The Gutter Pub

The Stainless Steel Rat was a huge influence on me. But as much as I loved Harry Harrison's writing, it bothered me to no end when he wrote the prequel and missed an important timeline event.

The protagonist, Slippy Jim, tells his mentor that he only speaks the local language and he is then taken to task to learn the standard galactic language. But then near the end, he tells of how he knows Latin that he learned before they met. If you read the stories, its not something he learned from the beginning of the book.

He talks of learning of it from a secret society, but his home world is dull to the point of extinction and he even gets himself thrown in jail to become a better thief before realizing that jail is full of mental rejects instead of brilliant criminals.