Science fiction satirist Harry Harrison has died

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August 18, 2012

Science fiction satirist Harry Harrison has died

Anonymous The Eagle-Tribune The Gloucester Daily Times Sat Aug 18, 2012, 02:24 AM EDT

LONDON (AP) — American author Harry Harrison, whose space-age spoofs delighted generations of science fiction fans, has died, a friend said. He was 87.

Irish sci-fi writer Michael Carroll said in a telephone interview that he learned of Harrison’s passing Wednesday from the author’s daughter, Moira. He said Harrison died in southern England, but didn’t have much further detail.

Harrison was a prolific writer whose works ranged from tongue-in-cheek inter-galactic action romps to dystopian fantasies, with detours through children’s stories and shambolic crime capers. Carroll said most of the works delivered a stream of sly humor with a big bucket of action.

“Imagine ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ or ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ and picture them as science fiction novels,” he said. “They’re rip-roaring adventures, but they’re stories with a lot of heart.”

Harrison was best known for his “The Stainless Steel Rat” series, starring the free-spirited anti-hero Slippery Jim DiGriz, a quick-witted conman who travels the universe swindling humans, aliens and robots alike.

His 1966 work, “Make Room! Make Room!” — a sci-fi take on the horrors of overpopulation — inspired the 1973 film “Soylent Green” starring Charlton Heston.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1925, Harrison served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II before working freelance as a commercial artist and eventually embarking on a long career as one of science fiction’s leading writers, turning out more than 70 books and short stories. Among them was “Bill, the Galactic Hero” a send-up of Robert Heinlein’s hard-edged “Starship Troopers,” and “The Technicolor Time Machine,” which took aim at Hollywood. Other works included anthologies, collections, and children’s stories — including one particularly goofy tale about an intergalactic guerilla force of mutant pigs.

Carroll, who maintains Harrison’s website, said what stood out for him was Harrison’s sharp story-telling skills and his even sharper sense of humor.