My child has a reading disability. I was given this book to review before allowing my child to have it. My first concern is would the book be morally O.K., fun, entertaining, and would she like it. I have to find ways to encourage her reading, and a book that reads like shakespear discourages my daughter from reading. However, once I read the first three sentences, I was hooked. The way the words flow, wonderful. The illustrations are capturing to the eye, wherein you can look at the pictures and it tells its own story. The story line full of fun,with a tale that dreams come true as long as you continue to do, instead of not doing, no matter how tall, how small; no matter how smart or not so smart. Its rare I find a kid's book I enjoy -- especially the illustrations, coloring, 3-D image, the details are great. My daughter enjoyed it and wants more "Hombeez" books.

For anyone who has driven the back routes of New York, hoping to be lucky enough spend an evening at Callahan's. If you dream of being a stardancer, or even just living to see one.... BUY THIS BOOK! I know, it may be out of print, and there may be some lead time on getting it, but each and every story is worth the wait. "Half an Oaf" will have you in stitches as it looks into the possibilities of time travel available to the masses. "High Infidelity" is a bawdy tale, which hilights the joy of a relationship that WORKS. The title story poses some very pointed questions about the nature of art and creation in a world flooded with information. If you love the way Spider tells a tale, these tales MUST become part of your collection.

Robinson's Callahan books are always emotional wringers, and though this is not restricted to Callahan stories, the others also have that same empathy. You may see some of the same stories (Fivesight, God is an Iron) elsewhere, but in this collection they also come with anecdotes and a bit of explanation that can be as entertaining as the stories themselves. I highly recommend it, not least because it is ideally structured to read in small doses, and so can fit into a busy schedule!

"Night Of Power" is based in Manhattan, in a nebulous future where smog is serious enough to cause people to live in domes and racial violence has increased beyond anyone's worst nightmares. What would you do if confronted with a racewar? More than that, what would you do if stuck on Manhattan Island while it is being taken over? This is a twisted tale into the minds of a caucasian family as they struggle their way through the Manhattan suburbs, on this Night of Power. Well worth the read!

I recently re-read "Night of Power" - a few weeks after the tragedy of Sept. 11 in NYC. I'd always felt the events in Spider's book to be insightful, but somehow... in the light of real life events, it was almost too painful to read. But still, as with most of Spider's works, it ends with hope. After it's all over, there's hope. We need to keep working toward that end.

This is one of Hugo and Nebula award winning author, Spider Robinson's earliest books. The American-born author, now living in Canada paints a grim but possibly accurate picture of the possible future between white and African Americans. As with all of Robinson's books, the characterisation is excellent and the plot well developed. An excellent story that holds you until the last page.

"Telempath" follows the world's last assassin - Isham Stone - on his quest to avenge the death of 90% of civilization thanks to the creation of a virus that increases people's sense of smell by several thousand orders of magnitude. (Could you stand living in a city when suddenly every odor was a thousand times as strong and hammering at your brain?) Isham's quest leads us to the man who made this virus and to his latest endeavor: communicating with the "Muskies", ethereal beings who went unnoticed by mankind for eons until the creation of the aforementioned virus. What follows are revalations, betrayals, and eventually hope for the survival of mankind.

Spider's first novel is based on his Hugo-award winning story, "By Any Other Name" (available in a recent paperback collection with that very title). The work beyond the original short story/novella contains the early strains of themes that run throughout Spider's work - communication by thought, understanding of human nature, the sanctity of life, etc. But these strains aren't quite the virtuoso melodies one hears in the "Callahan" and "Stardancer" books. The book ends (like most of Spider's books end) with a happy ending... but dammit, it was almost TOO happy for my tastes.

I encourage readers to pick up the collection "By Any Other Name" and read the novella first. If it tickles your fancy, try "Telempath". And if you haven't read "Stardance" yet, then shame on you! Buy it right now!

Baen Books just has a hard time with cover art, I guess. But this time they've underdone themselves.

Anyway, grab this book while it's back in print. It's the novel-length expansion of Spider Robinson's novella "By Any Other Name," and it's great from start to finish.

I guess I can tell you a little bit of the plot without spoiling anything. Isham Stone lives in a world in which most of civilization has collapsed, and he's going to get the man responsible. Okay, that's all I can say without giving things away.

I _can_ say that the story is told with all of Spider's trademark humaneness and wit, with no punches pulled but also with none of the gloom-and-doom pessimism that marks "noir" SF. Because this book squarely faces a number of interesting and difficult problems, _and works them through to resolution_, it's actually a profoundly hopeful story despite its apocalyptic backdrop.

Spider is one of my favorite two living SF writers (the other being James Hogan), and this is about as close as Spider comes to writing "hard" SF. Get it while it's available; Spider is incapable of writing a dull word.

"God Is An Iron" is the short story that was later expanded into _Mindkiller_ (now available in the combi volume _Deathkiller_). It is not included in this volume. _Telempath_ is an expanded version of the novella "By Any Other Name," collected (as you might expect) in _By Any Other Name_.

Either way, though, _Telempth_ is one of Spider's best novels.

This is an emerging classic in speculative fiction. A book with both heart and vision, it is quite simply the best portrayal of life in a zero gravity environment I have ever read. It takes you there so you really FEEL what it's like to live without an apparent up or down--and not only to live, but to dance as well.

On top of that you will fall in love with each of the main charectors. They have heart, depth, strengths, and weaknesses--they are real people set in an extraordinary environment. They become a group of friends that I would love to meet and become a part of. And then there are the aliens...

This omnibus volume includes the full text of both _Stardance_ and _Starseed_, the first two books in Spider and Jeanne Robinson's series on zero-gravity dance. The third volume, _Starmind_ is available separately.

Both of the books included here are excellent -- the first one, I think, just slightly moreso, but the sequel is way better than sequels usually are. The premise: dancer Shara Drummond, too tall and zaftig to be accepted as a dancer on Earth, hooks up with Charlie Armstead to shift her career to an orbital environment where her size isn't a liability. While they're up there . . . well, that's what the book is about.

And of course I can't tell you _anything_ about the sequel without spoiling the first book for you.

At any rate, these were the first two of the three books that the happy Robinson couple cowrote, and they work together mighty well. Jeanne is clearly no slouch as a writer -- and at the time these books were written, she led a dance company in Nova Scotia. Spider's delightful sensibilities inform the entire project too, and you'll meet some of his most memorable characters here. (Fat Humphrey comes to mind.)

I don't like the third volume quite as well, largely because I don't care for the ending. But pick it up too, just so you'll have read them all. The Robinsons don't just recycle the same story from one book to the next; they tell a genuinely new story in each one.

Check out Spider's solo work too. He and James Hogan are my two favorite living SF writers.

I read the second book "Starseed" before I ever found this first one. I recieved it for one of my birthdays, several years ago, along with a few other second hand books. The book was pretty much older than I am, well, the first one is from memory at least, but regardless, i gave it a shot, being an ardent sci-fi/fantasy fan, as long as it's good. Well, I was simply blown away. I thought that the whole concept was so original, and completely different from the usual books I've read, that I went on an immediate search for the first book, and found it months later in a second hand book shop quite by accident. I found it just as good as the first one I'd read. One of the best books I've ever read. I've read a few reviews about what people have thought about this book, and the common assessment by most that you have appreciate dancing, or be a dancer, to like this book. Not true. I am by no means a dancer. True, I like dancing, but I've never tried the sort that the book describes, and nothng near ballet that could be called coherent. I wouldn't be able to choregraph, or follow a piece, if my life depended on it! Yet I still found the book moving, incredible, and awe inspiring. You don't have to be a lover of dance to appreciate this book. This is simpy a form of speech, an original one at that, that they've used to understand and be understood by aliens. It's the sort of book that makes you stop and think afterwards, makes you wander if there ever could be a place like that somewhere in the known universe. Who says you have to be a dancer to appreciate it? all you really need to appreciate the book is an _understanding_ of dance, of how it is an expression of self, just like anything else could be.

I found this an original piece, moving and addictive. I've read the book at least half a dozen times now and am on the constant lookout for more books by Spider & Jeanne Robinson. My vote? A must read! Though perhaps it may go over the heads of those who don't read deeper than the surface, if you put your whole heart into reading a book and appreciate it for what it is, then yes, this is a goer! I still love it, and there's no hint of boredom on the horizon yet!

. . . but I couldn't make it past chapter three. I loved the first three Callahan's books, but this one seemed self-indulgent and flabby. I felt like every sentence of the first three chapters had at least two self-congratulatory puns, which inevitably forced Robinson to digress from anything resembling plot or character.

Reading this book (or the first three chapters) was like being trapped in the bar at a science fiction convention, listening to a bunch of people try to achieve alpha-male status by demonstrating their skill with puns, interrupted by the occasional filk-song.

Spider Robinson's Callahan's regulars once again save the world from certain destruction. No other author combines puns, palindromes, poetry and prose like Robinson. This book has it all -- sex, music, philosophy, outrageous humor, wonderful characters, and a message. Impossible to read it without having fun -- if you like words, you'll love this book.

Only a Callahans book could manage to be tremendously funny,painfuly sad, and look wisely at the state of humanity today, all in a style that you can read in something like two hours(if you're fool enough to rush)....

"The Free Lunch" isn't the best piece of writing I've seen from Spider Robinson, but it is surely among his funniest, most thoughtful examinations of humanity being affected by technology. I agree with a previous recent reviewer that the writing sounds a bit like Robert Heinlein's typical prose, but to Robinson's credit it is more thoughtful than almost anything Heinlein wrote (The notable exception is "Stranger in a Strange Land".). Here Robinson writes of two people trapped in a technological amusement park, trying to cope with a sadistic business tycoon determined to destroy the park. It receives a good recommendation from me as a satisfying, light bit of reading.

If you have never had the joy of reading one of Spider Robinson's works of science fiction, then you are in for a treat. If you are a fan of the "Callahan's" series by Spider, then you are in for a pleasant change. And if you are a faithful reader of ALL of Spider Robinson's work, then your wait for more is now happily over.

"The Free Lunch" is one of those books that is so filled with wry humor, good ideas and fascinating characters all wrapped into a tight novel by a master storyteller. It is one of those books that brings you back to your childhood if you are older, and is completely accessible by youger readers as well. And best of all, when you finish the book it makes you feel like you have just experienced something truly entertaining--yet profound.

The angst and horrors that can be found in "Dreamworld," the amusement park of the future, only reveal themself in a place where "dreams come true." A fascinating plot, not easy to summarize, but very much worth the read. Highly recommended.

The Free Lunch is another of Spider Robinson's Heinlein impressions - and a damn good one it is as well! Dreamworld is a future theme park where all your dreams come true (under carefully controlled scientific conditions). Mike is a young, disillusioned boy who needs to escape from a reality that has become unbearable for him. He is a typical Heinlein juvenile; mature beyond his years with a vast knowledge of scientific and engineering principles and a quirky, clever mind. He manages to infiltrate Dreamworld where he plans to live a lotus-eating life away from the worries and responsibilities of reality. Underground in Dreamworld, he meets Annie, another refugee, who has been living there for more than thirteen years. She becomes his mentor.

It soon starts to become clear that there is a crisis in Dreamworld. Every evening, more staff leave the theme park than arrived in the morning - and the staff who leave are all trolls. Where are they coming from? Mike and Annie explore various hypotheses, each more outré than the last. But the truth turns out to be even stranger than anything they had imagined.

It's a great slam-bang adventure. Those with eyes to see will find it stuffed to the gunwales with Heinleinesque touches (Robinson can't resist the homage) but unlike some of his other books these touches aren't too overt and by and large they don't get in the way. He's also curbed his self-indulgent tendency to write self-referential novels full of science fictional in-jokes (I suspect he's found that they sell only to a very limited audience). As a result, The Free Lunch is one of his best novels in years and I strongly recommend it.

A collection of "second string" stories, which seem to have been written more for SR's amusement than our own. Interesting diversions, but not compelling. Still, it's a must for Spider Robinson fans, because it gives some wonderful insights into his life and writing.

While not quite as engrossing as some of his more extended works (the Callahan's saga; the Sta Dance series), this collections of short stories is still very much worth the price. The title story tells of how aliens come to Earth, enslave random peoples minds, and the populace acccepts it. It's fresh ideas like these, strongly presented in a no-holds-barred style that add real punch to each piece.

I've read nearly all of Spider Robinson's work, and it seems to have two constants: Fascinating ideas and characters who are both ferociously intelligent *and* genuinely nice. _User Friendly_ is no exception. Being singletons, these stories don't give the same emotional satisfaction as (say) another visit to Callahan's or Lady Sally's, but on their own terms they're both thought-provoking and full of undisguised affection for the human race and its various members.

I invariably put down a Spider Robinson book with a wide grin, a racing mind, and a more optimistic outlook on life and its possibilities. If that ain't good value for your six bucks plus shipping, I don't know what is . . .

Fair Warning: DO NOT read the back-cover blurb, in which an unspeakable copywriter at Baen Books gives away crucial parts of two stories and the entire point of a third.

slightly more flagrant than Robert Heinlien...but is defintely in the running for Heinlien's style of writing...a combination of
Mickeyn Spillane meets Heinlien

Although this is not my Favorite of Robinsons books, It still is a joyes read. If You truly enjoy light hearted fantasy fiction with a whole slew of puns mixed liberally in, this is it for you. I await more.

Erotic, funny, thoughtful, Spider Robinson through and through. I can even picture Jeanne hanging over his shoulder as he writes this, both the "Lady Sally" books actually. There is way too much woman in his writing but then again Spider always has had that touch of cross sexual emapthy. Sometimes I think his wife is writing just to see if they can fool us.

The house sounds like such fun and The Parlor is a place not even second to Callahans for wit, tallent and love.

A place like Sally's IS possible within each of us, if we learn to pay attention to the one we are with.

Dont distract the smoke artists, keep your pants on below the 2nd floor, and dont pee in the pool. Talk politely to the dog also, hate to see him pun on you... Meet you at the fireplace.