Review of "The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You!," by Harry Harrison
Review of
The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You!,
by Harry Harrison, ISBN 0553253956
Four out of five stars
Another formulaic story about Slippery Jim
Slippery Jim
diGriz is an extraordinary thief and con man operating in an advanced society
where interstellar travel is common along with the ability to travel in time.
He was given his alias of the “Stainless Steel Rat” for his criminal operations
in a modern, highly technical society. In this story, he is ably assisted by
his wife Angelina and his twin sons James and Bolivar as he tries to save the
human population from being defeated by a reptilian species.
In a somewhat
silly plot device, diGriz dons a suit that allows him to pass as one of the
reptiles so that he can infiltrate their society in hopes of serving as a mole
and rescue humans that they have captured. There is also involvement of the
gray men, a society of humans that are utterly emotionless in their dealings
with each other and other species.
While the
dialog and storyline are unique to this tale, they closely follow what appears
in the other Stainless Steel Rat stories. Harrison’s style in the diGriz
stories is very distinctive and the experienced reader can identify it after
only a few paragraphs. It is a fun story without a great deal of depth, the
plot is simple and much of the action is predictable. The very definition of
light, enjoyable reading.
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