Sad to hear that Harry Harrison has passed away. I first read “Make Room, Make Room” after seeing Soylent Green as a teen. But I was really hooked on Harry with his Stainless Steel Rat series. R.I.P Harry. http://www.harryharrison.com/
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I saw him at Torcon 3, Toronto 2003. He said that many years ago he was an artist on the Flash Gordon strip, and hated it.
After seeing Soylent Green and learning that there was a novel somewhere out there, “Make Room, Make Room” was one of the earliest books on my search list. I don’t remember if I first read the Stainless Steel Rat or MRMR, but SSR was certainly much more entertaining. Read a few in the series over the years, but not all.
Like any series, the SSR books peaked early then the quality declined, especially the later books that were written decades after the first ones.
Possibly funnier than those books are Bill the Galactic Hero and Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers, two titles which are the best send-ups of science fiction that I’ve ever read.
That is indeed sad news. I was a huge Stainless Steel Rat fan and devoured each book I could get my hands on, but that series wasn’t my first exposure to Harrison. The first of his books that I can remember reading were the Deathworld books. They were very exciting adventure stories.