Kevin's Watch

Anybody else a fan of Spider Robinson here? The Callahan Chronicals [sic] is an omnibus edition of the first 3 books set in Callahan's Place; there's also Callahan's Legacy, Callahan's Key, and 3 or 4 more set in the establishment of Lady Sally McGee.

Heard of it, never tried it. Is it sort of like Mike Resnick's "tall tale" approach to space opera?

The Callahan's books are really fantasy, not SF, though they do have some SF trimmings (notably, several varieties of aliens). I enjoyed the first three books tremendously, though it wears a bit thin if one reads too many of the stories at one sitting. In essence, Roland, they are funny stories set in a strange bar somewhere on Long Island, which is visited by time-travellers, space-travellers, people from alternate timelines, and all manner of local weirdos. So I suppose it does have some kinship to Mr. Resnick's space operas (which, however, I haven't read): they're both descended from the grand American tradition of the tall tale. But I haven't heard anyone suggest that the resemblance is very close.

I've read the first two Lady Sally books, having been attracted by the wonderfully horrible title of the second book: Lady Slings the Booze. It was amusing enough, but I am almost totally unable to suspend my disbelief in the concept or mcguffin of the series. Lady Sally runs a brothel in which all the prostitutes (male and female) are clean, happy, well-adjusted, disease-free, work as much or as little as they choose, never have to do anything that doesn't turn them on (but you can find someone at any given time to cater to every fetish under the sun), and on top of this, the customers don't pay by the trick, they pay annual dues based on what they can afford. Spider almost makes prostitution look like a noble calling when performed under these conditions; but since the conditions are impossible, I'm left questioning whether Spider's liberal attitude towards the Oldest Profession is as enlightened as he thinks it is.

(But I don't have the heart to tell Spider that. I've met the man, bought him Irish coffee and sung Beatles songs with him, which is probably the best way to get to know him in a hurry; and he's a thoroughly grand guy. It seldom happens that I like an author and his books equally well; this is one of the cases. Look for him at SF cons, and prepare to be entertained.)

That said, I still have a bit of a residual crush on Arethusa. (She only appears to be identical twins; actually she's one person with two separate bodies in telepathic contact.) It's entertaining stuff if you can get past the immense silliness of the concept.