Best Selling Books by John Harrison

In Harrison''s dangerously illuminating new novel, three quantum outlaws face a universe of their own creation, where the rules are made up--and broken--along the way, and where there''s only one thing more mysterious than darkness.

EMPTY SPACE is a space adventure. We begin with the following dream: An alien research tool the size of a brown dwarf star hangs in the middle of nowhere, as a result of an attempt to place it equidistant from everything else in every possible universe. Somewhere in the fractal labyrinth beneath its surface, a woman lies on an allotropic carbon deck, a white paste of nanomachines oozing from the corner of her mouth. She is neither conscious nor unconscious, dead nor alive. There is something wrong with her cheekbones. At first you think she is changing from one thing into another - perhaps it''s a cat, perhaps it''s something that only looks like one - then you see that she is actually trying to be both things at once. She is waiting for you, she has been waiting for you for perhaps 10,000 years. She comes from the past, she comes from the future. She is about to speak... EMPTY SPACE is a sequel to LIGHT and NOVA SWING, three strands presented in alternating chapters which will work their way separately back to this image of frozen transformation.

Set in the unique world first featured in the award-winning Light, here is a story of love, murder, and intergalactic noir on the razor’s edge of the imagination, as envisioned by the incomparable M. John Harrison. Not far from Moneytown, in a neighborhood of underground clubs, body-modification chop shops, adolescent contract killers, and sexy streetwalking Monas, you’ll find the Saudade Event Site: a zone of strange geography, twisted physics, and frightening psychic onslaughts. Vic Serotonin is an illegal “travel agent” into and out of Saudade. His latest client is a woman as unpredictable as the site itself—and maybe as dangerous. She wants a tour inside Saudade just as a troubling new class of biological artifacts have started leaving—living algorithms that are transforming the “real” world in unsettling ways. Pursued by a detective intent on collaring him for his illegal tours, and hunted by a gangster convinced that the travel agent has infected him with a rogue artifact, Vic must make one final trip as the universe around him rapidly veers toward viral chaos.

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, The Observer (London), Granata, and TLS, and a finalist for a World Fantasy Award. Acclaimed master of speculative fiction, fantasy, space opera, and literary realism and one of the most celebrated living British authors M. John Harrison has crafted a “masterpiece” (Helen MacDonald, author of H Is for Hawk) with this anti-memoir about the joys and perils of the writing life. M. John Harrison has produced one of the greatest bodies of fiction of any living British author. But is there even an M. John Harrison and if so, where do we find him? This is the question the author asks in this memoir-as-mystery, turning for clues to forty years of notetaking: “A note or it never happened. A note or you never looked.” Are these notebooks records of failed presence? How do they shine a light on a childhood in the industrial Midlands, a portrait of a young artist in counterculture London, on an adulthood of restless escape into hill and moorland landscapes? And do they tell us anything about the writing of books, each one so different from the last that it might have been written by another version of the author? With aphoristic daring and laconic prose, this “infectiously engaging” (The Times Literary Supplement, London) anti-memoir will fascinate and delight. It confirms M. John Harrison still further in his status as the most original British writer of his generation. “Wish I Was Here is a beautifully strange masterwork. It is as if M. John Harrison’s prose devises its own autobiography, while the figure of its author stands to one side tinkering at a eulogy for a dead cat, a manifesto against ruin porn, and a manual of operating procedures for creativity as funky as a Brian Eno card deck. How can this also produce a sublime fugue on memory and aging? Read it and see.” —Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude

M. John Harrison is a cartographer of the liminal. His work sits at the boundaries between genres – horror and science fiction, fantasy and travel writing – just as his characters occupy the no man’s land between the spatial and the spiritual. Here, in his first collection of short fiction for over 15 years, we see the master of the New Wave present unsettling visions of contemporary urban Britain, as well as supernatural parodies of the wider, political landscape. From gelatinous aliens taking over the world’s financial capitals, to the middle-aged man escaping the pressures of fatherhood by going missing in his own house… these are weird stories for weird times. ‘M. John Harrison’s slippery, subversive stories mix the eerie and familiar into beguiling, alarming marvels. No one writes quite like him; no one I can think of writes such flawless sentences, or uses them to such disorientating effect.’ – Olivia Laing, author of The Lonely City ‘These stories map a rediscovered fictional hinterland, one tucked behind the glossier edifices of modernity and genre with views down alleyways into pubs and flats where Patrick Hamilton glares balefully at J. G. Ballard.’ – Will Eaves, author of This is Paradise ‘M. John Harrison moves elegantly, passionately, from genre to genre, his prose lucent and wise, his stories published as SF or as fantasy, as horror or as mainstream fiction. In each playing field, he wins awards, and makes it look so easy. His prose is deceptively simple, each word considered and placed where it can sink deepest and do the most damage.’ – Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods ‘With an austere and deeply moving humanism, M. John Harrison proves what only those crippled by respectability still doubt – that science fiction can be literature, of the very greatest kind.’ – China Miéville, author of Perdido Street Station

This true-life adventure-travel story follows John Harrison and his wife Heather deep into an unexplored region of the Amazon rainforests in the Guiana Highlands that border Brazil. With just a canoe and a shotgun, the newlyweds followed the most remote tributary of the Amazon River without any means of contacting civilization. Harrison tells their story as, unaided and off the map, they encounter jaguars and poisonous frogs, are threatened by malaria, and almost lose their way entirely. While experiencing travel at its most raw, they struggle to keep their deteriorating sanity and relationship intact in one of the most hostile and unforgiving places in the world. Far more harrowing than reality shows like Survivor and Amazing Race, this is armchair adventure at its most honest and compelling.

Description of Harrison''s chronometer which provided the technical means of solving the centuries old navigational problem of establishing longitude at sea.

Whatever the size of your garden - whether it''s a tiny patio or even if you only have a windowbox available - John Harrison can help you to grow fresh tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, runner beans and much more to provide delicious food for your table. • Discover which are the easiest vegetables and fruit to grow in your particular situation • Make the most of your containers and growbags • Find out about dwarf fruit varieties • Benefit from John''s practical experience and his no-nonsense advice • Enjoy the taste of homegrown produce, free of chemical residues

A fusion of Shirley Jackson and Gillian Flynn, Passing Through Veils is a gripping psychological thriller about Kathryn Fields who moves into a run-down Georgetown, D.C. townhouse in hopes that restoring it will be a metaphor for her own rehabilitation from the recent nervous breakdown that derailed her promising career. But when she discovers a forgotten vanity behind a false wall in her bedroom and the secrets hidden there, the veil between the real and the surreal is abruptly pierced, and the ghost of a beautiful woman who was murdered in this very townhouse escapes to seek revenge. Is this simply a fantasy of Katherine’s damaged psyche? Or have her own demons finally escaped to torment her?

*WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2020* *A New Statesman Book of the Year* ''A mesmerising, mysterious book . . . Haunting. Worrying. Beautiful'' Russell T. Davis ''Brilliantly unsettling'' Olivia Laing ''A magificent book'' Neil Gaiman ''An extraordinary experience'' William Gibson Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2020, this is fiction that pushes the boundaries of the novel form. Shaw had a breakdown, but he''s getting himself back together. He has a single room, a job on a decaying London barge, and an on-off affair with a doctor''s daughter called Victoria, who claims to have seen her first corpse at age thirteen. It''s not ideal, but it''s a life. Or it would be if Shaw hadn''t got himself involved in a conspiracy theory that, on dark nights by the river, seems less and less theoretical... Meanwhile, Victoria is up in the Midlands, renovating her dead mother''s house, trying to make new friends. But what, exactly, happened to her mother? Why has the local waitress disappeared into a shallow pool in a field behind the house? And why is the town so obsessed with that old Victorian morality tale, The Water Babies? As Shaw and Victoria struggle to maintain their relationship, the sunken lands are rising up again, unnoticed in the shadows around them.

A magnificent city existing on the ringes of the past, and on the brink of destruction, Viriconium • With a foreword by Neil Gaiman Available to American readers for the first time, this landmark collection gathers four groundbreaking fantasy classics from the acclaimed author of Light. Set in the imagined city of Viriconium, here are the masterworks that revolutionized a genre and enthralled a generation of readers: The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, In Viriconium, and Viriconium Nights. Back in print after a long absence, these singular tales of a timeless realm and its enigmatic inhabitants are now reborn and compiled to captivate a whole new generation. Praise for M. John Harrison’s Viriconium “The world that Harrison depicts is intricate and authentic, peopled with a multitude of strange yet lifelike characters—a combination which serves to make his richly imagined empire of Viriconium feel very real indeed. . . . This omnibus collection from the author of Light is canon-reading for those who wish to know the genre''s roots, as well as the heights, to which it can aspire.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Brilliant, beautiful, and absolutely essential reading. The breadth of vision and imagination alone in these books is unparalleled. It is truly one of a kind and will continue to haunt you in the best possible way for years.”—Jonathan Carroll, author of White Apples “Harrison’s Viriconium sequence is the jewel in the crown of 20th-century fantasy, a work that proves irrefutably that fantastic literature can be Art with a capital A, holding its own alongside the very finest writing of our time, or any other.”—Elizabeth Hand, author of Mortal Love “M. John Harrison is a true master of English prose. He possesses the eye of a painter, the ear of a bard, and a rigorous and playful intellect. The Viriconium novels and stories are infused with a haunting genius that never falters.”—K.J. Bishop, author of The Etched City

Hip Pocket Sleaze is an introduction to the world of vintage, lurid adult paperbacks. Charting the rise of sleazy pulp fiction during the 1960s and 1970s and reviewing many of the key titles, the book takes an informed look at the various genres and markets from this enormously prolific era, from groundbreaking gay and lesbian-themed books to the Armed Services Editions. Influential authors, publishers and cover artists are profiled and interviewed, including the "godfather of gore" H. G. Lewis, cult lesbian author Ann Bannon, fetish artist par excellence Bill Ward and many others. A companion to Bad Mags, Headpress'' guide to sensationalist magazines of the 1970s, Hip Pocket Sleaze also offers extensive bibliographical information and plenty of outrageous cover art.

A fun-filled field guide into the creepy-crawly world of the bugs of Washington and Oregon. Learn about 125 of the coolest bugs you might encounter in the great outdoors of the Northwest. John Acorn, an avid "bugster" and host of the popular television series The Nature Nut, supplies lively text that evokes each species'' character. Respected artist and naturalist Ian Sheldon has created brilliant illustrations that bring each bug to life.

Shaw had a breakdown, but he''s getting himself back together. He has a single room, a job on a decaying London barge, and an on-off affair with a doctor''s daughter called Victoria, who claims to have seen her first corpse at age fourteen. It''s not ideal, but it''s a life. Or it would be if Shaw hadn''t got himself involved in a conspiracy theory that, on dark nights by the river, seems less and less theoretical . . . Meanwhile, Victoria is up in the Midlands, renovating her dead mother''s house, trying to make new friends. But what, exactly, happened to her mother? Why has the local waitress disappeared into a shallow pool in a field behind the house? And why is the town so obsessed with that old Victorian morality tale, The Water Babies? As Shaw and Victoria struggle to maintain their relationship, the sunken lands are rising up again, unnoticed in the shadows around them.

Several years ago, I saw a thirteen-year-old boy with the disease of Progeria, in which the aging process is accelerated in children, being interviewed on television. He looked like a little old man despite his tender years, yet he seemed to transcend his affliction. His voice had a musical, flute-like quality, and I had never seen anyone so full of joy and focused in the moment. I was later to learn that what emanated from that boy is typical of children with Progeria. I wondered what it must have been like in ancient times for such a child. Would he have been feared? Revered? Abandoned? Or put to death as evila devil child? Then, in an instant, I believe the Divine gave me the concept of a story that takes place in such ancient times with such a boy who becomes known as a great and wise healer at its center. The people think hes a little old man, but then its discovered hes really a twelve-year-old boy. The Forgiving Dream is the first book in The Forgiving Dream Trilogy.

As David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal the differences which would label them as mutants from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery, or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands . . . The Chrysalids is a post-nuclear apocalypse story of genetic mutation in a devastated world and explores the lengths the intolerant will go to to keep themselves pure.

This book explains all you need to know to make your own delicious jams, jellies, marmalades, fruit butters, fruit cheeses, chutneys and pickles, including details of all the necessary equipment, how to choose the best fruit and vegetables to use, and how to make sure the jam sets properly to produce the best results. In these straitened times, more and more people are keen to save money by making jams, jellies and chutneys from the surplus of their own homegrown fruit and vegetables or from free fruit, such as blackberries, available in nearby hedgerows. Val and John Harrison show how easy it is to collect together the required ingredients and start making your own produce.