Rats, Bats & Vats (Mass Market Paperback)
by Eric Flint (Author), Dave Freer (Author) "The Expediter listened in silence..." (more)Key Phrases: Van Klomp, Miss Virginia, Corporal Simms (more...)
See last post - I REALLY like Baen books - as much as I rely on libraries, I go out of my way to buy them, just to support the terrific stuff they put out - so... the other day I bought "The Rats, the Bats and the Ugly," forgetting it was a SEQUEL... to a book I hadn't read. So I quickly requested it... and the library delivered - the sequel (I assume a cataloging error). Anyway, I tracked down a copy and read it at a breakneck pace - and wasn't disappointed.
From Publishers Weekly
It's pretty silly stuff - but lots of fun. And NOW I can read the sequel... except the library just delivered the latest Weber book "By Schism Rent Asunder" which retells the Reformation in a far future setting.... so that has to take precedence...
Freer (The Forlorn) and Flint (Mother of Demons) join forces in this lighthearted SF offering set on the colony world of Harmony and Reason, which is being invaded by the dreaded, insectoid alien Magh'. Chip, a former sous-chef and "vat"Aa human bred for hard laborAfinds himself trapped behind enemy lines with the rats and bats of the title, genetically engineered animals designed for close-quarters combat, stealth and plenty of off-color wisecrackery. But when Virginia Shaw, a daughter of the yuppie Shareholder class, gets caught behind enemy lines with her alien tutor, and Chip and Co. rescue her, the sexual sparks start to fly. Chip and Ginny recognize that their class hatred is an obstacle to defeating the Magh'; when the two learn to cooperate, everyone soon lends a hand or paw or wing, refurbishing a rusty old farm tractor, on which animal and human careen through Magh' defenses. Although the military SF plot is peppered with its share of Dirty Dozen-esque cliffhangers, the sharpest moments in this giddy entertainment are those where the rodents blithely skewer human mores.