Subject: _Lady Slings the Booze_ (no spoilers)

From: "Andrew C. Plotkin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1992 17:03:30 -0500

Just bought it, in hardback, with some trepidation. I am pleased to
report that, IMHO, Spider's brain has recovered from whatever rot has
been chewing on it the past few years. I thought _Callahan's Lady_ was
rather dull, trite, and utterly caved in at the end; _LStB_ managed to
take the same setting and create an interesting novel. (Note: novel, not
collection of short stories. You could view this as two connected
novellas if you wanted, but they're much more connected than Spider's
previous works in the Callahan universe.) The characters had the same
range of deus-ex-machina technology available to them as in _CL_, but it
was presented much more rationally: useful, but with flaws and
restrictions, and all presented *before* the final dust-up. Thus, it was
science fiction, as opposed to weak fantasy. (Certain plot elements were
slightly stretched, but they were stretched in order to make the story
consistent, rather than to save the hero's asses.)

The puns are thick and evil as ever. So are the obscure references (the
sort where the narrator describes some famous personage by description
only, and you're supposed to recognize him. I couldn't, most of the
time. Sigh. (Although I was incredibly pleased by that guy on one
crutch.))

The characters were up to Spider's usual standards (feel free to kill me
if you think that's not a compliment. :-)  The protagonist and his
girlfriend(s) are new characters, but of course there are lots of people
from earlier books, and scads of cameos. Interesting, dynamic, possibly
too nice to be real -- but that's the whole point of Spider Robinson: if
you don't think it's worthwhile trying *make* that real, you probably
gave up his books ten years ago. 

Summary: It's no _Stardance_, but it's worth buying in hardcover.

These opinions: Humble, mine.

Warning: Please add spoiler warning if you follow up -- particularly if
you give away puns, punchlines, or obscure references. (...and please
do. I'm desperate to know who hired the protagonist at the very
beginning of the book -- assuming it was anyone in the real world at
all.)

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."