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Mon, 12 May 2008



The Stainless Steel Rat Series

    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:

    YearTitleNotes
    1985A Stainless Steel Rat Is BornI got this one from powell's
    1987The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted
    1994The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues
    1961The Stainless Steel Rat
    1970The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
    1972The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World
    1978The Stainless Steel Rat Wants YouI got this one from bookbuyers
    1982The Stainless Steel Rat for PresidentI got this one from bookbuyers
    1996The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to HellI got this one from bookbuyers
    1999The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus
    1993The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat


    Tags for this post: book(S) Harry_Harrison(S)

posted at: 03:19 | path: /book/Harry_Harrison | permanent link to this entry
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Sat, 10 May 2008



Bill The Galactic Hero

    This book is an interesting read, but for unusual reasons. Its as if Harrison sets out to write a terrible book, and learns new techniques to achieve this terrible along the way. An example of his mastery of the art:

    A hundred bucks a month was good money, though, and Bill saved every bit of it. Easy, lazy months rolled by, and he regularly went to meetings and reported regularly to the G.B.I., and on the first of every month he would find his money baked into the egg roll he invariably had for lunch. He kept the greasy bills in a toy rubber cat he found on the rubbish heap, and bit by bit the kitty grew.


    It seems to me that this book is so terrible it has to be deliberate, and its good to see that Wikipedia agrees:

    Bill, the Galactic Hero is a satirical science fiction novel by Harry Harrison, first published in 1965.

    It is a response to Heinlein's controversially militaristic Starship Troopers. The overall plot is similar, the details rather less so; and Harrison makes the most of an opportunity to spoof the work of other authors including Isaac Asimov, "Doc" Smith, and Joseph Heller. Harrison reports having been approached by a Vietnam veteran who described Bill as "the only book that's true about the military".


    This book is a study in bad writing, and that's what makes it great. This book is entertaining, stupid, and funny. You wont to be a better person at the end, but you wont be bored while reading it either. To be clear -- I loved this book and its paranoia-like universe.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Harry_Harrison(S)

posted at: 14:19 | path: /book/Harry_Harrison | permanent link to this entry
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Wed, 07 May 2008



A Stainless Steel Rat is Born

    This was another book I read as a kid and had fond memories of. When I found it at Powell's books for under $4 I just had to pick it up. Harrison seems to focus on "pulp science fiction" -- all of the stuff I have seen from him has been short and easy reading, as is the case with this book. What do you do if you're stuck on a farming planet, smart, and bored out of your brain? Apparently the answer is to turn to a life of crime for entertainment. That's what James DeGriz does, and he is a great anti-hero while he's at it. Great book.

    Tags for this post: book(S) Harry_Harrison(S)

posted at: 12:19 | path: /book/Harry_Harrison | permanent link to this entry
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