The Stainless Steel Rat

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The Stainless Steel Rat is the first in a series of science fiction novels written by author Harry Harrison. It is also the nickname of the hero of these novels, which are set in the distant future.

The Stainless Steel Rat is anti-hero James Bolivar diGriz, who goes by many aliases, including "Slippery Jim" and "The Stainless Steel Rat". He is a futuristic con man, thief and all-round rascal. He is charming and quick-witted, a master of disguise, physically fit, an accomplished bank robber, an expert on breaking and entering, and (perhaps most usefully) a skilled liar. A master of self-rationalization, the Rat frequently justifies his crimes by arguing that he is providing society with entertainment; and besides which, he only steals from institutions which have insurance cover. He displays a strong morality, albeit in a much more restricted sense than is traditional. (For example, he will happily steal, but deplores killing.)

From the original publisher's blurb:

...We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment...

The character was introduced in Harrison's short story, The Stainless Steel Rat, which was first published in 1957 in Astounding magazine. The story introduces the Rat, who has just carried out a successful larceny operation, and subsequently details a complex bank robbery which the Rat pulls off with ease. However, he is outfoxed by the mysterious "Special Corps"—a crime-fighting organisation staffed with former criminals—and recruited by them in order to fight crime. Harrison used the story, with minor modifications, as the introduction to the series' first full-length novel, also called The Stainless Steel Rat.

Like other characters created by Harrison, the Rat is a speaker of Esperanto and advocates atheism.

As of 2006 there have been ten books in the Stainless Steel Rat series.

Contents

[edit] Book synopses

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The Stainless Steel Rat (1961) 
At the beginning of the first novel, the Stainless Steel Rat is out-conned into working for the government. In the Special Corps, the elite law-enforcement and spy agency, he joins the ranks of an organization that is entirely constituted of ex-criminals like himself. In the novel, he has several adventures and meets his love interest, Angelina, who is even more sociopathic than he is.
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970) 
The Stainless Steel Rat gets married, saves the universe from a marauding military civilization from the planet Cliaand, and becomes father of twins (James and Bolivar).
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World (1972) 
The Stainless Steel Rat travels to Earth, 1975, and then to Napoleonic France, to stop a madman known as He from destroying the timeline.
The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You! (1978) 
After freeing his family from various forms of incarceration, the Stainless Steel Rat saves the all-human galaxy from invading aliens. At this point the twins are adults. Additionally, the super-secret Moral Corps is revealed to have even more power than the Special Corps, its main concern being that all human actions abide by the Moral Corps' code of morality.
The Stainless Steel Rat for President (1982) 
The Stainless Steel Rat and Angelina enjoy a belated honeymoon on a planet run by a dictator who rigs elections to get into office, so they set the Rat up as a candidate instead.
A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born (1985) 
A novel chronicling the beginning of the Stainless Steel Rat's career. He intentionally gets caught trying to rob a bank so that he will go to jail where he can learn from the masters of crime, only to realize (too late) that the true masters would never get caught.
The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987) 
The Stainless Steel Rat, early in his career, hunts the man who killed his mentor, but in the process must save a defenseless planet from an imminent attack.
The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues (1994) 
The Stainless Steel Rat (in the same earlier timeline as Is Born and Gets Drafted) goes to a prison colony planet to retrieve an alien artifact, which he must find in thirty days or the slow-acting poison he was administered will take its effect.
The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell (1996) 
In the later timeline (to which the stories have henceforth returned), the Stainless Steel Rat searches for his wife, who has apparently been abducted by a con man who preys on religious believers, swindling them out of their money and then enslaving them in coal mines.
The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus (1999) 
The Stainless Steel Rat is hired by a businessman to investigate thefts; the clues lead the Rat to suspect a roaming circus, which he infiltrates.

[edit] Important supporting characters

Angelina is a criminal mastermind much like the Rat, only less ethical and more willing to kill. As the Rat's first case for the Special Corps, he tracks Angela down and ends up falling in love with her. After her capture, she undergoes psychic surgery (not to be mistaken for "psychic surgery") to remove her homicidal tendencies and joins the Corps; during that time she begins a relationship with the Rat that ends with them marrying in the last trimester of her pregnancy. She later assists on many of the Rat's adventures.

Harold Peters Inskipp is the director of the Special Corps and one of the most powerful men in the Galaxy. He recruits the Rat, but is frequently infuriated by his insubordinate attitude and tendency to "go rogue" and commit independent crimes for sheer enjoyment. Ironically, the Special Corps is composed entirely of former criminals—Inskipp himself was a legendary fugitive known as "Inskipp the Uncatchable" before becoming the Corps' commander.

The Bishop was the young Rat's mentor, who taught him much of his trade and his code of ethics.

Professor Coypu is a Special Corps boffin who had developed a Time Helix device permitting time travel. He also has a great deal of general scientific knowledge. He sent a copy of his mind with the Rat on his excursion to the 20th century.

The Kekkonshiki, aka "The Gray Men", are a human subculture who prefer domination to coexistence. They have a talent for using technology to manipulate sentient minds, and have manipulated both humans and aliens on a grand scale. One of their techniques is to make captured adversaries believe they are being tortured when in fact they are not. The Rat has opposed them on many occasions and experienced their "hospitality" first-hand.

James and Bolivar diGriz are the twin sons of the Rat and Angelina. The Rat missed much of their childhood because of his adventures in time, but they share their father's attitudes and many of his skills. They end up marrying the same woman, who falls in love with both of them and gets herself split off into two identical women sharing one mind.

[edit] Chronological order

The book series is written only in a semichronological order; it breaks the continuity during part of the series to focus on the Rat's early career, then returns to "modern-day". Here, then, is a list of the books in the order they take place, rather than the order they were written.

  1. A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born
  2. The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted
  3. The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues
  4. The Stainless Steel Rat
  5. The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
  6. The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World
  7. The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You
  8. The Stainless Steel Rat for President
  9. The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell
  10. The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus

[edit] Spin-offs

The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World - Cover to 2000 AD Prog #171 - artwork by Carlos Ezquerra
Enlarge
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World - Cover to 2000 AD Prog #171 - artwork by Carlos Ezquerra

Harrison also produced a parody of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, You Can Be The Stainless Steel Rat (ISBN 0-441-94978-9):

The reader's decisions will determine whether he or she can find Prof. Geisteskrank on the planet Skraldespand and bring him back before he activates a lethal new weapon.

Despite the above description, the player cannot fail, regardless of his choices (even though it is possible to get caught in a loop at one point, this can be escaped). It should also be noted that the name of Prof. Geisteskrank is German for "insane", and name of the planet "Skraldespand" is Danish for "trashcan".

A board game inspired by the Stainless Steel Rat series was published by SPI in their magazine Ares in the late 1970s. It involved the Rat infiltrating a space station under hostile control.

The Stainless Steel Rat, The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World and The Stainless Steel Rat for President were adapted into comic strip form in early issues of 2000 AD, written by Kelvin Gosnell and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra.

[edit] External links

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