Stainless Steel Visions

Harrison's short stories are what pulp science fiction should have been, but almost never was. These 12 tales, drawn from his 40-year career, have all the fast-moving plots, outrageous alien characters and general fun of the genre without the purple prose and pretentious pseudoscience. Some of the stories here are little more than page turners, well written and entertaining but slight. Others, like ``The Streets of Ashkelon,'' ``Roommates'' (the basis for the movie Soylent Green ) and ``Brave Newer World,'' explore serious issues in thoughtful and original ways. Harrison's concerns about overpopulation and the environment sound surprisingly timely now, considering how long ago some of these pieces were written. Refreshingly, with the exception of a few strident moments in ``Brave Newer World,'' Harrison never becomes preachy or lets the message get in the way of a good yarn. Despite its title, the collection contains only one story about Slippery Jim DiGriz, the Stainless Steel Rat. Readers familiar with Harrison's previous DiGriz novels ( Deathworld , et al.) will find the plot twists rather predictable, but these tales are worth reading nonetheless. (Mar.)