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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