Harry Harrison, an American novelist whose science fiction novels achieved cult status in post-Soviet Russia, died on Wednesday, his official Web site reported. He was 87.
Reports did not specify the cause of death. Harrison spent the last years of his life in Ireland.
A native of Connecticut and a World War II veteran, Harrison began his career in science fiction in the 1950s by creating comic books and strips, including a run at Flash Gordon.
He debuted as a writer in 1960 with Deathworld, an action-packed story with an environmental message that remains one of his most renowned works. Several sequels followed, along with other series and a handful of standalone novels, one of which, Make Room! Make Room! (1966) was made into a Hollywood movie called Soylent Green (1973), a minor cult classic in its own right.
Harrison’s bibliography numbers almost 60 novels, many of them co-penned with other authors, such as the Hammer and the Cross alternative history series (1993-1997), set in Viking times and written with John Holm.
Unlike many of his peers, Harrison was prone to satire, mocking militarism, mindless authoritarianism and rampant capitalism in many of his series, especially The Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero. He was also one of the few in the genre at the time to tackle humanitarian themes, such as interaction between various cultures or ecology, as opposed to wonders of progress and technology that were the focus of many authors in contemporary science fiction.
Despite being awarded a Grand Master title in 2009 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Association, Harrison remained largely a second-tier author in the English-speaking world. However, in Russia his popularity was immense, thanks to mostly pirated translations churned out by local publishers since perestroika.
In an indication of his popularity in post-Soviet world, Harrison co-penned three books in the Deathworld series in 1998-1999 with Ant Skalandis, a Russian science fiction writer. The books are only available in Russian and Lithuanian.
Harrison is survived by two children, Moira and Todd.
