# Make Room! Make Room!
**Make Room! Make Room!** is a dystopian science fiction novel by Harry Harrison, first published in 1966, set in an overpopulated New York City in the year 1999. It follows Detective Andy Rusch as he investigates a murder in a city of 35 million inhabitants struggling over dwindling food and water, and it became best known as the basis for the 1973 film *Soylent Green*.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Harry Harrison (1925–2012), Hugo Award-nominated and Nebula Award-winning science fiction author[1](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765318855/makeroommakeroom/) |
| First publication | Serialized in *SF Impulse*, October 1966; first book edition by Berkley Medallion, 1967[2](https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1585=) |
| Setting | New York City, August 1999, with 35 million inhabitants in a United States of 344 million[1](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765318855/makeroommakeroom/) • [3](https://vector-bsfa.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/through-the-decades-sixty-years-of-the-bsfa-small.pdf) |
| Protagonist | Detective Andy Rusch, assigned to solve a murder during a Manhattan heat wave[4](https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57645/make-room-make-room-by-harrison-harry/9780141968407) |
| Film adaptation | *Soylent Green* (1973), directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson in his final screen role[1](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765318855/makeroommakeroom/) |
| Key difference from the film | The film's cannibalism twist, that Soylent Green is made from people, is absent from the novel[5](https://www.slashfilm.com/1610546/soylent-green-sci-fi-author-harry-harrison-hated-film-script/) |
| Endorsement | Paul Ehrlich endorsed it in 1971 as "the most effective fictional treatment of the consequences of the population explosion" he had come across[6](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6193534/) |
## Setting and plot
The novel imagines the end of the twentieth century, when rampant population growth has pushed Earth toward self-destruction. In New York City, 35 million people are squeezed into packed boroughs, competing for dwindling resources; the only widely available food is a product called soylent, and the rich prosper while the poor stay underfoot[7](https://books.google.com/books/about/Make_Room_Make_Room.html?hl=en&id=Qolu9M3eRMAC&output=html_text). The story opens on Monday, August 9, 1999, during a heat wave that has baked the city for ten days, with water rationed at locked street points and residents generating their own electricity[1](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765318855/makeroommakeroom/).
Detective Andy Rusch shares a cramped apartment with Sol, the 75-year-old Solomon Kahn, who pedals an adapted exercise bicycle wired to a generator to produce power for the household[1](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765318855/makeroommakeroom/). Rusch is assigned to hunt a killer in this broken world, a gangster murdered during the heat wave, and becomes captivated by the victim's girlfriend while under pressure to solve a crime everyone else has forgotten[4](https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57645/make-room-make-room-by-harrison-harry/9780141968407) • [7](https://books.google.com/books/about/Make_Room_Make_Room.html?hl=en&id=Qolu9M3eRMAC&output=html_text).
## Themes and style
Harrison wrote the book amid the boom in warnings about overpopulation and resource depletion in the 1960s and early 1970s[8](https://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/books/Make-Room-Make-Room.html). Determined to write a realistic novel about the near, extrapolated future, he consulted demographers, petrologists, and agronomists and read extensively[6](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6193534/). A contemporary reviewer in the BSFA's *Vector* described it as a harsh, almost documentary-like book with no happy endings, in a very downbeat style, far from Harrison's fast-moving adventure fiction such as *Deathworld* and *The Stainless Steel Rat*[3](https://vector-bsfa.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/through-the-decades-sixty-years-of-the-bsfa-small.pdf).
The novel's social commentary includes arguments that welfare policies can worsen overpopulation and that religious attitudes are weaponized against birth control[9](https://peterrsthomas.com/2025/09/07/book-review-make-room-make-room/). Critics have also noted its faults: a drifting, unfocused ending that does not deliver on the future-noir opening, and a good deal of preaching about contraception and overpopulation[10](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/24/make-room-make-room-versus-soylent-green-can-film-trump-book).
## Soylent Green and the film adaptation
The novel was adapted into *Soylent Green* (1973), directed by [Richard Fleischer](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-fleischer) and loosely based on the book[1](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765318855/makeroommakeroom/) • [6](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6193534/). The film's operating title was originally *Make Room*, after the book, before it was changed partly to avoid confusion with the ABC sitcom *Make Room for Granddaddy*[6](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6193534/). [Charlton Heston](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlton-heston) played the hard-bitten cop Robert Thorn, and [Edward G. Robinson](https://www.edgepedia.org/edward-g-robinson) played Sol in his 101st and final screen appearance[10](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/24/make-room-make-room-versus-soylent-green-can-film-trump-book).
The central difference is the film's famous twist: Sol's corpse is transported to a processing plant, and the food called [Soylent Green](https://www.edgepedia.org/soylent-green) is made from people. This cannibalism storyline is absent from Harrison's novel[5](https://www.slashfilm.com/1610546/soylent-green-sci-fi-author-harry-harrison-hated-film-script/) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/24/make-room-make-room-versus-soylent-green-can-film-trump-book). The two works differ in genre as a result: the film is a sci-fi mystery and conspiracy thriller centered on uncovering the Soylent Corporation's secret, while the novel is a police procedural and work of social realism in which overpopulation itself, rather than any single antagonist, is the crushing force[11](https://eathealthy365.com/comparing-the-soylent-green-movie-to-the-novel/).
Harrison joked after the film's release that it "at times bore a faint resemblance to the book", though the overcrowded New York with its queues at water pumps, food riots, and the pedal-power apartment are all recognizably his. He also admitted the film had a far better dramatic arc than his book, while complaining that turning starving people into food would be inefficient because they would never provide enough meat[10](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/24/make-room-make-room-versus-soylent-green-can-film-trump-book).
## Reception and legacy
The novel was acclaimed on its original publication in 1966 and has remained in print, with editions from Orb Books, Penguin, and RosettaBooks among others[1](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765318855/makeroommakeroom/) • [12](https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/639744-make-room-make-room). [Paul Ehrlich](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-ehrlich), the population biologist, endorsed it in 1971 as the most effective fictional treatment of the population explosion he had encountered[6](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6193534/). While the film *Soylent Green* rose to a reputation "somewhere between cult and canonical", the novel is remembered as Harrison's best-known work and a landmark of overpopulation fiction[6](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6193534/).
## References
1. [Make Room! Make Room!, Macmillan Publishers](https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765318855/makeroommakeroom/)
2. [Make Room! Make Room!, ISFDB title record](https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1585=)
3. [Phil Muldowney, review of Make Room! Make Room!, Vector #46 (September 1967), BSFA](https://vector-bsfa.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/through-the-decades-sixty-years-of-the-bsfa-small.pdf)
4. [Make Room! Make Room!, Penguin Books](https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/57645/make-room-make-room-by-harrison-harry/9780141968407)
5. [Soylent Green Author Hated The Film, SlashFilm](https://www.slashfilm.com/1610546/soylent-green-sci-fi-author-harry-harrison-hated-film-script/)
6. [Malthus at the Movies: Science, Cinema, and Activism around Z.P.G. and Soylent Green](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6193534/)
7. [Make Room! Make Room!, Google Books (RosettaBooks edition)](https://books.google.com/books/about/Make_Room_Make_Room.html?hl=en&id=Qolu9M3eRMAC&output=html_text)
8. [Make Room! Make Room!, Editor Eric's The Greatest Literature of All Time](https://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/books/Make-Room-Make-Room.html)
9. [Book Review: Make Room! Make Room!, Peter R. S. Thomas](https://peterrsthomas.com/2025/09/07/book-review-make-room-make-room/)
10. [Make Room! Make Room! versus Soylent Green: can film trump book?, The Guardian (Sam Jordison, 24 March 2020)](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/24/make-room-make-room-versus-soylent-green-can-film-trump-book)
11. [Soylent Green: How the Film Differs From the Book](https://eathealthy365.com/comparing-the-soylent-green-movie-to-the-novel/)
12. [Editions of Make Room! Make Room!, Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/639744-make-room-make-room)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Science fiction (literature) › Science fiction works › English-language SF novels*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license