The latest Stainless Steel Rat book keeps up the spirit of the other nine. Chronologically, it follows The Stainless Stell Rat Goes to Hell and involves the entire DiGriz family, Slippery Jim and his lovely wife Angelina, and their two sons, James and Bolivar.

While no one will ever accuse this book (or any other in the series) of even pretending to approach high literature, when you're in the mood for a light, fast, action-packed sci-fi adventure where the criminal is the good guy, look no farther. Just like the other books, this one is full of fun and makes me laugh aloud.

Just as an FYI, here is the list of Stainless Steel Rat books in chronological order (not the order they were written in, but in order of the stories' chronology):

A Stainless Steel Rat is Born
The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted
The Stainless Steel Rat Sings the Blues
The Stainless Steel Rat (The original novel)
The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World
The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You!
The Stainless Steel Rat For President
The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell
The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus

This latest in the series earns a rating of 3 1/2. It's a fun, quick read, well worth the trouble.

While I enjoy the grandios sound of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I tend to prefer smaller choral ensembles with a tighter sound. Well this CD is an exception to this rule. I don't know if it's because it's a Telarc recording (and every Telarc CD I own is superb) and thus better captures the sound, if it's the Orchestra at Temple Square lending a magnificent instrumental performance, or if it's the glorious arrangements of Mack Wilberg, Barlow Bradford, and others, or a combination of all, but this CD is probably going to now be my favorite MoTab CD. The choir has a crisp, clean sound. Yes, they still are a choir of grand scale, compared to the smaller ensembles I usually prefer, but their big sound on this recording is exceptional.

Now I'm not knocking the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or other large choirs. I enjoy listening to them. Particularly live, in concert. If you ever have the chance to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in concert, do not pass it up! You will not be disappointed. My personal preference just usually tends toward smaller choral ensembles of twelve to perhaps thirty members.

I have a hard time narrowing down which tracks are my most favorite. I like every one of the Mack Wilberg arrangements. But I also like Barlow Bradford's arrangement of All Creatures of Our God and King. In fact, that track brought goose chills to my skin as I listened to it for the first time on the 4th of July, 2003, while riding in my brother's car up to Pine Valley, Utah. Even over the road noise, on a car audio system that is nothing to rave about, the music had power and depth.

It is interesting that this CD compilation has so many selections similar to the BYU Men's Chorus CD, Awake My Soul, particularly a prevalance of Mack Wilberg arrangements. This is not a bad thing. In fact, it's a wonderful thing. I own both CDs and I love 'em both.

I'm going to have to give this one a 4.5 out of 5 rating. It just sounds so good. Maybe it's my new Klipsch THX computer speakers I play it on while working at the keyboard... Nah, it's just an excellent recording of excellent performers giving a stunning performance. It's good.

This is another Bill Murray laugh fest! While not quite as funny as 'Groundhog Day', it nevertheless delivered a good chuckle rather often.

On DVD the soundtrack is incredible. I love the title background music a lot. I admit, this was only the sixth DVD to enter my meager collection, so maybe I'm still just not used to the clarity of DVD Dolby AC-3 5.1 sound. This was the first DVD (or movie for that matter) that I purchased over the Internet from Reel.com (of course!).

[Since I first wrote the above paragraph in 1998, my collection has grown and can no longer be called "meager" and I'm not nearly so enamoured with the clarity of Dolby Digital sound that I rave over it. In fact, I've since become rather jaded to it and wouldn't mind improved audio since the compression AC-3 uses is not perfect and is not quite CD quality. I still like the opening credits theme song, though.]

I give this move a 3 1/2. It is worth owning. I will certainly watch it again. And again.