The Stainless Steel Rat

James “Slippery Jim” diGriz is a criminal in a galaxy where crime has almost been eradicated. In his own words, he’s a rat in the wainscoting of society, and now that society is all ferroconcrete and stainless steel only a stainless steel rat can find the gaps. Despite a nose for the hustle and a healthily paranoid survival instinct, Jim’s luck has to run out at some point—and when it does, it isn’t a prison cell he’s offered, but a job with the Special Corps. The Stainless Steel Rat —a fix-up novel based on two earlier short stories for Astounding magazine—was the first in a long series of b