Harry Harrison
See first quotes from Harry Harrison
32 Quotations from Harry Harrison
| Alpha Centaurian adj. | 1968 Sword & Sorcery in Fantastic Aug. 4/1 ‘Take that you Alpha Centaurian swine!’ Carter Thoris grated through his clenched teeth as…he fired a burning laser beam into the armored thorax of the Captain. |
| atmosphere suit n. | 1964 Final Encounter in Galaxy Apr. 132/1 His body said it for him, arrogant, tall, heavily muscled, bronzed and nude under the transparent atmosphere suit. He was breathing lightly and normally, and his face never changed expression as he looked at her desperately heaving breast. |
| braintape n. | 1964 How the Old World Died in Galaxy Oct. 83/1 When a robot was finished building another robot he activated him with a magnetic copy of his own brain tape and the new robot went to work doing the same thing. |
| collapsium n. | 1972 Stainless Steel Rat's Return in Worlds of If Apr. 89/1 The metal looked like collapsium, the incredibly tough stuff used for atomic rocket-tube liners. |
| core n. | 1964 Final Encounter in Galaxy Magazine Apr. 150/2 Hautamaki pointed at the sky above them, at the star-filled sweep of the Milky Way, burning with massed stars. ‘There, far out there on the other side of the core, roughly half way around the lens of the galaxy.’ |
| empathy n. | 1960 Deathworld in Astounding Science Fact & Fiction Feb. 136/2 The talkers must have well-developed psi facilities, that was obvious now. There is no barrier of race or alien form when two creatures share each other’s emotions. Empathy first, so there would be no hatred or fear. |
| energy weapon n. | 1960 Misplaced Battleship in Astounding Science Fact & Fiction Apr. 100/1 There were no witnesses to the tragedy, but a number of monitor stations had picked up the discharge static of a large energy weapon being fired. |
| fantastic adj. | 1970 Nova One Introd. p. ix Some of the more enthusiastic science fiction aficionados tend to overstate the claims of this medium. Modern SF definitely does not date back to the second century and Lucian of Samosata, or even to the Gothic and fantastic novels of the last century. It has roots there, of course, just as it has roots in all fiction, being a part of the greater main of fiction. |
| force beam n. | 1964 Final Encounter in Galaxy Magazine Apr. 146/1 There was no mechanical propulsion visible, but the sphere came swooping up towards their ship where it swung in orbit above the golden planetoid. The sphere stopped, just outside the ship and clearly visible from the viewports, bobbing in a small arc. ‘Some sort of force beam,’ Hautamaki said, ‘though nothing registers on the hull instruments.’ |
| gravitically adv. | 1974 Ad Astra in Vertex Aug. 41/1 Not a shaped charge of ordinary chemical explosive, but a charge of gravitically compacted explosive of a density a thousand times that of normal matter. |
| holocamera n. | 1981 Planet of No Return 111 A small red light that had been blinking on the rear of the holocamera changed to green, indicating that the development cycle was complete. Brion took out the roll of film and slipped it into the holder of the projector. When he switched it on a jagged wall of metal instantly appeared in the opening between the trees. It floated there, against all reason, a holographic projection indistinguishable from the real thing. |
| holovision n. | 1973 in Vertex Apr. 62/3 I'm gonna take his picture and pictures of all the stuff he found out and you gonna see it on holovision and see how bad you stink. |
| hyperspace n. | 1958 Repairman in Galaxy Science Fiction Feb. 61/1 I have repaired hyperspace beacons from one arm of the Galaxy to the other and was sure I had worked on every type or model made. |
| inner space n. | 1968 Future of the Future in Amazing Stories July 5/1 I would like to suggest that ‘inner space’ can be translated as ‘subjective’ and is no more complex than that. Ballard is not the only one to write subjective science fiction. |
| jump drive n. | 1963 in Analog Science Fiction/Fact July 25/2 ‘I have killed the jump control so we can’t get to another star. However, there’s nothing wrong with our space drive, so we can make a landing on one of the planets—you saw for yourself that there is at least one suitable for habitation.’ ‘Where I will fix the jump drive and continue the voyage to Cassylia. You will have gained nothing.’ |
| jumpspace n. | 1961 Sense of Obligation in Analog Science Fact & Fiction Sept. 26/2 The ship was unchanged, only outside of the port was the red-shot blankness of jump space. |
| laser rifle n. | 1969 Captive Universe 134 Chimal pried the laser rifle from his fingers and went out, moving at the fastest speed the eskoskeleton would permit. |
| normal space n. | 1964 Final Encounter in Galaxy Magazine Apr. 143/1 They were all in the control area when the bell pinged softly and they broke through, back into normal space. Here, at the galactic rim, most of the stars were massed to one side. |
| nova n. | 1965 Bill, Galactic Hero (1966) 92 You just can’t feed all those carbon and hydrogen atoms into a sun and get away with it. The thing has gone nova, and I hear that they didn’t manage to evacuate some bases on the inner planets completely. |
| offworlder n. | 1960 Deathworld in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 131/2 You are from off-world, that I know. No junkman would have lifted a finger to save my life. You are the first off-worlder my people have ever known and for that you are doubly welcome. |
| plasteel n. | 1993 Golden Years of Stainless Steel Rat in H. Harrison Stainless Steel Visions (1993) 246 This stripped away the surface plastic that covered the far harder plasteel of the flexible saw inside. |
| port n. | 1960 Deathworld in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 26/1 I'm sure the Cassylians don’t want to advertise their bad sportsmanship, so there won’t be anything as crude as a roadblock. But the port will be crawling with every agent they have. They know once the money gets off-planet it is gone forever. |
| ray projector n. | 1989 Bill the Galactic Hero: Planet of the Robot Slaves 129 Fighting Devil hummed to itself as the sky lightened in the west—the planet of Usa rotated backward—as it reloaded all its weapons and charged up the ray projectors. |
| slideway n. | 1965 Bill Galactic Hero (1977) 86 Bill stepped from the slideway at the nearest elevator while the old man and his voice vanished into the vapour, and…began flipping furiously through his Floor Plan. |
| space dog n. | 1978 Stainless Steel Rat Wants You! in Asimov’s Science Fiction Fall 80/1 ‘I’m in charge here,’ I grated in my best spacedog voice. |
| spacer n. 2 | 1972 Stainless Steel Rat’s Return in Worlds of If Apr. 92/1 How about crashlanding one of your spacers inside the castle up there and getting a fighting force behind their backs that way? |
| space-tanned adj. | 1982 Stainless Steel Rat for President (1985) 147 You can imagine the effect this had on the captain. He staggered and the blood drained from his space-tanned face. |
| time hopper n. 2 | 1972 Cast-Iron Rat in Worlds of If Feb. 85/1 How had they known what was going to happen? They knew because some time-hopper had read the newspapers after the event then had jumped back in time to give the warning. |
| time loop n. | 1972 Stainless Steel Rat’s Return in Worlds of If 103/1 ‘When was he born? Where does he come from?’ ‘Those terms are meaningless in this sort of temporal relationship. He exists only within this time loop.’ |
| time war n. | 1972 Cast-Iron Rat in Worlds of If Feb. 85/2 He was alive. I had wiped out his organization in this happy year of 1975 A.D. but He had gone on to bigger and worse nastiness in another era. The time war was on again. |
| Venusian adj. | 1970 Finest Hunter in World in Prime Number (1975) 74 ‘You of course realize, Mr. Lamb, that not one hunter has ever bagged a Venusian swamp-thing?’ Godfrey Spingle spoke into the microphone, then shoved it toward the other man. ‘Indeed I do. I’ve read all the records and studied all the reports. That is why I am here on Venus. I have been called the finest hunter in the world and, to be perfectly honest, I would rather enjoy being called the finest hunter in two worlds.’ |
| warp drive n. | 1961 Stainless Steel Rat (1970) 72 One fact—normally of interest only to warpdrive technicians—concerns the curious propagation of radiation in warpspace. |