<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Harry Harrison (1925–) started as an illustrator, occasionally working for SF magazines, and didn't begin turning out his own fiction until the early 1950s, and not in any quantity until 1957. That year he created Slippery Jim DiGriz, an interstellar conman, who went through a number of career changes in a series of books that started with The Stainless Steel Rat (1957) and which has reached its tenth volume with The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to the Circus (1998). Deathworld (1960) also made a strong early impression. It is the story of a colony world whose entire ecology seems to be united in its hatred of all human interlopers, but the two sequels did not measure up to the quality of their predecessor.

The 1960s saw a steady output of superior novels. Bill, the Galactic Hero (1965) is still the best spoof of military SF. Make Room! Make Room! (1967, filmed as Soylent Green) sets an engaging mystery in a dystopian future and is the best of his early novels. Film producers use time travel to get authentic background shots in the often hilarious The Technicolor Time Machine (1967), and Captive Universe (1969) recreates the civilization of the Aztecs in an artificial future societal experiment. Harrison's first significant alternate history story was A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (1972, aka Tunnel Through the Deeps), set in a world where the American colonies never revolted.

Most of Harrison's novels during the 1970s were less inspired, although still skillfully written. He surpassed his previous efforts considerably with the Eden trilogy, starting with West of Eden (1984) and concluding with Return to Eden (1988). The setting is another alternate history, but this time one in which the dinosaurs did not die out; in fact they became intelligent and dominate the Earth. Small bands of humans manage to survive only on the fringes of the reptilian society. During the 1990s, Harrison alternated lightweight adventures, including more farcical adventures of Bill, the galactic hero, each novel written collaboratively with different authors, and an atypical brush with fantasy, a Viking trilogy that opened with The Hammer and the Cross (1993). His most interesting recent work is another trilogy, beginning with Stars and Stripes Forever (1998), in which England attempts to enter the Civil War on the Confederate side, alienates both parties in the conflict, and is eventually invaded by their combined armies.

In addition to his fiction writing, Harrison wrote occasional reviews and has edited Amazing Stories, Fantastic, and the British magazine Impulse. He has also edited anthologies, often in collaboration with Brian W. Aldiss, and has written nonfiction and mystery fiction, including at least one detective novel ghostwritten under the name Leslie Charteris. His many short stories, though rarely outstanding, are always enjoyable.

Pseudonyms

• Hank Dempsey
• Felix Boyd
• Wade Kaempfert
• Cameron Hall
• Philip St. John
• Leslie Charteris

External Links

• Official site