Ellison's first new volume of previously published but uncollected stories in almost a decade was marvelous -- mostly.
The centerpiece of Slippage, both thematically and by virtue of its tremendous bulk, is the first mass-market appearance of the novella Mefisto in Onyx. The story of a black telepath's trip through the mind of a white serial killer starts off promisingly but is kneecapped by a slapdash finale. Perhaps that's because it's really an unfinished novel; the story resembles Shrikes, which Ellison was describing to interviewers and publishers more than a decade previously but which has never appeared.
Fortunately, the rest of the volume is more satisfying. "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore," which had been included in Best American Short Stories several years earlier, shows Ellison's wild narrative talents in top form. Interestingly, another story, "Scartaris, June 28th," explores similar territory in a more oblique manner; might it be an early draft of "Columbus"?
Other highlights: "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich," a frightening and hilarious screenplay written for "The Twilight Zone" revival of the late 1980s; and "She's a Young Thing and Cannot Leave Her Mother," a twist on the flesh-eating zombie theme.
