# M. John Harrison **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-john-harrison/163391 "2003-03-22T17:05:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiat\_Lux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Fiat\_Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiat_Lux)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-john-harrison/163391/1 "2003-03-22T17:05:59Z")
M. John Harrison is one of the few authors who manages to bridge the gap between fantasy/sci-fi and “serious literature”. With the side-effect that almost nobody in either field has ever heard of him ☹ His stuff is bleak and strange, generally emphasising entropy and decay. Through all his written work, he plays around with the same set of images and characters; a dwarf; a heart; a violent, unpredictable drunkard; trains and buses and urban decay. I find his short stories less interesting tha his full-length novels. In many ways they seem like warm-ups for those novels, with dialogue, ideas and whole scenes used briefly to be expanded on later. I’ve just finished ‘The Course of the Heart’, which I think is my favorite of his so far. It is a modern-day fantasy, although the elements of magic are generally left in the background. In some ways this is frustrating, but it leaves magic the way it should be; vague, mysterious and equally menacing and promising. It’s also hazy on the details because the narrator himself doesn’t really understand them himself; he’s simply the unwilling accomplice and sometime apprentice of a corrupt, seedy magician. Another plot-thread is somewhat similar to ‘Foucault’s Pendulum’; a couple construct a fantasy about a mythical European land, connected to the world they’ve gotten themselves entangled by, eventually fabricating a family line connecting one of them to its royalty, in the hope that it will somehow make the things they’ve summoned up go away. Any Dopers know this author? ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-john-harrison/163391/2 "2003-03-22T17:45:15Z")
Yep. I have _The Floating Gods_, _The Pastel City_, and _Storm of Wings_ which are, as I recall, loosely connected novels. I thought I had _Viriconium Nights_, too, but I don’t see it on my bookshelves (not that that means anything, my library is hopelessly disorganized at the moment). It’s been years since I’ve read them, though, so I have no distinct recollection of the stories. They’re the kind of books you have to read more than once before you can work out what’s going on. Hmmmm. Maybe I should take them with me when I go out to visit my folks next week. I need reading material for the airport waits and the plane trips. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-john-harrison/163391/3 "2003-03-22T18:27:43Z")
Harrison just won (well, tied for) the 2002 [Tiptree Award](http://www.tiptree.org/) for his new novel, _Light_. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-john-harrison/163391/4 "2003-03-22T20:02:07Z")
A collection of the “Viriconium” stories appeared in the “Fantasy Masterworks” reissues series here in the UK, as simply _Viriconium_. And I’ve read some of his early SF, like _The Committed Men_ and _The Centauri Device_, which latter got a slot in the related “SF Masterworks” series … Bound to say, though, I recognize his influence and all that, and he’s an effective writer, but not one I _like_, particularly. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-john-harrison/163391/5 "2003-03-22T22:40:44Z")
Lots of authors have written both science fiction/fantasy novels and “mainstream” novels. Just off the top of my head: Brian Aldiss and Iain Banks. It’s not that rare.