Evolution plays no favorites. In October of 1859, Thomas Austin introduced 24 wild rabbits on to his estate in Victoria, Australia. Austin loved to shoot rabbits on his land in England. Wishing to continue this hobby in his new home, he imported the animals, stating: "The introduction of a few rabbits could do little harm, in addition to a spot of hunting." After ten years, the spot of hunting had increased to two million caught per year. Among many attempts to control the rabbit population, the myxomatosis virus removed 500 million or 5/6 of the furry critters in the 1950s. Despite this and other similar measures, evolution has continually refurbished their numbers. The golden age author, Harry Harrison, exploited the mechanism of evolution for his novel Deathworld.
The main protagonist Jason dinAlt, a professional gambler, is recruited by Kerk, an inhabitant of the planet Pyrrhus. Kerk wants to stake Jason to turn a considerable sum of money into a huge amount of money. Kerk's home world needs the cash to renew and increase a large supply of weapons. The need for these is to control his world's hostile ecology. Eventually, Jason finds himself on Pyrrhus, where instant death from plants and animals threatens every human. In what follows, Jason's survival depends on discovering a way to eliminate the threat. A key to this task is his discovery that the problem did not exist for the original settlers. Somehow the humans on the planet had brought the threat on themselves!
Harrison's 1950s story has much to say about our present situation on Earth. This was no accident as he was very interested in social issues and the future of our species. Another of his books, Make Room! Make Room! was the basis for the film Soylent Green. The theme was overpopulation and how it would affect civilization. The movie is famous for the line: "Soylent green is people!" screamed out at the film’s end by actor Charlton Heston.
In 1957, Harrison created the character, James Bolvar diGriz, in his novel The Stainless Steel Rat. This eventually led to 12 books featuring diGriz. He is also called Slippery Jim and faces the problem of being a successful criminal in a world where technology has made such a life nearly impossible. Corruption in the political and financial world is still present, giving Jim many worthy targets. The novels gave Harrison an expansive playground for his brand of sarcastic humor that has much to say about our current world. They are also still popular and readily available.
I have not read the sequence of books Harrison wrote about Bill, the Galactic Hero. These started in 1965 and were considered by many to be a parody of Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers. I liked the latter book, which is why I have not explored this work of Harrisons.
Born in 1925, Harrison was one of the great writers of the golden age. His work also extended into the 21st century as he was still active until he died in 2012. If you like satire and social commentary in your science fiction, he is the master.
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