Rats, Bats and Vats series
Encyclopedia
The Rats, Bats and Vats series is, currently, two humorous science-fiction novels written by Eric Flint
and Dave Freer
. The books are Rats, Bats and Vats (2000) and its direct sequel The Rats, The Bats and The Ugly (2004). The short story prequel Genie Out Of The Bottle was published in Cosmic Tales of Adventure II (2005).
from twenty-second century Earth
. The planet has been set up under the ideals of the New Fabian Society
, "Responsible socialism," with social-political power linked to ownership of shares in the Company. The colony is not very old, no more than two-three generations, and the total population is small (there is only one major settlement - George Bernard Shaw
City), leading to the use of clones
, known as "'Vats", created from tissue samples brought from Earth. This has led to the stratification
of society between shareholders and the much more numerous debt-ridden vats - the debt arising from the charges for being grown, raised and educated,
Onto this planet have arrived the sea urchin
like Korozhet who warn of an impending invasion by another alien species, the Magh. The novels are set a few years after the war has begun, with the Magh invasion proceeding slowly but towards inevitable human defeat.
HAR has an uneven technology base, manufacturing has settled on a level varying between the late nineteenth to early twentieth century
, but the colonists also have the cloning equipment and a nucleus of 22nd century technology centered around the remains of the enormous slowship. The Korozhet have sold the HAR army two major technologies - slowshields and soft-cyber (cybernetic enhancement chips).
Slowshields, as the name suggests, are light-weight full-body forcefields that 'harden' when impacted by high-velocity impacts (greater than 22.8 mph) but are flexible the rest of the time - this has changed the war against the Magh' into grinding defensive close combat.
The soft-cyber makes stupid creatures smarter. These "uplifted
" animals can be made to think and speak, and brain-damaged humans can be changed so their IQ
matches their physical age, although using soft-cyber on humans is generally unknown on HAR. To augment the unavoidably small human army of vat conscripts the HAR technicians have genetically engineered and then uplifted two species to fight alongside them - rat
s and bat
s. Both are effective fighters but are not, perhaps, the most well-designed beings.
The rats are about the size of a small cats, mixing genes from the elephant shrew
, with add-ons from real shrews and rats. With soft-cyber implants and vocal synthesizers they can fight alongside human troops. Their personalities are a mix of rat characteristics, the contents of their vocabulary ROM
("Shakespeare
plays, Gilbert and Sullivan
and... a reading of Steinbeck
's Sweet Thursday
"), and the driving pressures of their extremely high metabolic rates.
The bats were made after the rats, as an attempt to create "more heroic and idealistic helpers for mankind's war." Because of this their ROM contains "Irish
revolutionary
songs and old "Wobbly
" tunes". They are more courageous than the rats but are also natural revolutionaries.
; the third one, an idealistic if intimidating MI major and his rattess aide; finally "And a large supporting cast, numbering in millions for the greatest production off Earth!"
Rats, Bats and Vats is centred on the one human, five bats, and seven rats. All soldiers, they are trapped behind Magh' lines during an assault - a situation that is universally terminal. They survive, cause considerable damage to the Magh', drink and eat considerably, and uncover some surprising secrets. On the human side they are aided by "the very model of a modern major" Fitzhugh and his colleagues, who grasp the opportunity created by the marauding group to fashion the first human victory in the war against the Magh' - despite the best efforts of the General Staff to 'snatch defeat'.
The Rats, The Bats and The Ugly deals with the consequences of ignoring the military chain of command, that is court martial, and the attempts to either reveal or cover-up the surprising secrets of the first book.
Eric Flint
Eric Flint is an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also writes humorous fantasy adventures.- Career :...
and Dave Freer
Dave Freer
Dave Freer is a South African-born science fiction author writing mostly humorous or alternate history novels.He was conscripted into the South African Defence Force and sent to the Angolan Border as a medic....
. The books are Rats, Bats and Vats (2000) and its direct sequel The Rats, The Bats and The Ugly (2004). The short story prequel Genie Out Of The Bottle was published in Cosmic Tales of Adventure II (2005).
Background
The novels are set on the planet of Harmony And Reason (HAR), settled by a slowshipGeneration ship
A generation ship is a hypothetical type of interstellar ark starship that travels across great distances between stars at a speed much slower than the speed of light...
from twenty-second century Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. The planet has been set up under the ideals of the New Fabian Society
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
, "Responsible socialism," with social-political power linked to ownership of shares in the Company. The colony is not very old, no more than two-three generations, and the total population is small (there is only one major settlement - George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
City), leading to the use of clones
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
, known as "'Vats", created from tissue samples brought from Earth. This has led to the stratification
Social stratification
In sociology the social stratification is a concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions."...
of society between shareholders and the much more numerous debt-ridden vats - the debt arising from the charges for being grown, raised and educated,
Onto this planet have arrived the sea urchin
Sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins are small, spiny, globular animals which, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. They inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from across. Common colors include black and dull...
like Korozhet who warn of an impending invasion by another alien species, the Magh. The novels are set a few years after the war has begun, with the Magh invasion proceeding slowly but towards inevitable human defeat.
HAR has an uneven technology base, manufacturing has settled on a level varying between the late nineteenth to early twentieth century
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, but the colonists also have the cloning equipment and a nucleus of 22nd century technology centered around the remains of the enormous slowship. The Korozhet have sold the HAR army two major technologies - slowshields and soft-cyber (cybernetic enhancement chips).
Slowshields, as the name suggests, are light-weight full-body forcefields that 'harden' when impacted by high-velocity impacts (greater than 22.8 mph) but are flexible the rest of the time - this has changed the war against the Magh' into grinding defensive close combat.
The soft-cyber makes stupid creatures smarter. These "uplifted
Biological uplift
In science fiction, uplift is the development or transformation of animals into an intelligent race by other, already-intelligent beings. The concept appears in David Brin's Uplift series and other science fiction works.-History of the concept:...
" animals can be made to think and speak, and brain-damaged humans can be changed so their IQ
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
matches their physical age, although using soft-cyber on humans is generally unknown on HAR. To augment the unavoidably small human army of vat conscripts the HAR technicians have genetically engineered and then uplifted two species to fight alongside them - rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s and bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s. Both are effective fighters but are not, perhaps, the most well-designed beings.
The rats are about the size of a small cats, mixing genes from the elephant shrew
Elephant shrew
Elephant shrews or jumping shrews are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order Macroscelidea...
, with add-ons from real shrews and rats. With soft-cyber implants and vocal synthesizers they can fight alongside human troops. Their personalities are a mix of rat characteristics, the contents of their vocabulary ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
("Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
plays, Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
and... a reading of Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
's Sweet Thursday
Sweet Thursday
Sweet Thursday is a 1954 novel by John Steinbeck. It is a sequel to Cannery Row and set in the years after the end of World War II. According to the author, "Sweet Thursday" is the day after Lousy Wednesday and the day before Waiting Friday....
"), and the driving pressures of their extremely high metabolic rates.
The bats were made after the rats, as an attempt to create "more heroic and idealistic helpers for mankind's war." Because of this their ROM contains "Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
revolutionary
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
songs and old "Wobbly
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
" tunes". They are more courageous than the rats but are also natural revolutionaries.
The Stories
The books focus on a single 'military' action and then its consequences. The scene moves between numerous characters, but there are some obvious heroes. The first, a group of one human, five bats, and seven rats; the second being the daughter of the Chief Executive Shareholder and her uplifted galagoGalago
Galagos , also known as bushbabies, bush babies or nagapies , are small, nocturnal primates native to continental Africa, and make up the family Galagidae...
; the third one, an idealistic if intimidating MI major and his rattess aide; finally "And a large supporting cast, numbering in millions for the greatest production off Earth!"
Rats, Bats and Vats is centred on the one human, five bats, and seven rats. All soldiers, they are trapped behind Magh' lines during an assault - a situation that is universally terminal. They survive, cause considerable damage to the Magh', drink and eat considerably, and uncover some surprising secrets. On the human side they are aided by "the very model of a modern major" Fitzhugh and his colleagues, who grasp the opportunity created by the marauding group to fashion the first human victory in the war against the Magh' - despite the best efforts of the General Staff to 'snatch defeat'.
The Rats, The Bats and The Ugly deals with the consequences of ignoring the military chain of command, that is court martial, and the attempts to either reveal or cover-up the surprising secrets of the first book.