The Stainless Steel Rat
by Harry Harrison (Pyramid, 1961)
Fifty-five years after its first publication, Harry Harrison’s intergalactic crime caper remains a fast, funny read. Nowadays it is much en vogue to cheer for the antihero, but for his time Harrison’s roguish ne’er-do-well ‘slippery’ Jim Di Griz was quite the trendsetter.