The Stainless Steel Rat

Harry Harrison's comic science fiction follows 'Slippery Jim' diGriz, a charming interstellar con man and thief who is recruited by the Special Corps to catch criminals even more dangerous than he is. The first novel appeared in 1961 and the last in 2010, two years before Harrison's death. Three later books - A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born, The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted and The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues - go back to Jim's youth, so the series can be read in publication order or in the order of his life.