Nobody blends good science with bad puns as brilliantly as Spider Robinson, as his legion of devoted fans will attest. Now he's back with the latest chapter of the Callahan saga -- an improbable tale of impending doom, a road trip, space, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.
The universe is in desperate peril. Due to a cluster of freakish phenomena, the United States' own defense system has become a perfect doomsday machine, threatening the entire universe. And only one man can save everything-as-we-know-it from annihilation.
Unfortunately, he's not available.
So the job falls instead to bar owner Jake Stonebender, his wife, Zoey, and superintelligent toddler, Erin.
Not to mention two dozen busloads of ex-hippies and freaks, Robert Heinlein's wandering cat, a whorehouse parrot, and misunderstood genius-inventor Nikola Tesla, who is in fact alive and well....
**
Amazon.com Review
What's Jake Stonebender's standard fee for saving the universe? That's easy: "A bar, and enough money and clout to run it." It's time for Jake to save the day yet again, with a lot of help from the rest of his pun-happy, cosmically strange crew. And no more kiddie stakes like in the previous Callahan books, when mere humanity was on the line. Nope, Jake needs to save the totality of the universe. From, of all things, the quest for knowledge. What does that mean? Well, it's got something to do with a classified satellite called the Deathstar, a hurricane named Erin, a superenergetic cosmic ray in the wrong place at the wrong time, the Soviet space station Mir, and a shamelessly enormous volume of Irish coffee. But as any Callahan fan will duly attest, all of this is really beside the point.
Books in this series (this one included) showcase the Münchhausen-style storytelling skills of Nebula- and Hugo-winner Spider Robinson. Putting one of cinema's most robust tropes into service--calling the team back together, à la Oceans 11--and doing a bang-up job at it as usual, Robinson should please old fans and win new ones. If nothing else, you'll surely come to love the eclectic cast of dozens, including everybody from a talking baby (Jake's teleporting, superhacker daughter) to a talking German shepherd (Ralph Von Wau Wau) to--why not?--the forgotten father of the 20th century, Nikola Tesla. --Paul Hughes
From Publishers Weekly
The universe is again threatened with destruction, but fans of Jake Stonebender and his team will fear not, for they know that these heroes will not only save the day but will make it safely to happy hour. At the outset of the latest book in Nebula-winner Robinson's series of feel-good SF romps, we find Stonebender frustrated by the failure of his bar, Callahan's, and by the fact that none of his 50 closest friends still live near his Long Island home. So, in exchange for the chance to move with his friends, his wife and his wunderkind toddler to Key West, where he'll open a new watering hole, Jake accepts an assignment from famed scientist Nikola Tesla to save the universe. The narrative progresses as Jake and company board 20 buses for the road trip down to Florida, during which they party, clash with the fuzz and meet a talking German shepherd (complete with accent) and Robert Heinlein's cat, Pixel. Along the way, Robinson delivers some amusing good times and an inspirational description of a space shuttle launch. True to form, he constructs the end of the universe from some mind-bending but solid science, and he proves as consummate at maintaining suspense as he is at keeping the laughs coming. Fans and the uninitiated alike will devour this intoxicating blend of character comedy and hard SF, for Robinson's writing remains as potentially addictive and as full of earthy delight as Stonebender's famed Irish coffee. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
Nobody blends good science with bad puns as brilliantly as Spider Robinson, as his legion of devoted fans will attest. Now he's back with the latest chapter of the Callahan saga -- an improbable tale of impending doom, a road trip, space, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.
The universe is in desperate peril. Due to a cluster of freakish phenomena, the United States' own defense system has become a perfect doomsday machine, threatening the entire universe. And only one man can save everything-as-we-know-it from annihilation.
Unfortunately, he's not available.
So the job falls instead to bar owner Jake Stonebender, his wife, Zoey, and superintelligent toddler, Erin.
Not to mention two dozen busloads of ex-hippies and freaks, Robert Heinlein's wandering cat, a whorehouse parrot, and misunderstood genius-inventor Nikola Tesla, who is in fact alive and well....
**
Amazon.com Review
What's Jake Stonebender's standard fee for saving the universe? That's easy: "A bar, and enough money and clout to run it." It's time for Jake to save the day yet again, with a lot of help from the rest of his pun-happy, cosmically strange crew. And no more kiddie stakes like in the previous Callahan books, when mere humanity was on the line. Nope, Jake needs to save the totality of the universe. From, of all things, the quest for knowledge. What does that mean? Well, it's got something to do with a classified satellite called the Deathstar, a hurricane named Erin, a superenergetic cosmic ray in the wrong place at the wrong time, the Soviet space station Mir, and a shamelessly enormous volume of Irish coffee. But as any Callahan fan will duly attest, all of this is really beside the point.
Books in this series (this one included) showcase the Münchhausen-style storytelling skills of Nebula- and Hugo-winner Spider Robinson. Putting one of cinema's most robust tropes into service--calling the team back together, à la Oceans 11--and doing a bang-up job at it as usual, Robinson should please old fans and win new ones. If nothing else, you'll surely come to love the eclectic cast of dozens, including everybody from a talking baby (Jake's teleporting, superhacker daughter) to a talking German shepherd (Ralph Von Wau Wau) to--why not?--the forgotten father of the 20th century, Nikola Tesla. --Paul Hughes
From Publishers Weekly
The universe is again threatened with destruction, but fans of Jake Stonebender and his team will fear not, for they know that these heroes will not only save the day but will make it safely to happy hour. At the outset of the latest book in Nebula-winner Robinson's series of feel-good SF romps, we find Stonebender frustrated by the failure of his bar, Callahan's, and by the fact that none of his 50 closest friends still live near his Long Island home. So, in exchange for the chance to move with his friends, his wife and his wunderkind toddler to Key West, where he'll open a new watering hole, Jake accepts an assignment from famed scientist Nikola Tesla to save the universe. The narrative progresses as Jake and company board 20 buses for the road trip down to Florida, during which they party, clash with the fuzz and meet a talking German shepherd (complete with accent) and Robert Heinlein's cat, Pixel. Along the way, Robinson delivers some amusing good times and an inspirational description of a space shuttle launch. True to form, he constructs the end of the universe from some mind-bending but solid science, and he proves as consummate at maintaining suspense as he is at keeping the laughs coming. Fans and the uninitiated alike will devour this intoxicating blend of character comedy and hard SF, for Robinson's writing remains as potentially addictive and as full of earthy delight as Stonebender's famed Irish coffee. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.