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Harry Harrison has died

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No more Slippery Jim. :(
Harry Harrison, the creator of the Stainless Steel Rat, Bill the Galactic Hero, and the Deathworld trilogy, died today, August 15, aged 87. An illustrator and editor as well as writer, one of Harrison’s first published novels was a ghost-written adventure for Leslie Charteris’ Saint, Vendetta for the Saint, which was filmed starring Roger Moore as Simon Templar. His various series extended throughout his writing career, and although he was primarily known for lighter fare, he also wrote serious novels including Make Room! Make Room! the basis for the 1972 movie Soylent Green.
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http://scifibulletin.com/2012/08/15/rip-harry-harrison/
http://www.harryharrison.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19270109
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/15/harry-harrison
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/08/15/rip-harry-harrison/

Thoughts? Comments? Love him? Hate him?
 
Bummer, I didn't love everything he did but overall one of my favorites. Weird coincidence, I just started re-reading the original Stainless Steel Rat Trilogy about a week ago.
 
No he is not dead he is sleeping. I refuse to allow another of my heroes to die :(
 
Finster said:
Bummer, I didn't love everything he did but overall one of my favorites. Weird coincidence, I just started re-reading the original Stainless Steel Rat Trilogy about a week ago.
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And the first time I could recall ever encountering a gay character in a science fiction novel
 
Awww, poo. The Stainless Steel Rat books got a little formulaic after a while, but they're a ripping good read.
 
I adored Bill the Galactic Hero and the Stainless Steel Rat was my companion while recovering from surgery as a teenager. Sad news. :(
 
His Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld stuff are Sci Fi Classics.
His later alternate history stuff, not so much.
 
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Sad. He was a purveyor of fine tongue-in-cheek whimsy. Can we not get him some spare parts?
 
aggle-rithm said:
"Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers" is one of my favorites. Perfect send-up of the sci-fi genre.
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For me as a young kid and given my proclivity the twist right at the end had a real impact on me. For that alone he would have been one of my favourite authors, never mind the likes of the original Stainless Steel Rat fix-ups and novels, still some of the best comedic writing.
 
The first one I read was The Stainless Steel Rat for President a few weeks after the Philippine "people power" revolution. The parallels were very obvious, even down to the inept fixing of the polls.


This blog has some good points

I read the Stainless Steel Rat books at a very impressionable age, and a lot of clever bits stick in my mind — like the bit where "Slippery" Jim explains that intergalactic empires are impossible due to the problems with travel at relativistic speeds. This series was always smarter than a lot of other space operas, even alongside its gratifying levels of silliness.
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Harrison told Locus his books often have a pacifistic theme, in part thanks to his own experiences in the military:

Over time the [Stainless Steel] Rat grew up, and got very pacifistic. In the first book he killed one person, but no one else dies in the whole damn series. It was the anti-Jerry Pournelle and Jim Baen kind of story, where it's 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' Bill, the Galactic Hero was my first book of that sort. I'd been in the army and hated it. Though almost all my books are anti-military, anti-war (the Deathworld series very much so), I try not to repeat myself.
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God I loved those!

Which one did he and his mentor end up 'stowing away' in a McPorkburger 'machine' or whatever it was? That was absolutely hilarious!
 
Darat said:
For me as a young kid and given my proclivity the twist right at the end had a real impact on me.
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I remember hating that ending when I first read it back in high school, but I grew to appreciate it for the way it turned the cliched, cartoony sci-fi hero story on its head.
 
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