# Harry Harrison Has Died **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556 "2012-08-15T13:30:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/21 "2012-08-15T22:27:34Z")
Damn. RIP Harry Harrison. Loved all his work mentioned above, except _Stars and Stripes_ which I haven’t read. I’d also like to mention _The Men From P.I.G. and R.O.B.O.T._, a couple of novellas dealing with intelligent pigs as agents, and multifarious types of robots used for law enforcement purposes. Since I’m also a C S Forester fan, I must also mention his short story “Captain Honario Harpplayer, RN,” a great tribute and a parody. ---
**Author:** ![MobiusStripes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@MobiusStripes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MobiusStripes)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/22 "2012-08-15T23:27:41Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > In junior high I loved Deathworld. I was given a book that combined all three of the Deathworld stories. High-gravity planets, arm-mounted guns, plus lots of problem solving stuff. I ate it up. The first is available on Project Gutenberg > **[Deathworld by Harry Harrison](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28346)** > > Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by volunteers. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/23 "2012-08-15T23:56:57Z")
Haven’t read a lot of Harrison, but I liked the bit in one of his books about “Mutual Individualism,” and the Rat’s reaction to it. _The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted_, I think. Now I know _Make Room, Make Room!_ is not _Soylent Green_, I might consider reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/24 "2012-08-16T00:15:07Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Haven’t read a lot of Harrison, but I liked the bit in one of his books about “Mutual Individualism,” and the Rat’s reaction to it. _The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted_, I think Very much like the system that is described in Eric Frank Russell’s “And Then There Were None” [The Great Explosion - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Explosion) by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/25 "2012-08-16T00:23:42Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > In junior high I loved Deathworld. I really think that _Avatar_ is a pretty direct rip-off of Deathworld, with a few frills (and species) thrown in as a disguise. I looked in the closing credits because I was so sure his name would be mentioned, but no. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/26 "2012-08-16T02:51:15Z")
RIP. Loved the SSR. The first character I ever read that was an athiest. He made me think. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/27 "2012-08-16T03:14:26Z")
That makes me sad. A book of his short stories was one of the first Sci Fi books I ever read. I also enjoyed West of Eden. Make Room, Make Room is also amazing. The movie plays up the detective story but the book is much more about the Sociology of over population. I’ve read it more than once. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/28 "2012-08-16T03:17:38Z")
RIP ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/29 "2012-08-16T10:33:21Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > You know what’s neat, though? A lot of them got to SEE some of the innovations they were dreaming of, and lived long enough to realize that things were changing faster than anyone had ever thought possible. But we have yet to see a Danish submarine equipped with an anti-gravity devise on the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/30 "2012-08-16T11:21:03Z")
Very sad news. I think my first and still favourite novel of his was _The Technicolour Time Machine_. ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556/31 "2012-08-16T16:18:12Z")
> [@AtomicDog](#): > > I always thought that Steve Martin would have made a marvelous Slippery Jim. I got into _The Stainless Steel Rat_ books from the 2000AD comic adaptations - Carlos Ezquerra drew him a little bit like James Coburn, and that’s how I imagined him. As per [this fantastic cover](http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=574451&gsub=89794). His version of Angelina was, er, [striking](http://www.illustrationartgallery.com/acatalog/info_EzquerraXX003.html). Torturer: “Talk, dog!” JimL: “Woof!” Man, I loved those novels when I was a kid, and they’re still great nowadays, and I’m amazed they haven’t been filmed. “It’s like Bourne meets Minority Report but the hero takes a lot of drugs, doesn’t kill anyone, and speaks Esperanto; his sexy girlfriend used to kill people, but she was brainwashed!” The Peter Elson book covers were great in their own way, but they weren’t how I imagined Jim to look. From there I picked up _Bill, The Galactic Hero_, a short story collection called _Something Tales and Something Tomorrows_, etc. He was much hipper than Clarke and Asimov, less hung up on the science, more direct than Bradbury, who also died recently. He did start to churn out _Stainless Steel Rat_ books, though; I remember two of them had incredibly similar plots, and “Goes to Hell” wasn’t very good at all. Last links with the past, dying off. Frederik Pohl’s still alive. Sadly Harrison doesn’t seem to be listed on Wikipedia’s “[Golden Age of Science Fiction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Science_Fiction)” article, perhaps someone can rectify that. He was quasi-new wave, though, a bit edgier and less sciencey than the others. Jesus, the article about New Wave is awful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-harrison-has-died/631556.md?page=1)