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Make Room! Make Room!
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First published in 1966, Harrison's novel of an overpopulated urban jungle, a divided class system—operating within an atmosphere of riots, food shortages, and senseless acts of violence—and a desperate hunt for the truth by a cynical NYC detective tells a classic tale of a dark future.
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Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages
Published
May 1st 1994
by Spectra
(first published November 1st 1966)
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McDonald's springs to mind!👍🐯
Monsanto too! ...more
Monsanto too! ...more

Here is a 1966 novel about 1999 which is good, honest, miserable fun. The main guy who is a cop gets to be really happy for about two pages and after that it’s back to worrying about absolutely everything.
It’s New York City and the population has skyrocketed to 35 million. The whole damn country has kind of collapsed. There are no more private cars. Tobacco is a thing of the past. There are meateasies! This is because you can get your meat but you have to know where. But pretty much everything ...more
It’s New York City and the population has skyrocketed to 35 million. The whole damn country has kind of collapsed. There are no more private cars. Tobacco is a thing of the past. There are meateasies! This is because you can get your meat but you have to know where. But pretty much everything ...more

Color me happy and more than a little surprised to be decorating this review with as many stars as I am because I went into this novel with pretty subdued expectations. I would say expectations on par with those I hold for the latest cinematic embarassment by Mr. Dickoless Cage. I know that's not very nice, but I will never, never forgive that talent-free ass bozo for effectively castrating Ghost Rider in front of the general public, despite being a self-described fanboy of the character. The g
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A science fiction classic
Quite unlike the movie, Make Room, Make Room is a gloomy, glimpse into a New York burgeoning with too many people. The movie that is loosely based on it is Soylent Green. Andy Rusch is a city cop who is overworked and underpaid. He has one friend, Sol, an old man who also shares a room with him. During the investigation of a bigwig's murder, Andy meets a gorgeous woman who was the mistress of the newly deceased. They hit it off. As Andy investigates the crime, he and Shi ...more
Quite unlike the movie, Make Room, Make Room is a gloomy, glimpse into a New York burgeoning with too many people. The movie that is loosely based on it is Soylent Green. Andy Rusch is a city cop who is overworked and underpaid. He has one friend, Sol, an old man who also shares a room with him. During the investigation of a bigwig's murder, Andy meets a gorgeous woman who was the mistress of the newly deceased. They hit it off. As Andy investigates the crime, he and Shi ...more

A great book, depressingly enjoyable.
It's amazing but I don't think i have ever read this book before. So when it came up as a Group Read for the "Apocalypse Whenever" group, I voted for it and bought a kindle copy. One of the best decisions i've made.
It is set during 1999 in New York and proceeds all the way to the millennium. Now obviously it is 19 years past that date, and so it is interesting to see what Harry got right , and boy was it a lot. That said some of the "future" as portrayed by ...more
It's amazing but I don't think i have ever read this book before. So when it came up as a Group Read for the "Apocalypse Whenever" group, I voted for it and bought a kindle copy. One of the best decisions i've made.
It is set during 1999 in New York and proceeds all the way to the millennium. Now obviously it is 19 years past that date, and so it is interesting to see what Harry got right , and boy was it a lot. That said some of the "future" as portrayed by ...more

“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
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Of course I remember the movie Soylent Green. I saw it at the drive-in gazillions of years ago, and many times since. But let me tell you, as dramatic as the movie is, with Charlton Heston as main character Andy Rusch giving the infamous scream of (view spoiler) there is actually no soylent green in the book at all. There are red crackers, seaweed crackers, brown soylent (soy/lentil) steaks and eventually small soylent burgers supposedly with a smoky-bar
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Good morning class! Now, hands up everyone who knows what Soylent Green is made of. Ah, that's very good. I'm glad to see you read your assignment.
I'm sorry, we're not quite finished yet. What is the book's original title? No, of course it isn't a trick question. You should have read it a little more carefully... ...more
I'm sorry, we're not quite finished yet. What is the book's original title? No, of course it isn't a trick question. You should have read it a little more carefully... ...more

Sigh... Where to begin? This is my second, and probably last Harry Harrison novel. I know that he's considered one of the best science fiction writers of his time, and I can't disagree... But it's not his time anymore, and in my opinion, his writing just doesn't stand the test of time. He shouldn't feel too offended though, this opinion applies to quite a few writers whose work shows its age, and not in a George Clooney "Gets Better With" kind of way.
The ideas and concepts I can appreciate. The ...more
The ideas and concepts I can appreciate. The ...more

Oddly enough, I kinda expected something hokey before I read this, but instead, I just got a dystopian nightmare of overpopulation.
This isn't unexpected or a bad thing. After all, I've seen Soylent Green and felt the huge impact of the scene where the old man Saul mouths the BIG SECRET through the plane of glass. I remember the riots, the pressure, the senseless violence, and the massive levels of injustice AND stupidity that brought us to this state.
And yet, after reading this novel, that sense ...more
This isn't unexpected or a bad thing. After all, I've seen Soylent Green and felt the huge impact of the scene where the old man Saul mouths the BIG SECRET through the plane of glass. I remember the riots, the pressure, the senseless violence, and the massive levels of injustice AND stupidity that brought us to this state.
And yet, after reading this novel, that sense ...more

"The coal that was supposed to last for centuries has all been dug up because so many people wanted to keep warm. And the oil too, there’s so little left that they can’t afford to burn it, it’s got to be turned into chemicals and plastics and stuff. And the rivers – who polluted them? The water – who drank it? The topsoil – who wore it out? Everything has been gobbled up, used up, worn out. What we got left – our one natural resource? Old-car lots, that’s what. Everything else has been used up a
...more

Soylent Green was a favourite film with my father's side of the family. Often referenced and spoken about yet, it wasn't until I was a grown woman that I finally saw it (because my husband was appalled that my 70's film viewing had been so lacking; he considers it to have been a fantastic decade for film). Anyway, upon viewing Soylent Green, I had to concur that it was a great story. So as I am wont to do, I sought out and bought the book. Then it sat in my TBR pile for the last five years waiti
...more

Having seen the movie Soylent Green at the age of ten or so, back in the seventies, and learned this was the book that inspired it, I immediately tagged it a "Must Get To." I came across a nice hard cover 20 or so years back and let it wait its turn.
I expected it to be different from the film and was pleased of how so. I have found all of Harry Harrison's writing to be above average (from what I have read thus far - not that much actually, only a couple Stainless Steel Rat books, some from the D ...more
I expected it to be different from the film and was pleased of how so. I have found all of Harry Harrison's writing to be above average (from what I have read thus far - not that much actually, only a couple Stainless Steel Rat books, some from the D ...more

Sep 28, 2012
Toby
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi,
black-as-night
A fine piece of science fiction that grabs you from the start with it's world building and high quality writing and entertains for over 200 pages.
Soylent Green might have been people but Make Room! Make Room! is a story about a detective investigating a murder in a future world with a drastic problem with over-population and a lack of natural resources. The detective aspect works as an interesting framing story that allows Harrison to explore the nuances of his world - food riots, vegan diets, w ...more
Soylent Green might have been people but Make Room! Make Room! is a story about a detective investigating a murder in a future world with a drastic problem with over-population and a lack of natural resources. The detective aspect works as an interesting framing story that allows Harrison to explore the nuances of his world - food riots, vegan diets, w ...more

It's the future - 1999 in fact! Over 7 billion humans, 35 million of them in New York City where a cop, a gangster's moll and a street kid all collide on their no longer separate searches for food and water security. Shanties, tent cities, people living in ships and cars that can't move because there's no more oil. Sounds like Harrison only got the date wrong...
It's an odd book tackling the question of over-population back in the 1960s when it seems to have first been taken seriously (though not ...more
It's an odd book tackling the question of over-population back in the 1960s when it seems to have first been taken seriously (though not ...more

Maybe I am being unfair by rating this book 3 stars. It is difficult to read this book and to not think about the movie the whole time. The two are completely different. The bare bones of the plot is similar but that is about it. (view spoiler) . Which might make you think the movie is better than the book. If you can forget about the movie and you like dystopian futures with po
...more

Make Room! Make Room! was the basis for the classic sci-fi flick Soylent Green. Of course, the scene that everyone remembers from the film - Charleston Heston yelling, "Soylent Green is people!" at the end - never appears in the book. Sorry, kids, no cannibalism in this rather slow read from the 1960s, but lots of commentary on the dangers of overpopulation.
It's actually a fairly depressing story about environmental collapse: the food is pretty much gone and it's hot all the time due to global w ...more
It's actually a fairly depressing story about environmental collapse: the food is pretty much gone and it's hot all the time due to global w ...more

Considering that this classic novel of sci-fi was written in the 1960s, it's still quite a grabber and definitely worth reading. You're welcome to stay here for the short version or click here for the longer one.
The setting for Make Room! Make Room! is New York City, 1999, well beyond teeming with a population of 35 million people. Food is a precious commodity and water is rationed,except for the rich who have speakeasy-like secret meat markets for their shopping pleasures and can enjoy long sho ...more
The setting for Make Room! Make Room! is New York City, 1999, well beyond teeming with a population of 35 million people. Food is a precious commodity and water is rationed,except for the rich who have speakeasy-like secret meat markets for their shopping pleasures and can enjoy long sho ...more

This was made in to Solvent Green with very odd cast of Charlton Heston & Edward G Robinson who was famous for playing gangsters it was his last movie & he was very ill when it was made.
My late mother hated this as was about suicide clinks for old people. She said was in very bad taste.
The book & the movie are different Harry Harrison famous for his Stainless Steel rat books often did comical books or even black comedy but the move was not comical I found it bit of sour taste special if you know ...more
My late mother hated this as was about suicide clinks for old people. She said was in very bad taste.
The book & the movie are different Harry Harrison famous for his Stainless Steel rat books often did comical books or even black comedy but the move was not comical I found it bit of sour taste special if you know ...more

There is a listopia on Goodreads titled ‘The Movie was actually Better than the book’ and Harry Harrison’s Make Room! Make Room! is included. I must dissent. I felt the book was much superior to the film. I concede there were two very clever ideas incorporated into the movie which were not present in the novel (one was the famous revelation at the end). But Harrison’s novel did something the movie failed to do - it made me care. I cared about the main characters.

Such an interesting book! This is the book that the movie "Soylent Green" was based on.
It was written in 1966 and set in the future "1999"! Well, we're pretty far past that so it was kind of cool to think what the author, in 1966, thought the future was going to be like.
Well, in this future there was no birth control. For religious reasons, birth control was not allowed so population growth went crazy. Therefore, the 344 million people living in the United States did not have enough food, water, ...more
It was written in 1966 and set in the future "1999"! Well, we're pretty far past that so it was kind of cool to think what the author, in 1966, thought the future was going to be like.
Well, in this future there was no birth control. For religious reasons, birth control was not allowed so population growth went crazy. Therefore, the 344 million people living in the United States did not have enough food, water, ...more

"One time we had the whole world in our hands, but we ate it and burned it and it's gone now."
While this story shares the same main protagonist and setting as the classic dystopian film Soylent Green, which based itself on the story, that's where the similarities end. Soylent Green is a murder / police procedural. There is indeed a murder in the book, however it takes a backseat to what's more of a personal story about Andy Rusch, NYPD detective, living in an overcrowded, resource starved world ...more

Inevitable? Dystrophic in Dystopia. Imagined or Insighted?
This 1973 synopsis sounds like a current headline: In 2022, with 40 million people in New York City alone, housing is dilapidated and overcrowded; homeless people fill the streets and food is scarce; and most of the population survives on rations produced by the Soylent Corporation, whereof the newest product is Soylent Green, a green wafer advertised to contain "high-energy plankton", more nutritious and palatable than its predecessors ...more
This 1973 synopsis sounds like a current headline: In 2022, with 40 million people in New York City alone, housing is dilapidated and overcrowded; homeless people fill the streets and food is scarce; and most of the population survives on rations produced by the Soylent Corporation, whereof the newest product is Soylent Green, a green wafer advertised to contain "high-energy plankton", more nutritious and palatable than its predecessors ...more

This was the basis for the movie "Soylent Green" with Charlton Heston & Edward G. Robinson. Superb!
...more

3.5 I was expecting this to be funnier. Sure, it’s bleak and deals with a serious issue but isn’t Harrison usually a little more fun than this? It’s a dour parable redeemed by an interesting world, the occasional timely idea, and a sort of apocalyptic cynicism that really seems to revel in its own self-seriousness. The story is actually kind of interesting and stridently refuses to resolve its conflict. What is there to resolve? It’s just a big city circling the drain, like humanity itself. It’s
...more

I was first exposed to the work of American sci-fi author Harry Harrison in my early teens, when I read his "Stainless Steel Rat" series, followed by the "Deathworld" trilogy and the Bill, the Galactic Hero series. That last was a parody, scathingly funny and a brilliant send-up of space opera sci-fi. The others were classic science fiction, and though they differed in tone they shared tight writing, crisp dialog, memorable characters, and thrilling plot twists.
Since the classic 1973 film Soylen ...more
Since the classic 1973 film Soylen ...more

Harry Harrison is one of those great old names of Golden Age SF whose stuff I have vague memories of reading avidly as a child, but of which I remember very little about nowadays. In his case I know I loved his ‘Stainless Steel Rat’ books, but I can’t recall much about him as a writer, so it was partly for that reason that I picked this book up from the library. It had nothing to do with ‘Soylent Green’ because I didn’t realise this book was the source for that movie — though once that clicked,
...more

This was a really wonderful book. I read it before I watched the movie (Soylent Green), but because a co-worker told me about the movie. It was really interesting to watch the movie just after finishing the book and compare the two. In many ways they were almost polar opposite, but then again, the essentials were very much the same.
New York (and the entire world) are overpopulated and there is very little food and pretty much no space. According to the book the only decent place left to live in ...more
New York (and the entire world) are overpopulated and there is very little food and pretty much no space. According to the book the only decent place left to live in ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Apocalypse Whenever: October 2019: "Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry Harrison | 83 | 87 | May 23, 2021 05:39PM | |
Apocalypse Whenever: AVAILABLE: Make Room! Make Room! | 1 | 18 | Oct 09, 2013 02:30PM |
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction G ...more
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction G ...more
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Science fiction is endless fun for those who appreciate thoughtful conjecture. As a genre, sci-fi encourages rule...
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“One time we had the whole world in our hands, but we ate it and burned it and it's gone now.”
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“But doing something means that people must change, make an effort, use their minds, which is what most people do not like to do.”
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