Paingod:  An alien appointed by the gods to dispense pain briefly inhabits a man and discovers that without pain there is no contrast to show what happiness is.

"Repent, Harlequin!" said the Ticktockman:  A mechanical and highly ordered society, represented by the Ticktockman, has no use for a Harlequin who is appalled by the blandness of life without surprises.

The Crackpots:  A Kyben Watcher discovers that the crackpots he is recording every motion of are really brilliant innovators who arranged to have a flexible society, but who transmit their discoveries back to Kyba via the Watchers.

Sleeping Dogs:  A scorched-earth-type general of the human fleet forty years after the beginning of the Kyban War determines to take a planet at all costs, firing upon impenetrable, ancient, unknown fortresses, awakening an ancient power because of his recklessness, despite the best efforts of the Amicus (a woman), who actually has authority (but not over local events), to stop him.

Bright Eyes:  The last of an ancient race which committed suicide to give the Earth to the humans is awakened by the self-immolation of the humans, to bury the ancient skulls, realizing that, with the annihilation of the humans, his race's death was in vain.

The Discarded:  Horribly disfigured and misshappen people from a virus on Earth are exiled on a spaceship between the Earth and moon.  The de facto leader refuses to cooperate with a delegation requesting blood for a cure for a new variation of the disease, in return for being allowed to live on a piece of the Earth because he does not believe the promise will be kept.  His fellow exiles are eager to return to society, shoot him, and happily give the samples.  A year later the cure has been effected and a ship returns not to carry them back but to dump off the people disfigured before the cure.  The new leader (who shot the old one), realizing his folly and unchangeable fate, leaves to blow himself out the airlock.

Wanted in Surgery:  A doctor can't cope with doctors being barred from surgery because new robots do the job more reliably.  During his "helping" during surgery a patient wakes up too soon, sees the robot, and dies because the patient, unlike a human doctor cannot gently reassure and tell him to go back to anesthetic sleep.  He disobeys the command not to practice medicine upon the beseeching of a poor women, is tried, requests a (fallible) jury, tells of the death he saw to eloquently convince them that robots cannot replace humans, causing a rethinking of society's reliance on machines.

Deeper Than the Darkeness:  A Mindee who can cause intense (but uncontrolled) fire is sent by the government to make the star of an opposing race in the current war go nova.  He discovers that he is immune to the Baster Mindee, escapes, and, a freak whose life is of no use to his race except as a weapon, peaceably wanders around the galaxy as a minstrel for the rest of his life.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream:  AM, the self-aware collection of computers created to conduct the humans' last war, has destroyed all humans except for five, whom it saves, preserves, and tortures to satisfy its (programmed) hatred of people.  Because AM will not let them die, the protagonist siezes an opportunity to kill three, the fourth kills herself, and AM transforms the protagonist, who was able to save all but himself, into a ball of flesh (with no mouth) to be tortured until the end of time.

Big Sam Was My Friend:  A teleport (person with ability to teleport himself or other things) named Sam travels with the a circus until his faux pas of saving a virgin from a sacrifice demands his life, which he willingly gives (despite his ability to teleport away) in payment for the guilt of the death of his girlfriend from long ago who ran into a truck in surprise the first time he used his ability.

Eyes of Dust:  A culture where only the beautiful is acceptible is repulsed by a disfigured offspring and in killing the last ugly thing on the planet somehow kills the beauty on the planet.

World of the Myth:  Two men and one women from a surveyship become stranded on a planet with a collective-conscience being comprised of ants, which reflects the observers thoughts.  One man and the woman have a love-hate relationship:  she flirts with him, he goes too far and (once and almost again) rapes her.  The other man, who is a decided third wheel rescues her the second time.  After the incident the first man goes to the ants and dies after they show him the evil that he embodies.  The woman knows that the same fate eventually awaits her, and the last man suspects that he will be unable to resist, and despite his lack of guilt, is still too evil to survive being shown who he really is.

Lonelyache:  A story written as therapy for Ellison's own feelings after his second divorce.  The protagonist has just been divorced, tries to assuage his loneliness with sex, sex, sex, but it builds up in the corner where it eventually becomes a lurking thing to him;  he eventually realizes what it is and shoots himself.  (Fortunately the story was a successful therapy for Ellison and he did not follow the same fate.)

Delusion for a Dragon Slayer:  A non-descript financial salaryman dies in a freak accident and is given the chance to achieve Heaven--the land of his dreams--in a god-like Norse body.  Overconfidence in steering between the rocks of worldly temptations loses him his ship and crew, but he makes his way to shore, finding the woman of his dreams guarded by a great creature.  He is afraid to kill it, whereupon it becomes a man an copulates with the woman of his dreams.  At this point he stabs it in the back, and is denounced by the being and the woman, for lacking What It Took, and is crushed in the jaws of the keeper of Heaven, a great dragon.

Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes:  A gorgeous girl born to poverty becomes a successful prostitute in order to escape the poverty that she desperately wants to permanently escape from.  After a argument with her latest sugar-daddy in Las Vegas, she plays the silver dollar slot machine ("Chief"), desiring the money in him so badly that she dies and her soul goes into the machine.  Some time later a down-and-out bum, whose wife left him, spends his last dollar in a wild gamble;  Maggie, the soul of the machine, gives him win after win on the big jackpot.  After repeated checks of the machine (and for cheating), the house eventually requests that he take a rest for the night, which he, realizing management's undercurrent, acquiesces to.  Maggie comes to him in a dream, says she wants to be his forever;  he trusts her, expresses his desire to love her, and gives himself to her.  The next day, he goes to the machine and just as the machine lands another jackpot, Maggie sucks his soul into the machine, freeing hers.  "Heaven or Hell, it doesn't matter!  Free!"

At least some of these stories will be around in a hundred years, I suspect.  The introductory author decries Ellison's lack of grammar and refinement, but I was hard-pressed to notice;  there is more to a quality story than mechanical grammar.  My only complaint is that the sexual content is a bit too explict;  I think the message could have been achieved with less of it (although perhaps the stories would have been less salable to Knight).  Some of the stories aren't quite as good, so, that, coupled with the sexual content, bring the overall score down.

cardioplate	A plate keyed to each person.  Every time they are late, or cause disruption to the system, that amount of time is subtracted from their life, and when they have no time left, the Ticktockman turns them off.
inverspace	A wildly colored proto-hyperspace that allows for faster (although hardly instantaneous) travel.  In some stories navigation through inverspace requires special telepathic ability.
Pinching steel	Technique of changing the molecular structure so that it becomes harder than anything, or completely crumbling it to dust.
nasty virus	This particular virus changes how people look, altering their genetic structure so that they might have extra limbs, or fewer limbs, or their mouth in the wrong place.
Amicus	An Earth position.  Appears to try to argue for the enemy.  Stationed on military ships, presumably as an advisor to the commanding officer.  Outranks the commanding officer, but indirectly, through the political, not military command chain;  does not control immediate actions.
black, impenetrable fortresses	Created by some race a long time ago, who seems to have a very laissez-faire, or even uncaring attitude about who occupies the planet, as long as they don't bother the fortresses.   Cannot be destroyed or even damaged by earth's weapons.  Can turn an opposing laser cannon against itself.
event-triggered holographic message	Type of pre-recorded message whose purpose was to wake and inform Bright-Eyes of his mission.
phymech	A robot that can make infallible diagnosis (and surgical repair) of anything organic.
psioid	Human that can manipulate nature by thought.  The specific incarnations are limited to Deeper Than the Darkness, as the nature of mental abilities changes in each story.  However, generally there are different mental abilities, whether they be named psioids or teeps.
Mindee	Psioid who can control and/or suggest to other minds
Blaster	Psioid capable of destroying other minds
Mallaport	Psioid who can manipulate atoms of flesh.
Driver	Psioid who can steer through inverspace.
AM	Originally "Allied Mastercomputer".  "Aggressive Menace" after the nations' AMs linked up and developed sentience.  Because it was responsible for guiding war, it effectively was programmed to hate humans.  Has the power to create visions that are real for as long as AM wants them to be (like the D&D "solipsism" spell).  Can alter physical and biological reality;  radically changes the body of the protagonist, keeps its prey immortal (even if they do not eat).
teleport	Human that can mentally teleport objects and living beings, including himself.
ant collective conscience	Collective conscience composed of individual ant-like beings with no sentience at all.  The sentience is a result of the combined network.  Not aggressive;  defends itself (and, indeed, appears to relate to all things) by reflecting the attacker's nature.
Heaven	This is a personally tailored utopia made of the dreams of beauty by the person.  One can achieve this heaven only by having strong character.  The protagonist must defeat the guardian, but must do so in a noble fashion;  stabbing from the back is not noble and loses him heaven.
"Chief"	One of the few remaining silver-dollar slots (apparently during a time when silver dollars were still in circulation).  Possessed by the spirit of Maggie.  When playing the Chief, if the player is consumed by a desire for what is inside it, the player dies and their soul lives in the machine, freeing any soul that happens to already be there.

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Copyright © 2005 by Geoffrey Prewett