The Callahan Chronicals A science fiction written by Spider Robinson in 1997 Reviewed edition by TOR from 1997 A trade paperback has 400 pages ISBN 0-812-53937-0 Click to rate this book from worst 1 2 3 4 5 to best.

Callahan's Place is a pub the likes of which you have never seen, and most likely never will. It is not that all drinks cost 50 cents, or that one is allowed to smash glasses in the fireplace for another 50, even though that alone is weird enough. The unique thing is that both the keeper and the regulars seem to be altogether nice guys who care about problems of others and genuinely try to help. Difficult to believe, I know. Which is why The Callahan Chronicals are here, presenting the history of Callahan's Place in a series of short stories. In each story, a stranger comes to the pub in need of help, and in each story he gets it, one way or another ...

First of all a word of warning. The stories are heavy on word puns and references to U.S. realia, so unless you are a native speaker or at least moderately comfortable with the language, you should perhaps think twice before reading them. Then again, considering that I somehow managed, it cannot be that bad :-).

The stories themselves are mostly fun, and sometimes even make you think, which is nice. One thing that I found slightly, mmm, shall I say uncomfortable ? was how nice everybody was - it just doesn't feel normal when you have a pub full of nice caring drunks engaged in intellectual debates, served by nice caring Callahan himself. Compared to that, the intelligent talking dogs and omnipotent cockroach aliens are almost believable. Come to think of it, is that not sad ?

Rated as good by Ceres on 2000-06-30

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