''Shatterday'' is a collection of short stories by American author
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
. In the introduction, Ellison states that the stories reflect an underlying theme of fear of human frailty and ugliness. His goal, he writes, is to shock his readers into seeing that this fear unifies all people. Each story has an introduction, ranging from a single sentence to several pages long.
Among the stories in the collection, "
Jeffty Is Five
"Jeffty Is Five" is a fantasy short story by American author Harlan Ellison. It was first published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' in 1977, then was included in DAW's '' The 1978 Annual World's Best SF'' in 1978 and Ellison's sh ...
" won both a
Nebula Award
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...
and a
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...
. It was also voted in a 1999 online poll of ''
Locus
Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to:
Entertainment
* Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front
* ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine
** ''Locus Award' ...
'' readers to be the best short story of all time. "All the Lies that Are My Life" had been previously published the same year as a novella. The title story was made into
the first episode of the 1985 revival of ''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...
''. Other stories have been reprinted in omnibus collections such as ''The Essential Ellison: a 35-Year Retrospective'' and ''Dreams With Sharp Teeth''.
Contents
*Introduction: Mortal Dreads
*"
Jeffty Is Five
"Jeffty Is Five" is a fantasy short story by American author Harlan Ellison. It was first published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' in 1977, then was included in DAW's '' The 1978 Annual World's Best SF'' in 1978 and Ellison's sh ...
"
*"
How's the Night Life on Cissalda?"
*"Flop Sweat"
*"Would You Do it For a Penny?" (written in collaboration with Haskell Barkin)
*"The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge"
*"Shoppe Keeper"
*"All the Lies That Are My Life"
*"Django"
*"Count the Clock That Tells the Time"
*"In the Fourth Year of the War"
*"Alive and Well on a Friendless Voyage"
*"All the Birds Come Home to Roost"
*"Opium"
*"The Other Eye of Polyphemus"
*"The Executioner of the Malformed Children"
*"Shatterday"
{{Authority control
1980 short story collections
Short story collections by Harlan Ellison
Houghton Mifflin books