Mefisto in Onyx
Price: $59.93
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780929480312
Edition: 1st
ISBN: 0929480317
Label: Mark V. Ziesing
Manufacturer: Mark V. Ziesing
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 91
Publication Date: 1994-03
Publisher: Mark V. Ziesing
Studio: Mark V. Ziesing
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Average Rating:
Rating:
-
This novella relates the story of two men, Rudy Pairis and Henry Lake Spanning. Rudy is a classic underachiever, even in spite of his astounding talent for reading minds; Spanning is a serial killer. Rudy is manipulated by an old lover into entering Spanning's mind (it seems the woman has fallen in love with the killer and wants Rudy to prove his innocence). What Rudy finds there is just the beginning of the plentiful surprises Ellison has in store for his lucky readers.
Rating:
-
This story is as punchy and disturbing as Harlan Ellison gets without becoming (as he sometimes is) completely incoherent. (Would anyone care to explain to me "The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World"?)
For those of you not familiar with Ellison's writing, think Chuck Pahluniak, with slightly better manners.
Ellison creates a compelling voice with Rudy Pairis, a black man blessed with the ability to read minds. Well, in a slightly saner world he would be blessed. As it is, he has yet to find one person whose mindscape doesn't make him want to vomit.
When Rudy's truest friend asks him to take a look inside the mind of a convicted mass murderer, the worst he fears is not half as bad as what he actually gets.
It kept me up till two AM the second time I read it. Most definitely worth your time.
Rating:
-
Harlan Ellison, of course. Mefisto is a beautifully made small press book with cover art and an introduction by Frank Miller of Sin City, an insult to Tor Book's refusal to publish this story, as well as two pages listing the autor's other works, and an opening blurb that says "What is this book about? Well, it's Bester's The Demolished Man as if it had been written by Jim Thompson or James M. Cain...Go ahead. Try for one potato chip. This sucker is relentlessly readable."
You put yourself with some fine company there, Mr. Ellison. And of course, it's readable. It's not a book. It's a short story. It took less than an hour to read. There were paragraphs one just wanted to quote to friends, but there were also painfully uneven characterizations. It was also a predictable story with a truly enjoyable ending. However, Mr. Ellison, you have always been a pony with one good trick.
And it's not to say that your one trick isn't very good, Pony Boy: you can describe characters in a way that makes them individuals, but also ties them into the rest of all humanity. This doesn't count your hostile self promotion techniques or your goofy titles (which reminds me, now I have to read Faust, `cuz I didn't get the reference).
But there are many writers who are equal or better. Including Alfred Bester.
Rating:
-
Exceptionally well-written by one of our generation's best science-fiction authors, this book is both disturbing and thought-provoking. Though it is short, I cannot remember being so affected by a science-fiction story for years.
The premise is simple. A black man named Rudy has the ability to read minds. A dear female friend of his, a lawyer, asks him to read the mind of a murderer she has recently sent to Death Row, to find out if he's really guilty. Rudy goes to see this murderer, and is astonished by some information he learns. There are many twists and turns to this tale.
The actual tale isn't what makes this story, however. As barebone plots go, this one isn't the most original I've ever seen. It has to be the actual storytelling. Ellison has a way of writing that reads almost like the breathless banter of a conman. It is engaging, engrossing, and, dangit, fun to read. Every page has some new gem to discover on it. Ellison is right: This is one of his finest works, perhaps even the best he CAN write. Don't miss it. (Don't miss his acknowledgments page, either. It's one of the funniest ones I've ever seen.)
Rating:
-
Harlan Ellison, "Mefisto in Onyx"
[OMNI, sometime 1993]
It's nice to see Ellison returning to stories with plot and character, after the indefinable "Eidolon" and "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore." Ellison states that this story took ten years to write, and it shows an affinity with that Ellison of ten years ago--passionate, filled with rightous anger, and burning up the pages with his rage. "Mefisto" is the story of a serial killer, who may or may not be the person we think he is, and of the District Attorney who prosecuted him, then fell in love with him and believes him to be innocent now, and, most importantly, with Rudy, who can jaunt (shades of Alfie Bester) into people's minds (i.e., read them). A love triangle made in hell, made even more unholy by the amount of killing gone before, and the possible miscarriage of justice. Hey, let's face it, this story has everything--so why aren't I wild about it? Can it be that Ellison's jocular, biting, ironic style has staled? Maybe it's just dated, more a product of the radical sixties than the disturbed '90s. Ellison has updated his references, but the manner is still the same as can be found in "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs." And he's damned clever, but unsurprising, since we expect something of a twist from him. With Ellison, I have so many expectations, and am easily critical. Under the by-line of any other author, I might be raving; from Ellison, I expect so much more.
Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.
