M John Harrison

(Michael John Harrison)

(b.1945)

aka Gabriel King

Michael John Harrison was born in Rugby, Warwickshire in 1945 and now lives in London.
Harrison is stylistically an Imagist and his early work relies heavily on the use of strange juxtapositions characteristic of absurdism.

Genres: Science Fiction

Series

Viriconium
1. The Pastel City (1971)
2. A Storm of Wings (1980)
3. In Viriconium (1982)
aka The Floating Gods
4. Viriconium Nights (1984)
Viriconium (omnibus) (2005)

Light
1. Light (2002)
2. Nova Swing (2006)
3. Empty Space (2012)

Novels

The Commited Men (1971)
The Centauri Device (1974)
Climbers (1989)
The Course of the Heart (1992)
Signs of Life (1997)

Omnibus

Anima (2005)

Collections

The Machine in Shaft Ten (1975)
The Ice Monkey (1983)
Travel Arrangements (2000)
Things That Never Happen (2002)
You Should Come With Me Now (2017)

Graphic Novels

The Luck in the Head (1991) (with Ian Miller)

Novellas

Cave & Julia (2013)

Anthologies containing stories by M John Harrison

Short stories

	Egnaro
	The Incalling
	The New Rays
	The Macbeth Expiation (1968)
	Visions of Monad (1968)
	Green Five Renegade (1969)
	Lamia Mutable (1972)
	Absorbing the Miraculous (1974)
	'The Wolf that Follows' (1974)
	Running Down (1975)
	Settling the World (1975)
	The Ice Monkey [short story] (1980)
	The Quarry (1983)
	The Luck in the Head [short story] (1984)
	The Dancer from the Dance (1985)
	Small Heirlooms (1987)
	The Great God Pan (1988)
	Anima [short story] (1992)
	The Dead (1992) (with Simon Ings)
	Isobel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring (1994)
	Empty (1995)
	Seven Guesses of the Heart (1996)
	Suicide Coast (1999)

Awards

	World Fantasy Best Collection nominee (1985) : Viriconium Nights
	British Fantasy Society Best Novel nominee (1997) : Signs of Life
	World Fantasy Best Collection nominee (2001) : Travel Arrangements
	James Tiptree, Jr. Award Best Book winner (2002) : Light
	Arthur C. Clarke Award Best Book nominee (2003) : Light
	British Science Fiction Association Best Novel nominee (2006) : Nova Swing
	Arthur C. Clarke Award Best Book winner (2007) : Nova Swing
	British Fantasy Society Best Novel nominee (2007) : Nova Swing
	John W Campbell Memorial Award Best Novel nominee (2007) : Nova Swing
	Philip K Dick Award Best Book winner (2007) : Nova Swing
	John W Campbell Memorial Award Best Novel nominee (2013) : Empty Space

M John Harrison recommends

Tunnel Through the Deeps (1972)
Harry Harrison
"A genuine flavour of Verne ... very enjoyable."

Perdido Street Station (2000)
(New Crobuzon, book 1)
China Miéville
"Energetic, thuggish, constantly inventive China Mieville continues his project of rebuilding fantasy from the sub cellar up. New Crobuzon, city of clockwork engine and subterranean punishment factory, has the architectonics of a living thing. It is a site of elation, dispute, danger and change: a city raucous with dreams."

The Director's Cut (2000)
Nicholas Royle
"Real talent."

The Quality of Light (2001)
Christopher Kenworthy
"A curious and powerful novel. Magic and rage among people trapped in the sticky residues of their own needs."

The Western Wind (2018)
Samantha Harvey
"[Harvey’s] prose is as rich as ever, her structures clever and efficient … we daren’t put the book down … it’s a historical novel full of the liveliness and gristle of the period it depicts; an absorbing mystery with an unpredictable flurry of twists in its last few pages; a scarily nuanced examination of a long-term moral collapse; a beautifully conceived and entangled metaphor for Britain’s shifting relationships with Europe. But most of all it’s a deeply human novel of the grace to be found in people."

Visitors to this page also looked at these authors