I could have picked any of his books, but Harry Harrison is, my opinion, one of the most under-rated and influential writers of the Twentieth Century. What do you mean you’ve never heard of him? Harrison wrote space-operas, parodies and wicked commentaries on society, and while some of his writing hasn’t aged that well (true of many science fiction writers of the 50s and 60s), without him, we wouldn’t have Soylent Green (based on one of his books), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, anti-heroes quite like Han Solo or Deadpool, to name just a few. If you don’t believe me, try someone else’s opinion; Terry Pratchett thought one of Harrison’s books, Bill The Galactic Hero was “the funniest science fiction novel ever written”.
As a child, I would devour the comics 2000AD and Eagle, and in 1979, an amazing roguish, cheeky smuggler (bearing more than a passing resemblance to James Coburn, I always thought) “Slippery” Jim DiGriz appeared in a series of adventures. “Slippery Jim” was The Stainless Steel Rat, and the strips adaptations of a series of novels (a number of which are quite inexplicably out of print). Aged nine, I started to read the books and fell in love with Jim and his counterpart and lover, Angelina, and being inspired and amazed, from there I moved on to reading Aldiss and Bester (who Harrison had known and worked alongside), Boulle, Asimov, Clarke, and all the Sci-Fi greats. It started my love affair with science fiction literature (I already loved the Target Dr Who adaptations, but these were real, grown-up novels!).
I arguably love some of Harrison’s stand-alone novels more (The Technicolour Time Machine, The Man From R.O.B.O.T.) but it all started with The Stainless Steel Rat (I find it incredible there has never been a film franchise), and the stories are rollicking pot-boilers, wonderful satires of the military, nationalism and the human condition. His work isn’t all comedy either, in addition to so much artwork (he started in comics), some of his writing is simply dark and disturbing (even if you haven’t read him, if you’ve ever seen the movie Soylent Green, where, well I won’t give you spoilers, but you’ll get the idea of a very twisted society).
Find and read, you won’t regret it.
Stay safe,
Kit