The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted

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 show more 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. show less

This is on of the later books but set early in his career. The story opens with James DiGriz, prisoner, being shipped to some planet to face charges of bank robbing, after lamenting his misfortune he escapes from the pot into the fire.

James finds himself on a military planet and promptly gets drafted. He learns a nemesis of his, formerly Captain Garth, is now General Zennor, planning an invasion of an unknown planet and is enlisted by the League Navy to identify that planet – if he can’t kill General Zennor first.

The target planet turns out to be a utopian planet with no government and practicing a philosophy of Individual Mutualism, which seems to be a rather libertarian approach to life. There is no army, no police and no show more problems. On such a world, how do you defeat a heavily-armed invasion force?

As usual, he goes from one problem to another finding the most unusual solutions to problems in amusing ways and finds a most unusual solution to outwitting an invading army. show less

The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted


Seventh Novel in the Stainless Steel Rat series, authored by Harry Harrison.

Slippery Jim DiGriz is a comedic character dreamed up by Harry Harrison (“Make Room Make Room”) and wrote several novels about Jim and his excuses about why it’s OK to rob and lie and cheat and steal.

And yet, the reader can’t help but be immensly entertained!

Jim finds himself breaking out of prison on a mission of revenge. His friend The Bishop has been killed by a man who formerly ran a spaceship with Jim and others in the crew. Jim however finds himself in jail. Not a great place to start from.

Through various finagling, he finds himself smuggled onto an island nation which is quite paranoid when it comes to show more military discipline. He somehow gets into the armed forces of the planet, while they are looking for him. He steals aboard a ship bound for invasion of a peaceful planet in an uncharted area of the galaxy.

Harrison introduces us to Individual Mutualism – a crazy mix of socialism and and odd reference to let others be as they are. Trippy.

Final Thoughts:

Some critics consider this seventh book in the Stainless Steel Rat series as anti-military but I consider it hilarious parody of the military system.

A must-read for sergeants and admirals everywhere! show less

Slippery Jim diGriz, in an early prequel timeline, is forced into the military while seeking revenge for his mentor's death. Jim infiltrates a war-hungry army, battles a merciless dictator, and attempts to save a peaceful planet from enslavement.

Following his escape from a prison colony, Jim diGriz hunts for Captain Garth to avenge his mentor, only to be drafted into a military force commanded by the treacherous General Zennor. He moves from simple revenge to preventing Zennor’s army from invading the innocent, pacifist planet of Chojecki.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

This seventh novel in Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series is actually the sequel to the prequel A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born. Young Jim DiGriz is alone, back in prison, and out for revenge. After he escapes and is tracking his nemesis, he gets captured and drafted into the military.

At this point, The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987) turns into anti-military propaganda that doesn’t even try to be circumspect. The army are the bad guys — all blood-hungry idiots — and they’re preying on a planet who practices Individual Mutualism, an anti-work-ethic cooperative utopian philosophy that could never stand up to human nature. While the Stainless Steel Rat books are definitely show more meant to be fun, these types of themes come up often enough that I can’t help but think of them as “agendas,” and this particular anti-military agenda is likely to be perceived as insulting and disrespectful to the brave men and women all over the world who risk their lives to protect their countries.

Unfortunately, even if you manage to overlook the agenda, The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted offers little new entertainment for fans who’ve seen most of Jim’s antics before. If you haven’t read any of the Stainless Steel Rat books, you’re likely to be more forgiving than I am, and this book is a fine place to start — it will actually help if you haven’t read most of the previous books.

The redeeming factor for the audiobook version of A Stainless Steel Rat is born is Phil Gigante’s narration — that’s entertaining in itself. I’m not giving up on The Stainless Steel Rat, but I hope the next book will offer more creative entertainment and less ridiculous political philosophy. show less

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 studbook was fun, but in a different way than the others in the Stainless Steel Rat series. The 7th overall book in the series, chronologically it comes immediately after the Prequel "The Stainless Steel Rat is born"

Our hero slipper Jim is to avoid being brought back to him some planet to face bank coppery charges and gets dropped off on a military planet. He finds out his nemises is the now the general of the whole damn army and he finds his way to get drafted. Ends up on another new planet that has no government, and the military doesn't know how to deal with that. Its inhabitants seem to practice anarcho-mutalism, which the author calls Individual Mustalism. Here it gets kind of preachy, similar to out how Little Brother gets show more about Free Software, and the apparent "leader" (as much as their can be in anarchist society) is even named Sterner, though he claims to have come upon IM the same way everyone else did, from a super intelligent AI.

There is a little problem with continuity as Jim is used (willing or not) as an agent of The Leauge, but if this had happened in a Pre-existing timeline, why no mention of that when he's first captured by the League in Book 1? show less