Sci-fi Author Harry Harrison Dies at 87 91
tmjva writes "Per BBC's Entertainment page, author Harry Harrison died today at the age of 87. His body of work included Make Room! Make Room!, (the inspiration for Soylent Green), The Stainless Steel Rat, and Bill the Galactic Hero. From the article: 'Harrison's first novel, Deathworld, was published in 1960, while the first book in the Stainless Steel Rat series was published a year later. The last of the series was published just two years ago in 2010 and the books are widely regarded as producing one of science fiction's great anti-heroes, Slippery Jim diGriz, aka The Stainless Steel Rat. The author also parodied the sci-fi genre in his seven Bill the Galactic Hero books, which were first seen in 1965. He saw his work as anti-war and anti-militaristic.'"
Sad (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sad (Score:5, Insightful)
by jdigriz (676802)
Seriously, jdigriz gets first post? How appropriate is that?
Re:Sad (Score:5, Funny)
I agree, that's pretty close to winning the Internet.
Re:Sad (Score:4, Funny)
That guy is pretty slippery.
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He slipped in through the wainscoting.
Sad about HH, though. Loved, and often re-read his stuff.
RIP
Re:Sad (Score:5, Interesting)
Most fitting username for a first post on this.
Truly sad, yet another of the sci-fi greats dying. I've had the pleasure of dining with Harry Harrison a few years ago, and in person he was every bit as funny as his works. Impressive how his very strong moral convictions come through in his books.
Re:Sad (Score:5, Interesting)
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When I was growing up in Bulgaria, Clifford Simak was certainly considered one of the great ones. For some reason, he, together with Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke, was one of the three most translated Western Sci-Fi authors.
For obvious reasons, Harry Harrison, Heinlein, and Orwell were less likely to be translated... because their anti-totalitarianism was more overt.
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Re:Sad (Score:4, Insightful)
I remember reading the SSR books in my teens the late 80s. I was very surprised when I realised how OLD the first few were as some of the ideas/concepts in the books were just becoming mainstream/reality.
Harry Harrison will be missed.
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> The Rat became a government rat with a brainwashed woman as his significant other.
Uh... that happened in the very first book. The "earlier" novels were all prequels.
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...but his characters lacked realism.
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Deathworld (Score:1)
Odd coincidence that I just re-read his Deathworld books recently. Apparently they are old enough that they are public domain these days.
A fond farewell.
Re:Deathworld (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite. Deathworld is in the public domain because it copyrighted under the pre 1976 copyright law, and was (apparently) never renewed. Pre-1976 books are minefield to figure out if they are in the public domain or not.
In order to be sure they are in the public domain, in the US, you need to do careful research, or the book has to have been copyrighted in 1923 or before. The UK and the rest of the world have different laws, so don't assume they carry over.
Oh and Peter Pan will likely never be in the public domain...
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OK, well, fwiw it appears in Project Gutenberg.
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Oh and Peter Pan will likely never be in the public domain...
On Barrie's death, Great Ormand Street Hospital (a London childrens hospital) was given the copyright in perpetuity.
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...On Barrie's death, Great Ormand Street Hospital (a London childrens hospital) was given the copyright in perpetuity.
Can an IP have a perpetual copyright in the US? Or is it just that the US will respect the UKs perpetual copyright?
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Can an IP have a perpetual copyright in the US?
Wrong question.
You should be asking "can IP copyrighted after Steamboat Willy have other than perpetual copyright in the US?"
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I was referring to the UK law (and should have been more clear) as an object lesson that you cannot assume that what is true in the US holds true for the rest of the world...
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Oh and Peter Pan will likely never be in the public domain...
So he'll stay forever in his protected Copyrightland, fighting evil pirates and getting royalties to live for all eternity? Well, he surely wished for it hard enough.
Thanks, Harry (Score:2)
Thank you, Harry, I truly enjoyed the books.
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He probably would have appreciated your thank you a hell of a lot more last week.
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He probably would have appreciated your thank you a hell of a lot more last week.
[golf clap]
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no difference, this week, last week, what he probably did appreciate is my business, since I bought some of his books and that was way back.
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If by some chance I would have thanked him last week and then he ended up dead this week, I'd be known as the polite yet deadly, nobody would want me to thank them ever again.
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Oh, and I just came up with 4 different business plans based on that ability, to thank somebody just before they kick the bucket. A couple of the plans are straight forward, and 2 involve people paying to be rude to them.
Stainless Steel Rat (Score:5, Insightful)
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I first read "The Stainless Steel Rat" in junior high school via the Geek Underground. I call it that because that's the only explanation for the circumstances by which I had received the book.
The day I got the book, the interior of the school bus was impossibly dark, or so I thought at the time; I had relocated a from sunny So Cal a year and half ago, and that morning was a typical mid-winter morning in Anchorage, so the sun wouldn't be up for another several hours. The frosty, subterranean dark was punct
Don't eat the biscuits at the funeral.... (Score:3, Insightful)
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I think you know what THEY'RE made of...
Seaweed, probably. Soya and lentils being too expensive.
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Two of my boyhood heroes... (Score:5, Interesting)
"Slippery Jim" diGriz and Bill, the Galactic Hero. I've worn out 2 or 3 copies of both series over the years.
Oddly enough, just a couple of days ago, I just happened to run across a reprint of A Trans-Atlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! which I bought and read on impulse, having seen it years and years ago but never having actually cracked the cover. A fun read, if you've not not already had the pleasure.
Thanks, Harry. I don't think I'll ever tire of your work.
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I second the recommendation of A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! The book is most memorable for the alternate history: a semi-steampunk world where the US revolutionary war failed, and North America is still part of the British Empire. The "Queen Elizabeth" was a luxury airplane that ran on finely powdered coal. The main character is a descendant of the despised traitor George Washington, and wants to erase that stain on his family honour.
By the way its original title was Tunnel through the Deeps.
http://en [wikipedia.org]
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Don't forget Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers... That was a fun book making fun of everything under the sun!
Really one of the greatest in sci-fi (Score:2)
His name was one of the first I learned to recognize as a young beginner sci-fi-aficionado (ohh, maybe 10 years old?). I really liked the Steel Rat books, both others as well.
Here is a comment by John Scalzi [scalzi.com] (who is actually surprisingly similiar in style - I recommend).
Athiest (Score:5, Interesting)
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STAINLUS STEL RATA (Score:2)
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no, no, no. . . it's "el rato di ferro-chromo est morte"
Fairwell you rat! (Score:3)
RIP Harry. As with many others I spent many a night wearing out old paperbacks with his name on the binder.
One of the set of novels that has not been mentioned is his Edan series. A very good series that Harry put some serious effort into. Not as much 'fun' as some of his other work but very good sci-fi.
Some public domain stuff for you to try (Score:4, Insightful)
Harry Harrison wrote quite a bit of stuff during the days when copyright actually could expire.
http://www.feedbooks.com/books/search?query=harry+harrison [feedbooks.com]
Noteworthy: "The Misplaced Battleship" (the first Stainless Steel Rat story) Deathworld (the first Deathworld novel)
It would be cool to see the Stainless Steel Rat adventures turned into movies. I'd love to see what a .75 calibre recoilless pistol would look like as a prop.
steveha
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Here's one idea. [cold-moon.com] Although I will admit, Jim DiGriz's probably doesn't look so...brutal.
RIP (Score:5, Insightful)
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Li vere estis remarkinda autoro.
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Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers (Score:4, Informative)
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Agreed, it's one of the jewels of my book collection and stands just as well on it's own merits as it does as a parody.
If I remember correctly the stainless steel rat was also serialised in the 2000AD comics and then subsequently published as a collection. Could be worth tracking this down or pushing for a reprint to help introduce a new generation to some classic,influential and seminal works.
There goes another great one (Score:2)
As our bookshelves can attest, my spouse and I have been fans of Mr. Harrison's writing for decades now. He was a versatile writer who excelled at creating engaging and entertaining characters. We were so excited to find "The Stainless Steel Rat Returns" a couple of years ago, after thinking he had retired the series...
Rest in peace, good sir, and may the stars watch over you.
Sir, you will be truly missed! (Score:4, Informative)
RIP Harry (Score:2)
Loved the Stainless Steel Rat. It influenced my life in 3 key ways. Jim di Griz's mastery of judo inspired me to earn a green belt and stand up successfully to the bullies in my junior high school. And if it weren't for you I wouldn't have known Esperanto existed. Never learned much of that, but it kicked off a life-long love for languages that has led to mastery of five others. Lastly, it began a life-long quest for a real-life glass of Syrian Panther Sweat.
Plug for Invasion: Earth (Score:1)
hmmm (Score:3)
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To be a parody of Starship Troopers, it would have to follow the plot, have equivalent characters, be a mirror to some extent. There's none of that.
Starship Troopers unabashedly glorifies military service - given that it is entirely voluntary at all times except mid-combat. Bill, with a totally different plot and characters, tells a story where it is not voluntary even if the teenage volunteer falls for a tricky sales job; is anything but glorious when, as usual, based on lies and blunders. It's up to t
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Since when has The Good Soldier Schweik(*) been obscure?
(Don't even want to try spelling it correctly - fuck slashcode and it's unicode handling).
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Harrison himself states he took pot shots at Heinlein in Bill the Galactic Hero, and Heinlein never talked to him again.
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Thank you all - fascinating, I'll have to re-read "Bill" to spot those "potshots". And now I have to find an obscure Czech novel, too.
But none of that makes it a "parody" which was my only point - I quite agree that it was a critical response to ST (among many, MANY other military-glorifying SF novels - it's a whole genre).
Stainless Steel Rat (Score:1)
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I was surprised that I had to read through to what was currently the last comment before encountering anyone mentioning this series. I actually went to the Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] page for Harry Harrison to confirm I had remembered correctly that he'd written these given no one had mentioned them yet.
I found he'd written far more books than I'd realised, and I may have to go hunt a few more out now.
No mention of... (Score:1)
Good books... (Score:1)
cut and paste in a virtual machine (Score:2)
Yellow and frail (Score:2)
Very sad to hear this news. He was too one of the authors I most read during my teens. It is clearly time to crack open the yellowing pages of my old paperbacks and give the SSR and Deathworld novels are re-read - possibly the last before they fall apart. Then probably off to Amazon to replace with whatever's available in hard cover. For some reason I would rather pay $50 for hard cover copy of the 'old classics' than $2.50 for the ebook edition.
Hammer and Stripes (Score:2)
Let's not forget the 'Hammer and the Cross' and the 'Stars and Stripes' series. Both well researched and great alternate history trilogies. Even if he does indulge in a bit of Britt bashing, Stars and Stripes is still one of my favorite Civil War alternate history novels, and as I recall HH was regarded as an authority on that era too.
One of the great SF writers that I like to re-read (Score:2)
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(Reformatting for better readability)
I have a large collection of mostly translated SF books. Harry Harrison is one of those writers that regularly got translated into Dutch, so I had to run into him sooner or later in the beginning of the seventies, I think it was Wheelworld.
Most of his work is nice to read. I was impressed by 'One Step from Earth'.
He also had a feel for the nonsensical and burlesque, and this combined with SF made him at least original. However, his way of writing doesn't seem to be
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s/beginning of the seventies/beginning of the eighties/