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Stainless Steel Rat #11
Stainless Steel Rat Returns
After a ten-year absence, the return of one of the most enduring series characters in modern SF. James Bolivar "Slippery Jim" DiGriz, Special Corps agent, master con man, interstellar criminal (retired), is living high on the hog on the planet of Moolaplenty when a long-lost cousin and a shipful of swine arrive to drain his bank account and send him and his lovely wife, Angelina, wandering the stars on the wildest journey since Gulliver's Travels . In this darkly satiric work, Harry Harrison bring his most famous character out of retirement for a grand tour of the galaxy. The Stainless Steel Rat rides a cocktail in his hand, a smile on his lips, and larceny in his heart, in search of adventure, gravitons, and a way to get rid of the pigs.
296 pages, Paperback
First published August 3, 2010
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811 people want to read
About the author
Harry Harrison
1,297 books1,044 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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March 5, 2022Ever pick up a book you're not enjoying and start reading it just to finish it? That's where I was at with this. It's a cold, hateful place...
January 5, 2022
Kiek teko girdėti atsiliepimų ir komentarų, tai "Plieninė žiurkė", iš esmės, yra toks dalykas, kuris arba tau visiškai limpa, arba visiškai meh. Man - limpa, kaip turi būti, tad 5 žvaigždės - nieko keisto. Aišku, kritikuoti tiek žiurkę, tiek patį Harrisoną, tikrai būtų galima. Bet, visų pirma, reikia įvertinti patį knygos stilių ir subžanrą. Kuris yra visiškai lengvo turinio space westernas, lengvai pamaišytas su satyra. Turint tą omeny, bent jau man asmeniškai niekaip neišeina vertinti tokios knygos pagal tuos pačius kriterijus, kuriais aš vertinčiau, tarkim, save labai rimtu pateikiantį fantasy ar išvis, neduokdie, kokį modernų romaną a la Houellebecq style.
Apie pačią knygą ir jos turinį nesiplėsiu, čia kaip Grishamas. Skaitėt vieną žiurkę - skaitėt visas. Tas pats smarkiai šaržuotas 007, per visus nuotykius ir pavojus einantis kaip karštas peilis per sviestą, dažniausiai - dėl elementarios sėkmės. Bet man tai - daug labiau privalumas, nei trūkumas. Ideali smegenų džiovykla. 5*.
Apie pačią knygą ir jos turinį nesiplėsiu, čia kaip Grishamas. Skaitėt vieną žiurkę - skaitėt visas. Tas pats smarkiai šaržuotas 007, per visus nuotykius ir pavojus einantis kaip karštas peilis per sviestą, dažniausiai - dėl elementarios sėkmės. Bet man tai - daug labiau privalumas, nei trūkumas. Ideali smegenų džiovykla. 5*.
March 24, 2021
The last Stainless Steel Rat adventure, appropriately written from story retirement and given new life in mismanaged money and a spacecraft full of porcuswine.
Suffice to say, while this wasn't an actually bad novel and it didn't really seem to be cashing out on its previous success, it didn't really feel like a Stainless Steel Rat novel. The only thing left about Jim was the swagger... without the talent.
He didn't really return as make a journey out of necessity, and the biggest plot push was a bit uninspired with the conflicts between the green and the pink skins. Nasty, brutish, and short doesn't really begin to describe it, or perhaps I should just point to Westeros and then say Jimmy was also here.
Again, it wasn't a bad novel, but it was a bad Stainless Steel Rat novel. And it wasn't that funny.
Suffice to say, while this wasn't an actually bad novel and it didn't really seem to be cashing out on its previous success, it didn't really feel like a Stainless Steel Rat novel. The only thing left about Jim was the swagger... without the talent.
He didn't really return as make a journey out of necessity, and the biggest plot push was a bit uninspired with the conflicts between the green and the pink skins. Nasty, brutish, and short doesn't really begin to describe it, or perhaps I should just point to Westeros and then say Jimmy was also here.
Again, it wasn't a bad novel, but it was a bad Stainless Steel Rat novel. And it wasn't that funny.
October 31, 2020
Well, at long last, I’ve reached the end of the chronicles of Slippery Jim DiGriz and what a ride it’s been. While I didn’t think this final chapter was as bad as most people seem to, I agree that it’s not quite up to the standard of most of the rest of the series. I did enjoy Jim’s final adventure aboard the Porcuswine Express, though, and I leave the series with a smile on my face and, no doubt, dreams of enormous, spiny pigs...
April 15, 2024
Book number 518 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
Well this is goodbye to the Stainless Steel Rat. Despite the hopeful “until next time” on the final page, this was the last Rat book. It was published in 2010 and Harrison died in 2012. Slippery Jim was obviously a favourite character of Harrison's—he returned to Mr DiGriz eleven times!
Jim DiGriz is enjoying his illgotten gains on the pleasure planet Moolaplenty, when his agrarian relatives and their livestock arrive on his doorstep. Jim had devoutly hoped that he would never see another porcuswine (except as a menu item), but as he deals with this crisis he finds he must purchase the spaceship that his cousins and their critters arrived on and evacuate them to more suitable environs. He inherits the grumpy ship's engineer and accepts a pilot provided by his son James.
This unlikely conglomeration of people and porcuswine bumps from one problem to the next. Jim finds that he can still think and fake his way across the universe successfully, although his beloved Angelina must give him pep talks and nudge him along from time to time. With her support (and unspoken threats) they deal with whichever predicament confronts them.
You can see Harrison's sharp and humorous attitude toward the world. His style is perfect for making fun of governments, the military, and violence of all kinds. I found this novel a bit less focused than I could have wanted, as their sabotaged spaceship bloats along from planet to planet in search of intergalactic communications.
It is with fondness that I say, “So long, Slippery Jim DiGriz!”
Well this is goodbye to the Stainless Steel Rat. Despite the hopeful “until next time” on the final page, this was the last Rat book. It was published in 2010 and Harrison died in 2012. Slippery Jim was obviously a favourite character of Harrison's—he returned to Mr DiGriz eleven times!
Jim DiGriz is enjoying his illgotten gains on the pleasure planet Moolaplenty, when his agrarian relatives and their livestock arrive on his doorstep. Jim had devoutly hoped that he would never see another porcuswine (except as a menu item), but as he deals with this crisis he finds he must purchase the spaceship that his cousins and their critters arrived on and evacuate them to more suitable environs. He inherits the grumpy ship's engineer and accepts a pilot provided by his son James.
This unlikely conglomeration of people and porcuswine bumps from one problem to the next. Jim finds that he can still think and fake his way across the universe successfully, although his beloved Angelina must give him pep talks and nudge him along from time to time. With her support (and unspoken threats) they deal with whichever predicament confronts them.
You can see Harrison's sharp and humorous attitude toward the world. His style is perfect for making fun of governments, the military, and violence of all kinds. I found this novel a bit less focused than I could have wanted, as their sabotaged spaceship bloats along from planet to planet in search of intergalactic communications.
It is with fondness that I say, “So long, Slippery Jim DiGriz!”
May 3, 2011
Alright, what is it with authors that return to their beloved characters after years of writing other fiction,and the attempt is often very sub-par? I've enjoyed Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat stories since I was a kid, and this one was boring, repetitive, and they just were not the characters of honorable thief Slippery Jim d'Griz and his homicidal lady-love Angelina that I've long enjoyed. Maybe there was some twist at the end, or something at the end to make the effort worthwhile, but I couldn't get that far.
April 5, 2018
I see a lot of reviewers unable to grasp the concept that people in general and writers in particular are not at the same level of capacity at the age of 85 as they were at the age of 35.
Pointing out that works produced by people in their 80’s and their 90’s should be judged by different standards will likely overtax the more fragile minds.
Perhaps the generic drooler with reader aspirations can be cajoled into some form of sanity by pointing out that there is no art and no profession, in which at 85 you’re way better than when you were 35 or 45 or 55 or even 65.
Unless you're a once-in-a-generation mutant, which most of us, Harrison included, are not.
We do not, for example, compare the books Jack Higgins writes in his 80’s to The Eagle Has Landed, because we are not imbeciles, neither do we compare the books John le Carre writes in his 80’s to say The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. We read those later offerings with a different mindset in order to enjoy them to the full on their own terms.
Unless, of course, we read them in order to score “look mommy, I’m smart” points off them, in which case we should go way, way away and rethink our life.
This final installment of the Steel Rat’s adventures is certainly no masterpiece, but is a terrific light, brisk read for anyone whose brains have not been completely melted down by soapy melodramatic sagas. In fact, in this book Harrison’s style now drifts ever closer towards those of Robert Sheckley and Carter Brown.
Late-in-life stylistic drifts are evident across the field. What with Clive Barker suddenly writing like Graham Masterton*, and Stephen King writing like Dean Koontz, once both Barker and King a) hit 60 and b) went through their near death experiences—such developments can’t not affect a personality, creative or not. The issue is what happens to the style when the years and hospitalizations accumulate?
In Harrison’s case, with this final episode of the DiGriz’s exploits, the stylistic drift is toward the simplified humorous pulp subgenres, which is more than fine. It is, in fact, very welcome.
____
*And Masterton himself suddenly writing like a splatterpunk Patricia Cornwell ,with abrupt short bursts of Tom Sharp-ness.
Pointing out that works produced by people in their 80’s and their 90’s should be judged by different standards will likely overtax the more fragile minds.
Perhaps the generic drooler with reader aspirations can be cajoled into some form of sanity by pointing out that there is no art and no profession, in which at 85 you’re way better than when you were 35 or 45 or 55 or even 65.
Unless you're a once-in-a-generation mutant, which most of us, Harrison included, are not.
We do not, for example, compare the books Jack Higgins writes in his 80’s to The Eagle Has Landed, because we are not imbeciles, neither do we compare the books John le Carre writes in his 80’s to say The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. We read those later offerings with a different mindset in order to enjoy them to the full on their own terms.
Unless, of course, we read them in order to score “look mommy, I’m smart” points off them, in which case we should go way, way away and rethink our life.
This final installment of the Steel Rat’s adventures is certainly no masterpiece, but is a terrific light, brisk read for anyone whose brains have not been completely melted down by soapy melodramatic sagas. In fact, in this book Harrison’s style now drifts ever closer towards those of Robert Sheckley and Carter Brown.
Late-in-life stylistic drifts are evident across the field. What with Clive Barker suddenly writing like Graham Masterton*, and Stephen King writing like Dean Koontz, once both Barker and King a) hit 60 and b) went through their near death experiences—such developments can’t not affect a personality, creative or not. The issue is what happens to the style when the years and hospitalizations accumulate?
In Harrison’s case, with this final episode of the DiGriz’s exploits, the stylistic drift is toward the simplified humorous pulp subgenres, which is more than fine. It is, in fact, very welcome.
____
*And Masterton himself suddenly writing like a splatterpunk Patricia Cornwell ,with abrupt short bursts of Tom Sharp-ness.
February 6, 2012
While some teenage girls swoon over Mr. Darcy, Edward, Jacob or any of the other YA literary hunks, I swooned over James Bolivar diGriz, aka the Stainless Steel Rat. OK, I'll admit it, I still swoon over him, even with his jealous ex-assassin wife, Angela. Shhh... don't tell her.
It's been twelve years since the last installment, and given given the fact that Harry Harrison started writing them in 1961, I was content with having read what I had. But them, woohoo!, a tenth book, The Stainless Steel Rat Returns.
The last couple of books involve the diGriz twins and like Ramses in the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters, they get in the way of the humor and hijinks. This time though, Jim and Angie are on their own, on a ship hurdling through space and trying to find their way home.
The book is really more like a series of connected short stories, each one being an adventure on a different planet and the broke ship ("working" somewhat like Zaphod's ship in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams) being the connecting device.
So there's lots of sarcasm, lots of shenanigans, lots of scamming, some heroics, lots of drinking, some esperanto, some fowl language, lots of costume changes and all the other stuff that makes me weak in the knees. Yeah... I loved the book.
It's been twelve years since the last installment, and given given the fact that Harry Harrison started writing them in 1961, I was content with having read what I had. But them, woohoo!, a tenth book, The Stainless Steel Rat Returns.
The last couple of books involve the diGriz twins and like Ramses in the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters, they get in the way of the humor and hijinks. This time though, Jim and Angie are on their own, on a ship hurdling through space and trying to find their way home.
The book is really more like a series of connected short stories, each one being an adventure on a different planet and the broke ship ("working" somewhat like Zaphod's ship in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams) being the connecting device.
So there's lots of sarcasm, lots of shenanigans, lots of scamming, some heroics, lots of drinking, some esperanto, some fowl language, lots of costume changes and all the other stuff that makes me weak in the knees. Yeah... I loved the book.
February 18, 2011
This book was fabulous. It was a much better way to end the series than the last book. Thank you Harry!
Also try the audiobook, the cd has chapters every minute or so which makes it much easier to listen to.
Also try the audiobook, the cd has chapters every minute or so which makes it much easier to listen to.
July 12, 2019
One of the many good things about Goodreads is that you find you've missed books on publication. I noted last week that Harry Harrison had written one last book about Slippery Jim DiGriz, the eponymous stainless steel rat. In all honesty the later Rat books have diminished a bit in quality, and a lot of my enjoyment probably derives as much from nostalgia as the quality inherent in the books. I read my first, the Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (and laughed throughout) at around the age of 14 I guess, so they've been going for a while. The fact that this was Harry Harrison's last published novel just adds to the significance for me.
So, looking at it as dispassionately as I can manage. I think this one actually regains some of the earlier novels' virtues. There is still a strong veneer of absurdity, but the comedy works better than of late, if read for what it is I think most people would get some pleasure from 'Returns'. If you want a lighthearted romp I wouldn't resist this. Old as they may be I'd also seek out the first two (at least) in the series.
So, looking at it as dispassionately as I can manage. I think this one actually regains some of the earlier novels' virtues. There is still a strong veneer of absurdity, but the comedy works better than of late, if read for what it is I think most people would get some pleasure from 'Returns'. If you want a lighthearted romp I wouldn't resist this. Old as they may be I'd also seek out the first two (at least) in the series.
June 24, 2015
I had read one prior Rat book (where he wound up in the army) which was quite funny. This one is a late one in the series, where the Rat has retired from his life of outwitting the honest and stupid, but is prevailed upon by a distant cousin to help him find a planet to which he, his friends/family and his flock of porcuswine (hybrid of porcupine and swine)can emigrate. So begins a long space journey, hopping from one possibly congenial planet to another in their quest. It was a lot of fun.
April 16, 2018
Expanded from a short story, this final novel has some of the humor and satire of the original series. Released more than 10 years after the previous book, it serves as a much better end to the saga. This story of Slippery Jim's Flying Dutchman is mostly just okay.
In a standard trope, Jim's cousin the porcu-swine farmer shows up in need of assistance. Shortly (and in a very contrived fashion) our main character is broke and ends up taking charge of his cousin's space ship load of farmers and livestock, vowing to bring them to a new world.
One of the adventures that follow is likely the short story, and the others were probably notes to be expanded later. They have aspects of Slippery Jim, but miss out on the plot twists and pulp action that makes the first book so good. In it's favor, it is better than the two previous books and most of the prequels - but I would only recommend it to a completist.
So speaking of that, here are my recommendations. Read the first book, or the first three (Stainless Steel Rat + Revenge + Saves the World). The first prequel (A Stainless Steel Rat is Born) has some good features, and the 4th and 5th (Wants You and for President) are okay - the latter would make a nice ending to the series. Avoid the rest like the plague.
In a standard trope, Jim's cousin the porcu-swine farmer shows up in need of assistance. Shortly (and in a very contrived fashion) our main character is broke and ends up taking charge of his cousin's space ship load of farmers and livestock, vowing to bring them to a new world.
One of the adventures that follow is likely the short story, and the others were probably notes to be expanded later. They have aspects of Slippery Jim, but miss out on the plot twists and pulp action that makes the first book so good. In it's favor, it is better than the two previous books and most of the prequels - but I would only recommend it to a completist.
So speaking of that, here are my recommendations. Read the first book, or the first three (Stainless Steel Rat + Revenge + Saves the World). The first prequel (A Stainless Steel Rat is Born) has some good features, and the 4th and 5th (Wants You and for President) are okay - the latter would make a nice ending to the series. Avoid the rest like the plague.
December 27, 2020
TL;DR: A fitting and fun finale to the Stainless Steel Rat's adventures.
TL: I mentioned when I was writing up The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus that the author/protaganists had noticed they were getting long in the tooth, well, it's pointed out very literally at the beginning of this book with Jim thinking to himself:
He then proceeds, in the traditional manner of all aging action heroes, to disprove that statement and repeatedly save the day! This time around, Jim and Angelina are (surprise!) luxuriating on the retirement-planet of Moolaplenty when Jim's old life come's a knocking. Specifically, his (extended) family from Bit 'o Heaven have run into financial issues when the bottom dropped out of the Porcuswine market and they are no longer able to support themselves and their prickly flock. Through diligent internet-sleuthing one of their number discovers that Jim is now a millionaire and they all insert themselves into a spacer and head for salvation in the form of Jim's benevolent bank account. Things...don't go well, but in a hilarious fashion, so that's OK. Jim rapidly finds himself bereft of funds and launching a search for a new home for the diGriz clan, preferably separate from himself by as much distance as possible.
This is almost pure Jim diGriz with a healthy helping of Angelina who, in a startling plot twist, remains completely un-kidnapped for the duration of the story! It's not just pure Jim in terms of screen-time either, this is a full-on alcohol-fueled, sarcastic and irreverent rampage across several planets, against insurmountable odds and unexpectedly dire situations with a moral issue de jour (racism is on the menu today) getting enthusiastically propounded upon somewhat beyond the point necessary.
This is also one of the few (in fact, maybe the only?) Stainless Steel Rats to really feel like an actual sci-fi book, I've been categorising them all as science-fantasy. There's a requirement for some faster-than-light travel to be done and Mr Harrison eschews the traditional wormhole-method that's been the in-universe FTL-medium of choice until now, and introduces the "Bloater Drive", which is utterly fantastic and I love it! It's very silly (and is archaic in the book), but is taken quite seriously, to the point where when it is introduced, the character doing the explaining - in what becomes a running gag, dons a pair of wire-rimmed glasses before launching into the explanation. There is a lot more time spent briefly glossing over a lot of incidental technology as it's used, the kind of cool technology that's just there, it's not introduced with an infodump and 12 page monologue on how it fits into the world. In fact at one stage one of the cool pieces of tech (the molecular debonder) is used as an analog for another piece of tech in order to explain how it works. I think think is the very essence of "show don't tell" and probably helps illustrate Mr Harrison's growth as an author from the first book back in 1961 to this final volume in 2010. I think that Mr Harrison actually summed up this series nicely in the forward to Stainless Steel Visions, the book of his short stories that includes one about the Stainless Steel Rat. His introduction referred to the stories therein, but I think his closing statement fits this series remarkably well:
TL: I mentioned when I was writing up The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus that the author/protaganists had noticed they were getting long in the tooth, well, it's pointed out very literally at the beginning of this book with Jim thinking to himself:
I was getting too old for this kind of cagle.
He then proceeds, in the traditional manner of all aging action heroes, to disprove that statement and repeatedly save the day! This time around, Jim and Angelina are (surprise!) luxuriating on the retirement-planet of Moolaplenty when Jim's old life come's a knocking. Specifically, his (extended) family from Bit 'o Heaven have run into financial issues when the bottom dropped out of the Porcuswine market and they are no longer able to support themselves and their prickly flock. Through diligent internet-sleuthing one of their number discovers that Jim is now a millionaire and they all insert themselves into a spacer and head for salvation in the form of Jim's benevolent bank account. Things...don't go well, but in a hilarious fashion, so that's OK. Jim rapidly finds himself bereft of funds and launching a search for a new home for the diGriz clan, preferably separate from himself by as much distance as possible.
This is almost pure Jim diGriz with a healthy helping of Angelina who, in a startling plot twist, remains completely un-kidnapped for the duration of the story! It's not just pure Jim in terms of screen-time either, this is a full-on alcohol-fueled, sarcastic and irreverent rampage across several planets, against insurmountable odds and unexpectedly dire situations with a moral issue de jour (racism is on the menu today) getting enthusiastically propounded upon somewhat beyond the point necessary.
This is also one of the few (in fact, maybe the only?) Stainless Steel Rats to really feel like an actual sci-fi book, I've been categorising them all as science-fantasy. There's a requirement for some faster-than-light travel to be done and Mr Harrison eschews the traditional wormhole-method that's been the in-universe FTL-medium of choice until now, and introduces the "Bloater Drive", which is utterly fantastic and I love it! It's very silly (and is archaic in the book), but is taken quite seriously, to the point where when it is introduced, the character doing the explaining - in what becomes a running gag, dons a pair of wire-rimmed glasses before launching into the explanation. There is a lot more time spent briefly glossing over a lot of incidental technology as it's used, the kind of cool technology that's just there, it's not introduced with an infodump and 12 page monologue on how it fits into the world. In fact at one stage one of the cool pieces of tech (the molecular debonder) is used as an analog for another piece of tech in order to explain how it works. I think think is the very essence of "show don't tell" and probably helps illustrate Mr Harrison's growth as an author from the first book back in 1961 to this final volume in 2010. I think that Mr Harrison actually summed up this series nicely in the forward to Stainless Steel Visions, the book of his short stories that includes one about the Stainless Steel Rat. His introduction referred to the stories therein, but I think his closing statement fits this series remarkably well:
These stories work. They entertain, occasionally amuse, are didactic at times but are never, I firmly believe, boring.
October 4, 2024
Last month, I wrapped up Joe R. Lansdale's 'Hap and Leonard' series with my nineteenth review, even if there's the possibility of further books, given that Lansdale is still actively writing. This month, it's the turn of Harry Harrison's 'Stainless Steel Rat' series because this is my eleventh and final review. It isn't entirely unfair to simply write "ditto" to my review of the previous novel, 'The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus' but there are a few things worth saying here, so I'll behave.
Firstly, this one is a novel that wasn't going to happen for the longest time. That previous book was the nominal end to the series, though Harrison did leave himself open to the possibility of another one and eventually did so, a little more firmly. While this will always be the final episode in the saga of Slippery Jim diGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat, because the author died two years later in 2012, it's likely that, had he lived for another hundred years, he may never have written another one. This feels like the end and it also underlines why it had to be.
Much of the reason for that is that, with the exception of a prequel trilogy that he snuck in midway, the entire series unfolds chronologically. Jim was a young man when Harrison first wrote about him in 1957 in a novelette for 'Astounding'. By the fourth novel, he was getting older and he's notably middle-aged in 'The Stainless Steel Rat for President'. After a trilogy of respite as a young adult coming of age as an intergalactic criminal, he returns unabated as a greying crook in the nineties novels. It shouldn't be too surprising therefore to find him entirely retired at this point, enjoying a well-earned rest on the planet of Moolaplenty.
Of course, that doesn't last because quiet retirement would not a Stainless Steel Rat novel make, so his peace and quiet is promptly destroyed by the unexpected arrival of a distant relative all the way from Bit o' Heaven by the name of Elmo. He's the backwoods hick you might expect from the name and he's brought a whole collection of other relatives with him and a herd of porcuswine to boot, what with the bottom dropping out of the market back home. They found Jim and imposed on his good will, what with being kin and all, and that imposition turns into a serious financial outlay.
I really ought to know better at this point, given how silly the series got at points—I'm thinking of that alien invasion of bug-eyed monsters in 'The Stainless Steel Wants You' first and foremost, but quite the runners up list too—but I'm a sucker for internal logic and Harry Harrison seems to have ditched that a page or two after starting this book. Jim and his lovely wife Angelina are, of course, incredibly rich and an entire lifetime of successful crime ought to have underlined that. Somehow, however, the arrival of Elmo and the clan shifts our heroic duo into immediate poverty and they can't just rob the local bank to remedy that situation. Put simply, I don't buy it. It makes no sense, except to prompt a change in locale for its own sake and no other reason. Their money sure does vanish quickly when they're able to steal it on a whim.
You see, what Harrison had in mind for the absolutely final Stainless Steel Rat novel was for Jim to take over the ship that brought Elmo and the rest to Moolaplenty and set off on a sort of quest to find them some new planet where they could live and farm porcuswine in peace that, of course, didn't involve any further drain on his finances. So instant poverty was needed to trigger this journey, just as a convenient set of successful acts of sabotage by the villainous former captain of the 'Rose of Rifuti', now renamed the 'Porcuswine Express', means that they can't just come back.
Instead, we're treated to a sort of series in miniature, an episodic set of jumps through space that land them on one troubled planet after another, where they solve a problem and take off again, only for the way home to be blocked to them once more. Rinse and repeat until the page count reaches high enough to warrant delivery to the publisher. Instant profit. And yeah, that sounds cynical, but it's pretty true, I feel. This book serves one purpose and one purpose only: to stamp a full stop at the end of this series in no uncertain terms. Other than that, I don't think Harrison really knew what to put into its pages.
The first stop ought to be Mechanistria, but another act of delayed sabotage means that they end up at Floradora instead, where they find themselves saving the peaceful rural vegetarians from the clutches of the Church of the Vengeful God. That task takes fewer than forty pages, so it's off again, courtesy of another timely explosion, to Salvation, which is anything but. This time, the social commentary is about skin colour, with the pink skins pitted against the green skins, who are mostly congenital morons but do rule the planet. This gives Harrison the opportunity to introduce characters like Grinchh and N'thrax to spice up the pot and for Jim to save the world again and eventually they're off to...
And so it goes. I don't want to be dismissive but, while I got some chuckles out of this series of debacles and good deeds done, this is easily the most disposable of the books thus far. It's not without its fun, as long-term fans of the Stainless Steel Rat are happy about, but it's more sparsely distributed than ever. I didn't ever get to the point where I wanted to put this book down and be done with it. It would never be a DNF. However, I was happy that it's as quick and easy a read as these novels tend to be, because it has a habit of overstaying its welcome, something I'm sad to see the series finally reaching.
There are a few moments of note, as there tend to be in these books. One is that Harrison didn't merely bring his regular characters back, to join a few new ones; he also reintroduced us to a character from an earlier book. The mechanic on the Porcuswine Express is an old colleague of Jim's, who's thankful that the Stainless Steel Rat ended the constant state of war his people were stuck in on Cliiand. He knew Jim as a pilot named Lt. Vaska Hulja, but still. It's good to see him back. Another cool moment is the use of a strange device called a sinaphone, which is a cellphone implanted into the sinus, which proves exactly as annoying as you think it would in about five minutes.
Another moment worth mentioning, though I'm not sure if it's for good reason or bad, is the inclusion of a very particular phrase. At one point, Jim sees a propaganda message with a beautiful but scantily clad young lady attempting to persuade people to come and work on Mechanistria. She makes a great case except for one very telltale part that nobody would notice in this far future but we certainly do or at least I hope we do. "Our happy workers are joyful in their labors," she suggests, "for they know that work will make them free." Yeah, I remember what it said in German above the gates to Auschwitz.
Whether that's a clever telegraphing of the intentions of the powerful on Mechanistria or the author's attempt to Godwin his own book, I've thoroughly enjoyed revisiting this series and discovering all the newer entries that I didn't have in the eighties. There are eleven novels all-told and I read half a dozen of them as a kid and a young adult, revisiting them more than once. I enjoyed them as an adult on this read-through too, though I found an array of issues that I didn't notice a few decades ago.
My favourite book back in the day was 'The Stainless Rat for President' and it remains my favourite now, followed by the original, but I had fun to, at least, some degree with every other entry in the series, even the last one before this, 'The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus', which was relatively unnecessary but did boast a complex and inventive story. This one not so much.
The bottom line is that it was good to spend some final time with Slippery Jim diGriz, the one and only Stainless Steel Rat, even if he's getting past it and needs a lot of help getting around. I hope you got to enjoy your retirement after this one, Jim. It's been a blast.
Originally posted at the Nameless Zine in July 2022:
https://www.thenamelesszine.org/Books...
Index of all my Nameless Zine reviews:
https://books.apocalypselaterempire.com/
Firstly, this one is a novel that wasn't going to happen for the longest time. That previous book was the nominal end to the series, though Harrison did leave himself open to the possibility of another one and eventually did so, a little more firmly. While this will always be the final episode in the saga of Slippery Jim diGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat, because the author died two years later in 2012, it's likely that, had he lived for another hundred years, he may never have written another one. This feels like the end and it also underlines why it had to be.
Much of the reason for that is that, with the exception of a prequel trilogy that he snuck in midway, the entire series unfolds chronologically. Jim was a young man when Harrison first wrote about him in 1957 in a novelette for 'Astounding'. By the fourth novel, he was getting older and he's notably middle-aged in 'The Stainless Steel Rat for President'. After a trilogy of respite as a young adult coming of age as an intergalactic criminal, he returns unabated as a greying crook in the nineties novels. It shouldn't be too surprising therefore to find him entirely retired at this point, enjoying a well-earned rest on the planet of Moolaplenty.
Of course, that doesn't last because quiet retirement would not a Stainless Steel Rat novel make, so his peace and quiet is promptly destroyed by the unexpected arrival of a distant relative all the way from Bit o' Heaven by the name of Elmo. He's the backwoods hick you might expect from the name and he's brought a whole collection of other relatives with him and a herd of porcuswine to boot, what with the bottom dropping out of the market back home. They found Jim and imposed on his good will, what with being kin and all, and that imposition turns into a serious financial outlay.
I really ought to know better at this point, given how silly the series got at points—I'm thinking of that alien invasion of bug-eyed monsters in 'The Stainless Steel Wants You' first and foremost, but quite the runners up list too—but I'm a sucker for internal logic and Harry Harrison seems to have ditched that a page or two after starting this book. Jim and his lovely wife Angelina are, of course, incredibly rich and an entire lifetime of successful crime ought to have underlined that. Somehow, however, the arrival of Elmo and the clan shifts our heroic duo into immediate poverty and they can't just rob the local bank to remedy that situation. Put simply, I don't buy it. It makes no sense, except to prompt a change in locale for its own sake and no other reason. Their money sure does vanish quickly when they're able to steal it on a whim.
You see, what Harrison had in mind for the absolutely final Stainless Steel Rat novel was for Jim to take over the ship that brought Elmo and the rest to Moolaplenty and set off on a sort of quest to find them some new planet where they could live and farm porcuswine in peace that, of course, didn't involve any further drain on his finances. So instant poverty was needed to trigger this journey, just as a convenient set of successful acts of sabotage by the villainous former captain of the 'Rose of Rifuti', now renamed the 'Porcuswine Express', means that they can't just come back.
Instead, we're treated to a sort of series in miniature, an episodic set of jumps through space that land them on one troubled planet after another, where they solve a problem and take off again, only for the way home to be blocked to them once more. Rinse and repeat until the page count reaches high enough to warrant delivery to the publisher. Instant profit. And yeah, that sounds cynical, but it's pretty true, I feel. This book serves one purpose and one purpose only: to stamp a full stop at the end of this series in no uncertain terms. Other than that, I don't think Harrison really knew what to put into its pages.
The first stop ought to be Mechanistria, but another act of delayed sabotage means that they end up at Floradora instead, where they find themselves saving the peaceful rural vegetarians from the clutches of the Church of the Vengeful God. That task takes fewer than forty pages, so it's off again, courtesy of another timely explosion, to Salvation, which is anything but. This time, the social commentary is about skin colour, with the pink skins pitted against the green skins, who are mostly congenital morons but do rule the planet. This gives Harrison the opportunity to introduce characters like Grinchh and N'thrax to spice up the pot and for Jim to save the world again and eventually they're off to...
And so it goes. I don't want to be dismissive but, while I got some chuckles out of this series of debacles and good deeds done, this is easily the most disposable of the books thus far. It's not without its fun, as long-term fans of the Stainless Steel Rat are happy about, but it's more sparsely distributed than ever. I didn't ever get to the point where I wanted to put this book down and be done with it. It would never be a DNF. However, I was happy that it's as quick and easy a read as these novels tend to be, because it has a habit of overstaying its welcome, something I'm sad to see the series finally reaching.
There are a few moments of note, as there tend to be in these books. One is that Harrison didn't merely bring his regular characters back, to join a few new ones; he also reintroduced us to a character from an earlier book. The mechanic on the Porcuswine Express is an old colleague of Jim's, who's thankful that the Stainless Steel Rat ended the constant state of war his people were stuck in on Cliiand. He knew Jim as a pilot named Lt. Vaska Hulja, but still. It's good to see him back. Another cool moment is the use of a strange device called a sinaphone, which is a cellphone implanted into the sinus, which proves exactly as annoying as you think it would in about five minutes.
Another moment worth mentioning, though I'm not sure if it's for good reason or bad, is the inclusion of a very particular phrase. At one point, Jim sees a propaganda message with a beautiful but scantily clad young lady attempting to persuade people to come and work on Mechanistria. She makes a great case except for one very telltale part that nobody would notice in this far future but we certainly do or at least I hope we do. "Our happy workers are joyful in their labors," she suggests, "for they know that work will make them free." Yeah, I remember what it said in German above the gates to Auschwitz.
Whether that's a clever telegraphing of the intentions of the powerful on Mechanistria or the author's attempt to Godwin his own book, I've thoroughly enjoyed revisiting this series and discovering all the newer entries that I didn't have in the eighties. There are eleven novels all-told and I read half a dozen of them as a kid and a young adult, revisiting them more than once. I enjoyed them as an adult on this read-through too, though I found an array of issues that I didn't notice a few decades ago.
My favourite book back in the day was 'The Stainless Rat for President' and it remains my favourite now, followed by the original, but I had fun to, at least, some degree with every other entry in the series, even the last one before this, 'The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus', which was relatively unnecessary but did boast a complex and inventive story. This one not so much.
The bottom line is that it was good to spend some final time with Slippery Jim diGriz, the one and only Stainless Steel Rat, even if he's getting past it and needs a lot of help getting around. I hope you got to enjoy your retirement after this one, Jim. It's been a blast.
Originally posted at the Nameless Zine in July 2022:
https://www.thenamelesszine.org/Books...
Index of all my Nameless Zine reviews:
https://books.apocalypselaterempire.com/
July 12, 2020
I was born in the early 70's and spent many of my (autistic) teenage evenings in the town library. Reading fiction & non-fiction. I liked The Stainless Steel Rat series because it had that "clever" solitary maverick type of character with a strong moral compass that I sort of related to (why I mentioned the autism). Harrison seems to imbue his characterisation with his own desire (my conjecture) for peaceful rational interaction between different peoples without sacrificing spirit and adventure. And maybe Inskipp as some father figure or even divinity in their controlling beneficence.
I'm not sure I'd class any of the Harrison I've read as ... sophisticated. In terms of complex relationships etc. One could argue the books are childish in their idealism. But I like that ... I seek that. I want to escape the complexities of hating outraged people that I seem to have become part of.
I'm an older person now. And I've invested considerable time & energy into understanding the most moronic of species known to some as "humans". That lends me insight into analyzing others, and self-awareness.
This book lacks a great deal of the innovation of the early books. The author's skills are notably muted. I imagine the author's outlook evolved. My outlook and tastes have changed even despite my obsessions and routines and distancing from others.
The Stainless Steel Rat Returns is like a favourite performer of fond childhood memories returning to the stage, age on show, for a final encore. I judge it thus and not on it's own. I don't see it as it is in a cold light divorced of it's older siblings or with my innocent early reading and all the sentiment nurtured from it absent. It's a celebration. It re-energises my faith. These books helped me understand myself when young. It brings me joy. Makes me feel good.
Be kind to yourself, and kind to this book. (And if you have any energy leftover, kind to others).
I'm not sure I'd class any of the Harrison I've read as ... sophisticated. In terms of complex relationships etc. One could argue the books are childish in their idealism. But I like that ... I seek that. I want to escape the complexities of hating outraged people that I seem to have become part of.
I'm an older person now. And I've invested considerable time & energy into understanding the most moronic of species known to some as "humans". That lends me insight into analyzing others, and self-awareness.
This book lacks a great deal of the innovation of the early books. The author's skills are notably muted. I imagine the author's outlook evolved. My outlook and tastes have changed even despite my obsessions and routines and distancing from others.
The Stainless Steel Rat Returns is like a favourite performer of fond childhood memories returning to the stage, age on show, for a final encore. I judge it thus and not on it's own. I don't see it as it is in a cold light divorced of it's older siblings or with my innocent early reading and all the sentiment nurtured from it absent. It's a celebration. It re-energises my faith. These books helped me understand myself when young. It brings me joy. Makes me feel good.
Be kind to yourself, and kind to this book. (And if you have any energy leftover, kind to others).
September 27, 2020
Anyone who appreciates Adams’ “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” should be reading Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat books. They both have a way of satirizing the world which is both fierce and hilarious at the same time. Harrison’s description of the stupidity of a race of green-skinned morons is worth the price of the book alone.
October 19, 2020
I wanted to like this book and I did.
There was no stunning conclusion to the story of Slippery Jim this time either, just more adventures. This time they were on a spaceship, and they went a lot of places, and it was sort of like Star Trek. Less Esperanto than usual; I suppose by the end of his life he'd accepted that Esperanto was never going to catch on. But it was a nice gesture of Harrison to leave the Stainless Steel Rat where he found him. Instead of a grand finale, one final To Be Continued....
There was no stunning conclusion to the story of Slippery Jim this time either, just more adventures. This time they were on a spaceship, and they went a lot of places, and it was sort of like Star Trek. Less Esperanto than usual; I suppose by the end of his life he'd accepted that Esperanto was never going to catch on. But it was a nice gesture of Harrison to leave the Stainless Steel Rat where he found him. Instead of a grand finale, one final To Be Continued....
March 3, 2018
Different pacing and there was a lot of repetition in the beginning, in terms of the protagonist's inner monologue/ feelings, but overall a good end to the story. I liked the way the classic SSR tricks were leveraged for good in every engagement here. Farewell, James.
September 6, 2021
Well… it’s a functional ending, eh? Not much danger, the plot runs on rails and The Rat spends most of his time sipping cocktails. It was ok, but a far cry from the first three or four books, all those years ago…
April 27, 2025
Classic entry in the Stainless Steel Rat series. Family, ridiculous capers, just what you expect (want) from Harry Harrison.
NOT great literature. Not particularly insightful. But 5 stars for being exactly what it is.
NOT great literature. Not particularly insightful. But 5 stars for being exactly what it is.
February 23, 2017
Slow beginning, but fun journey through the stars. Kind of reminds me of "Rolling Stone" by Heinlein.
February 28, 2017
did not finish
March 1, 2018
I think I am now up-to-date with the Stainless Steel Rat again and I can say it’s not the best and also not the worst, a perfectly functional sci-fi story.
October 10, 2018
Really missed the pocket recoilless .75, but all things age. Still fun to read, but you get idea H Harrison is getting milder in this one.
December 19, 2018
A very average novel but because I have so much emotional baggage tied up in the adventures of the Rat it was still quite enjoyable and good fun.
May 19, 2019
Fun easy read. Will look for the earlier stories.
May 15, 2020
I think this is the worst in the series, It dosen't seem to have the flow of the all the others that sense of ireverent fun is missing IMO. Only in my collection to be complete.
September 9, 2020
A fun/dumb entry into the Stainless Steel Rat series.
January 25, 2021
Okay I suppose, but no where near as good, as adventurous nor cohesive as I remember the earlier books being.
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