Rumination on Overpopulation

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	• Make Room! Make Room! Harry Harrison Orb Books, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A good read

I like this book , I like the movie Soylent Green, too -- which tells a very different story. They complement one another, but they are by no means the same.

Harrison gives us a gritty tour through a believable overcrowded New York in a run-down world that could have been. Still could be.....

I bought the Orb edition currently on sale at Amazon. Funny thing - the plot turns on a murder that happens somewhere between pages 64 and 97. Those pages are missing from my book, and 97-123 are printed twice. And the book was still compelling enough to hold my interest. That's good writing. So I recommend it...but maybe you want to wait for the second edition from this publisher.

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Rumination on Overpopulation

In the 1970s, many science fiction writers (Asimov included) were concerned about overpopulation, and it's effects on the planet. Make Room Make Room is Harry Harrison's take on this world gone amuck. The book is Science Fiction at it's best - not just technology as a background, but science as a premise. Outstanding reading by one of the grand masters of the genre. Perhaps the book received it's audience from the movie Soylent Green, but this reader has not seen the movie to compare. Value the book on it's own!

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Well written and exciting

In 1999, New York City suffers from overpopulation as 35 million people live there. The country as a whole is also struggling with population issues. In that environs Chinese American Billy Chung lives in the floating slums of New York Harbor. During a food riot, Billy escapes with meat that he sells so that he can fund his effort to become a telegram delivery person. During a delivery, he finds an apartment that looks easy to break into, which he does. However the occupant is home and Billy kills "Big" Mike O'Brien.

Since O'Brien was connected, the overworked NYPD assigns Andrew Rusch to solve the case immediately just in case this was a professional hit. However, clues lead Andrew to believe Billy killed the victim. Meanwhile Andrew meets O'Brien's girlfriend Shirl and soon she moves in with him and his roommate Sol. Billy flees to Brooklyn, where he finds sanctuary with Peter, a religious fanatic. Andrew finds and kills tracks Billy. Shirl is gone and the brass punishes him over the O'Brien case as their intended solution changed and he failed to keep up with that.

Apparently this novel was the basis for the movie Soylent Green. MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM! is an interesting reprinting of a 1966 cautionary tale that using theories of Malthus and Ehrlich ("The Population Bomb") which warned of the impact of overpopulation on the food supply and the environment. The story line stars everyday people trying to survive in a dying world with no hope for the future; in fact the only person with aspirations beyond his next meal is the young thief. Well written and exciting, part of the fun is to see how close Harry Harrison was in predicting the world of 1999.

Harriet Klausner

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

The world is crowded. Far too crowded. Its starving billions live on lentils, soya beans, and ?if they?re lucky?the odd starving rat.

In a 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?.

Acclaimed on its original publication in 1966, Make Room! Make Room! was adapted into the movie Soylent Green in 1973, starring Charlton Heston along with Edward G. Robinson in his last role.

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