Harry Harrison/Stainless Steel Rat Dies

[Panzersharkcat]

From Newsday.

Harry Harrison, a sci-fi great, dead at 87

49 m ago By Lane Filler

Years before Charlton Heston barreled across the screen bellowing “Soylent Green is people,” there was a quirky little book called “Make Room! Make Room!” that postulated a far-off future (the year 1999) so crowded, with 7 billion people, that society was crumbling.

“Make Room! Make Room!” was written by the seminal science fiction write Harry Harrison, who died Wednesday at the age of 87. It was a dark, almost fevered exploration of what would happen in a world overrun by people and starved of resources, but it didn’t actually include any cannibalism. That was introduced in the “Soylent Green” script to sensationalize the problem central to the story.

Most people who’ve encountered Harrison’s influence have done so unwittingly, via “Soylent Green.” But to sci-fi aficionados, Harrison was the real deal, and his “Stainless Steel Rat” and “Bill the Galactic Hero” series were tight, clever and furiously fast action takes on the future, and on the genre that works to imagine the future.

The Stainless Steel Rat was James Bolivar “Slippery Jim” DiGriz, a con man and master criminal trying to stay off the grid and out of society’s sight line and never quite succeeding. He had morals, of sorts, and sardonic humor to spare. In a series of 12 books Harrison wrote between 1961 and 2010, the Rat was co-opted by the Special Corps (a super-secret government agency composed of criminal masterminds), married, had kids, traveled through time, always triumphed, never despaired, and rarely lost hit wits or his wit.

In his “Bill the Galactic Hero” books, of which there are eight, Harrison (who actually only wrote the first two, farming out the rest, a move he later deeply regretted) skewers the whole intergalactic war and “God Love the Federation” mindset of so much science fiction. There are no smart leaders or good armies in these books, just madness and disorganization and dysfunction beyond reason.

As a result, the books are said to be particularly popular with veterans of actual wars, who say they read more like military diaries than satires.

Harrison was also well-known as an editor and general proponent of his genre, and, oddly enough, a proponent and fluent speaker of Esperanto, the language that many in the 1970s and 1980s hoped might someday become the worldwide language. He was, although not the most famous author in his genre, a very interesting, enjoyable, witty and creative one, and his pen will be widely missed.

It’s been a tough run for science fiction, with Ray Bradbury dying in June and British bestseller Terry Pratchett almost five years into a battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. The early giants of science fiction and fantasy are dying out ever faster, and Harrison’s death adds to the sad tally.

What a shame. I was a fairly big fan of the Stainless Steel Rat in middle school. I even named my Sims after him and his family.

[Darth Nostril]

Another of the great ones lost to us.

http://harryharrison.wordpress.com/2012 ... 1925-2012/

http://io9.com/5934884/rip-harry-harris ... lent-green

RIP Harry Harrison.

[Darth Nostril]

Panzersharkcat beat me to it by mere minutes, mods feel free to delete this thread.

[fgalkin]

I've thoroughly enjoyed Deathworld when I was younger, and found Bill, The Galactic Hero a to be a great satire on milwank. RIP, sir.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[LadyTevar]

Duplicate Topics Merged.

At least his books will remain with us.

[Ahriman238]

Why is every sci-fi author and actor dying off all of a sudden?

[weemadando]

Because they're all fucking old?

[Revy]

I still have all of the Stainless Steel Rat books, and I did have the 2000AD comics featuring him until I lost them. Rat for President was my favourite, but I loved all of them. *sigh*

[weemadando]

Strangely, Rat for President is the only one I have read, got given it by a neighbour a year or so ago. Great stuff.

[The Yosemite Bear]

damn first bradbury now him, feel like ordering some of those think geek "Soylent Green" crackers in his honor....\

didn't he also do bill the galactic hero?

[Panzersharkcat]

Yes. Just the first two, though.

[open_sketchbook]

The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted is the first 20th century sci-fi lit I ever read. I think I was 9 or 10. Damn shame.

[SylasGaunt]

Damn that's a shame to see him go.

I got to meet him once. Harrison, Joe Haldeman, and Piers Anthony came to my University a while back to talk about writing and sci-fi. Skipped class to go listen and didn't regret it for an instant.

[Irbis]

I got to meet him once. Harrison, Joe Haldeman, and Piers Anthony came to my University a while back to talk about writing and sci-fi. Skipped class to go listen and didn't regret it for an instant.

I wish I could have meet them, too

Especially, seeing his non-Rat stories, he was a very decent person unlike a lot of other, younger SF authors...