"The Function of Dream Sleep" is a fantasy short story by American writer Harlan Ellison, first published in his 1988 anthology Angry Candy . Ellison stated that it was inspired by an actual dream. [1]
While grieving the deaths of several of his close friends, McGrath awakens from sleep to find that he is being bitten by an enormous mouth full of teeth; it then vanishes, leaving him with a profound sensation of loss. In seeking to understand what has happened, he discovers a hidden truth about the world.
The story won the 1989 Locus Award for Best Novelette, [2] and was a finalist for the 1989 Hugo Award for Best Novelette [3] and the 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction. [4]
Kirkus Reviews has described it as "Ellison aptly dramatizing his own emotional catharsis." [5] Gary K. Wolfe and Ellen Weil have criticized the story both for the central premise — stating that the mouth (which they call "bizarre" and "surreal") does not represent "McGrath's pain and loss but his refusal or inability to process mature grief" — and for its structure, which they consider to be parallel to "any number of science fiction wish-fulfillment fantasies involving secret masters", and thus "inappropriate for a tale of suffering". [6]
Dan Simmons is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes within a single novel. Simmons's genre-intermingling Song of Kali (1985) won the World Fantasy Award. He also writes mysteries and thrillers, some of which feature the continuing character Joe Kurtz.
Harlan Jay Ellison was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. Some of his best-known works include the 1967 Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", considered by some to be the greatest episode of Star Trek ever(he subsequently wrote a book about the experience that includes his original screenplay), his A Boy and His Dog cycle, and his short stories "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman". He was also editor and anthologist for Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). Ellison won numerous awards, including multiple Hugos, Nebulas, and Edgars.
Angry Candy is a 1988 collection of short stories by American writer Harlan Ellison, loosely organized around the theme of death. The title comes the last line of the poem "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls" by E. E. Cummings, "...the/ moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy."
Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis, commonly known as Connie Willis, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major SF awards than any other writer—most recently the "Best Novel" Hugo and Nebula Awards for Blackout/All Clear (2010). She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 28th SFWA Grand Master in 2011.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman is an American fantasy, science fiction and horror writer.
Ellen Datlow is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award.
Tim Pratt is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and poet. He won a Hugo Award in 2007 for his short story "Impossible Dreams". He has written over 20 books, including the Marla Mason series and several Pathfinder Tales novels. His writing has earned him nominations for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker awards and has been published in numerous markets, including Asimov's Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, and Strange Horizons.
Joseph Hillström King, better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American writer. His work includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box (2007), Horns (2010), NOS4A2 (2013), and The Fireman (2016); the short story collections 20th Century Ghosts (2005) and Strange Weather (2017); and the comic book series Locke & Key (2008–2013). He has won awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award.
Slippage is a collection of short stories by American author Harlan Ellison. In the introduction, Ellison introduces the concept of "slippage", or the falling apart of one's life, as the underlying theme of the book. In addition to the stories listed in the table of contents, the book includes a short narration of an unhealthy relationship with a woman named Charlotte as an example of a "slippage" in the author's life. Charlotte was the name of Ellison's first wife, married to her from 1956 to 1960.
Gary K. Wolfe is an American science fiction editor, critic and biographer. He is an emeritus Professor of Humanities in Roosevelt University's Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies.
The Voice From the Edge is a series of audiobooks collecting short stories written and narrated by American author Harlan Ellison. The first two volumes were published by Fantastic Audio; they were republished by Blackstone Audio in 2011. The uploading of these audio books to a newsgroup on the internet led to a court case to decide the liability of a service provider according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The fourth volume was published by Audible.
The Best Science Fiction of the Year #3 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the third volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in July 1974, and reissued in July 1976.
The Best Science Fiction of the Year #5 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the fifth volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in July 1976.
The Best Science Fiction of the Year #6 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the sixth volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Del Rey Books and in hardcover by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in July 1977.
Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is associated with the pastoral science fiction subgenre.
"Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W" is a 1974 science fiction novelette by Harlan Ellison. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in October 1974, and subsequently republished in Ellison's 1975 collection of god-themed short fiction, Deathbird Stories, in the 1991 Byron Preiss-edited anthology The Ultimate Werewolf, and in Ellison's 2006 anthology The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective.
Mefisto in Onyx is a science fiction novella by American writer Harlan Ellison. The introduction and cover art were contributed by Frank Miller. Originally published in OMNI Magazine October 1993, then released as a hardcover in December 1993, Mefisto in Onyx was later included in Harlan Ellison's 1997 collection Slippage.
Nebula Award Stories Eight is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in hardcover in November 1973, in the United States by Harper & Row and in the United Kingdom by Gollancz. The British edition bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories 8. Paperback editions followed from Berkley Medallion in the U.S. in September 1975, and Panther in the U.K. in the same year; both paperback editions adopted the British version of the title. The book has also been published in German.
Nebula Awards 31 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Pamela Sargent, the third of three successive volumes under her editorship. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt Brace in April 1997, and reprinted in trade paperback in July 1999.
Dale Frederick Bailey is an American author of speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy and horror, active in the field since 1993. He writes as Dale Bailey.