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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
Not quite what I hoped for the last book in the series. I felt like the series overall left a lot on the table. Lots of missed opportunities. But there aren't many sci-fi characters I like more.
Listened to this, narrated by Phil Gigante, from Audible. Gigante is marvellous!
The story in this book was a bit disappointing disappointing but the style makes up for it. The book reminded me of Gulliver's Travels as Jim and his crew roam around the galaxy on a fool's errand, running into trouble at every turn. Jim seems old, mellowed, and not much like his younger self except in his outrageous arrogance. It was a fun visit with an old friend who has turned into a kinder, gentler, slightly tired, version of himself. I don't think this would be a great place to start your visits with Slippery Jim but I imagine long-time fans (especially those who have grown up with him) would enjoy it, especially with Gigante's over the top delivery, and great voices.
The story in this book was a bit disappointing disappointing but the style makes up for it. The book reminded me of Gulliver's Travels as Jim and his crew roam around the galaxy on a fool's errand, running into trouble at every turn. Jim seems old, mellowed, and not much like his younger self except in his outrageous arrogance. It was a fun visit with an old friend who has turned into a kinder, gentler, slightly tired, version of himself. I don't think this would be a great place to start your visits with Slippery Jim but I imagine long-time fans (especially those who have grown up with him) would enjoy it, especially with Gigante's over the top delivery, and great voices.
This is classic Stainless Steel Rat. Jim is put in a crazy situation that he has to find a way out of so he can go back to his comfortable routine. In this case, it's relocating his former family, a group of Porcuswine farmers, to a new planet. The book works its way into a sort of Gulliver's travels and covers the issues of religious intolerance and racial intolerance, but with the usual farce and satire famous in the Stainless Steel Rat books.
*SPOILER*
I found it interesting at the end, that they all wound up on a robot-run tourist trap. Having suffered religious and racial intolerance, they find a place where they're waited on and pampered by devices that don't care about the color of your skin or what you believe, rather whether or not you can pay for their services. Is that where we're headed once we become truly color blind and tolerant? Is that an ideal or just another trap?
*SPOILER*
I found it interesting at the end, that they all wound up on a robot-run tourist trap. Having suffered religious and racial intolerance, they find a place where they're waited on and pampered by devices that don't care about the color of your skin or what you believe, rather whether or not you can pay for their services. Is that where we're headed once we become truly color blind and tolerant? Is that an ideal or just another trap?
I remember loving these as a kid, and revisited them recently. Some things are just not the same.
TL;DR: A fitting and fun finale to the Stainless Steel Rat's adventures.
TL: I mentioned when I was writing up [b:The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus|64398|The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus (Stainless Steel Rat, #10)|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316131037l/64398._SY75_.jpg|1234816] that the author/protaganists had noticed they were getting long in the tooth, well, it's pointed out very literally at the beginning of this book with Jim thinking to himself:
He then proceeds, in the traditional manner of all aging action heroes, to disprove that statement and repeatedly save the day! This time around, Jim and Angelina are (surprise!) luxuriating on the retirement-planet of Moolaplenty when Jim's old life come's a knocking. Specifically, his (extended) family from Bit 'o Heaven have run into financial issues when the bottom dropped out of the Porcuswine market and they are no longer able to support themselves and their prickly flock. Through diligent internet-sleuthing one of their number discovers that Jim is now a millionaire and they all insert themselves into a spacer and head for salvation in the form of Jim's benevolent bank account. Things...don't go well, but in a hilarious fashion, so that's OK. Jim rapidly finds himself bereft of funds and launching a search for a new home for the diGriz clan, preferably separate from himself by as much distance as possible.
This is almost pure Jim diGriz with a healthy helping of Angelina who, in a startling plot twist, remains completely un-kidnapped for the duration of the story! It's not just pure Jim in terms of screen-time either, this is a full-on alcohol-fueled, sarcastic and irreverent rampage across several planets, against insurmountable odds and unexpectedly dire situations with a moral issue de jour (racism is on the menu today) getting enthusiastically propounded upon somewhat beyond the point necessary.
This is also one of the few (in fact, maybe the only?) Stainless Steel Rats to really feel like an actual sci-fi book, I've been categorising them all as science-fantasy. There's a requirement for some faster-than-light travel to be done and Mr Harrison eschews the traditional wormhole-method that's been the in-universe FTL-medium of choice until now, and introduces the "Bloater Drive", which is utterly fantastic and I love it! It's very silly (and is archaic in the book), but is taken quite seriously, to the point where when it is introduced, the character doing the explaining - in what becomes a running gag, dons a pair of wire-rimmed glasses before launching into the explanation. There is a lot more time spent briefly glossing over a lot of incidental technology as it's used, the kind of cool technology that's just there, it's not introduced with an infodump and 12 page monologue on how it fits into the world. In fact at one stage one of the cool pieces of tech (the molecular debonder) is used as an analog for another piece of tech in order to explain how it works. I think think is the very essence of "show don't tell" and probably helps illustrate Mr Harrison's growth as an author from the first book back in 1961 to this final volume in 2010. I think that Mr Harrison actually summed up this series nicely in the forward to [b:Stainless Steel Visions|710841|Stainless Steel Visions|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1177530123l/710841._SY75_.jpg|2707310], the book of his short stories that includes one about the Stainless Steel Rat. His introduction referred to the stories therein, but I think his closing statement fits this series remarkably well:
TL: I mentioned when I was writing up [b:The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus|64398|The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus (Stainless Steel Rat, #10)|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316131037l/64398._SY75_.jpg|1234816] that the author/protaganists had noticed they were getting long in the tooth, well, it's pointed out very literally at the beginning of this book with Jim thinking to himself:
I was getting too old for this kind of cagle.
He then proceeds, in the traditional manner of all aging action heroes, to disprove that statement and repeatedly save the day! This time around, Jim and Angelina are (surprise!) luxuriating on the retirement-planet of Moolaplenty when Jim's old life come's a knocking. Specifically, his (extended) family from Bit 'o Heaven have run into financial issues when the bottom dropped out of the Porcuswine market and they are no longer able to support themselves and their prickly flock. Through diligent internet-sleuthing one of their number discovers that Jim is now a millionaire and they all insert themselves into a spacer and head for salvation in the form of Jim's benevolent bank account. Things...don't go well, but in a hilarious fashion, so that's OK. Jim rapidly finds himself bereft of funds and launching a search for a new home for the diGriz clan, preferably separate from himself by as much distance as possible.
This is almost pure Jim diGriz with a healthy helping of Angelina who, in a startling plot twist, remains completely un-kidnapped for the duration of the story! It's not just pure Jim in terms of screen-time either, this is a full-on alcohol-fueled, sarcastic and irreverent rampage across several planets, against insurmountable odds and unexpectedly dire situations with a moral issue de jour (racism is on the menu today) getting enthusiastically propounded upon somewhat beyond the point necessary.
This is also one of the few (in fact, maybe the only?) Stainless Steel Rats to really feel like an actual sci-fi book, I've been categorising them all as science-fantasy. There's a requirement for some faster-than-light travel to be done and Mr Harrison eschews the traditional wormhole-method that's been the in-universe FTL-medium of choice until now, and introduces the "Bloater Drive", which is utterly fantastic and I love it! It's very silly (and is archaic in the book), but is taken quite seriously, to the point where when it is introduced, the character doing the explaining - in what becomes a running gag, dons a pair of wire-rimmed glasses before launching into the explanation. There is a lot more time spent briefly glossing over a lot of incidental technology as it's used, the kind of cool technology that's just there, it's not introduced with an infodump and 12 page monologue on how it fits into the world. In fact at one stage one of the cool pieces of tech (the molecular debonder) is used as an analog for another piece of tech in order to explain how it works. I think think is the very essence of "show don't tell" and probably helps illustrate Mr Harrison's growth as an author from the first book back in 1961 to this final volume in 2010. I think that Mr Harrison actually summed up this series nicely in the forward to [b:Stainless Steel Visions|710841|Stainless Steel Visions|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1177530123l/710841._SY75_.jpg|2707310], the book of his short stories that includes one about the Stainless Steel Rat. His introduction referred to the stories therein, but I think his closing statement fits this series remarkably well:
These stories work. They entertain, occasionally amuse, are didactic at times but are never, I firmly believe, boring.
Slippery Jim and Angelina are back! After a restful retirement from their hybrid life of crime and law enforcement, they are called upon to help the rather simple porcuswine farming community of Jim's earlier life. Loaded with interplanetary adventures, the rat's return is marked by Harrison's trademark humor, social satire and hare-brained fun.
Expanded from a short story, this final novel has some of the humor and satire of the original series. Released more than 10 years after the previous book, it serves as a much better end to the saga. This story of Slippery Jim's Flying Dutchman is mostly just okay.
In a standard trope, Jim's cousin the porcu-swine farmer shows up in need of assistance. Shortly (and in a very contrived fashion) our main character is broke and ends up taking charge of his cousin's space ship load of farmers and livestock, vowing to bring them to a new world.
One of the adventures that follow is likely the short story, and the others were probably notes to be expanded later. They have aspects of Slippery Jim, but miss out on the plot twists and pulp action that makes the first book so good. In it's favor, it is better than the two previous books and most of the prequels - but I would only recommend it to a completist.
So speaking of that, here are my recommendations. Read the first book, or the first three (Stainless Steel Rat + Revenge + Saves the World). The first prequel (A Stainless Steel Rat is Born) has some good features, and the 4th and 5th (Wants You and for President) are okay - the latter would make a nice ending to the series. Avoid the rest like the plague.
In a standard trope, Jim's cousin the porcu-swine farmer shows up in need of assistance. Shortly (and in a very contrived fashion) our main character is broke and ends up taking charge of his cousin's space ship load of farmers and livestock, vowing to bring them to a new world.
One of the adventures that follow is likely the short story, and the others were probably notes to be expanded later. They have aspects of Slippery Jim, but miss out on the plot twists and pulp action that makes the first book so good. In it's favor, it is better than the two previous books and most of the prequels - but I would only recommend it to a completist.
So speaking of that, here are my recommendations. Read the first book, or the first three (Stainless Steel Rat + Revenge + Saves the World). The first prequel (A Stainless Steel Rat is Born) has some good features, and the 4th and 5th (Wants You and for President) are okay - the latter would make a nice ending to the series. Avoid the rest like the plague.
I like the main character. I like the humor. I kind of even like the space opera with a dash of hard-like sci-fi. But the plot didn't do a whole lot for me. And the characterization seemed a bit sallow. I think what I need to do is try an earlier Stainless Steel Rat incarnation.
A very average novel but because I have so much emotional baggage tied up in the adventures of the Rat it was still quite enjoyable and good fun.