Editing The Stainless Steel Rat

{{short description|Fictional antihero of comic science fiction novels by Harry Harrison}}
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{{more citations needed|date=June 2018}}
{{Lead too short|date=February 2022}}
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{{Infobox character
| name          = James Bolivar diGriz
| series        = 
| image         = Stainless Steel Rat.jpg
| caption       = First cover printing to ''The Stainless Steel Rat'' by Harry Harrison 
| first         = ''The Stainless Steel Rat'' (1957)
| last          = 
| creator       = [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]] 
| portrayer     = 
| nickname      = Slippery Jim
| alias         = The Stainless Steel Rat
| species       = Human
| gender        = Male
| occupation    = [[Confidence trick|Con man]]<br />[[Bank robbery|Bank robber]]<br />[[Crime|Criminal mastermind]]
| affiliation   = 
| title         = 
| family        = 
| spouse        = Angelina diGriz
| children      = 
| relatives     =
| nationality   =
}}

'''James Bolivar diGriz''', alias "'''Slippery Jim'''" and "'''The Stainless Steel Rat'''", is a fictional character and a series of [[comic science fiction]] [[novels]] written by [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carter |first1=Steven |title=Harry Harrison's The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat: A Study in Multiple Interfaces |journal=[[Extrapolation (journal)|Extrapolation]] |date=1980 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=139–145 |doi=10.3828/extr.1980.21.2.139 }}</ref>

==Description==
James Bolivar diGriz goes by many aliases, including "Slippery Jim" and "The Stainless Steel Rat". He is a futuristic [[confidence trick|con man]], [[thief]], and all-round rascal. He is charming and quick-witted. He is also a master of disguise and martial arts, an accomplished bank robber, a criminal mastermind, an expert on breaking and entering, and (perhaps most usefully) a skilled liar. Master of self-rationalization, the Rat frequently justifies his crimes by arguing that he is providing society with entertainment; and besides which, he only steals from institutions that he believes have [[insurance]] coverage and so will be able to recoup their losses. He displays a strong sense of morality, albeit in a much more restricted sense than is traditional. For example, diGriz will steal without compunction, but deplores killing.

The character was introduced in Harrison's short story "The Stainless Steel Rat", first published in 1957 in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding]]'' magazine. The story introduces the Rat, who has just carried out a successful larceny operation, and subsequently details a complex bank robbery the Rat pulls off with ease; however, he is outfoxed by the mysterious "Special Corps"&mdash;a crime-fighting organization staffed with former criminals&mdash;and recruited by them in order to fight crime. Harrison used the story, with minor modifications, as the introduction to the series's first full-length novel, also called ''The Stainless Steel Rat''. Like other characters created by Harrison, the Rat is a speaker of [[Esperanto]] and advocates [[atheism]].

==Books==
There are 12 works in the Stainless Steel Rat series.

{| class="wikitable"
!Title
!Release date
!In-series chronology<ref>{{cite web |title=Queries |url=http://www.michaelowencarroll.com/hh/queries.htm |website=HarryHarrison.com |first=Michael Owen |last=Carroll |access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref>

!Notes
|-
|''The Stainless Steel Rat''
|1961
|4
|
*Large sections of the story first appeared in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding]]'' as two [[Novella|novelette]]s: ''The Stainless Steel Rat'' (1957) and ''The Misplaced Battleship'' (1960). These were reworked into the opening chapters of the novel.<ref>{{cite web |title=Introduction |url=https://www.michaelowencarroll.com/hh/n02-.htm  |first=Paul |last=Tomlinson |date=August 1999 |website=HarryHarrison.com |accessdate=20 December 2018}}</ref>
*re-issued in Hardcover (1970): Published Walker and Co., Jacket Illustrator Jack Gaughan (two variations), LC #74-103005 [First Edition]
*re-issued in paperback (1986): {{ISBN|0-441-77924-7}}
|-
| colspan="4" | Jim believes he has pulled off a successful bank job, but is out-conned into working for the Special Corps, the elite law-enforcement and [[spy]] agency led by the former greatest crook in the Galaxy, Harold P. Inskipp, and composed mostly of ex-criminals like himself. He believes he has escaped from the Corps, and meets his love interest, Angelina—also a criminal genius, but lacking in Jim's relatively high moral codes and strictures against killing. She is building an illegal space battleship on an otherwise peaceful planet. Angelina was born unattractive and committed crimes to pay for her transformation into a beautiful woman; her psychological traumas are treated when Jim captures her, but she retains her allure and her criminal tendencies and joins in the Special Corps as Jim's partner.
|-
|''The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge''
|1970
|5
|
*re-issued in paperback (1986): {{ISBN|0-441-77912-3}}
|-
| colspan="4" | Jim and Angelina get married, but rapidly get involved in something that so far has proven impossible in the galaxy—the planet Cliaand has successfully been invading other worlds. Jim is sent to infiltrate and investigate, and discovers the mysterious Gray Men behind Cliaand's success, receives aid from a resistance movement composed mostly of feisty warrior women, and becomes father of twins (James and Bolivar).
|-
|''The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World''
|1972
|6
|
*First serialized in 1971 in [[If (magazine)|''If'']] magazine in three parts. Parts 2 and 3 were titled, respectively, ''The Cast Iron Rat'' and ''The Stainless Steel Rat's Return''. (The latter should not be confused with the ''Return of...'' board game or ''...Rat Returns'' 2010 novel).
*re-issued in paperback (1989): {{ISBN|0-441-77913-1}}
|-
| colspan="4" | A master criminal from the far future, "He", is attempting to erase the Special Corps from its timeline. Jim travels to 1975 Earth, and then to [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleonic]] [[England]], to stop He from destroying the timeline—but discovers that his own actions might have brought He into being! Finally He is trapped in a time loop, saving the Corps.
|-
|''The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You''
|1978
|7
|
*re-issued in paperback (1985): {{ISBN|0-553-27611-5}}
|-
| colspan="4" | After freeing his family from various forms of incarceration (Angelina from the clutches of the Interstellar Income Tax people and his now teenage twins from their prison-like boarding school), Jim saves the all-[[human]] galaxy from invading [[extraterrestrial life|aliens]]. Additionally, two more Corps are revealed to exist—the Morality Corps, whose main concern is that all human actions abide by their code of morality, and the Time Corps, who patrol [[spacetime|time]] itself to prevent any unauthorized tampering with the flow of time. Both new corps outrank the Special Corps; Inskipp is duty-bound to work with them, but with some covert help from Inskipp and overt help from Angelina, Jim finds a way to work around them.
|-
|''[[The Stainless Steel Rat for President]]''
|1982
|8
|
*re-issued in paperback (1987): {{ISBN|0-553-27612-3}}
|-
| colspan="4" | Jim and Angelina enjoy a belated [[honeymoon]] on a planet run by a dictator who rigs elections to keep himself in office, so the Rat (with his family's help) sets himself up as a rival candidate. Very much a satire on [[banana republic]] politics and a parody of adventures set in [[Latin America]].
|-
|''[[A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born]]''
|1985
|1
|
*paperback (1986): {{ISBN|0-553-27942-4}}
|-
| colspan="4" | A novel chronicling the beginning of the Stainless Steel Rat's career. Jim intentionally gets caught trying to rob a bank so that he will go to jail where he can learn from the masters of crime, only to realize (too late) that the true masters would never get caught.
|-
|''[[The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted]]''
|1987
|2
|
*original hardback: {{ISBN|0-553-05220-9}}
*re-issued in paperback (1991): {{ISBN|0-553-27307-8}}
|-
| colspan="4" | Takes place immediately following ''A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born''. Jim hunts the man who killed his mentor, but in the process must save a pacifist planet from an imminent attack by a military dictatorship led by the same man.
|-
|''The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat''
|1993
|12
|Published in ''Stainless Steel Visions'' by Harry Harrison (Tor 0-312-85245-2), a collection of 12 reprinted stories, one original.
|-
| colspan="4" | An original short story which finds Jim in Terminal Penitentiary, a prison where over-the-hill crooks are sent.
|-
|''The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues''
|1994
|3
|
*original hardback: {{ISBN|0-553-09612-5}}
*paperback (1995): {{ISBN|0-553-56939-2}}
|-
| colspan="4" | The Stainless Steel Rat (in the same earlier timeline as ''Is Born'' and ''Gets Drafted'') goes to a prison colony planet to retrieve an alien artifact, which he must find in thirty days, or the slow-acting poison he was administered will take its effect.
|-
|''The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell''
|1996
|9
|
*original hardback: {{ISBN|0-312-86063-3}}
*paperback (1998): {{ISBN|0-8125-5107-9}}
|-
| colspan="4" | In the later timeline (to which the stories have henceforth returned), Jim searches for his wife, who is abducted by a con man who preys on religious believers, swindling them out of their money and then enslaving them in his [[mining]] operation.
|-
|''The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus''
|1999
|10
|
*original hardback: {{ISBN|0-312-86934-7}}
*paperback (2000): {{ISBN|0-8125-7535-0}}
|-
| colspan="4" | Jim is hired by a businessman to investigate thefts; the clues lead him to suspect a roaming [[circus (performing art)|circus]], which he infiltrates.
|-
|''The Stainless Steel Rat Returns''
|2010
|11
|
*The first three chapters were published as ''The Stainless Steel Rat and the Pernicious Porcuswine'' in the anthology ''Gateways'' (2010), edited by [[Elizabeth Anne Hull]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://harryharrison.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/book-news-update/ |title=Book News Update |first=Paul |last=Tomlinson |date=October 25, 2010 |website=Harry Harrison News Blog |access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref>
*original hardback: {{ISBN|0-7653-2441-5}}
|-
| colspan="4" | The final Stainless Steel Rat book written by Harrison before his death. The Stainless Steel Rat is living high on the hog on the planet of Moolaplenty when a long-lost cousin and a ship full of swine arrive to drain his bank account and send him and Angelina on a journey to wander the stars.
|}

: ''The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat'' (1978) anthologized the first three books: {{ISBN|0-425-04378-9}}
: ''The Stainless Steel Rat Omnibus'' (2008) anthologized the first three books: {{ISBN|978-0-575-08171-0}} (Gollancz)

The series takes place in the far future (to the point where the name of the original homeworld of humankind has been lost.) According to professor Coypu, the [[Gregorian calendar]] is no longer in use (with no mention of what replaced it), but ''The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World'' provides a timeframe for the Rat's life and adventures when DiGriz is sent 32,598 years into the past and arrives in 1975 A.D., which would place the events of the series around the late 346th century.

==Spin-offs==

===Comics===
''The Stainless Steel Rat'', ''The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World'' and ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat for President]]'' were adapted into comic strip form in early issues of ''[[2000 AD (comics)|2000 AD]]'', written by [[Kelvin Gosnell]] and drawn by [[Carlos Ezquerra]]. Ezquerra drew Jim with an appearance modelled on the actor [[James Coburn]]. They appeared in the following issues of ''2000 AD'':

* ''The Stainless Steel Rat'', 12 episodes, 2000 AD progs 140–151 (Nov. 1979 to Feb. 1980).
* ''The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World'', 12 episodes, 2000 AD progs 166–177 (June to Sep. 1980).
* ''The Stainless Steel Rat for President'', 12 episodes, 2000 AD progs 393–404 (Nov. 1984 to Feb. 1985).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/2kad7.html |title=2000 AD: Sancho Panzer to Synnamon |website=2000ad.org |access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref>

The first appearance of The Stainless Steel Rat in prog 140 was supposed to be preceded with a brief panel of explanation of who Jim was. However, an editorial error meant that the panel actually appeared at the end of the first episode, not the beginning. This prompted a letter to be printed in prog 148 from Harry Harrison himself pointing out the error, for which he won £3.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacManus |first=Steve |title=The Mighty One: My Life in the Nerve Centre |year=2016 |publisher=Rebellion |isbn=978-1-78108-475-5 |page=124}}</ref>

These three stories were colorized and reprinted by [[Eagle Comics]] in 1985 and 1986 as a six-issue limited series. They were also collected in a [[trade paperback (comics)|trade paperback]] in July 2010 ({{ISBN|1906735514}}).

The ''2000 AD'' comic versions were collected into a paperback ({{ISBN|9781781088999}}) and hardcover edition in August 2021 which includes the colour centre spreads as they originally appeared.

===Books===

====Gamebook====
Harrison also produced a [[gamebook]] in the style of the [[Choose Your Own Adventure]] and [[Fighting Fantasy]] series, called ''[[You Can Be the Stainless Steel Rat]]'' ({{ISBN|0-441-94978-9}}), the reader being told that their decisions would "determine whether he or she can find Prof. Geisteskrank on the planet Skraldespand<ref group="note">"Skraldespand" being the Danish word for garbage can.</ref> and bring him back before he activates a lethal new weapon". The reader generally cannot fail in this mission, regardless of his or her choices, although it is possible to get caught in an inescapable [[wiktionary:loop|loop]] at one point.

====Cameos====
In the tribute anthology ''[[Foundation's Friends]]'', Harrison wrote a story, ''The Fourth Law of Robotics'', which featured the Stainless Steel Rat in the setting of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s [[Robot series (Asimov)|'' Robot'' series]].

===Board game===
''The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat'', a [[board game]] inspired by the character, was published by [[Simulations Publications|SPI]] in their magazine ''[[Ares (magazine)|Ares]]'' in the late 1970s. Designed by [[Greg Costikyan]], the game involved the Rat infiltrating a [[space station]] under hostile control.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3531/return-stainless-steel-rat |title=The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat |website=BoardGameGeek |access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref> The game was accompanied by a 6,000-word short story.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat (full text) |url=https://www.michaelowencarroll.com/hh/ssrreturn.htm |website=HarryHarrison.com |first=Michael Owen |last=Carroll |accessdate=20 December 2018}}</ref>

===Video games===
In 1984 a ''Stainless Steel Rat'' video game was developed by Mosaic Publishing for the [[ZX Spectrum]], co-written by Harrison with programmer Sean O'Connell.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/Sinclair_User_029/page/14/mode/2up?q=stainless |title=Game of the book |magazine=[[Sinclair User]] |number=29 |page=15 |date=August 1984 |publisher=ECC Publications |via=Internet Archive |access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref>

A [[text adventure game]] titled ''The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World'' was released in 1984 for the [[Commodore 64]].

==Characters==
===Angelina diGriz===
'''Angelina diGriz''' is a criminal mastermind much like the Rat, only less ethical and more willing to kill. As the Rat's first case for the Special Corps, he tracks Angelina down and ends up falling in love with her. After her capture, she undergoes [[psychosurgery|psycho surgery]] (not to be mistaken for "[[psychic surgery]]") to lessen her homicidal tendencies and she also joins the Corps; during that time she begins a relationship with the Rat that ends with them marrying in the last [[Pregnancy#Physiology|trimester]] of her pregnancy. She later assists on many of the Rat's adventures, often providing advice and solutions that Jim himself is unable to see. While she is no longer a heartless killer, her suppressed homicidal tendencies occasionally come out, especially when she sees another woman near her husband.

===James and Bolivar diGriz===
'''James''' and '''Bolivar diGriz''' are the twin sons of the Rat and Angelina. The Rat missed most of the first six years of their life because of his adventures in time (he briefly sees them as babies at the end of ''The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge''), but they share their father's attitudes and many of his skills. They end up marrying the same woman, who falls in love with both of them and gets herself duplicated into two identical women sharing one mind.

===Harold Peters Inskipp===
'''Harold Peters Inskipp''' is the director of the Special Corps and one of the most powerful men in the Galaxy. He recruits the Rat, but is frequently infuriated by his insubordinate attitude and tendency to go rogue – committing independent crimes for sheer enjoyment. The Special Corps is composed almost entirely of former criminals – Inskipp himself was a legendary fugitive known as "Inskipp the Uncatchable" before being recruited and eventually becoming the Corps's commander.

===Professor Coypu===
One of the few Special Corps members not taken from the criminal fraternity, '''Professor Coypu''' is a [[boffin]] who had developed a Time Helix device permitting [[time travel]] as well as a portal to [[parallel universe (fiction)|alternate realities]]. He also has a great deal of general scientific knowledge, and sent a copy of his mind with the Rat on his excursion to the 20th century to enable Jim to build a time helix and return to his native time. The only descriptions given of Coypu are his prominent [[Malocclusion|buck teeth]] - a trait he shares with his namesake, the [[coypu]] - and a large nose. {{Blockquote|text=Inskipp proved he was made of sterner stuff than any rebellious physicist. He stepped forward briskly until he and Coypu were in eyeball-to-eyeball contact--or rather nose-to-nose contact since they both had impressive honkers.|source=''The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You''}}

===The Bishop===
'''The Bishop''' was a master criminal on ''Bit O'Heaven'', the Stainless Steel Rat's home planet. He was a lot less physical in his capers than Jim but undertook robberies, always leaving as his [[Calling card (crime)|calling card]] a picture of the [[Bishop (chess)|bishop]] chess piece. He retired from robbery before Jim was born, focusing instead on computer crime, and Jim only learned of his existence from a fellow prisoner while briefly in jail. Jim then contacted The Bishop by using his calling card in a robbery. As a result, The Bishop was forced out of retirement when he underestimated the police's computer security systems after running a check on Jim himself. The Bishop eventually became Jim's mentor and taught him a great deal about their trade, as well as a code of ethics. Eventually Jim and The Bishop had to leave ''Bit O'Heaven'' and on their first off-planet adventure The Bishop was killed. As a parting gift he left Jim a note that he signed with his real name, although the name is not revealed to the reader.

===The Kekkonshiki===
'''The Kekkonshiki''', also known as "The Gray Men", are a human culture who initially prefer domination to coexistence. Their expertise lies in using technology to manipulate sentient minds, and they have manipulated both humans and aliens on a grand scale. Jim has experienced one of their techniques, in which the subject is convinced, via an implanted memory and faked surgical scars, that their hands were severed by an axe and then reattached while they were unconscious from the shock; he later becomes aware of their involvement in the alien invasion when he sees the same marks on the wrists of another prisoner. Jim has knowingly opposed them on two separate occasions (''The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge'' and ''The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You''), but in the latter novel he is informed that he has in fact thwarted their plans twice already, making this their third encounter.  (An alternate reading of the text is that finding and infiltrating their homeworld, in the second half of the novel, is counted separately from stopping the alien invasion in the first half.) They live on a harsh, icy world, which forced them to eliminate all emotion from their culture. This society is completely patriarchal, with women being treated as nothing more than property. During Jim's interactions with Hanasu - a disgraced Kekkonshiki council leader - he persuades them to reinterpret their teachings, and they embark on a more peaceful co-existence with the rest of humanity. ("Kekkonshiki" is the romanization of the Japanese word for "Marriage Ceremony" 結婚式.  Also, while on their homeworld, Jim follows a technician into a room marked "Benjo", which turns out to be a bathroom; "Benjo" is Japanese for water closet/toilet.)

==In popular culture==
The [[MIT class ring]], commonly referred to as "The Brass Rat", when cast in [[Celestrium]] (also known as jeweler's steel), is often referred to as "The Stainless Steel Rat".

The Chinese activist [[Liu Di]], writing under the screen name "Stainless Steel Rat" (不锈钢老鼠), became a high-profile symbol for democracy and free speech in China since her detention in November 2002. Her screen name is often translated as Stainless Steel Mouse.

In ''[[The Librarians (2014 TV Series)|The Librarians]]'' episode "And the Happily Ever Afters", Flynn Carsen refers to Ezekiel Jones, a thief, "master of technologies" as the "Stainless Steel Rat".

In [[Obsidian Entertainment|Obsidian]]'s [[The Outer Worlds]] a side quest is titled "The Stainless Steel Rat."

A character in [[Digital Extremes]]' [[Warframe]] refers to the exoskeleton-wearing player characters as "stainless steel rats."

==Reception==
''[[Galaxy Science Fiction|Galaxy]]'' reviewer Floyd C. Gale rated the first novel four stars out of five, saying "though pure entertainment, [it] underlines SF's role in providing speculative thought about potential problems."<ref name="gale196208">{{Cite magazine |last=Gale |first=Floyd C. |date=June 1962 |title=Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v20n06_1962-08#page/n193/mode/2up |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |page=194 |via=Internet Archive |access-date=29 September 2020}}</ref>

''The Stainless Steel Rat'' has been cited as [[Julian Assange]]'s favourite novel, and having influenced the real-life outlaw [[Utah & Ether|Jim Clay "Ether" Harper VI]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=MacDowall |first1=Lachlan |editor1-last=Neves |editor1-first=Pedro Soares |title=Cultural heritage and the ficto-critical method: The ballad of Utah and Ether |journal=Street Art and Urban Creativity |date=November 2017 |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=108 |doi=10.25765/sauc.v3i1.71 |url=https://journals.ap2.pt/index.php/sauc/article/download/71/58/ |access-date=1 July 2024 |publisher=VisualCOM Scientific Publications |issn=2183-3869 |eissn=2183-9956}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/collections/stainless-steel-rat|Display Name=the Stainless Steel Rat series as}}
* {{Gutenberg|no=70034|title=The Stainless Steel Rat}}
* {{librivox book | title=The Stainless Steel Rat  | author=Harry Harrison}}
*{{isfdb series|id=576|title=The Stainless Steel Rat}}
*[https://www.michaelowencarroll.com/hh/n02-.htm Stainless Steel Rat Series page] on Official website
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041204120859/http://www.scifan.com/series/series.asp?SR_seriesid=508 Series listing] at SciFan

{{Harry Harrison}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stainless Steel Rat, The}}
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1957]]
[[Category:Book series introduced in 1961]]
[[Category:Male characters in literature]]
[[Category:Science fiction book series]]
[[Category:Speculative crime and thriller fiction novels]]
[[Category:2000 AD comic strips]]
[[Category:Novels by Harry Harrison]]
[[Category:Fictional gentleman thieves]]
[[Category:Fictional martial artists]]
[[Category:Fictional bank robbers]]
[[Category:American picaresque novels]]
[[Category:Fictional con artists]]
[[Category:Comic science fiction novels]]