Harry Harrison's "The Stainless Steel Rat" (short story, robbery, free): Crooks wanted!

Only thing that puzzles me is: was this the story that spawned the huge "Stainless Steel Rat" series? This story is decent timepass, but it's not outstanding by any standards.

Story is of a master thief, long on the run from law, the one who always give the cops a slip. Well, there is a last time, & he will be finally caught. But he'd never dreamt of the punishment he'll get...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, August 1957.
Note: There also appears to be a novel of this title. I don't know if that's an expanded version.
Download full text from author's website.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Harry Harrison.

Online: "John W. Campbell, Collected Editorials From Analog" (ed Harry Harrison)

@Internet Archive. [via SF Signal]

Related: Works of John Campbell, Harry Harrison.

Harry Harrison's "The Streets of Ashkalon" aka "An Alien Agony" aka "The Streets of Askelon" (short story, religion, free): Religion creates sinners!

Among the better stories I've seen so far from Harrison.

Readers familiar with Christianity will likely see nuances I could not see.

Story summary.

John Garth is a human trader who has been for the past year living among intelligent alien aborigines, amphibians called Weskers - the only human on this "Wesker's World". Then, one fine day, a Christian missionary arrives - one Father Mark of the Missionary Society of Brothers.

So we see the willing students that these aliens are torn between rational John & fanatic Mark. Since the aliens are intelligent & have learnt scientific method from John, they decide to give Mark's teachings an empirical test: he gets the Jesus Christ treatment on a cross! And now aliens are awaiting his resurrection...

Quotes.

1. "In Trader Garth's books there is the universe which we have not seen, & it goes on without God, for he is mentioned nowhere... In Father Mark's books He is everywhere & nothing can go without Him. One of these must be right & the other must be wrong."
2. "Nothing created God, since He is the Creator. He always was ..."
   
   "If He always was in existence - why cannot the universe have always been in existence? Without having had a Creator?"
3. "Have faith, that is all you need. Just believe."
   
   "How can we believe without proof?"

Notes.

1. Wikipedia has this to say on the "The Streets of Ashkalon" title of this story: 'Its name is a reference to a passage from the Biblical 2 Samuel 1:20, which says "...proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon..." In the original context it was a part of a story in which Hebrews were instructed to try to keep the defeat of a couple of their war heroes from their enemies' knowledge'.
   

See also.

1. Couple of illustrations for this story.

Collected in.

1. Isaac Asimov & Martin H Greenberg (Eds)' "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 24 (1962)".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: New Worlds Science Fiction, September 1962.
Rating: A.
Download full text from Shortcovers.
Credits: Shortcovers download link is via Free SF Reader; I haven't read this online version, however. Some of the bibliographic information here comes from ISFDB.
Related: Stories of Harry Harrison.

"The Best Harry Harrison Story Ever?"

Someone did number crunching to get the frequency distribution of Harry Harrison's short stories in his own collections & in anthologies edited by others. Resulting list should be a decent guide to the best short fiction of Harry Harrison.

I began today's blogging session with the intention to have a post on his "The Streets of Ashkelon" - a story I'd read in one of the "Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories" anthologies, & which appears in both lists above. But it's late today - so may be will have it tomorrow.

Related: "best of" lists.

Harry Harrison's "The Velvet Glove" (novelette, free)

An out of job robot, in society where robots can live as legally independent individuals but as second class citizens with humans hating them, earns admiration & work - because of bravery forced by circumstances.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe, November 1956.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg or Manybooks. Or download MP3 from The Time Traveler Show. [PG link via QuasarDragon; MP3 link via SFFAudio which also has more details of podcast]
Related: Stories of Harry Harrison.

Harry Harrison's "Arm of the Law" (short story, humor, free): A robot cop's progress through the police ranks

City of Nineport on Mars was a typical bad town, with the rule of goons rather than law. Cops at local police station were also in the pay of the China Joe, the big local goon.

Things begin to change, however, when the robocop Ned arrives. Generally for the good ... but everyone isn't happy.

Fact sheet.

First published: Fantastic Universe August 1958.
Rating: A.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, or Feedbooks. [via QuasarDragon]
Related: Stories of Harry Harrison.

Harry Harrison's "Deathworld" (novel, survival, free): Hate begets hate, love begets love

I have conflicting feelings about it:

1. Action packed enough that I finished it within 2 days - among the fastest for me for English novels.
2. Large parts of it feel too juvenile - better suited to someone in early teens.
3. Parts of it raise important philosophical issues that makes those parts very much normal adult reading.

Story summary.

A human colony world, Pyrrus, is suffering a major 3 way conflict:

1. An extreme form of urban/rural divide. While both need each other, neither can stand the sight of the other.
2. A local semi-sentient life vs urban human settlers divide that makes the city extremely hostile to human settlers.

An outsider's view, in the form of off-world visitor Jason dinAlt, will finally unveil the nature of conflicts, & pave the way for resolution.

Fact sheet.

First published: As a 3 part serial in Astounding, January/February/March 1960.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, or Feedbooks.
Download audio read by Gregg Margarite for LibriVox from LibriVox or Internet Archive.
Nominated for Hugo Award 1961 in novel category.
Listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
There have been several sequels to it - including two novels & some stories not available in English, some of them in collaboration with other authors. I haven't read any of the sequels.
Related: Stories of Harry Harrison.

Some online stories of Harry Harrison

One of my bots today picked up this Manybooks page of Harry Harrison stories (currently with 5 entries): "The K-Factor" (ss, download), "The Misplaced Battleship" (ss, download), "Planet of the Damned" (a Hugo nominee, download), "The Repairman" (ss, download), & "Toy Shop" (ss, download).

Looks like an old page - probably either changed today, or one of the sites my bot monitors linked it today. Not sure.

Harry Harrison's "The Misplaced Battleship" (novelette, crime, free)

This is a juvenile action story. Fast paced, not a moment of boredom.

Story summary.

Someone with evil designs has subverted the bureaucratic system on a world called "Cittanuvo. Second planet of a B star in Corona Borealis". And have managed to get a massive & super-capable "late Empire battleship of the Warlord class" built in secret. The ship is of a 1000 year old design - back from warring times, & is way more capable than even the military stuff of these peaceful times.

Then there is a smart aleck, a recently-hired military cop from "Special Corps", & the narrator, Jim diGriz, who can think like criminals & was the first to detect something fishy. But conspirators are a step ahead. The ship lifted off the construction docks before he reached there with cops. He will ultimately trap the conspirators.

Story also features a super-competent robot. With many of its capabilities described in some detail. And touches upon the theme of space piracy. And features professional telepaths ("psimen") used for cross-galactic instant communications in facilities akin to telegraph offices of yore!!

Quotes.

1. '"Secrecy can be an obviousity." What the magicians call misdirection. Let people very obviously see what you want them to see, then they'll never notice what is hidden.'
2. "Like many other planets, this one was uniform-conscious. Delivery boys, street cleaners, clerks--all had to have characteristic uniforms. Much prestige attached to them".
3. "If there are two choices to take, take the simpler."
4. "False modesty is the refuge of the incompetent."

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding Science Fiction, April 1960.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg or Manybooks.
Rating: A
Listed among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.