Harlan Ellison - Alone Against Tomorrow: Stories of Alienation in Speculative Fiction

I'd read "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" before, on the strength of that story's attention-grabbing title, and enjoyed it, but there's not much else in this collection which is up to that standard. I wouldn't say that there are any real lemons, but Ellison's unsettling tales of futuristic nightmare-scapes and - there's no better word for it - alienated humanity tend to pall after one has read a few of them in a row; it's probably telling that my other favourite piece in this collection is one which is actually quite funny and even a bit optimistic, "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman". Still, taken as a whole, these stories are quite gripping and thought-provoking, and humankind is always firmly at the forefront of Ellison's imagination without the writing ever being preachy or overly obvious in its messages.