Stainless Steel Rat Tarnishing With Age

The Adventures of The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison

Crime does pay some thirty centuries in the future. That is the premise of Harry Harrison's series, The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat. The first omnibus edition of Harrison's Rat series, a group of short novels ten strong, introduces and creates a hero of James Bolivar diGriz, Slippery Jim to his friends.

diGriz is a crook, rarely settling on one planet before bilking a native bank or similar institution of funds, which he assures everyone, including the reader in his stories told in the first person, that governments and insurance companies will protect the little guys. No one gets hurt in Slippery Jim's world, a bit of economic fallacy that was popular when the series began in 1970. The intervening decades have shown that with profit margins to be maintained, large scale losses do, of course, create higher prices or taxes, thereby hurting the little guy, the middle class and even the wealthy.

But Harrison, who well into his eighth decade continues to publish, writes with a different kind of economy. diGriz's exploits are the stuff of detective store novels told from the bad guy's point of view, until he finally is forced to join a secret group of quasi-police whose credo is that one sends a crook to catch a crook. Readers are thus spared from the intricate planning of individual exploits. Instead, diGriz can knock over a bank, topple a government, endure a serious confrontation and jet off the planet within the space of a chapter or two.

Time Travel, Future Socities and Spaceships, Oh My

By the second novel and certainly the third, Harrison has painted a society of extremely Earth-like planets without regard for hard science. That each of these planets was seeded by Earth stock millennia ago is a fact precious few know. Instead, like the original Star Trek, diGriz's adventures are made possible by visiting a Planet of the Week, all remarkably similar in custom, costume, language and mores to the previous planet. Without having to waste time on issues such as cultural assimilation or reconnaissance, diGriz is able to work the same type of magic in each place, almost to the point of boredom.

The introductory novel, The Stainless Steel Rat, is the strongest of the three. It is in this story that diGriz is recruited to a shadow police agency, falls in love and turns his character from rakish crook to lovable rogue.

The remaining two novels continue this trend, leading up to diGriz marrying his beloved Angelina, fathering twins and, most unfortunately, saving the universe during a convoluted time travel story that would drive most hard science fiction fans batty. The use of the word "paradox" several times is the sole concession to these cosmos-altering events. Likewise, it is entirely possible although unexplained for an individual or couple to pilot an automated starship across galaxies or for governments to reprogram personalities.

Yet luckily for diGriz and any readers who a short attention span, basic twentieth-century Earth institutions such as banks, transportation systems and police remain wholly unchanged despite some cosmetic alterations. Indeed, diGriz's own explanation of his place in society and the reason he refers to himself as a stainless steel rat, Harrison's best prose in the three novels, could easily be written today by a well-read criminal.

We are the rats in the wainscoting of society - we operate outside of their barriers and outside of their rules. Society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as the old wooden buildings had more rats than the concrete buildings that came later. But they still had rats. Now that society is all ferroconcrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps between the joints, and it takes a smart rat to find them. A stainless steel rat is right at home in this environment.

The Plot In Exactly One Hundred Words

Interstellar crook Jim diGriz uses con artist bluster and technology to make his living. Finding a woman of similar if not superior skills, he learns that Angelina does not share his compunction of avoiding violence. diGriz is recruited into the Special Corps where he thwarts Angelina's plans and falls in love with her. Her personality is later reprogrammed to include remorse, and the pair becomes the Special Corps' top team. After they stop an imperialistic planet from invading others, they embark on a silly adventure that allows them to constantly loop through time and save each other and the universe.

What Works Well

With a machine gun-like approach to dialogue and setting, Harrison has to rely on the raffish characterization of diGriz to approach readability. He often succeeds, especially early in the series, allowing diGriz to become a self-assured independent soul reminiscent of Robert B. Parker's Spenser or Robert Heinlein's Lazarus Long. Like those two heroes, diGriz rarely panics and frequently meets danger with a jaunty quip and daring escape plan. Readers will root for diGriz to succeed especially as they identify with the protagonist's narration.

What Doesn't Work As Well

Science fiction and its space opera sub-genre have greatly evolved over three decades. The Mighty Mouse hero who saves the day by himself and changes the universe in the process is now regarded as the stuff of comic books. Even in the evolving days of modern science fiction, authors such as Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov carefully introduced new scientific concepts through their stories. The ability may not have existed, but certainly some plausible. Harrison shortcuts this process, short-changing his readers in the process.

Meanwhile, Angelina's characterization is that of a traditional "buddy", a lesser-developed version of the main character with little history, throwaway dialogue and a penchant for arriving with the cavalry when our hero is over-extended. Even motherhood is tossed off as an activity Angelina experiences between gunning down bad guys and saving her hubby.

The Bottom Line, Dog Earred Pages And All

A great deal of possibility exists with the characters Harrison creates, but his conservative approach dulls the series. Neither comedic nor swashbuckling, The Stainless Steel Rat ambles down the middle of the genre's road exciting no one. The result is an average series at best.

Five Things To Remember From This Review

1. This is an omnibus edition, which means it contains multiple novels. In this case, the first three novels are reproduced.
2. The main character is cut from the same cloth as detective story heroes, but the snappy dialogue and puzzle solving skills are absent.
3. Harrison treats remaining characters as cursory at best. The Tough But Loving Boss, The Dutiful Children, Mad Scientist and other cardboard characters abound.
4. The writing is crisp and the action flows, but there's precious little exposition or other devices to engage the reader.
5. Fans of hard science fiction will truly dislike these novels. Stay far away, oh ye Asimov, Silverberg and Pohl disciples.

--G. Bounacos