Night and the Enemy by Harlan Ellison; illus Ken Steacy

Night and the Enemy by Harlan Ellison; illus Ken Steacy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paperback, 96 pages
Published November 18th 2015 by Dover Publications
first published January 1st 1987
Source: egalley via Netgalley


Fantastic classic sci-fi short story fiction by one of my favourite author's of the genre. These five stories don't really have anything to do with each other except that they take place during a two-hundred-year war between Earth and a humanoid race, the Kyben. Most of the stories are personal encounters with characters and a couple deal with the follies of war. I love Ellison's characterization and dialogue and his science isn't overly techie so it doesn't sound outdated or campy. I really enjoyed these stories, which I don't remember having read before. However, the art didn't appeal to me at all. The colours are muddy and the people are stiff with unnatural faces. I kind of got a "Thunderbirds" vibe from it for some reason, like they were puppets. A couple of the stories have been adapted into graphic "comic" style while the others are simply the full text of the short stories illustrated in full colour. Great for fans of the author!

Comments

  1. I don't know this author. The "thunderbirds" vibe comment made me chuckle. So the book is short stories that aren't really connected?

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  2. LOL! Yeah, I think the summary calls them inter-connected, meaning they take place in the same "world", a war between earth and an alien race but each story is not related to the others, different characters, plots etc. They do hold together well though as a glimpse at this alien war and what it has to say about all war in general, not necessarily anti-war, but thought-provoking from a 50s-60s perspective.

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