The Stainless Steel Rat for President

My political awareness dawned slowly and I would guess that is the way it happens for most people. When the Falklands were invaded by Argentina I thought it was a territorial dispute. When I read The Prince and The Art of War (cartoon version) as an undergrad I could not believe how blatently obvious the contents of both were. Somewhere in between, however, my awareness took a huge lurch forward in the time it took to read the 185p of this book.

I thought the whole thing was hilarious: not merely the cartoon violence and silly ego-boosting wise-cracks of the narrator, the Rat himself,but the idea of rigged elections and the "good guys" rigging things in order to defeat the Dictator and how the rigging was done and the propagandising - show more everything. I had no clue about such things prior - suddenly I was awakened to a whole new world of lying, cheating and moral compromise. Bit of a shock at the time and seemingly totally over the top.

But of course, I see from re-reading, the politics is tame compared to the realities of pseudo-democratic despot nations, the techniques deployed standard and the only unrealistic aspect of the whole thing the tiny body count.

Which brings up the topic of the tone of the book: the Stainless Steel Rat books are comedies and cartoon violence features strongly, played for laughs - up to the point of maiming or death. Then it is very serious and the Rat neither condones nor commits murder and struggles even to kill in self-defense. When such things happen the tone becomes very serious indeed. There are deaths in this book and I would guess Harrison thought they were an essential ingedient of the book because back on Earth people die in droves fighting against the kind of self-serving dictator portrayed in this book. They should not be laughed at. Iwould like to compare and contrast this with other writers of cartoon violence, particularly Eoin Colfer in his Fowl biographer mode, Derek Landy (of Skullduggery fame) and China Mieville - specifically his Un Lun Dun. The lattermost of these writers fails miserably to keep proper control over tone, where-as the others know exactly when and where humour is appropriate and the contrasting seriousness is necessary. Harrison here, seems to be like these other writers in that the Rat books seem firmly aimed at kids, yet they seem not to have been overtly marketed towards them.

The readily recognised political situation removed to other worlds is a standard SF idea but other SF ideas are thin on the ground. What few technological gizmos are described in any detail struck me as completely preposterous, on the second reading - I don't remember that being my reaction first time round.

Not long after reading this the first time, I read Harrison's A Trans-atlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! then watched the whole Channel Tunnel financial fiasco unroll thinking through-out, "I read about this in a Harry Harrison book..." So Harrison seems to be an author best read whilst young for the huge educational benefits available "hidden" in his OTT SF stories... show less

3.5 stars audio version

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Fascist dictators, watch out — Slippery Jim diGriz is on the planet, and he’ll stop at nothing to secure freedom, peace, and representation for the people. Even if he has to lie, cheat, steal, and stuff ballot boxes to do it.

Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series is lots of fun and you can’t help but love con-man Slippery Jim, his sadistic wife Angelina, and their twin sons James and Bolivar who are, for better or worse, chips off the old blocks. This time, in The Stainless Steel Rat for President, the whole family takes a vacation on a backward planet that’s modeled after a mid-20th-century Central American republic which is democratic in theory but in show more reality is being enslaved by a totalitarian dictator backed by a vicious military force. Even though they’re completely corrupt themselves, the diGriz family can’t stand to see innocent people suffering because they make their living stealing from corporations — not people (I’m not sure what kind of entities own, run, and otherwise make their livings from the corporations if it’s not people… but, I digress…).

No corrupt martial government is a match for the diGriz family. Armed with their combined good looks and sharp wits, a fast car, lots of cool gadgets, a wardrobe of disguises, and plenty of sleep gas and nose plugs, they set out to bring down the tyrant. And, of course, we know they will — the fun is in how they get it done and the trouble they run into along the way. The Stainless Steel Rat for President relies too heavily on the sleep gas (every time we think Jim’s bound to be caught, out it comes), and the story drags during some car chases, but there are many clever scenes and laugh-out-loud moments.

The best part, as I’ve mentioned before with this series, is the production by Brilliance Audio. These books are read by the riotously funny voice actor Phil Gigante who saves the day by providing constant diversion even when the plot sometimes can’t quite muster it up. show less

Slippery Jim diGriz attempts to overthrow a corrupt dictator on the planet Paraiso-Aqui. While on honeymoon with Angelina, his wife, Jim joins rebels to fix a fraudulent election by running for President, using wit and trickery.

So, who knew that a book written in 1982 would be almost two decades ahead of it's time. The plot? Well, a planet is lead by a ruler who *cough* is voted into office every four years by rigged electronic voting machines, has secret police, controls the media, etc.

It's great.

It is guilty of the standard cliche where a part of Earth (South America) is stretched out to cover a complete planet. On the other hand, the careful insertion of Spanish words and cultural bits is good for making it feel like somewhere in the Latin world.

Um, you know that the Stainless Steel Rat is going to win. Because it's just that kind of a series. And Harry Harrison loves to soft-sell you on what I assume is his Esperanto-Atheist thinking. But the real fun is show more living briefly in the Stainless Steel Rat's head. show less

I need a break from all this serious reading, and the Stainless Steel Rat books are always amusing. In fact, this book was much better than the previous two I have read (The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World and The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You) as it didn't suffer from the incredibly weak plot lines that books involving time travel seem to cause for Harrison.

This book is back to the classic rat -- a simple criminal romp through an unsuspecting society, his hottie wife in tow, and with his two now grown kids along for the fun. I enjoyed this book a lot.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Harry_Harrison/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat_for_President...

The fifth book in this series is a bit of a change. Again Slippery Jim finds a world that is even more immoral then him. He needs to save it. This time he finds a despotic world that the rest of the universe is fine with necessary it's a democracy. So after rubs in with police somehow the tiny resistance movement convinces Jim to run for president, by pretending to be a local recklous. I find it interesting to see a dirty ejection as a humerus adventure story. But all and all airtight.

Some re-reading, I keep seeing them in $2 boxes at Elizabeth's and thinking "Why not?"

And indeed why not, the Stainless Steel Rat is funny, cute, amoral and talented as he charges through the universe creating work for the police, livening up economies and giving the newspapers something to write about.