Before You Begin

Before you begin.

A peaceful planet, with no enemies and no wars, is quietly building itself a battleship — a half-mile engine of destruction disguised on paper as an ordinary cargo liner. That is the puzzle “Slippery Jim” diGriz brings to his exasperated chief in the dead of night, and it is enough to launch the Stainless Steel Rat on his first real assignment for the Special Corps: a reformed thief set, on the old principle, to catch a thief.

Harry Harrison’s 1960 caper is science-fiction adventure at its most roguish and quick-witted — a story told entirely by a charming rascal who cons his way past customs as a fur-caped Grand Duke, bullies a president as a fake admiral, and outfits himself with a stubby little robot that is one part valet, one part lie detector, and one part arsenal. But the disguised warship is only the first trick, and diGriz soon finds he is chasing a criminal every bit as brilliant and crooked as he once was — a stolen battleship loose among the stars, and a mind clever enough to have set the whole scheme in motion.

It is a story to be enjoyed first for the sheer fun of the con — the bluffs, the misdirection, the trap baited with a yacht plated in solid gold — and remembered after for the sting in its tail, and the rival it leaves the Rat still hunting.

This illustrated edition opens with a gallery of the cast, the map of diGriz’s chase across the stars, and its great scenes; and as you read, the story unfolds in six visual movements — recap plates you unlock along the way, each gathering together the tale so far, with never a glimpse of what lies ahead. Now pick the lock, and step inside.