Stain/Steel/Rat/You

This book is much funnier, and the situation certainly helps. War is looming with an alien race, and yes, they are pretty much bug eyed monster types. The Stainless Steel Rat and relatives have to do something about it. Infiltration is tricky, but all undercover super thief/spies are good at disguise. He can even do alien sexy. Pretty funny.

The title of the latest escapades of the "Rat" is a bit of a stretch of the imagination as it suggests images of vintage WWI era posters of Uncle Sam recruiting enlistments for the United States military. What actually occurs, though, is that after freeing his family members form various forms of incarceration the Stainless Steel Rat plays upon the gratitude for a good deed done and gains their support in battling an assortment of bug-eyed-monsters (BEM) bent on invading the human inhabited galaxy and making it thiers alone. At times silly, each BEM is more fearsome and funny than the last resulting in a plesant mixture of mayhem, hilarity and adventure. Enjoyable to the last, James Bolivar DiGriz proves once again that no rust has tarnished his stainless steel rat's hide.

I have read & enjoyed a number of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books, but this has got to be the best one yet. The book is loaded with the same slap-dash sense of humour and spontaneous action as found in the other SSR books, but this book's clever, well thought out plot puts it far above them. Slippery Jim's final solution for dealing with the slimy alien problem-makers is ingenious and satisfying, as is his surprising insight to the behaviour of the galaxy's sadistic grey men.