To ensure that Jim doesn't try to escape, he is given a slow-acting poison - he's got 30 days to return with the artefact, and receive the antidote, or he'll die. The League want Jim to go to the planet Liokukae and bring back a missing artefact - the only known evidence of an alien life-form ever found. He is presented with a simple choice: a horrible death, or a job for the Galactic League. Slippery Jim is caught red-handed when he tries to rob the mint in Paskönjak. Here is a list of the books in the order they take place, rather than the order they were written (publication year in parentheses).The eighth Rat book, and the third in the 'prequel' sequence, following A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born and The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted. The books are written in semichronological order it breaks the continuity during part of the series to focus on the Rat's early career, then returns to 'modern-day'. Reluctantly recruited, this former (?) thief becomes an agent for peace and good.most of the time. But the best-laid plans of mice (and stainless steel rats) sometimes go astray and he attracts the attention of the Special Corps, the elite law-enforcement and spy agency led by the former greatest crook in the Galaxy, Harold P. He has a strict moral code against taking life, using non-lethal methods to perpetrate his crimes. He soon finds a mentor ( The Bishop) who imparts on him the knowledge and inspiration to begin his career as a criminal, a vocation James regards as noble in that it adds excitement to the monotonous existence of the every-day person and gives gainful employement to the last remaining law enforcement agencies. There are exceptions, and young James sees himself as one of them. Earth (or 'Dirt') is just a legend now, and crime has been genetically bred out of the human race.or so it seems.

The books follow the adventures and exploits of James Bolivar diGriz, 'Slippery Jim' to some, as he begins his life as a lonely misfit young man in a far-off future of sedate and mentally-domesticated human beings living in scattered colonies around the galaxy. There are twelve books in the series and two compilations to date. The 'Stainless Steel Rat' is a series of science fiction short stories and novels by author Harry Harrison.

The stainless steel rat sings the blues