Welcome to Show #42!
Stainless Steel Rat. Brian and Dave delve into puns. ’nuff said.
Feature Discussion: Summer, Dave, Brian and Jen discuss the original 1961 story The Stainless Steel Rat, first in a long series by Harry Harrison.
Brief Story Description: The Stainless Steel Rat, a mastser thief and con artist, believes he has pulled off a successful bank job, but discovers that his heist is really an elaborate countersting to capture him. Once caught, he discovers that the government wants him to join them in helping them catch others like himself who live outside the law.
In the Special Corps, the elite law-enforcement and spy agency led by the former greatest crook in the Galaxy, Harold P. Inskipp (a.k.a. Inskipp the Uncatchable), he joins the ranks of an organization that is entirely constituted of ex-criminals like himself. In the novel, he has several adventures during which he believes he has escaped from the Corps, and meets his love interest, Angelina, who is even more sociopathic than he is – she too is a criminal genius but lacks Jim’s moral strictures against killing. (thanks to Wikipedia)
Listener Feedback: You can leave comments here for the show. You can also email all of us at ninjas-at-kickassmysticninjas-dot-com, and yes, you can also email in recorded commentary.
Books mentioned:
Link: Wikipedia: The Stainless Steel Rat
Link: The Stainless Steel Rat Series
Promo: Future Traditions: A Jericho podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:50 — 30.4MB)
HH should get extra browny points for having a ‘hero’ an atheist who tries not to kill anybody..even putting himself at risk (in the later books)in order not to kill other people.
When the British comic 2000AD did a Stainless Steel Rat series they based his appearance on James Coburn from the Flint movies.
Thank God you’re back!
This was always one of my favorite sfi-fi popcorn books. Something I read over and over when I don’t want anything heavy and just want something fun. Fun is what it is.
Episode #42 was NOT about Douglas Adams?? I do like the Harrison books, but look, there on the ground. Its the ball, right where you dropped it.
None of the Hitchhikers books are even on our list yet, and alas we have been too busy to plan ahead for geek in-jokes.
I however have. Episode 37 of my show will be rife with View Askew references.
Give you lip!?
Why on Earth, just because you hold back our prefered drug of choice? Silly. Repressed desires is what its all about, isnt it ; )
Alawys good to have you back guys! Good show and the list of future ones sounded quite interesting to.
I loved the series as a teenager, although I haven’t re-read them since then. I’ve even found an alarm tone for my phone that sort-of matches Jim diGriz’s watch, except mine are flies rather than mosquitoes.
Keep up the good work.
I read these (and other Harrison’s) in the 1960’s. I think part of the problem (criticism about character development, etc.) is that they were written for the magazine market first: write them fast, send them out, wait for the check, and get the next segment out. And in the meantime, steal elements from your other stories for this series and vice versa.
As for the comment about psychology, IIRC, the original appearance for much of Harrison’s stuff was Astounding/Analog. Think John W. Campbell, Jr. who would often find something interesting and spin it to an author. Sometimes several authors. Asimov and others benefited from this, L. Ron Hubbard made a whole religion from this…