After a ten-year absence, the return of one of the most enduring series characters in modern SF James Bolivar "Slippery Jim" DiGriz, Special Corps agent, master con man, interstellar criminal (retired), is living high on the hog on the planet of Moolaplenty when a long-lost cousin and a shipful of swine arrive to drain his bank account and send him and his lovely wife, Angelina, wandering the stars on the wildest journey since Gulliver's Travels . In this darkly satiric work, Harry Harrison bring his most famous character out of retirement for a grand tour of the galaxy. The Stainless Steel Rat rides again: a cocktail in his hand, a smile on his lips, and larceny in his heart, in search of adventure, gravitons, and a way to get rid of the pigs.

"For the first fifty pages you'll swear that Harrison has been rummaging in an old trunk. Here's that tired old theme...the lost community of Aztecs who have been cut off in a hidden valley by a landslide centuries ago. Presently they will discover the outside world--our world. The stalwart Aztec maverick may even fall in love with a beautiful white explorer... Of course, any reader of Analog Magazine should know harry Harrison better than that. There are rumblings, even in the first chapters. The Aztecs are blond--that old Fair God bit again. Someone is feeding the vultures meat from an unspecified source. And surely we're not supposed to accept a snake-headed goddess? Trust Uncle Harry. On page 55, young Chimal follows the goddess through a secret door in the cliffs, with his whole tribe hunting him, & the story turns inside out."--P. Schuyler Miller