harry_harrison

The previous Bill the Galactic Hero book was awesomely bad. This on starts out well: Bill, that's what they called him. They called him that because that was his name. I didn't realize when I started reading this series that only the previous book and this one are actually written by Harrison. The rest of them are actually farmed off to others, with Harrison editing them before publication. According to Wikipedia, Harrison later considered this approach to be a mistake. I think my confusion is at least partially because LibraryThing lists Harry Harrison as the author for the entire series. Overall I don't think this book is as good as the first one, and while its easy to read the style becomes annoying after a while. It was a quick read though. [isbn: 0380756617]

This book is better than the Stainless Steel Rat books which insist on things like time or dimensional travel -- this one sticks to the more traditional crime plot, which I think are generally better. Then again, its nowhere near the best Stainless Steel Rat book I have read. It feels a little like the editor was lazy for this book though -- there are typographical errors which make it hard to read. There have been several times when I have had to reread a sentence to work out what was meant. One example is when a character declares himself to be a "Galactic Inspector of Texas". That should have read "Galactic Inspector of Taxes". [isbn: 0812575350]

This book is weak compared to some of the best Stainless Steel Rat books. It suffers from the same almost-impossible-to-believe plot lines as The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World and The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You. Frankly, the book also jumps around a lot, and I found it hard to follow. On the other hand, this series has never pretended to be great literature, and this book is light years better than the work of the world's most boring author. [isbn: 0812551079]

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. [isbn: 0553227599]

I am increasingly becoming obsessed with science fiction from 1950s and 1960s. Again stolen from Wikipedia, here is a list of all the Stainless Steel Rat books: 1985: A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born 1987: The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted 1994: The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues 1961: The Stainless Steel Rat 1970: The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge 1972: The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World 1978: The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You 1982: The Stainless Steel Rat for President 1996: The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell 1999: The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus 1993: The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat (a short story in Stainless Steel Visions) 2011: The Stainless Steel Rat Returns Additionally, there is: 1993: Stainless Steel Visions 1998: You can be the Stainless Steel Rat -- a choose your own adventure book

I'm helping out with SciFoo for the third year running, which is a blast. Neal Stephenson is back again, which is fun. Anyway, there is always a bit of hurry up and wait at conferences, so I got a chance to finish off this book. Its an ok read, but suffers from the hard-to-believe time travel that The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World suffered from as well. It was ok though. I'd say 3 out of 5 stars if I had a star rating system. [isbn: 0553253956;0553227963;0553126253]

I thought this was quite weak -- certainly the weakest Stainless Steel Rat book. It was ok, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who hasn't read any of the others first. Frankly the time travel premise is hard to believe, and the resolution at the end of the story is a total non-resolution. [isbn: 0727845373;0722143699;0553173960]

I'm frantically trying to reduce the size of the mound of books I need to take back to the US at the end of our annual trip back to Australia. As part of this I read the Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge last night and on a flight to Sydney this morning. That's not in any particular rush though -- the Stainless Steel Rat books are pretty light reading. I didn't like this one as much as the others, to be honest. It wasn't as humorous, and seemed to lag a little in the middle. It kept me occupied on the plane though. [isbn: 0441779123;0722144822;0553173952]

I'll keep this post short and sweet, like the book which took me three hours to read. This is the first Stainless Steel Rat book, and I think the best that I have read so far. Love it. [isbn: 1857984986]