Rats, Bats & Vats

What a cool book! Pure fun. Possibly the most purely enjoyable book I've read in the last two years.

From the forward, it appears that Dave Freer is the primary author, with Eric Flint having a somewhat smaller role.

Characters in the book are humans, rats, and bats. Rats and bats have implants to raise their level of intelligence and enhance their communication abilities. The rat and bat species each have characteristics purely their own, and each individual is a variation on those characteristics. It's written very cleverly - the author does a great job of differentiating. Rats definitely don't see life as do the bats, who are thoroughly disapproving of the rats, and both think very little of the humans - who must somehow get along well show more enough with the rats and bats to get done what needs to be done. The way they interact is a riot - a steady stream of repartee persists throughout the book.

The book has a not-so-advanced colony planet of humans being invaded by an alien race affectionately called the Maggots. The human soldier Chip and his compatriots are trapped behind enemy lines, and the rest of the book tells how they try to resolve their predicament. The plot rolls right along. There is a point about 3/4 of the way through where there is too much of the same general thing going on for too many pages, but otherwise it's hard to put down because there's just too much fun happening.

Much of the verbal banter is distinctly bawdy with sexual references, so I wouldn't recommend giving this to your teenage kid. Or recommend you read it, either, if that kind of thing bothers you. The weakest point of the book is probably that this eventually becomes somewhat tiresome. Yet it's a logical development that follows from the high reproductive rates of rodent species and is a distinguishing feature of the rats, so one can't say it's simply gratuitous.

Not that the book is without purpose! A respectable theme is development of respect for others different from you, no matter what your own viewpoint might be.

I have a hard time giving a book that takes itself as unseriously as this one does five stars, but I think I have to based purely on the amount of pleasure I derived from reading it. It's definitely not great literature, but I highly recommend it nonetheless, for those times when great literature is not what you're looking for and all you want is a great fun read. show less

Quite an amusing and somewhat off-color romp with an unlikely group of heroes who manage to give a beleaguered human colony world their first victory against an invading insectoid alien race and the shadowy manipulators that are behind it all..

Humorous sci-fi tale of a slightly bumbling conscript and his mangy cohorts. The mismatched group of genetically mutated, Shakespeare quoting rats and slightly mad, philosophizing Irish bats, and one vat-born army conscript manage to do what a whole army hasn't managed: namely, frustrate the invasion efforts of a hoard of giant alien worms, and rescue a damsel in distress in the process. A light-hearted, entertaining romp.

Witzig, teilweise schweres Englisch mit Jargon, daher nicht immer alles 100% verstanden.

Eigentlich nicht unbedingt ein SF-Roman sondern eher "Kleine Truppe verrückter Soldaten kämpft sich im Krieg durch"-Roman.

A funny book with talking rats and bats in a desparate fight behind enemy lines.

You know, this was really pretty funny!

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