A stainless steel trio ; A stainless steel rat is born ; The stainless steel rat gets drafted ; The stainless steel rat sings the blues

Long Live the Rat! "When Kingsley Amis read the first Stainless Steel Rat novel he said, 'Well, Harry, you have written the first picaresque science fiction novel.' I nodded sagaciously-and at the first opportunity rushed to my dictionary. Picaresque 1 . of or relating to a type of fiction in which the hero, a rogue, goes through a series of episodic adventures. Well, that is a fair enough description. My hero is alone against the universe, with every man's hand-if not every woman's-turned against him. He is without the law, verily a law unto himself, with a strict sense of morality. Aren't the two mutually incompatible? No, as you will soon discover..." -Harry Harrison, from the Introduction "Cheerfully larcenous and anarchic. Long may the Rat run roughshod over the forces of law, order, and the square world." - The Orlando Sentinel "Harrison's fictions constitute one of the main monuments in modern SF." -Paul Di Filippo, Scifi.com , on 50 in 50 KLIATT This collection includes A Stainless Steel Rat is Born, The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted, and The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues. It doesn't matter how far into the future you go (or how long ago these were actually written); you know the Rat rules! Harrison's perennial bad guy with a conscience, Jim DiGriz, is reintroduced to new readers. The stories flow seamlessly together to present a vivid picture of the coolest criminal in galactic history. No true SF fan will have missed these in his/her reading, but this collection may serve to introduce Jim to a whole new generation. KLIATT Codes: JSA;Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Tor, 492p., Hoy One of SF's most beloved rogues: the Stainless Steel Rat! Slippery Jim DiGriz is the Stainless Steel Rat: the galaxy's greatest interstellar thief and con artist. For novel upon novel, the Rat has outfoxed the forces of conventionality, cutting a stylish swathe through dozens of star systems-and stealing the hearts of thousands of readers. Now three of the Rat's greatest exploits are collected in a single volume. In "A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born," we see the origin and early days of Jim DiGriz's brilliant criminal career, as our underworld hero is forced to work for the Good Guys. Conscripted again in" The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted," this time into a planetary army, the Rat must avenge the murder of his mentor-in-crime. And in "The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues," Slippery Jim must retrieve a missing alien artifact, while disguised as a futuristic rock-and-roller ... or forfeit his life Beloved intergalactic rogue Stainless Steel Rat aka Slippery Jim DiGriz had to start his criminal life and training somewhere. Here the multi-talented expert in karate and fast-change fast-talk artist narrates three great exploits. A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born describes how the lad graduates from Bit O'Heaven porcuswine farm to jail, finds and rescues a mentor, stowaways to slavery, then helps interplanetary League Navy Captain Varod defeat medieval Capos. Conscripted again in The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted , he tries to help a planet of peace, inspired by the philosophy of logical robot Mark Forer IV, defend against the invading army, led by the sadistic killer of his mentor, The Bishop. In The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues , Jim, disguised as a futuristic rock-and-roller, must retrieve a missing alien artifact or lose his life.