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3.0 out of 5 stars
A sequel to a prequel., May 3 2000
First there was "The Stainless Steel Rat", our introduction to Slippery Jim DiGriz, aka the Stainless Steel Rat, a high-tech, futuristic conman and thief, who is caught after a long and successful career by the galactic special corps, and recruited to join them because it takes a thief to catch a thief. Then followed four more books in chronological order, "The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge", "The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World", "The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You", and "The Stainless Steel Rat For President". Then, apparently growing bored with the direction his stories were taking, Harrison retreated to the beginning and wrote the prequel, "A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born". This book is the sequel to that one, and is in turn followed by "The Stainless Steel Rat Sings The Blues".There are dangers to writing prequels that were unplanned at the time the original story was written; this book mostly avoids them. It is necessary to make it plausible that the character/s have had these experiences prior to the later stories, and that their characters have developed from these experiences into the character/s they are at the beginning of the original. It is easy to see how the Jim DiGriz from this book became the Jim DiGriz at the beginning of the original. It is also necessary, and much more difficult, to make a story that is interesting, but yet have it remain plausible that the events in it are not referred back to in the chronologically later, but earlier written, stories. Surprisingly, that too is managed well in this book. What that leaves us with is a book which succeeds well at what it sets out to do: to be a fun romp, action-packed, plot-driven, not to be taken any more seriously than it takes itself, which is not very, but enjoyable brain-candy. The dialogue is a bit stilted, the characters are somewhat two-dimensional, the "philosophy" propounded by the members of the alien culture is downright silly, and Harrison never lets a little thing like consistent characterization get in the way of keeping the plot lively; DiGriz is supposed to be brilliant, but he makes enough stupid mistakes to keep himself in one exciting crisis after another. This isn't anything like great art, but it IS fun, and sometimes that's all you want. For those times, this is a perfectly enjoyable light read.
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