Stainless steel rat by Harry Harrison.

wiki ^ | 3/4/2016 | Total Vanity

[Fhios]

The Stainless Steel Rat is James Bolivar DiGriz, who goes by many aliases, including "Slippery Jim" and "The Stainless Steel Rat". He is a futuristic con man, thief, and all-round rascal. He is charming and quick-witted. He is also a master of disguise and martial arts, an accomplished bank robber, a criminal mastermind, an expert on breaking and entering, and (perhaps most usefully) a skilled liar. Master of self-rationalization, the Rat frequently justifies his crimes by arguing that he is providing society with entertainment; and besides which, he only steals from institutions that have insurance coverage. He displays a strong sense of morality, albeit in a much more restricted sense than is traditional. For example, DiGriz will steal without compunction, but deplores killing.

[Bobalu]

a futuristic con man, thief, and all-round rascal. He is charming and quick-witted. He is also a master of disguise and martial arts

But terrified of motorcycles...(I read that in one of the books)

Vote Trump

[dynachrome]

I am somewhat of a pack rat and have many paperbacks around from days gone by.

[this_ol_patriot]

Not as many hours as Piers Anthony I'll bet, like him or not that dude wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. LOL

Seems like he wrote them as fast as you can read them.

[greene66]

I seem to recall having a paperback of this, nearly 40 years ago, but I don’t think I ever got around to reading it. Although I did read that “Make Room, Make Room,” which I think was also Harrison. Heck, I haven’t thought about that stuff in years.

But I did recently read some sci-fi for the first time in decades, an old 1940 issue of the “Planet Stories” pulp. Only slightly familiar author included in it was Ray Cummings, who I’d heard of. Had to do with a guy who goes/shrinks down into some atom-sized world.

[Moltke]

Speaking of pulp fiction...I was just re-reading (as ebooks this time) some of the 60s/70s ‘The Destroyer’ stories. Lots of spot-on, hard-hitting, satirical social commentary in those...and most of it still applies (in spades) today.

[dynachrome]

Amazon has some kindle 99 cent or $1.99 specials for Conan and Clark Ashton Smith, if you want pulp. Good stuff!

http://www.amazon.com/Conan-Definitive-Collection-Robert-Howard-ebook/dp/B00LNIR3LM/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457144559&sr=1-2&keywords=conan+the+barbarian+books

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Weird-Tales-Collection-Trilogus-ebook/dp/B004JKNQ5I/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457144599&sr=1-5&keywords=clark+ashton+smith

[Trillian]

One of my favorites to read when I was a teen.

[Boogieman]

But Paul or Leto II could easily deal with any Bene Gesserit (or all of them), so Atreides FTW!

[this_ol_patriot]

I got through all the Frank books but didn’t touch the stuff by his son. Any of that worth reading or does it mess up the Dune canon?

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

The Eden books were good, but the sex scenes between the female dinosaur lead character and the male human lead character were kind of creepy. She was a bit of a psycho IIRC.....

My favorite Harrison books (other than the original Stainless Steel Rat trilogy) were the Deathworld books - stories of survival on hostile worlds.

[gymbeau]

I love Slippery Jim!
Also liked Harrison’s Deathworld trilogy, especially the last one.
Thanks for the post.

Cheers,
Jim

[Moltke]

Thanks for the heads-up!

[JoeFromSidney]

My favorite Harrison book is Bill the Galactic Hero. Probably because I was a career military officer when I read it. I made the mistake of reading the book while on a flight from Washington, DC to Los Angeles. It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud through the whole book. If you haven't read it, you're really missing something.

I had the opportunity to meet Harrison at a conference of the Science Fiction Writers of America. I made a point of telling how how much I enjoyed BTGH. He admitted to having a lot of fun writing it.

[NicknamedBob]

"My favorite Harrison book is Bill the Galactic Hero".

I've remembered that and recommended it to others quite a number of times. Bill trained as a fuse-tender. Eventually he ended up with two right arms.

One of his associates spent his whole leave with a whiskey IV so that he could stay drunk the entire time.

Who could forget such memorable scenarios?

[Boogieman]

I didn’t read those either, just read some summaries of them.