The Stainless Steel Rat

Stainless Steel Rat, Book 1

By: Harry Harrison

Narrated by: Phil Gigante

Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award, Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2011

DiGriz is caught during one of his crimes and recruited into the Special Corps. Boring, routine desk work during his probationary period results in his discovering that someone is building a battleship, thinly disguised as an industrial vessel. In the peaceful League no one has battleships anymore, so the builder of this one would be unstoppable.

DiGriz' hunt for the guilty becomes a personal battle between himself and the beautiful but deadly Angelina, who his planning a coup on one of the feudal worlds. DiGriz' dilemma is whether he will turn Angelina over to the Special Corps, or join with her, since he has fallen in love with her.

©2010 Harry Harrison (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

A trip down memory lane

I remembered this as being amazing. It did not quite live up to that memory, however, it was still a fun romp.

Performance captured the life and character well

The story is in the first person, told by the hero (or anti-hero) which works very well for the audio format if they get the right narrator. In this case they did. The story was fun, fast, and funny.

Branching Out Didn't Work For Me

What did you like best about The Stainless Steel Rat? What did you like least?

My least favorite aspect is the narration. The narration seemed as if they were play acting on stage. I also felt there some sort of rush going on to move through the story. My favorite part was the story idea.

If you’ve listened to books by Harry Harrison before, how does this one compare?

This was my first read/audible by Harry Harrison.

How could the performance have been better?

I would have liked to see the main character portrayed as a little more "smooth". I expected him to have a more sophisticated nature because he seemed so confident in the beginning and as an obvious con.

Did The Stainless Steel Rat inspire you to do anything?

I do not read a lot of this type of book, I felt I was branching out to try something new. I love suspense, thrillers and even time travel but this didn't work for me at all.

Any additional comments?

In all fairness, this is not a typical pick for me but the summary seemed right on, so I tried it. I did not finish the story, which seldom happens, It could be that I stopped short of the best parts, I gave up at the start of Chapter 6, when I realized I wasn't enjoying any of the characters.

makes me want to be a grifter

loved it! sharp, well thought out and the ending made me look for the rest of the Martinis glasses on the cover of the 📚. I now have them on my wish list. Narrator has a great voice, I'm glad he's doing the rest of them

A Surprise At Every Turn. Timeleess plot.

A fun story with plenty of action and whitty dialog that is sure tk please the most jaded SiFi fan.

Sci Fi Ahead of its time

I enjoyed this performance and this character quite a bit! I was impressed by how modern Mr. Harrison's vision of the future was. Only galaxy-wide sexism, coal engines, and paperwork seemed to be things he assumed would never go away, even hundreds of years from now.

Narrator gets the tone!

Stainless steel ratlets will be happy. And reviews apparently require at least 15 words so I am adding more text. Here’s to crime.

great book

The narration is phenomenal, and the book itself is light hearted and enjoyable. It's an excellent blend of old saifi and Cheesy cotton man stories.. It's not high literature it's not grand fantasy but it's very enjoyable and the author's dower and sarcastic outlook really is is amusing

A real page turner for the ears!

Phil does an excellent interpretation of the Rat's emotions. He sounded just like him when I first read the book many years ago. Very entertaining!

A Rat Race Worth Running!!

Hands down, this is one of the most entertaining and engaging SF audiobooks I have purchased from Audible, and you don't want to know how many I have. For one thing, as a dyed-in-the-wool SF fan for almost 50 years, it was great to revisit one of the most memorable characters from the wacky space operas of the 1960s, of which Harry Harrrison and his contemporary, Keith Laumer, were masters. This is a thoroughly entertaining, nutty story, well-written, satirical and charming.

Now, as to Phil Gigante's reading. Calling it a reading or a narration is a gross misrepreentation of one of the most entertaining performances I have yet encountered in my huge Audible collection. His tone and delivery is absolutely, flawlessly perfect for DiGriz -- sardonic, larcenous but totally suggestive of the "diamond in the rough" that is the Stainless Steel Rat. Not only that, but the range of voices and accents that Mr. Gigante is able to project, effortlessly phasing from one to another without missing a best, is nothing less than astonishing. At times, I almost forgot I was listening to an audiobook, but instead an old radio play such as X-Minus-One or Dimension X. I frequently caught myself laughing aloud not only at Harrison's turns of phrase but also Gigante's perfect timing and delivery.

If you like wacky, vintage space opera told with humor and style, catch "The Stainless Steel Rat" ... if you can. They don't call him Slippery Jim DioGriz for nothing.