The Deathbird
"The Deathbird" is a novelette by American writer Harlan Ellison. It won the 1974 Hugo Award for Best Novelette[1] and Locus Award for Best Short Story.
It has been included in the author's short story collection Deathbird Stories.
Plot
The story is formatted as a test of sorts, worth three-quarters of some final grade. The action is interrupted at points with test questions, some of which do not make sense. Millions of years ago, "The Mad One", also known as Ialdabaoth or God, took over the earth in a sort of cosmic lawsuit. The original creators left behind one last member of their race, Dira, to tell humans the truth about their god, but the dominant traditions throughout the ages denounce Dira as evil. Now, the world is coming to an end and Nathan Stack, the latest incarnation of a long line of humans going back to Lilith's husband, is revived by Snake (aka Dira) after spending 250 thousand years in an underground crypt to make the journey to the mountain where God lives. He is the only human capable of confronting him and putting the Earth out of its misery through the summoning of what is referred to as the Deathbird.
The story also contains a few side plots, presumably about Nathan Stack or previous reincarnations of him. These stories tell of people who have had to make difficult decisions, allowing loved ones to die. In one such story, his mother is partially paralyzed and suffering from cancer which will eventually, slowly and painfully, travel to her heart. She eventually convinces him to inject her with a lethal substance in a hypodermic needle, killing her and ending her pain. This situation is repeated at the end of the story, where Nathan Stack must "use the needle" to summon the Deathbird and end the pain of the planet.[2]
References
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- Bibliography
- Web of the City
- Spider Kiss
- A Boy and His Dog
- Mefisto in Onyx
collections
- The Deadly Streets
- Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation
- Ellison Wonderland
- Paingod and Other Delusions
- Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled
- The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World
- Alone Against Tomorrow
- Approaching Oblivion
- Deathbird Stories
- No Doors, No Windows
- Strange Wine
- Shatterday
- Stalking the Nightmare
- Angry Candy
- Slippage
- Can & Can'tankerous
- ”Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans”
- “The Beast that Shouted Love at The Heart of the World”
- “Croatoan”
- “The Deathbird”
- “The Discarded”
- “The Dragon on the Bookshelf”
- “From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet”
- “The Function of Dream Sleep”
- “How Interesting: A Tiny Man”
- “How's the Night Life on Cissalda?”
- “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”
- “Jeffty Is Five”
- “Paladin of the Lost Hour”
- “The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World”
- “"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman”
- “Soldier from Tomorrow”
- “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs”
- Phoenix Without Ashes
- Mind Fields
- "Soldier"
- "Demon with a Glass Hand"
- "The City on the Edge of Forever"
- "Paladin of the Lost Hour"
- "Gramma"
- "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich"
- "A View from the Gallery"
- "Objects in Motion"
- Babylon 5
- The Gathering
- In the Beginning
- Thirdspace
- The River of Souls
- A Call to Arms
- I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
- "The Human Operators"
- "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty"
- "Shatterday"
- A Boy and His Dog (1975 film)
- "Djinn, No Chaser"
- Dangerous Visions
- Again, Dangerous Visions
- Medea: Harlan's World
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