A Boy and His Dog & "Repent, Harlequin!" said the Ticktockman

Published in Harlan Ellison’s 1969 short-story collection, The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, "A Boy and His Dog" is one of the author’s own favorite works. Critics also appreciated the story, and it won the 1969 Nebula Award (awarded by Science Fiction Writers of America) for Best Novella. Six years later, it was adapted as a Hugo Award-winning film, with Don Johnson starring as Vic. "A Boy and His Dog" is considered one of Ellison’s most compelling stories, and the author expanded it into a novel in 1989. In post-apocalyptic America, the surface is the province of the roverpaks, bands of feral human males teamed with intelligence-enhanced dogs, descendants of those bred for military use in the war that drove civilization underground. A lucky encounter with a thrill-seeking female from the world below draws Vic and his telepathic mutt Blood "down the rabbit hole" to an encounter with the remnants of pre-war civilization. But like Huck Finn, Vic doesn't much like being civilized... Originally published in the collection The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, New York: Avon, 1969.