reprints, still thematically relevant 35 years after their original publication, we meet the god of "not my problem" ("The Whimper of Whipped Dogs"), gods worshipping their own creations ("The Face of Helene Bournouw"), and the god of hurt and suffering ("Paingod"). Strong, sometimes crude language and emotionally striking themes pervade these stories, and Ellison's unique and highly intellectual writing style require careful, slow, and thoughtful reading. (Dec.)

Product Details

BN ID: 2940172631580
Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date: 07/14/2020
Edition description: Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

FOREWORD:

Oblations at Alien Altars

Gods can do anything. They fear nothing: they are gods. But there is one rule, one Seal of Solomon that can confound a god, and to which all gods pay service, to the letter:

When belief in a god dies, the god dies.

When the last acolyte renounces his faith and turns to another deity, the god ceases to be.

They know the terrible simplicity of that truth, the mightiest and the mingiest of gods. They have seen their fellow gods go down to obscurity and banishment for lack of believers. They saw Achel�us wither when the cornucopia was ripped from his head by Heracles; they saw the twelve Aesir and their Asgardian heaven-home turned to mist when the Vikings took up the cross; they saw Ahriman dwindle and die when the ancient Persian empire was overrun; they saw Alaghom Naom, the "Mother of Mind," lost to men when the Conquistadores brutalized the Mayan religion; they saw Ama-Terasu, the Japanese sun goddess, go up in a nova of light brighter than the sun from which she took her name, on a special day in Hiroshima; and Amen-Ra, and Ana�tis, and Anath, and Anshar (and Kishar), and Anu, and Anubis, and Apollo ... all of them shimmered and became insubstantial as their temples were reduced to rubble.

Volume after volume of sacred books of gods.

And that's only into the "A's."

As the time passes for men and women, so does it pass for gods, for they are made viable and substantial only through the massed beliefs of masses of men and women. And when puny mortals no longer worship at their altars, the gods die.

To be replaced by newer,more relevant gods.

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