Scan barcode
A review by kynan
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World by Harry Harrison
2.0
TL;DR: It's more of the Stainless Steel Rat. It's witty chaotic nonsense with crappy time-travel theme.
TL: When I read [b:The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge|64402|The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (Stainless Steel Rat, #5)|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386925214l/64402._SY75_.jpg|1048943] I didn't think that there was a huge difference in the style of the content, the sort of meta-plot. However, the more I think about it in the hindsight of having just read "Saves the World" is that there is a difference in literary ability. You can definitely see Mr Harrison's ability to explain his characters and tell a story getting better and there's a great collection of snappy one-liners and absurd rejoinders from the over-acting diGriz too, I really loved stuff like:
There's only a 1-year gap between "Revenge" and "Saves the World", so it's less obvious there but contrasting it with [b:The Stainless Steel Rat|64394|The Stainless Steel Rat (Stainless Steel Rat, #4)|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328073906l/64394._SY75_.jpg|824589] it's pretty stark. When I started reading "Saves the World" the insta-chaos (reminiscent of the prior two volumes) pulled me in and the characterisations were a lot of fun (Professor Coypu is beautifully, if minimally, rendered). The same themes are here of intrepid and insufferable Renaissance Man James "Slippery Jim" diGriz in "Jim vs the World", although this time it's also Jim vs the Worlds: Time-Twister edition! And therein lies the rub, for me at least.
You absolutely can't take the Stainless Steel Rat series seriously, it's not intended for that, it's intended to be crazy fun escapist adventure. It's hilarious and interesting to try and guess what bizarre and unexpected twist will extricate diGriz from the chaotic corner he seems to have been backed into at the end of every chapter! None of it is realistic (apropos of that: the escape from the military base in "Saves the World" hands-down wins my "Craziest Escape" award and really deserves a movie just to shoot that, although again Bond kinda did that too)...err...what was I saying? Oh, yeah, so the problem here is that time-travel as a concept needs to be carefully considered to be interesting (as opposed to an endless sequence of "well, I'm going back in time two minutes earlier and destroying your time machine - slight tangent, I think [b:The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August|35066358|The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August|Claire North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493966668l/35066358._SY75_.jpg|25807847] is my favourite time-travel concept) and I suspect that Mr Harrison did consider it, and then he went "Ha!" and literally reveled in smushing paradoxes into our faces. The occasional Deus Ex Machina is pretty much expected here, fine, I can live with that, but the combination punch of that and the cheapest of Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free cards really sullied the end of this book for me.
It started out as the high-point of the series, but I'm dropping it to 2-stars because I did not enjoy the final third of the book.
TL: When I read [b:The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge|64402|The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (Stainless Steel Rat, #5)|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386925214l/64402._SY75_.jpg|1048943] I didn't think that there was a huge difference in the style of the content, the sort of meta-plot. However, the more I think about it in the hindsight of having just read "Saves the World" is that there is a difference in literary ability. You can definitely see Mr Harrison's ability to explain his characters and tell a story getting better and there's a great collection of snappy one-liners and absurd rejoinders from the over-acting diGriz too, I really loved stuff like:
I staggered mentally and looked around for a chair so I could sit down. Until I discovered I was already sitting down, so I sat harder.
There's only a 1-year gap between "Revenge" and "Saves the World", so it's less obvious there but contrasting it with [b:The Stainless Steel Rat|64394|The Stainless Steel Rat (Stainless Steel Rat, #4)|Harry Harrison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328073906l/64394._SY75_.jpg|824589] it's pretty stark. When I started reading "Saves the World" the insta-chaos (reminiscent of the prior two volumes) pulled me in and the characterisations were a lot of fun (Professor Coypu is beautifully, if minimally, rendered). The same themes are here of intrepid and insufferable Renaissance Man James "Slippery Jim" diGriz in "Jim vs the World", although this time it's also Jim vs the Worlds: Time-Twister edition! And therein lies the rub, for me at least.
You absolutely can't take the Stainless Steel Rat series seriously, it's not intended for that, it's intended to be crazy fun escapist adventure. It's hilarious and interesting to try and guess what bizarre and unexpected twist will extricate diGriz from the chaotic corner he seems to have been backed into at the end of every chapter! None of it is realistic (apropos of that: the escape from the military base in "Saves the World" hands-down wins my "Craziest Escape" award and really deserves a movie just to shoot that, although again Bond kinda did that too)...err...what was I saying? Oh, yeah, so the problem here is that time-travel as a concept needs to be carefully considered to be interesting (as opposed to an endless sequence of "well, I'm going back in time two minutes earlier and destroying your time machine - slight tangent, I think [b:The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August|35066358|The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August|Claire North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493966668l/35066358._SY75_.jpg|25807847] is my favourite time-travel concept) and I suspect that Mr Harrison did consider it, and then he went "Ha!" and literally reveled in smushing paradoxes into our faces. The occasional Deus Ex Machina is pretty much expected here, fine, I can live with that, but the combination punch of that and the cheapest of Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free cards really sullied the end of this book for me.
It started out as the high-point of the series, but I'm dropping it to 2-stars because I did not enjoy the final third of the book.