How I love a light sci-fi romp from time to time. While there were times when I wanted to pelt the author with copies of Strunk & White for his excessive use of sentence fragments, the story itself was fun and a quick read. I liked the over-the-top characters and nearly Star Trek-like world of the Individual Mutualists. There's loads of Stainless Steel Rat books at the library - I'll have to pick up some in the future! ( )

This book is another Stainless Steel Rat prequel, although it was written well after the original book. This book takes up from where A Stainless Steel Rat is Born ends -- with Jim arrested (of course), on a surprisingly low tech planet. Jim must then escape, and make his way in the universe once more. He has some unfinished business with some previous acquaintances if he finds a way as well...

Harrison's writing is very easy to read, especially because his science fiction books always seem to require a good dose of suspension of disbelief, although some need more disbelief than others, so I read this book as a break from my quite a lot of Asimov. The book is 300 pages, but I managed to knock it over in a day, which I guess means I found it engaging.

I liked this book. Its silly, and I'm not a better person for having read it, but it was entertaining.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Harry_Har... ( )

See The Stainless Steel Rat. ( )

The Stainless Steel Rat books are my favorite Harrison books, and some of my favorite humor of all time. You can't help loving Slippery Jim Di'Griz, even though he's a thief.

This book picks up right where "A Stainless Steel Rat is Born" leaves off--with Jim a prisoner of the authorities (courtesy of the League Navy's Captain Varod). While in prison, Jim sees Bibs, a shipmate of the evil Captain Garth, who stranded Jim and the Bishop on Spiovente in the last book. Jim hatches an escape plan and sweeps up Bibs to help him get revenge on Captain Garth, who turns out to be a general in the army of a small island nation. Jim cooks up another plan to break in to their country to get at Garth, but ends up getting drafted into their army!

Realizing the luck of his situation, Jim quickly and illegally climbs the military ranks until he gets close to Captan Garth, now known as General Zennor. We also find that the League Navy has been trying to do exactly what Jim is doing, and they quickly enlist his aid in stopping the general's invasion plans.

Full of the witty humor and illegal antics of Slippery Jim, this is a book you won't be disappointed in. ( )