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Stainless Steel Rat #1-6
The Stainless Steel Rat 01-06: The Gateway Collection
This collection comprises of the first six titles in Harry Harrison's brilliantly entertaining Stainless Steel Rat series, containing:
A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born
The Stainless Steel Rat gets Drafted
The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues
The Stainess Steel Rat
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World
A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born
The Stainless Steel Rat gets Drafted
The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues
The Stainess Steel Rat
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World
- GenresScience Fiction
1113 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2012
39 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Harry Harrison
1,279 books1,041 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 8, 2019
'A Stainless Steel Rat is Born': James Bolivar diGriz has his sights set on being a criminal mastermind and contrives to be mentored by world renowned master thief, the Bishop.
Harrison's novel is short and wickedly entertaining, with an anti hero who is believable as well as slick.
Harrison's novel is short and wickedly entertaining, with an anti hero who is believable as well as slick.
May 6, 2021
Of course I've read the whole lot many years ago, so it was nice to come back to these. Not that they aren't a little dated, but they are good escapist fun and it's jolly pleasurable to switch the brain off for a while and enjoy a bit of hijinks once again.
July 7, 2020
A must read
January 18, 2022
I bought this book because I liked the Deathworld novels by Harry Harrison. I only read the first book in this omnibus: "A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born". Chronologically that's the first story in the series, as it details the origins of Jim diGriz, but it was the sixth book written. It bears a strong stylistic resemblance to the Deathworld novels: it's short, old-fashioned (that's not bad, I like the simplicity), and has a protagonist who is quick to quip and clever enough to get out of any situation the world throws at him.
Unfortunately, the story itself isn't as interesting as Deathworld. In each of the three Deathworld novels, the protagonist has to overcome great obstacles in an exciting and unusual environment: a planet with deadly wildlife; deadly natives; or a slave society. But the first half of "A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born" is set in diGriz's unexciting home planet, where he spends his time on small-time crimes and attempting to stay ahead of the law. He spends a couple of chapters hiding from the law inside an automated fast-food machine! The second half of the novel moves the action to a foreign planet which resembles the setting of Deathworld 3, as the hero again is made a slave and has to rise up in society. That's an improvement over the first half, but I've read this story before, and I think that it was done better in Deathworld.
The story also details how Jim diGriz finds and befriends a master criminal called "The Bishop", who teaches him about crime, and is swept into Jim's adventures. Their relationship isn't explored in detail (well, nothing in these books is), so it didn't add much to the story.
The writing is good enough to hum along, but I wasn't really invested in what happens next, and once I was done with the book I didn't feel the need to read the next books. Fair warning: I might still read more of this omnibus in the future, because these stories are mindless fun and quite short, so they're good as a palate cleaner between more "meaty" books. But it's just junk food.
Unfortunately, the story itself isn't as interesting as Deathworld. In each of the three Deathworld novels, the protagonist has to overcome great obstacles in an exciting and unusual environment: a planet with deadly wildlife; deadly natives; or a slave society. But the first half of "A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born" is set in diGriz's unexciting home planet, where he spends his time on small-time crimes and attempting to stay ahead of the law. He spends a couple of chapters hiding from the law inside an automated fast-food machine! The second half of the novel moves the action to a foreign planet which resembles the setting of Deathworld 3, as the hero again is made a slave and has to rise up in society. That's an improvement over the first half, but I've read this story before, and I think that it was done better in Deathworld.
The story also details how Jim diGriz finds and befriends a master criminal called "The Bishop", who teaches him about crime, and is swept into Jim's adventures. Their relationship isn't explored in detail (well, nothing in these books is), so it didn't add much to the story.
The writing is good enough to hum along, but I wasn't really invested in what happens next, and once I was done with the book I didn't feel the need to read the next books. Fair warning: I might still read more of this omnibus in the future, because these stories are mindless fun and quite short, so they're good as a palate cleaner between more "meaty" books. But it's just junk food.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews