A Stainless Steel Rat is Born - Harry Harrison

...ambitions of Jim diGriz from a teen disaffected with the boredom of his pig farming home world "Bit O' Heaven" to a fully qualified rat. Jim's search starts with an unsuccessful attempt to learn crime by getting arrested and put in juvenile detention and progresses to attempting to find a criminal mastermind mentor to teach him his trade.

For some reason the book reads as a short-story rather than a complete book despite ...
.../> If you are already a rat fan then you will be happy to read this and will probably get a lot out of it - if you are reading it as a stand alone book then it will be puzzling and probably disappointing. For the latter I would suggest you read a few others before this.


General Info applicable to all the books:

Although not vital it is better to read the Stainless Steel rat series in order (the dates are in ... more

(UK Paperback, book first published (UK) 1985, 185 pages)

Note for all reviews: If the plot outline seems light this is intentional as I hate reading reviews that say "and the ending where …" :-)

"is born" documents the early criminal ambitions of Jim diGriz from a teen disaffected with the boredom of his pig farming home world "Bit O' Heaven" to a fully qualified rat. Jim's search starts with an unsuccessful attempt to learn crime by getting arrested and put in juvenile detention and progresses to attempting to find a criminal mastermind mentor to teach him his trade.

For some reason the book reads as a short-story rather than a complete book despite it being longer that some of the full books (sorry if that doesn't make sense!). It was not that the book wasn't enjoyable it just felt like it slowed down from time to time towards the end and had less depth to the world than the other books although it did give good incites into the Rat's psyche. There are nice moments such as the fast-food hide-out and the boat ride which help the book through some slower moments. The book is funny, ironic and occasionally sad and is probably more engaging to read than it sounds from the above.

If you are already a rat fan then you will be happy to read this and will probably get a lot out of it - if you are reading it as a stand alone book then it will be puzzling and probably disappointing. For the latter I would suggest you read a few others before this.

General Info applicable to all the books:

Although not vital it is better to read the Stainless Steel rat series in order (the dates are in the other reviews) as most of the books do follow some chronological logic with the exception of the 'is born'. If you are a 'real-science' sci-fi reader or don't like having you tongue stuck firmly in your cheek then you may feel this is a bit lightweight for you. Possibly an unfair comment, as I am not a writer myself, is that the books have a pulp fiction feel about it [NOT a reference to the film!] and definitely not presented as 'serious' sci-fi - this is a comment not a criticism. They are short, clever, funny, and surreal and with more than a few sideways glances at the more serious writers. Easily read in short sessions or in one sitting.

If you, like I, become a fan there are also a couple of other lesser known rat short stories in sci-fi collections, I will dig the titles of these up and add them to the review if there is any interest.
 

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