Rating: 
Summary: An extremely important work
Review: Combining all the best elements of several genres, this work should not be classified. It will reach down deep
inside you and stir up emotions. You will be changed.
Rating:
Summary: Deathbird Stories
Review: Deathbird Stories is a true classic. Age has not changed it's impact as it's stories are truly timeless. "Along the Scenic Route" is one of my personal favorites in a long line of classic stories from Mr. Ellison. You can almost imagine it taking place. This is an awesome collection especially for those unfamiliar with Mr. Ellison's style and anger.
Rating:
Summary: Deathbird Stories
Review: Deathbird Stories is a true classic. Age has not changed it's impact as it's stories are truly timeless. "Along the Scenic Route" is one of my personal favorites in a long line of classic stories from Mr. Ellison. You can almost imagine it taking place. This is an awesome collection especially for those unfamiliar with Mr. Ellison's style and anger.
Rating:
Summary: An apocryphal treatise...and a damn good book
Review: Despite the out-of-print listing, this book isn't impossible to find. And when you do, whatever effort you exerted will have been well worth it.Harlan Ellison used this book to examine, debunk, and even glorify gods and how they relate to us. From the title story "The Deathbird" to the gutter-view "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes", he treats us to as many disturbing viewpoints as one person can stomach...he then adds one or two more, just to show you who's in charge. It's an excellent book. You'll never look at anything quite the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: Vicious truth, horrendous visions...
Review: Ellison, above all, is one of the foremost writers of our age, and among his many collections stands The Deathbird, a spread of years that contains within its stories pain, anger, hate, love, and ever present truth. The Deathbird itself is a masterpiece, a written hospital trauma case that, if you but listen, threatens to tear apart all that you know and make you see more than you ever wanted to. The only downside is that we aren't gifted with AM's mad cackle, but still... these are the gods we know today, these are the gods we revear whether we know it or not.
Rating:
Summary: Harlan At His Best
Review: For those fans of Ellison, you will not be disappointed, for those of you not familiar with Ellison, this one will have you hitting the used book stores in a vain hope of finding more fodder for your mind. (Don't bother looking, I already hit every book store myself.) Reading this book is like seeing Mohammed Ali box or Stevie Ray Vaughn play the guitar, you get the feeling of seeing the best at his best. Every story in this collection is a gem, some more than others. "The Whimpering of Whipped Dogs" is a classic in and of itself. "The Deathbird" is the most amazing story ever created by a fantasy writer and I say this with no hyperbole. Go out and get this book . . . NOW! It will change the way you view the world and yourself. Other books make this promise, Deathbird Stories is the only book I've ever read that actually delivers.
Rating:
Summary: Powerfully dark fiction, that echoes from our own reality
Review: From the very start of "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" you realize that these stories and not for the timid of heart. The theme that resounds throughout these stories, is the lack of humanity, compassion, and justice. And the delivery of these stories by Ellison is nothing less than compelling.
Rating: 
Summary: Modern Gods, What's This?! It's Out of Print?!
Review: I read this book because, in the acknowledgements his wonderful novel "American Gods," neil gaiman said this book burned itself into the back of brain when he was still young enough for something like that to happen.
Well, how can you resist an endorsement like that? So, I raced up to the nearest library that had this book (an hour or so away, I'll have you know) and checked it out. And befoul these modern gods if it didn't blow my mind. At least, parts of it did.
Most of the stories - "the Whimper of Whipped Dogs," "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin," "Basilisk," and "Ernest and the Machine God," just to name a few - are really brilliant. They will twist your mind around like only certain versions of certain myths can. They will smack your conciousness around until you think there really are gods in the engine of your car and that traitors really are the high priests of Aries. They will, as Niel Gaiman says, burn themselves into the back of your brain.
Others, however, are not so brilliant. A few simply repeated ideas put forth in other, better stories. Some were simply not as interesting as the others, and some were both uninteresting and sordid. But please note that "some" could and should be read as "one, two at the outside." The majority are amazing.
On the whole, however, this is a wonderful book. I am shocked and dismayed to find that it it unavailable. I think anybody who is into mythology should read this book, just for some of the ideas expressed in it. So should anyone who read "American Gods" and thought it was cool, too. They should have a good time pointing to certain stories and saying, "Neil Gaiman lifted that, that and that." I recommend this book highly. Even with the few faulty tales herein, it is definately worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: The New Gods According to Ellison
Review: In "Deathbird Stories", Harlan Ellison summons a variety of deities and demons that spring from the ghetto to the battlefield to a dying Earth. Bookended by 2 great pieces, Ellison tackles the creation of gods for the late 20th century, effectively blending fanatasy, horror and faith. Beginning with the gripping "Whimper of Whipped Dogs" to his magnum opus, "The Deathbird" (in which he combines "Old Yeller" with a retelling of the book of Genesis) with a mixture of the bizaare (Shattered Like a Glass Goblin) to the very good (Paingod) in between. The Bluejay Books hardcover is THE essential version of these stories to have, with meticulously edited text and the great cover painting of the Deathbird.
I highly recommend this sadly out-of-print collection to anyone with a equal feel for sci-fi/fantasy and religion.
Rating:
Summary: A shocking, poignantly beautiful book.
Review: Not for the easily offended, the stories within are dark
and visceral, raw and questioning of the assumptions most
people never question. Save the title story, "The
Deathbird," for last; it is a masterpiece in a collection
of (for the most part) masterpieces. A pantheon of "modern
gods" for a callous, painful modern age.
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