Callahan's Key

Callahan's Key is a fantastic book. At the same time it is a bad entry point for the uninitiated. For those familiar with the Callahan's saga and the adventures of the barflies that surface there, this is a much welcome return to their lives. I often find myself wishing that this material was produced with soap opera like regularity and hope that Mr. Robinson writes and writes and writes until I personally ask him to stop. However, if this is the first Spider Robinson book your are thinking of reading - don't. Go and read Callahan's Chronicles first. This is for the dedicated fans only. Which is what you will become after you have read Chronicles! Now go, get the right book and have your life changed in nice ways!!

Fans of Mike Callahan and Jake Stonebender and the rest of the crew will no doubt devour this latest installment, however new readers will be lost because of all of the in-jokes and references to past stories. All the more reason to buy ALL of the previous installments! Callahan's Key, while bringing back all of our dear and lovable friends, left this reader wanting more. While everpresent, much of the crew from Callahan's Place and Mary's Place had only cameos in this story. Quite understandable, since the cast grows with every new installment, but it made me yearn for more of the short, poignant stories that originally captured our attention and pulled on our heartstrings.This is not to say that this book is lacking in any respect. Spider Robinson is a genius and his works never never fail to entertain. You can't go wrong with this or any other of his stories.

Spider Robinson may be the most self-indulgent writer in contemporary scince fiction. His stories - particularly in the case of the later books in this series - are full of the kind of in-jokes and references to friends and colleagues that is more typical of amateur genre fiction. In this novel, for instance, on of the main characters is Pixel, the late Robert A. Heinlein's pet cat -- only with all of the supranormal powers of the literary feline it inspired! In past installments, Robinson has devoted page after page to describing the delights of books, records and personalities of whom he's fond. (My advice: take notes. He's got _good_ taste!)It would all be extremely tiresome, except that Spider is also one of the most skilled and imaginative writers working today. His affection for his characters is contagious, and the unreconstructed hippie hopefulness that suffuses all of his work is so clearly sincere, so miraculously un-singed after decades of baking in this scorched-earth we inhabit, that one feels faintly embarrased to quibble. All this is to say that Callahan's Key is much like the previous installments of the series, only more so. If you happen to find Robinson's cast of characters engaging enough to spend a evening sitting around, shooting the breeze, punning, and saving the Universe with, you'll ease into this like a pair of comfy slippers. If these folks aren't your type, I'm sure there's a nice episode of "Friends" running about now.One caveat, emptors: By halfway through this book, you will most likely be absolutely determined to move to Key West. I say go for it, but be prepared to pay $300,000 for a run-down studio apartment. Perhaps the biggest disbelief one must suspend to get through this novel is that about a hundred people of varying -- mostly middle -- income could easily afford to transplant themselves to the fabulously expensive little resort in question. This is clearly far less plausible than the talking dog...

And it turnd out that not only are they supposed to save the planet, but the whole darn universe as well. And tired of the whole Long Island rat race, they're moving to Key West. (circa 1989 before it got gentrified and duller). Fun stuff for the most part, and I liked the tale, but the pacing's a bit slower than the earlier Callahan books, which were pretty much short story compilations, and even the Lady Sally ones, which had at least a few seperate stories in each. It just seemed to take a long time for anything to happen, and Erin is just a bit too precocious.

Today is a glorious day for we of the Callahan's Place -- Spider is back and classic, and I do rejoice. "Key" is another beautiful piece in this great series.