Part of today’s Kindle ebook deal of the day over at Amazon is Harry Harrison‘s Make Room! Make Room!, which was the basis for the 1973 film Soylent Green, for only $1.99 (that’s 88% off the regular price of $16). If you’d like to purchase a physical copy of More Room! More Room!, the book is also available in paperback.
Note – this deal is valid only for today, Thursday, February 21, 2013, until 11:59pm PST.
Other ebook deals today include The Cider House Rules by John Irving (great book, highly recommended!) for $1.99; A Midwife Crisis by Lisa Cooke for $.99, and Elmo Loves You by Sarah Albee for $.99.
Be sure to check out this month’s Kindle deals: 100 Kindle Books For $3.99 or Less.
Movie lovers might recognize Make Room! Make Room! as the basis for the 1973 film Soylent Green, which starred Charlton Heston. While Soylent Green has become a cult classic, fans of the novel have taken issue with its interpretation of what Harrison was really trying to say. Concerned about audiences losing interest, the creators of the film made cannibalism and not overpopulation (as it is in the book) the thematic focus of the story. As a result, fans of the movie and critics alike may want to visit the story in its original unbowdlerized form.
Make Room! Make Room! is set in the year 1999 and the world has become a grim and terribly overpopulated place, bleak and foreboding. This sets the premise for Harrison’s novel, and fans of his earlier more comic works may be surprised at the seriousness of this novel. Although Harrison’s fears did not become a reality for the inhabitants of New York or the rest of the United States, the novel remains nonetheless a gripping, thought-provoking work about privacy, deprivation, and desperation.
A teeming New York City and a detective’s pursuit of a killer and nefarious racketeer comprise this novel. While the novel contains elements of classic detective fiction–the hard-boiled protagonist, the seductive mistress, the portraits of corruption and perfidy–Harrison’s true concern is less the story itself and more the opportunity the story offers to give the reader a glance at a dismal and broken world. The state of overpopulation has altered life in innumerable ways, and Harrison is keenly interested in documenting the catastrophic effects of this burden on all human relationships.
– You can gift Kindle books and set your gift to be delivered whenever you want to anyone with an email address. On the Product Page (on the top right side), click the button that reads “Give as a Gift.” From there you enter the recipient’s email address and note the date you’d like your gift to be delivered via email, and also include a personalized message. There’s also the option to have the gift emailed right to you that you can forward the gift email to the recipient yourself or print it out and personally deliver it to the recipient.
– You don’t actually need a Kindle device to read these ebooks. Books can be read on a Kindle or one of Amazon’s free reading apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7.
