You have just failed your first test, oh potential Full Field Agent who is now acting like a dumb recruit.

This book is hilarious. That’s the main thing you need to know.

It’s based on Harrison’s long-running sci-fi novel character, master thief and part-time hero James DiGriz, AKA Slippery Jim, AKA the Stainless Steel Rat. Harrison wrote an insane number of novels about this character, and I have to wonder if they’re just as outlandish as this spinoff gamebook is. If so, I’ll have to give them a go.

YCBTSSR (how’s that for an acronym?) puts you in the role of a new recruit for the Special Corps, who is sent on a mission to a godawful prison planet to capture a mad scientist before he blows up the galaxy. The Stainless Steel Rat accompanies you in spirit via a special gizmo that allows him to see what you see and hear what you hear, and advise you on your mission remotely. So the title is at once accurate and misleading.

The unusual thing about this gamebook (besides the plot, and the narrative style, and its status as a spinoff book, and virtually everything else about it) is that it only has one ending. You can’t die or lose. But you can sure go in circles if you keep making the wrong choices. There are a lot of cases where the story loops and detours in clever and funny ways, and it never loses its sense of humor. The whole thing is narrated by the SSR himself, and you really love to hate him as his tactical advice during your super spy mission feels more like your mother nagging and micromanaging you throughout your first day of school.

There are a couple things I don’t much care for, though. For one, many choices lead to the same outcome, and in those cases you don’t have a choice at all. Between Choice A and B, Choice A will lead to Outcome C, and Choice B will lead to “well that didn’t work, do Choice A anyway,” and also lead to Outcome C. If it’s done once or twice for laughs, that’s all well and good, but the book pulls this frequently.

Another strike against the book is how sometimes your choices will lead to different paragraphs that are identical apart from one or two words. As long as you’re putting this much work into a maze-like gamebook, why not make every paragraph unique? Maybe Mr Harrison needed Ol’ Slippery Jim breathing down his neck during the editing process.

The art is pretty cool and has a weird “archaic computer generation but also hyperrealism” look to it that’s difficult to describe. A few pics, like this dragon, are supremely scary and awesome.

It’s not perfect, but YCBTSSR is an absolutely worthy addition to your gamebook library (assuming you have one, you obsessive weirdo). It may not have as much replay value as other gamebooks, but the sense of humor really sells it and makes you want to finish it.