The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted

With puns a-flying, James deGriz, known as the stainless steel rat, is once again engaged in a major adventure. This time, he finds himself on a planet in a perpetual state of military emergency where young people are forcibly impressed into the military. As usual, Jim is on the run so he ends up in the military as a lowly soldier. The treatment of the common soldier is demeaning, even by the standards of military organizations and of course Jim is not one to simply accept his life as it is. He quickly manages to defraud his way into an officer position. When his army invades another planet, he is the leader of the vanguard that captures a major power facility. After the capture, he learns that it is a planet with no military of any kind and not even a police force. The people are all followers of a philosophy established by an artificial intelligence and there is no violence and people work when they want and earn interchangeable work units called "wrrs." It is truly a rich utopia and the commanding General of the invading army wants to take control. Naturally, Jim is in opposition and comes up with an ingenious plan to foil the success of the occupation. Through cunning, deceit, cooperation from the peaceful inhabitants and some luck, the invading army is "defeated" and Jim must decide what his next move will be. A quiet, peaceful existence on a utopian planet may tempt most men, but when you crave excitement, it can be a dull prospect. Harrison is once again at his best in chronicling the adventures of the anti-hero Jim diGriz. It is an entertaining story; science fiction that cannot be taken seriously if you want to enjoy it.

When you need to stop a war, the Stainless Steel Rat is the man you turn to. Not that he is that keen to be your average grunt type stuck on a planet with a crazy warlord, etc. However, given the man who killed his teacher is there, he is more keen than you would expect to give it a shot.

I see that the cover art has changed since the first edition. I like the original artwork better and let me explain why... When the Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted was published I was lucky enough to get a job in my school's library in the back room where books were prepared for library use or repaired. This book was one of my first that I bound in the plastic dust covers. While carefully putting on the cover I had to read the blurb on the inside of the paper jacket. How could I resist a cover with such an impishly cute main character? The blurb made me want to read the book and so I read the first chapter in between working on other books. I knew I couldn't get away with hording the book so I bought a copy for myself (in paper back). I've since been lucky enough to find a hard back first addition so I'm registering my paperback copy. Since this book introduced me to the Stainless Steel Rat series and to Harry Harrison as an author, it's still my favorite of all his books.

When I first starting reading Harry Harrison, I thought that he was an average writer. Later, however, I realized that he is far from average,. His earlier Stainless Steel Rat were not as good, but I think he was just getting used to the Slippery Jim diGriz character. "Stailess Steel Rat Gets Drafted" was not his best but definetly one of them.I would tell anyone to read this, in a second. Thanks for taking the time to read this review.

This is the book that got me started on the whole Rat series. This book is great! It is exciting, and humorous. I recomend it to everyone.