Subject: Review: The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell by Harry Harrison

From: "Aaron M. Renn" <[email-masked]>
Date: 15 Sep 1999 14:05:53 -0400

The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell by Harry Harrison
	Review Copyright (c) 1999 Aaron M. Renn

Conclusion: Don't Bother

What happened to Harry Harrison?  I've been a huge fan of the Rat for
years.  In fact, I've probably read the original Stainless Steel Rat novel
25 times.  I've also read most of the others several times.  They are
great light and funny reading.  Perfect for when you've got some time to
kill but don't want to dig into anything serious.  But Harrison struck out
with The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues, and I'm afraid he did the
same with this book.

As with Sings the Blues, Goes to Hell just plain wasn't funny.  Well,
there were a few chuckles in there, but mostly this was plain boring.  The
story involves a mad scientist named Justin Slakey who's kidnapped the
Rat's wife Angelina.  Unlike "He" or some of the other great Rat villians,
Slakey isn't out to take over the universe or anything.  I won't spoil the
plot by telling what he does want - though I probably should in order to
keep you from being tempted into buying this book - but it's pretty
underwhelming.

Nothing illustrates the blandness of this novel more than the episode that
takes place on the world called "Glass."  The Rat and Angelina get trapped
there for a few days, and go off to survey the native flora and fauna.
This sort of thing might work in a hard SF exploration story, but in a
book of this nature it just leaves the reader scratching his head.
Particularly since it is completely irrelevant to the story.

Hard core Stainless Steel Rat fans like me have probably already bought
this one.  Others should stay away, though the rest of the books in the
series - except for the previously mentioned Stainless Steel Rat Sings the
Blues - are excellent.

Harrison has another Rat book out in November (The Stainless Steel Rat
Joins the Circus (?!?!)) and I hope he's recovered from whatever it is
that poisoned the last two rat novels.  But given the series trendlines,
I'm not hopeful.

%A Harrison, Harry
%T The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell
%I Tor
%D 1997-01 (original publication 1996-11)
%G ISBN 0-812-55107-9
%P 253 pp.
%0 mass market paperback, US$5.99

Reviewed on 1999-09-11

Aaron M. Renn ([email-masked]) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/