Comments for The Stainless Steel Rat Returns

The Stainless Steel Rat Returns: 02/05/12

While some teenage girls swoon over Mr. Darcy, Edward, Jacob or any of the other YA literary hunks, I swooned over James Bolivar diGriz, aka the Stainless Steel Rat. OK, I'll admit it, I still swoon over him, even with his jealous ex-assassin wife, Angela. Shhh... don't tell her.

It's been twelve years since the last installment, and given given the fact that Harry Harrison started writing them in 1961, I was content with having read what I had. But them, woohoo!, a tenth book, The Stainless Steel Rat Returns.

The last couple of books involve the diGriz twins and like Ramses in the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters, they get in the way of the humor and hijinks. This time though, Jim and Angie are on their own, on a ship hurdling through space and trying to find their way home.

The book is really more like a series of connected short stories, each one being an adventure on a different planet and the broke ship ("working" somewhat like Zaphod's ship in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams) being the connecting device.

So there's lots of sarcasm, lots of shenanigans, lots of scamming, some heroics, lots of drinking, some esperanto, some fowl language, lots of costume changes and all the other stuff that makes me weak in the knees. Yeah... I loved the book.

Five stars.

Other posts and reviews:

• Books with Balls
• Grasping for the Wind
• Still HQ
• Words for Words

books | Harry Harrison | scifi | 2010

Comments (2)

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Comment #1: Sunday, February 05, 2012 at 22:16:26

MarthaE

This sounds like a good series...in space on different planets? Cool. New to me so I will check it out.

Comment #2: Monday, February 06, 2012 at 20:58:21

Pussreboots

The other books are fun too, though the earliest ones are more violent than the newer ones. Not all of them involve as much space travel. Some are basically just capers in a scifi wrapper.