I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Ratings61
Average rating3.7
Short but sweet (not really much tho :p) sci-fi and post-apocalyptic horror story. Some sentences are convolutedly constructed and a bit hard to grasp as first (that's just good ol' Ellison it seems), but the impact stands overall conveying a well-crafted and crude narrative. The religious parallelisms are impossible to ignore (the burning bush, 'Go Down Moses', the general idea of dystheism, etc) and A.M appears as a rage-driven pseudo-god, profoundly human in its manners and purpose, but still dissident towards its own nature: it (or he, for that matter) is really emotionally charged and deeply resentful, his only input is hate, it's his fuel and in consequence the one element he strives to spread; born in it, existing for it, a perfect loathing machine fueled by his own, infinite disdain towards humanity. In general a really interesting take on the evil A.I trope, goes more deep than mere torture porn and some parts are totally unhinged (like the gigantic bird one). 8/10 had mouth but didn't scream at all.
“AM appeared to us as a burning bush and said we could kill the hurricane bird if we wanted to eat.” - Is this a reference to the bible?
Also, I will be throwing out all my electronics thanks to this story. But in all seriousness, I love dystopian genres, and the writing for this was short and to the point. Great read and free online if you google.
wow
the stories were a lot darker than I usually read, but the writing is amazing and gripping
i mean..truly what can you do except applaud. this really is a phenomenal piece of sci-fi horror, the godfather even. the obvious parallels to hell are masterfully woven into the narrative, not to mention the human AND self-hating AI which feels all too relevant now in modern day.
AM is a masterfully written consciousness and our cast of 5 are equally well characterized in their own right, nimdok being the only exception. AM’s motivations being above simply “humans are evil” and being much more nuanced and complex and purely based in spite, making it almost human itself in a backwards way, its almost dumbfounding. what an outstanding piece of literature.
I rushed it too much because i was trying to sleep early, it was good but i think i didn't properly take it in. Will read again someday
3,5☆
If AI didn't make me uncomfortable before it sure would now. This was messed up. Wish this short story was longer, ngl.
Friends - I am not entirely convinced that Harlan Ellison was aware that women are people.
9/10
This was bleak as hell. But really good. I highly recommend the audiobook narrated by the author himself. It's wild.
I bought this because I wanted some of that classic golden era short-story fun sci-fi... and I got Harlan Ellison. It's ‘dark' and vivid, and definitely not fun...
There's a thin line between tackling dark story lines in a meaningful way and just indulging in a bit of trauma for entertainment, and this veers uncomfortably close to that line.
Among the 7 stories, the most remarkable was the one that gives the book its name.
It is a very sadistic take on what would an AI turned bad could do to humans that are at its will. The concept was indeed interesting, but I got spoiled by knowing basically everything beforehand. Not a fault of the book itself but I could not help to enjoy it more.