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A Stainless Steel Rat Trio collects three of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat novels in a single volume and serves as the most efficient possible introduction to the long sequence. James Bolivar diGriz, the titular Stainless Steel Rat, is a comic-genius interstellar thief who has been recruited by the Special Corps to use his skills on the right side of the law for various definitions of the right side.
Harrison's strengths are the comic timing, the inventive heist mechanics, and a particular cheerful nihilism about authority that has aged better than most of the SF of its period. Slippery Jim, the Rat's preferred narrator persona, is one of the form's most enjoyable first-person voices.
Four stars. Recommended to readers who want comic SF that does not take itself too seriously. The omnibus format gives you enough range to know if the voice clicks.
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