The Stainless Steel Rat
by Harry Harrison, Carlos Ezquerra, Kelvin Gosnell · first published 1961
46% recommend50% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
A fun, witty space caper about a criminal turned agent. It is a playful, fast read that plants early ideas about rules and society. Suits teen readers and fans of classic space adventure.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…writing chops required could be found in anybody with experience writing crime dramas or who-dun-its, with a bit of extra worldbuilding for organlegging and telekinesis. Maybe something based on The Stainless Steel Rat? Harrison is dead and buried (sadly!) so he wouldn't be too offended. Honestly, the problem with a lot of science-fiction books is that, once the core ideas are explored and the conflict resolved, it's…
on “Ask HN: Which SciFi novel(s) would you want made into a TV series?” ↗Foundation series (Asimov) Stainless Steel Rat series (Harrison - a bit juvenile, but fun) Dune (Herbert) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Heinlein) Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein) Starship Troopers (Heinlein) A Scanner Darkly (Dick) Do Androids…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite sci-fi books?” ↗…Friedman) - various Cory Doctorow short stories - Kamikaze L'Amour (Richard Kadrey) - Lightpaths (Howard V. Hendrix) - A Canticle For Leibowitz (Walter M. Miller, Jr.) - Moonwar, Venus (Ben Bova) - the Stainless Steel Rat series (Harry Harrison) - Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson) - Ringworld (Larry Niven) - Cthon (Piers Anthony) -- Trippiness level approaching Philip Jose Farmer ;-) - The Hitchhiker's Guide…
on “Ask YC: favorite books” ↗Man, I remember reading his books non-stop. The cover image for this news story is actually the first Harry Harrison book I read, "The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted." I hope somebody picks up the rights to turn these into movies.
on “R.I.P. Harry Harrison, creator of the Stainless Steel Rat” ↗Oh, very sad to hear this... The Stainless Steel Rat books were a great love of mine in school. Harrison is a great SF writer!
on “R.I.P. Harry Harrison, creator of the Stainless Steel Rat” ↗…upon the small artificial quotes before the chapters. Those books have so much going on for them, and thanks to the time spans involved you can actually pretty much jump in at any moment. Other one is Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison, those are very funny and don't attempt to take themselves too seriously, and have the same principle - you can jump into the story at any moment and just enjoy rapid pace of…
on “Ask HN: What is your comfort book?” ↗You would like the Stainless Steel Rat scifi series of books by Harry Harrison. :)
on “Fire your bad customers” ↗…(Forster) Heart of Darkness (Conrad) Starship Troopers (Heinlein) The Jungle Book (Kipling) Lost in the Barrens (Mowatt) The Republic (Plato) Rendezvous with Rama (Clarke) Ringworld (Niven) The Stainless Steel Rat (Harrison) The Hobbit (Tolkien) Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson) The Odyssey (Homer) The Man who Would be King (Kipling) The Pearl (Steinbeck) Thus Spake Zarathustra (Nietzsche)…
on “Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?” ↗Scifi here but the most embarrassing one I have to admit to loving is the stainless steel rat series by Harry Harrison.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗When I was I kid in the 1970s i loved books like "Shipwreck" "The Man in The Maze" and "The Stainless Steel Rat". What are your favorite old space sci fi books?
on “Ask HN: What's your favorite “old” space sci-fi?” ↗Difficult to pick just one, but I will go with The Stainless Steel Rat. It was a great introduction to the idea that society's rules don't always make sense. I haven't read it since I was in grade school, so I don't know if anyone older would enjoy it. But it definitely…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life?” ↗The Stainless Steel Rat series were a huge part of my teen years. I'll have to buy the entire set (I guess it's definitive now) and make sure my daughters read them. Rest in peace Mr. Harrison.
on “R.I.P. Harry Harrison, creator of the Stainless Steel Rat” ↗When I was around 15 I tried to master the controlled coin flip, having been exposed to the idea in one of the Stainless Steel Rat books by Harry Harrison. I reached around 80% success flipping for heads, so long as I used the catch-and-show method. It was easier with heavier and bigger coins, tougher with lighter and smaller ones.…
on “40k coin tosses yield ambiguous evidence for dynamical bias” ↗…liberated. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. In general, I think that's also a point we can draw from the cyberpunk genre, or maybe from Harry Harrison's old-school prefiguration of it in the Stainless Steel Rat series - the eponymous creature being one well suited to thrive "within the walls" of a society increasingly sclerotized with technocratic bureaucracy, but perhaps equally suited to a life of gnawing…
on “Don't use third party auth to sign in” ↗Some of my favorite sci-fi authors like Asimov (Foundation) and Harry Harrison (Stainless Steel Rat) might disagree with your last sentence. ;) Personally, I think both sentences at the end of your comment are correct: it is inevitable that bureaucracy grows, and it is driven by the bureaucrats. It's…
on “The Growth of Administrative Staff in Universities” ↗