Books like The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World

Within the pantheon of endearing, morally-deficient scamps and scoundrels, James “Slippery Jim” Bolivar DiGriz (aka the Stainless Steel Rat) is up there with Bugs Bunny…except not quite so nasty. \ \ Jim is one of those characters you just want to hang out with and he's always good for a few laughs and an elevated level of happy. This series is your basic literary pick me up. For those unfamiliar with the world of the Stainless Steel Rat series, allow me to brazenly pimp out my previous review of book one: Steve’s blatant vote whoring link to his earlier review. Go on, take your time and check it out...the rest of us can pass the time looking at a couple of random funny pics until you get back...\ \ ...\ \ ……great, we’re all caught up now. PLOT SUMMARY:In his latest escapade, Jim is called upon to pretty much save the universe from a group of time traveling criminal butt stains who’ve traveled into Earth’s distant past (the 1970’s) to wipe out the Special Core as a prelude to taking over the future (circa. 36,970…give or take century). The Special Core is the elite police force and spy agency of the 350th Century, made up mostly of former criminals like Jim. Before the last of the Special Core goes poofing out of existence, they arrange to toss Jim back to 1975 where he can undue the damage down to the time stream. Before you go too far down the rabbit hole, let me warn you that if you try to form a straight line of the brain-pretzeling logic behind the various time jumps in the story, you risk nervous exhaustion and possibly even an aneurysm. I advise you to just go with it. The main bad guy is He-Who-Will-Take-Over the Universeor simply “He” (no relation Haggard’s She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed). He (i.e., He) is a whacked out nutbag with a short temper and a several large handfuls of surly. He’s also 9 feet tall and red as a fire truck.The rest of the story is Jim popping from 1975 to 1805 then 20,000 A.D, etc. all in an effort to thwart the criminal shenanigans of He and his gang. THOUGHTS:To Harrison’s credit, he makes it pretty easy to roll with the whole time travel/paradox/fate vs. free will/cause-effect conundrum loop and I thought he did an admirable job not allowing it to overly distract from the story.This is certainly the wackiest of the Stainless Steel Rats’ adventures I have read so far and it was also my least favorite. I still thoroughly, and I really do mean thoroughly, enjoyed it, but not quite to the same torrent of joy-gush that the first two books inspired in me. I think the muted enthusiasm is attributable to two primary aspects of the book.First, I listened to the audio version which is, for the most part, excellent. However, one of my gripes was the annoying Jersey/Scottish accent and jargon used when Jim was in 1975. This may not be much of a detractor for those reading the print version but it was forks on a chalkboard to me listening to it. Luckily, it didn’t last more than about 20 pages. Second, I am just not a big fan of time-travel stories that go beyond a simple one jump plot device. I’m fine with man/woman from future visits past or vice-versa, but once you start getting all time paradoxy on me, I usually find myself feeling confused like a child who accidentally walks in on their parents for the first time while they’re “cuddling”…….. (whoa….major traumatic childhood memory flashback). Still, the Stainless Steel Rat series is an absolute gem and even this weaker installment is worth reading. If you haven’t sampled any of them before, start with the first two books (duh) and I am pretty sure you will find a full dose of cozy, mood-enhancing comfort food to lift your spirits. These are great stories when you are having one of “those” days. \ \ 3.0 stars. Recommended!!