Customer Reviews

The Rats, the Bats & the Ugly (The RBV series)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The plot has already been described so I won't repeat that.

The book, however, is hilarious. This morning I'm eating breakfast at the local diner and reading the book in the electronic version. I couldn't stop laughing, figuratively ROFLMAO. I made quite a scene there.

I finished the book tonight and just couldn't stop laughing.

I was planning to wait for the paperback, but now, I'll probably run out and buy the hardcover. Good authors deserve rewards.

It is possible to read this book without reading the prior RATS BATS AND VATS, but there's not much point to that. Not only is the first book slightly better, but the second book contains a lot of plot spoilers for the first book. So, assuming you have read the first book, what's this one like?

Funny. Socially (and socialist) motivated. But slightly less successful than the first book.

The best scenes in the first book followed the action behind enemy lines. The story back in military HQ was amusing, but nowhere near as original or as involving (M*A*S*H or Catch22 did it better). The novel's highlight was the interaction between the four different types of intelligences -- bats, rats, man, and woman. With a little bit of Fluff on the side.

Unfortunately, most of the second book takes place with the bats, rats, Chip, and Ginny all separated from each other. And it takes place back in the home front. In other words, the best aspects of the first book are cast aside. In their place we get a bunch of farcical legal proceedings and a lot of conspiracy (both successful and not).

It's a funny book, and it consistently carries the plot and the characters in the same direction as they were going in the first book, but it's just not quite as magical. RATS BATS AND VATS was marvelous at playing off the interspecies misunderstandings against the romantic misunderstandings between Chip and Ginny. There is nothing that quite takes up the slack for the absence of it in THE RATS THE BATS AND THE UGLY. And the ending is more deus ex machina than the first book -- you don't quite feel like the victory has been earned.

There are some obvious open plot threads for a third book, but the authors will have to work a little harder to find a replacement for the romantic subplot that really made the first book work so well. And hopefully they will also continue to provide us with the wordplay and farce which they did so well in both RATS AND BATS novels.

This is the sequel to the hilarious `Rats, Bats and Vats' (as if the title isn't a dead giveaway). Those who've read the first book will be well acquainted with Dave Freer's sense of humour. Well, he's done it again, and though the action is slightly less hectic than previously, this book is, if anything, even more hilariously amusing.

Returning from the war against the insectoid Magh', Private Chip Connolly and his comrades the soft-cyber uplifted bats and rats should have been feted as heroes. After all, they'd rescued the First Shareholder's daughter, Virginia Shaw, from the spines of the treacherous Korozhet, destroyed a Magh' field generator, and become the first soldiers ever to survive and return from behind enemy lines. Unfortunately, on the planet of Harmony-And-Reason, things don't quite work that way, and Chip soon finds himself in the stockade, while Virginia Shaw is a prisoner in her own house, trapped by Korozhet villainy and the corruption of members of HAR's government.

Fortunately the Korozhet never counted on noble Fenian bats, voracious Shakespearian rats, and the arcane branch of human philosophy known by the sinister name of 'Platosforms'. Cue daring deeds, heroism and social upheaval - in the cause of not one but two rescues.

And no one ever tells a lady she's undressed while she still has her chainsaw...

Seriously, this book's an excellent read. I finished it inside four hours - no, it's not short, I just couldn't put it down - and I'm still laughing every time I think about it. From characterisation to plot to humour, it has it all. I preferred the first book, though - RBU is fast-paced and side-splittingly humorous, but RBV was faster and fresher, if not quite as hilarious. Not that RBU is stale, or anything like it. Far from it. The soft-cyber uplifted (sentient) galago who thinks he's Don Quixote is a prime example.

In marks out of ten, I'd give this book ten just for style and guts. (Well, nine point nine nine, anyway. RBV deserved the full ten more. But who's going to nitpick? 9.99 rounds up to 10)

Now, when's the next one coming out?

Hominidae Private Chip Connolly, his girlfriend Ginny and their ratty batty comrades expect a hero's welcome when they return to George Bernard Shaw City on planet Harmony and Reason having defeated the invincible gazillion alien menace the Magh. However, Chip comes from the lowest vat in the humanoid caste system, so members of the elite Inner High Five decide he must die. Chip is arrested and expected to be executed at first light.

The rats and bats that make up his victorious team become concerned because they need one member of the squad with movable thumbs to open the beer. They decide they must rescue their best can opener Chip, but by doing so they bring down the wrath of the secret police, aliens, and the High Five upon themselves and their humanoid companions; then again Chip is still alive at first light. Their only hope to survive resides with Fluff the Kong, a warrior like none before, whose chances for success hinges upon avoiding burial by cup.

This sequel is as wild, wacky, and witty as the previous tale (see Rats, Bats and Vats). The story line satirizes everything as Eric Flint and Dave Freer take no prisoners. Chip is the center that holds the plot together, but it is his allies that make for a fast-paced, out of the world, rowdy science fiction adventure.

Harriet Klausner

RBU is just as much fun to read as its predecessor, RBV. Besides the classical literary allusions (which take me back to 11th grade English class, when I had to memorize certain lines from the Scottish Play), I'm particularly fond of the biological terminology. When I see the word "instar", I immediately understand that this is an invertebrate with multiple stages of development. Making an alien species out of something familiar yet strange adds layers upon layers of meaning.

The plot takes off and swoops, the dialogue crackles, and the characters jump off the page. All in all, this is a book I plan to keep by my bedside for re-reading over the years to come, and Dave Freer is an author on my "Buy in Hardcover" list (and so is Eric Flint).

RATS, BATS & VATS ended with the young vat hero rescuing an heiress and precipitating the only significant victory against the aliens who are invading the planet. Naturally, the high brass does not like this at all as it reflects poorly on them. They are also pressured by the helpful allied species "advising" the humans. Something has to be done and that something is that all of the heroes must be punished severely.

Naturally, the heroes do not care for this at all. The old gang of larcenous rats, revolutionary bats, drama queen primates, young hero and rich heiress come together again to not only save themselves but save their planet. They do so with a laugh on every page.

I recommend buying this book now, it is fun, a good engaging read, fun and, oh yes, fun.

Summer read. I bought the paperback that recently came out (summer '06) for a summer read. To me, a summer book is one you just read, relax, and enjoy. No deep deep thoughts, no crazy violence, nor dark magic... just something to zone out with and enjoy.

It has a plot. I liked this book so much because it is light-hearted, but not light in plot. It has a well captured plot and the story follows it. The plot pulled me in for the ride such that I never found myself wanting to go into critic mode.

It is fun. It is an enjoyable comedy that has characters with enough depth to them to carry off the storyline. I looked forward to various characters coming back into the story just to see how they would react to the issues at hand. A fun adventure.

And lastly... I give this book great credit for subtly reminding the reader of what happened in the 1st book (as this is a sequel). While I have a horrid memory and forget books easily, I also hate books that spend pages upon pages trying to redo previous books in a series. This book does a wonderful job of alluding to past events in such a manner that does not draw you away from the story at hand. Great job!

A small group of rats, bats, a single vat-born soldier, and a wealthy civilian woman have defeated an invading Magh army, but the Magh are far from mankind's only enemy. Mankind's putative ally, the Korozhet, now control most of the army's high-ranking officers as well as the rats and bats. The first thing they command is that those responsible for the Magh defeat by arrested and eliminated. For wealthy heiress, Virginia (Ginny) Shaw, the result may be even worse. She can't be disposed of easily--she does control more than a third of the shares of the colony--but she is subject to Korozhet mind control. It doesn't take humankind's traitors long to separate her from her lover, vat-born Chip Connolly, and drug her to the point where she can barely recognize herself. Once she has signed away her controls, she will be completely disposable.

A combination of smart lawyers, scientists, and logic-splitting rats and bats who can somehow believe that the Korozhet are both wonderfully kind and simultaneously horrible murderers, are all that stands between the colony and its destruction. Depending on lawyers is notoriously dangerous, especially since some of the best lawyers are on the other side, but Chip, the other soldiers who disobeyed headquarters commands, and the other humans involved have little choice.

Authors Eric Flint and Dave Freer combine in an amusing takeoff on old-fashioned space opera. The rats and bats are charming with their Shakespearian and Irish accents, but have nasty enough habits to make them interesting (if they aren't fed every four hours, they just may make you their meal). As a welcome contrast to much military SF, the story doesn't preach an ultra-conservative anti-environmentalist message.

THE RATS, THE BATS, & THE UGLY is an enjoyable, if lightweight adventure story. Freer and Flint are capable writers and the story sucks you in and keeps you reading.

Have you ever started a series and found it gets worse as each book is added? Well, this isn't one of those series.

It took me a couple of goes to get into "Rats, Bats and Vats". Its just so DIFFERENT from any ordinary sci fi. Persdonally, I think RBV needs a prologue - so here it is: humanity spread to a new planet. There are three human groups: Crew, Shareholders (who travelled frozen) and think they own the planet of "Harmony and Reason", and the Vats, who are cloned from donated cells.

Bad guys turn up. Good guys turn up. So many people traveling space. So, the Earth descended create non-human intelligent soldiers to fight the war - the Rats and Bats.

RBV follows a VAT and his Rat and Bat fellow soldiers through amazing and VERY funny schenanigans.

====

Rats, Bats and Ugly continues the RBV story to a very satisfying conclusion. And funny as the book is, its a realistic conclusion. Not everything is over, but now over is achievable.

If you liked Isaac Asimov's penchance for silly puns, for throwing bits of Gilbert and Sullivan, you'll love RBU.

I did.

regards

Ian Clark
Gladstone QLD
Australia

clarky
IanC/OZ

Simply put: this is among the funniest books I have ever read.

This is not faint praise; the book "Pyramid Scheme" (also written by Eric Flint and Dave Freer) was my "gold standard" before this, yet "The Rats, the Bats, and the Ugly" was even funnier.

The plot has been summarized quite a bit already; let's just say that Ginny, who was rescued at the end of "Rats, Bats and Vats," is still in trouble and Chip Connolly (a low-ranking enlisted soldier) still ends up going to her rescue.

However, this time, Ginny shows herself to be extremely resourceful, and her self-esteem problems from the first book are long gone. She knows Chip, and his love, and his friends (the rats and bats, who have cyber chips in their heads; they are people, not animals) are all extremely important -- and all of these extremely important people are necessary to their planet's survival.

The war footage makes sense, but that's not what this book is about, for the most part.

No. Instead, it's about the futility of a high command who has never really had to "command" anything, being stuck with a bad war that it doesn't know how to fight; it's about a media which has been controlled by the high command (and the aristocracy; in this book, it's more or less the same thing) finally figuring out they've been hoodwinked. And the conspiracies are just getting started . . . along with the fun.

As I said before -- this is one of the funniest books I've ever read, and I appreciated reading it very much. It is on my shelf for ease of re-reading, and I'm very glad I was able to purchase this book.

Five stars, highly recommended.

Barb Caffrey

P.S. "The Rats, the Bats, and the Ugly" is a direct sequel to the also-hilarious "Rats, Bats and Vats" -- if you haven't read the first book, you will understand most of what's going on, but you'll miss several in-jokes.

Easy way around this is to get both of 'em at once; truly, hours of enjoyment await!