HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
Loading...

Make Room! Make Room! (original 1966; edition 1994)

by Harry Harrison

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,5774811,195 (3.59)98
" ... adapted into the movie Soylent Green in 1973 ..." "In a future New York City groaning under the burden of 35 million inhabitants, detective Andy Rusch is engaged in a desperate and lonely hunt for a killer everyone has forgotten. For even in a world such as this, a policeman can find himself utterly alone ..."--Back cover.… (more)
Member:Hoger
Title:Make Room! Make Room!
Authors:Harry Harrison
Info:Spectra (1994), Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:None

Work Information

Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1966)

  1. 10
    Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (schmindie_kid)
  2. 00
    Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle (sturlington)
    sturlington: Pair these two books with each and their movie adaptations.
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 98 mentions

English (47)  Italian (1)  All languages (48)
Showing 1-5 of 47 (next | show all)
This was a much better dystopia than I expected—dark and gritty, just the way I like them. It is dated and not just in that it takes place in the far future of twenty years ago. Despite having some attitudes that were radical for its time, it is full of gender stereotypes as well as sprinkled with some racist terms for the Chinese that I'd just as soon neither read nor remember.

Despite its flaws, I find it interesting that the book addresses that which we have still failed to fully grasp: the single most effective thing we can do to reduce our carbon footprint is to reduce our reproduction. Make less babies. Despite everything, access to birth control is still denied, often quite deliberately, to women. In some places, it is entirely unavailable, and even in those places where women are freer, we still must fight to maintain our access. Reproduction is still viewed so strongly as a sacred right that one cannot even discuss the concept of incentivizing people to have less children without responses of horror and approbation.

Of additional note, this is a loose book-to-film adaptation. Even if you've never seen Soylent Green, there's one thing you know about it, and that isn't even in the story. Don't come into this book expecting the movie. Furthermore, this isn't scifi in the technology sense. It's byline is in fact "A Realistic Novel of Life in 1999", so it was never even intended to be. Dystopia is generally considered a subgenre of science fiction, much like alternative history is, but don't come here expecting robots, spaceships, and other such tech either. ( )
  Zoes_Human | Sep 5, 2023 |
In spite of its reputation as the source for the film Soylent Green this is a very boring book. ( )
  edwinbcn | Aug 1, 2023 |
The book had some great concepts of the future and a real message to be considered but the writing doesn’t live up to it’s potential . More of a noir detective story with a touch of romance than real science fiction. The book was the inspiration for the classic movie “Soylent Gree” - spoiler alerts - however the main plot between the two are very different . The book and film both have the same main characters and set in the near future with an overpopulated world but the book deals with disappointments set in the sad realities of life in that future world and the message that the world needs to address birth control before it’s too late while the film is driven by a horrible truth not covered in the book. ( )
  Daniel_M_Oz | May 13, 2023 |
A combination of a noir detective story and a polemic for widely available (and used) birth control, written in 1966 and set in 1999.

The writing is just ordinary, and it didn’t hold my attention until the last third of the book, when the pace picked up considerably. The female characters are stereotypical (call girl with a good heart; stupid, slovenly, lazy mother of far too many children).
I know this book is popular, but it didn’t work for me. It’s very different from the movie, but neither hurts nor helps the reading experience. ( )
  Matke | Mar 26, 2023 |
I have classified this book as science fiction, but it does not fall into this category. Harry Harrison wrote the book in 1967 or thereabouts, and it paints a very scary, very plausible view of our future. In New York, 1999, the good cop, Andy, is called in to investigate a murder. He has a brief affair with the victim's mistress, who finally leaves him for a better life.

The nub lies here. A small elite lives a fabulous life of luxury. The rest, in crowded tenements, live on food scraps, struggling to survive. There is no escape, and in the end, Andy sees his ex-girlfriend get into a taxi - the mistress of a rich man.

There is no escape from this dystopian, Malthusian future. What makes the book scary is that the picture he painted is plausible and closer than we think.

The movie, 'Soylent Green', is based on this book - and is even bleaker.

Read this book along with '1984,' 'Animal Farm,' and 'Brave New World.' ( )
  RajivC | Feb 25, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 47 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (33 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Harrison, Harryprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Charles and CuffariCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ehrlich, Paul R.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Festino, GiuseppeCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Festino, GiuseppeIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Peroni, PauletteTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Solie, JohnCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Westermayr, TonyTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
To TODD and MOIRA For your sakes, children, I hope this proves to be a work of fiction.
First words
Prologue: In December 1959 The President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, said: 'This government ... will not ... as long as I am here, have a positive political doctrine in its program that has to do with this problem of birth control.
Text: New York City -
- stolen from the trusting Indians by the wily Dutch, taken from the law abiding Dutch by the warlike British, then wrested in turn from the peaceful British by the revolutionary colonials.
Quotations
So mankind gobbled in a century all the world's resources that had taken millions of years to store up, and no one on the top gave a damn or listened to all the voices that were trying to warn them, they just let us overproduce and overconsume until now the oil is gone, the topsoil depleted and washed away, the trees chopped down, the animals extinct, the earth poisoned, and all we have to show for this is seven billion people fighting over the scraps that are left, living a miserable existence--and still breeding without control.
Last words
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Blurbers
Original language
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

" ... adapted into the movie Soylent Green in 1973 ..." "In a future New York City groaning under the burden of 35 million inhabitants, detective Andy Rusch is engaged in a desperate and lonely hunt for a killer everyone has forgotten. For even in a world such as this, a policeman can find himself utterly alone ..."--Back cover.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.59)
0.5 1
1 2
1.5
2 21
2.5 8
3 101
3.5 26
4 116
4.5 9
5 41

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

Penguin Australia

An edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia.

» Publisher information page

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,239,768 books! | Top bar: Always visible