The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (The Stainless Steel Rat Book 2) - Harry Harrison

Title: The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (The Stainless Steel Rat Book 2)
Author: Harry Harrison
Genre: Science-Fiction
Published: 1970
Formats: Paperback/Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
Amazon UK

Review:
“The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge” is the second instalment in Harry Harrison’s light hearted science-fiction series, “The Stainless Steel Rat”. It follows on a few months after the end of the first book and continues the story of Slippery Jim diGriz. Jim is now married to Angelina, his nemesis from the first book now that the homicidal parts of her personality have been programmed out. Unfortunately, their holiday together is cut short when the Special Corps hunt them down and “offer” Jim the opportunity to investigate a secretive planet that has been invading other worlds even though interplanetary invasion was believed to be impossible due to the huge level of effort involved.

Once again Harrison gives us an enjoyable and humorous novel full of witty banter that kept me smiling from start to finish. Considering the pulpy feel of the novel it was also good to see that the writing is competent tight and the pace is quick without being too over the top. The only slight niggle is that overall the plot feels very similar to the previous novel and there isn’t really anything original added to the formula readers will be familiar with.

In regards to the characters, well the loveable rogue diGriz shines through again here and I couldn’t help but enjoy following his escapades. The other characters do tend to be skimmed over and most of the enjoyment there is in regards to seeing the various cameos and actions of people we were introduced to in the previous novel. This book is quite simply all about diGriz.

Overall, this was another humorous entry in “The Stainless Steel Rat” series. It follows the same mould as the previous novel so if you enjoy it then you should also enjoy this one as well. I do worry that in the long run the series could get a little bit too samey as the series progress but at this stage it is still entertaining enough.