The funny thing about my discussion of Harrison in this forum has to do with how I mostly know him through his "horror" writing (various short stories I have in anthologies here and there) and his "fantasy" works (the Viriconium cycle), which seems to have been influenced partly by Jack Vance, an author who seems well-loved here.
While I've loved every single thing I've read by Harrison--oblique and enigmatic but always written with such a keen edge of style and finesse--I've yet to read The Centauri Device. Arguably a novel that pre-figured the space operas of Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds (from small details such as quirky ship names to the widescreen baroque style that Aldiss has talked about), Harrison strangely feels disdain for this book.
(And his similar attitude to fantasy turns some people off too but just as much causes his admirers like China Mieville to hold him up as an exemplary writer.)
But this doesn't mean that he's turned his back on SF. Light is a novel that has everyone talking, dividing opinions like his other works but still pretty much falling on the side of praise. He'll be revisiting this universe later this year with a novel called Nova Express. I obviously can't wait for that, given that Light is one of my favorite novels of all time, by a writer whose every single work (at least those I've read) has been singularly superlative in every respect.
LINKS
Cheryl Morgan is a big Harrison fan and interviews him for Strange Horizons here.
There's an archived copy of a David Kendall interview here.
David Mathew interviews him for InfinityPlus here.
There's a simple "fan page" here.
Rhys Hughes talks about Harrison for Fantastic Metropolis here.
And Strange Words gives its take on the Viriconium cycle here.
While I've loved every single thing I've read by Harrison--oblique and enigmatic but always written with such a keen edge of style and finesse--I've yet to read The Centauri Device. Arguably a novel that pre-figured the space operas of Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds (from small details such as quirky ship names to the widescreen baroque style that Aldiss has talked about), Harrison strangely feels disdain for this book.
(And his similar attitude to fantasy turns some people off too but just as much causes his admirers like China Mieville to hold him up as an exemplary writer.)
But this doesn't mean that he's turned his back on SF. Light is a novel that has everyone talking, dividing opinions like his other works but still pretty much falling on the side of praise. He'll be revisiting this universe later this year with a novel called Nova Express. I obviously can't wait for that, given that Light is one of my favorite novels of all time, by a writer whose every single work (at least those I've read) has been singularly superlative in every respect.
LINKS
Cheryl Morgan is a big Harrison fan and interviews him for Strange Horizons here.
There's an archived copy of a David Kendall interview here.
David Mathew interviews him for InfinityPlus here.
There's a simple "fan page" here.
Rhys Hughes talks about Harrison for Fantastic Metropolis here.
And Strange Words gives its take on the Viriconium cycle here.
