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eBook Category: Science Fiction Hugo Award Winner
eBook Description: Probably Ellison's most well-known story. The tyrannical computer AM has taken over the world and now a few humans trapped inside it fight for survival. (Note: Palm versions of this story contain a character representation of a punch card graphic that the original story was published with. To view the original graphic see any of the other formats. The punch card graphic and the Palm character representation of it were approved by Mr. Ellison, and he tells us that both contain a message that few people have ever decoded.)

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: 1967
Fictionwise Release Date: November 2000

This eBook is also available in the following bundle(s):

• Harlan Ellison Bundle 1

544 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [32 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [61 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [19 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [92 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [19 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [72 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [91 KB] , hiebook (KML) [73 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [43 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [16 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [20 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [48 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [31 KB]
Words: 6238
Reading time: 17-24 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

119 years of Sobibor... And worse. Virtually immortal humans suffer pugnacious infinity in the belly of a hate-filled machine. Not content to incarcerate them, toy with them, configure them at whim, the sadistic computer manipulates hysterical games. It eternally hurls its five captives through steel walls, icicles, hurricanes, earthquakes, mad-red fissures that bring greater distortion and depravity. Ruthless his writing, vile, pert and graphic, Harlan Ellison is a sharp writer wrapped in a castle of words, ominous and chilling. Lovers of Stephen King would beyond doubt take pleasure in Ellison's multi award-winning works, including "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman . -Eugen Bacon, Fictionwise Recommender

Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette; unsupported--hanging high above us in the computer chamber; and it did not shiver in the chill, oily breeze that blew eternally through the main cavern. The body hung head down, attached to the underside of the palette by the sole of its right foot. It had been drained of blood through a precise incision made from ear to ear under the lantern jaw. There was no blood on the reflective surface of the metal floor.

When Gorrister joined our group and looked up at himself, it was already too late for us to realize that, once again, AM had duped us, had had its fun; it had been a diversion on the part of the machine. Three of us had vomited, turning away from one another in a reflex as ancient as the nausea that had produced it.

Gorrister went white. It was almost as though he had seen a voodoo icon, and was afraid of the future. "Oh God," he mumbled, and walked away. The three of us followed him after a time, and found him sitting with his back to one of the smaller chittering banks, his head in his hands. Ellen knelt down beside him and stroked his hair. He didn't move, but his voice came out of his covered face quite clearly. "Why doesn't it just do us in and get it over with? Christ, I don't know how much longer I can go on like this."

It was our one hundred and ninth year in the computer.

He was speaking for all of us.