Stainless Steel Rat (Game Books) Books in Order

This page covers the interactive side branch of the Stainless Steel Rat world, which means it is a little different from the regular novels. Instead of simply following Slippery Jim diGriz through one fixed caper, the game book format lets the reader make choices and move through the story by numbered sections.

The key title here is You Can Be the Stainless Steel Rat. Despite the name, you are not really replacing Jim himself. You play a new recruit working under the Special Corps umbrella, which turns the book into a kind of mission simulator set inside Harrison's comic science fiction universe. The assignment sends you after Professor Geisteskrank on the planet Skraldespand before a dangerous weapon can be used.

What makes the book fun is not deep rules or punishing difficulty. It is the tone. Harrison brings the same dry humor, grotesque side characters, and impossible situations that make the main Rat novels work. The branching choices are there to keep the pace playful and give the reader a sense of participation, not to turn the story into a grim puzzle.

So this is best seen as a tie-in curiosity and a lively extra for Rat fans. It will probably not replace the main novels for most readers, but it does show how flexible the Stainless Steel Rat setting can be. If you like old interactive paperbacks and want a lighter, more playful way into Harrison's universe, this little branch is worth a look.