The first sci-fi Booker winner

John Harrison.

Some described Harrison as the “ first science fiction author ” to have won the Booker Prize, but The Times of London instead labeled him “homeless as far as genre is concerned.” Throughout his decades of writing, the 81-year-old’s work has maintained “ an unpredictability and an off-kilter quality,” The Times’ reviewer wrote.

“I’ve read more than half his novels: not once have I felt I fully…