Re: Highlights and Lowlights - August 2024

On 9/8/2024 10:12 PM, Tony Nance wrote:

On 9/7/24 12:10 AM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <vbgh3k$15dv9$1@dont-email.me>, Titus G  <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:

On 7/09/24 09:29, Tony Nance wrote:

On 9/5/24 11:25 PM, Titus G wrote:

On 5/09/24 10:35, Tony Nance wrote:

Now Reading:
Long work - The Stainless Steel Rat - Harrison

>
January 2014.
The Stainless Steel Rat    Harry Harrison        e 3
Futuristic super criminal. A bit over the top. Enjoyable pot boiler.
March 2014
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge Harry Harrison Not Finished.
A bit over the top. Too similar to its predecessor.
>
When I first read these last century from the library, I just loved
them. Are they a first reading for you?
>
>

>
They are, and I am greatly enjoying this one.
>
When I started reading this newsgroup in the mid-1990s, it didn't take
long for me to realize I had a pretty non-standard introduction to SF -
at least non-standard compared to almost everyone on the group at the
time. As two examples (of many), I've never read a Heinlein juvie, nor a
Norton, and when I tried to catch up in my 30s, they simply did not work
for me. At all.
>
But over the many years, I have circled back to read a lot of the works
I missed, and the Harrison just popped up the other night.
>
Fun stuff so far,
Tony

>
There are many Harry Harrison books available for free at Project
Gutenberg. I can't remember the details now but my favourites included
The Ethical Engineer and Toyshop. The engineer was also a crook but may
have been more serious than the rat.
Just looked up Gutenberg. 14 books. Most popular is The stainless steel
rat.

>
He also wrote the ultimate space-opera sendup, _Star Smashers Of
The Galaxy Rangers_.  I'm kind of scared to see if 63 year old me
still thinks it's as funny as 13 year old me did.  Probably no --
it never is.

 I do have that one, and I'm curious how it will go for me (never read it before).

As I recall, it was written ironically, with tongue firmly in cheek, to
take all the space opera tropes, put them into the story, and turn them
up to 11.
pt