[filmed as Soylent Green]
I had a bad cold; I needed something undemanding and amusing to read; the latest Stainless Steel Rat story fit the bill perfectly.
Slippery Jim DiGriz, con artist, thief, and Galactic Special Agent, is frantic: his wife Angelina has disappeared, amidst a suitable amount of mayhem and destruction, whilst investigating a religious cult that promises a view of Heaven. Jim and the twins, James and Bolivar, along with Agent Sybil, rush to investigate, tangle with a physicist who may or may not have lost his right hand, and end up in a place at the opposite extreme of the theological spectrum. Much chasing about, lots of special temporal gadgets, more people with silly names and sillier mannerisms, and the usual wise-cracking all follow, in the time-honoured SSR style, with just enough added grimness in grey Purgatory to save the story from being total fluff.