Description:

Jim and Angelina are on holiday on the paradise planet Lussuoso, where the very, very rich can avail themselves of rejuvenating treatments and become young again. Just when boredom seems about to set in, Jim learns that Angelina has disappeared, seemingly the victim of a religious scam.
Evil genius Justin Slakey has a machine that allows him to travel between universes. He uses it to prey on religious believers, tricking them out of their money and then using them as slaves in his coal mines. Aided by his twin sons, James and Bolivar, Slippery Jim descends to a planet that seems to be a real-life version of Hell - and when you can't take metal weapons between the universes, what do you arm yourselves with? Salami, of course.

Brand new adventure of slippery Jim DiGriz, the SF superhero the TLS compared to James Bond and Flash Gordon and the Daily Telegraph, called the Monty Python of the spaceways. While our anti-hero is taking it easy on the resort planet Lussouso, his wife Angelina and her cavorting pals are at the temple ofEternal Truth, being bamboozled into believing that at last they can buy their way into heaven. When Angelina asks 1 pertinent question too many, Slippery Jim suddenly finds himself without a wife. Within the Temple of Eternal Truth lie the doors to Heaven and Hell - to find Angelina, Jim and his twin sons will have to break down those doors and explore the worlds behind them. In outer space, the devil makes work for idle hands.

From Publishers Weekly

In a distant future, with human civilization spread across the stars, Slippery Jim DiGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat, has flourished, first as a classically noble outlaw, then on the side of the law as a member of the elite Special Corps. When his beloved wife, Angelina, vanishes in the Temple of Eternal Truth, both love and duty drive the Rat to find out what happened. Rescuing his wife is easy enough; solving the rest of the mystery requires the help of Angelina, both their sons, several other Special Corps operatives and a company of Space Marines (going into at least one battle armed with nothing but 20-pound salamis). The villain is one Justice Slakey, a physicist who has solved the secret of traveling among multiple universes and replicating himself, and who is using these new powers to create a transuranic element that stops time and thereby confers immortality. If the Rat's long-running adventures (begun in 1961, with The Stainless Steel Rat) had ever been intended to be more than lightweight entertainment, the adolescent sexism and casual acceptance of the romantic myth of the noble outlaw might have long since become offensive. But as it stands, the novel offers fast action, abundant (if sometimes forced) humor, swarms of weird concepts and, for fans of the Rat, a welcome return (after The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted, 1987) of what is probably Harrison's (King and Emperor, Forecasts, June 24) most popular series.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In the latest exploit of Slippery Jim DiGriz, well-known adventurer, bon vivant, criminal mastermind, and sometime upholder of the right (or at least his right), the Stainless Steel Rat (i.e., DiGriz) faces a foe deadlier and even more outrethan any he has faced before: the Powers of Darkness. When his beloved wife, Angelina, is foully kidnapped from a vacation planet, he, his son, and the usual collection of colorful cohorts must track her down, even unto Hell itself. Along the way, he gleefully battles assorted grim villains, vile powers, and, of course, the stodgy interference of more conventional forces of law and order. Fans of the Stainless Steel Rat will welcome this new chapter, the most outrageous yet, in Harrison's engaging and delightful saga. He has made this corner of the galaxy his own. Dennis Winters

Brand new adventure of slippery Jim DiGriz, the SF superhero the TLS compared to James Bond and Flash Gordon and the Daily Telegraph, called the Monty Python of the spaceways. While our anti-hero is taking it easy on the resort planet Lussouso, his wife Angelina and her cavorting pals are at the temple ofEternal Truth, being bamboozled into believing that at last they can buy their way into heaven. When Angelina asks 1 pertinent question too many, Slippery Jim suddenly finds himself without a wife. Within the Temple of Eternal Truth lie the doors to Heaven and Hell - to find Angelina, Jim and his twin sons will have to break down those doors and explore the worlds behind them. In outer space, the devil makes work for idle hands.

From Publishers Weekly

In a distant future, with human civilization spread across the stars, Slippery Jim DiGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat, has flourished, first as a classically noble outlaw, then on the side of the law as a member of the elite Special Corps. When his beloved wife, Angelina, vanishes in the Temple of Eternal Truth, both love and duty drive the Rat to find out what happened. Rescuing his wife is easy enough; solving the rest of the mystery requires the help of Angelina, both their sons, several other Special Corps operatives and a company of Space Marines (going into at least one battle armed with nothing but 20-pound salamis). The villain is one Justice Slakey, a physicist who has solved the secret of traveling among multiple universes and replicating himself, and who is using these new powers to create a transuranic element that stops time and thereby confers immortality. If the Rat's long-running adventures (begun in 1961, with The Stainless Steel Rat) had ever been intended to be more than lightweight entertainment, the adolescent sexism and casual acceptance of the romantic myth of the noble outlaw might have long since become offensive. But as it stands, the novel offers fast action, abundant (if sometimes forced) humor, swarms of weird concepts and, for fans of the Rat, a welcome return (after The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted, 1987) of what is probably Harrison's (King and Emperor, Forecasts, June 24) most popular series.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In the latest exploit of Slippery Jim DiGriz, well-known adventurer, bon vivant, criminal mastermind, and sometime upholder of the right (or at least his right), the Stainless Steel Rat (i.e., DiGriz) faces a foe deadlier and even more outrethan any he has faced before: the Powers of Darkness. When his beloved wife, Angelina, is foully kidnapped from a vacation planet, he, his son, and the usual collection of colorful cohorts must track her down, even unto Hell itself. Along the way, he gleefully battles assorted grim villains, vile powers, and, of course, the stodgy interference of more conventional forces of law and order. Fans of the Stainless Steel Rat will welcome this new chapter, the most outrageous yet, in Harrison's engaging and delightful saga. He has made this corner of the galaxy his own. Dennis Winters