I'm not sure what an author of Resnick's caliber is doing writing this sort of escapist yawner. I think he must have been stuck somewhere with his laptop and banged it out in an afternoon. We've all seen too much of this type of yarn-spinning before.

A bit better than wasting an afternoon watching MTV, but not much.

In first section of the book a cast of characters gathers in a bar called the Outpost and swap stories. Tall stories as it turns out. An alien attack is underway and the patrons depart to fight off the aliens. Mike Resnick tells the true story of what happens to each of the characters in the battle that ensues. Then, when all return to the Outpost, each tells his story and the reader can see for himself the embellishments and understatements. The stories throughout the book vary in interest and quality widely. Readable but nothing truly special. I think it started out as a character study but quickly degenerated into a hack work for money. Too bad. I still enjoyed it though.

This is an old fashioned escapist collection of very short stories told in a bar room setting.A bar on the farthest reaches of the inner frontier of the gallaxy and patronized by only the toughest and craziest inhabitants of the universe. Both human and otherwise.
It is reminiscent of the early Spider Robinson Callahan's series before that went downhill and serious.
Anyone looking for the more dramatic Resnick stories needs to go elsewhere. This is humor pure and simple. No deep meanings or charectarizations. There's no time as the stories come fast and furious. This is the type of book I look for when I'm taking a break from more serious science fiction.

It's full of interesting though lite charectors telling stories of shape changing aliens, space opera like adventures, fortunes (in the form of whole palnets and even systems) won and lost and even an interesting bar/card trick.
Admitedly it's not exactly what I expected when I picked up the copy but I am more than pleasantly suprised. Hope you are too.