Synopsis
Inspired by the original Callahan's Bar, bartender Jake Stonebender and his very pregnant wife, Zoey Berkowitz, open their own establishment, populated by time travelers, aliens, and other unusual clients, and find themselves confronting a purple monster out to destroy life on Earth.
Reviews
Puns, palindromes and assorted witticisms abound in this latest addition to science fiction's longest running in-joke, first presented in book form in Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977), most recently in The Callahan Touch (1993). Robinson, who has won a Hugo, a Nebula and a John W. Campbell Award, follows his usual formula here. Lovable narrator and bartender Jake Stonebender, who took over from lovable narrator and bartender Mike Callahan after Mike decided to go time-traveling, gradually introduces the large cast of oddball drunks and barflies who inhabit the Long Island tavern known as Mary's Place (which itself replaced Callahan's Place after that tavern blew up in a nuclear explosion two episodes ago). The regulars include at least one alien, an Artificial Intelligence, a supernatural being or two and a talking dog named Ralph Von Wau Wau. As usual, a couple of new oddballs wander into the bar and tell their stories. Then a crisis arises?here, occasioned by an alien lizard-cyborg bent on the destruction of Earth. The boys soon take care of the situation, however, by drinking a lot of beer and Irish coffee, telling jokes and not losing their cool. Plot is secondary in the Callahan stories. What Robinson's many fans look for above all is humor, wordplay and a complicated web of allusions to favorite rock lyrics, classic SF stories and previous Callahan tales. They get plenty of each here and should feel right at home, again.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
First novel-sized entry in Robinson's series of tall stories (the first collection appeared in 1976) about Callahan's Bar (Callahan's Lady, 1989, etc.). Though the original Callahan's is gone, the tradition continues--alcohol-lubricated jokes, puns, histrionics and all--at Mary's Place, where Callahan's daughter, Mary, and her husband, the retired alien assassin Mickey Finn, preside, and proprietor/bartender Jake Stonebender's partner, Zoey Berkowitz, is an uncomfortable nine and a half months pregnant. The patrons include: Naggeneen, an Irish psi-powered leprechaun; the probability-bending Lucky Duck; Ralph von Wau Wau the taking dog; Solace the Artificial Intelligence; and various aliens, machines, and reconstituted personalities, such as the scientist Nikola Tesla. Even the time-traveling Mike Callahan himself shows up, to warn the company of an impending alien invasion by a three-eyed, three-legged purple cyborg Lizard. So as Jake pours drinks and coffee with a liberal hand, and Zoey at last gives birth, the assembly must figure out how to defeat the invader. After, that is, the bar's roof has been ripped off by a tornado, only to be replaced moments later by another, better roof--it's that sort of place. A riot for Callahan addicts; newcomers may find it to be an acquired taste. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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