Rating: 
Summary: Laughter with a Heart
Review: Jake Stonebender just can't get any peace. Having saved the universe twice and the Earth at least three times, does he now get a little break from busybody bureaucrats? Of course not - mainly because, if he did, Spider would have had no story to tell. So we open this latest segment in the Callahan saga with the entrance of the bureaucrat from hell in the person of Senior Field Inspector Czrjghbczl of the Florida Department of Education, wondering just what is being done about the education of Erin, Jake's daughter, and if her home environment is conducive to producing a fine, wholesome, upstanding lady. Of course, Jake's explanation of the situation is upstaged by his rather non-standard denizens of The Place, especially by the talking dog Ralph and the equally unusual deer Alf, and the sudden appearance of Erin herself, sans clothes - and then things really start to go downhill. One problem is never enough for a Callahan novel, so the appearance of Tony Donuts, Jr. demanding protection money is par for the course. To fully appreciate the gravity of the appearance of this persona, you need to have read Callahan's Lady, but even without that benefit, this current incarnation of the man-mountain is suitably threatening and just bright enough to foil simple solutions. The early portion of this book, where the above situations are laid out, is hilariously funny, replete with Spider's trademark groan-inducing puns, fractured syntax, tall tales, incredible characters, biting satire, and song spoofs - Spider at his best. But when he turns to how to solve these twin problems, some of the fun seems to go away. The 'con' that The Place gang of very unusual beings comes up with is far from original (how many have been scammed by being sold the whereabouts of The Fountain of Youth?), although the particular implementation of this scam has some very unique aspects. When the Donut problem is solved, Spider now invents a new problem - his wife has gone time-travelling (without appropriate spatial correction) in an attempt to find out what was going on with her daughter while operating the scam. And the only way to find her calls for, once more, (and one time too many), the gang to get together in a telepathic group bond. This seemed to me to be unnecessary padding, and the real ending to the story would have read just as well without this incident thrown in. There are multiple references throughout this book to happenings in other Callahan books, many insider jokes from the SF field, and even at one point an underhanded reference to Spider's musical recordings (he has a fine voice that should be more well-known, but such are the vagaries of the music business). All rather standard for a Callahan novel, but I did feel he may have overdone it a little in this one, possibly making it difficult for someone who hasn't read the rest of the Callahan books to completely follow and understand the relevance of these earlier happenings to the current goings-on. The ending is something of a tear-jerker, though underplayed and very quietly done, and shows the other side of Spider - emotionally sensitive, thoughtful, fully aware of not only man's foibles but his occasional grandeur, and with something important to impart to his readers. Beyond the jokes, puns, and side-splitting tales, this is what keeps me coming back to Spider, and lifts this book back up from the trough in the middle section to being not only enjoyable but worthwhile. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating: 
Summary: The gang's all here!
Review: Others have summarized the plot of this novel quite well. I would just like to add that I found it to be the most emotionally moving of all the Callahan's installments. OK, the plot (Tony Donuts Jr.?!) wasn't as original as some of Spider's other stuff, but so what? The gang's all here (puns and all), and he brings the saga of The Place more or less up to date with a story that left me very deeply moved. I was also very pleased with the handling of of the "feud" with a certain Ukrainian family. Much more in line with the "love everyone, not just those who agree with you" philosophy espoused by many of the the characters in these books. Bravo, Spider!
Rating:
Summary: Spider at his best!
Review: The best books are the ones that make you feel deeply and this one does. Naturally, I laughed a lot, that's the nature of Callahan's in any of it's incarnations. But I cried, too, and that reminded me of the roots of what the Callahan stories were about. Now that the regulars have all settled down in Key West, enjoy this story of just a few days in the life of the denizens of "The Place". There are sprinklings of literary references throughout that are a lot of fun, too. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best of a classic series.
Review: The last few of the books derived from the old "Callhan's" series had seemed somewhat of a letdown from the older books; not that they were bad, but I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as I had the originals. I was beginning to wonder if it was me, not them; if I had changed sufficiently as I aged from my twenties into my forties that I could no longer appreciate the kind of story I'd enjoyed then.
I'm still not sure, but this book was definitely back on a par with the older entries in the series; it was flawed (so were they, if you looked hard enough) but it was good enough to overcome its flaws. More, it was good enough to overcome one of the flaws that really bothered me about the previous entry, "Callahan's Key"; I can't say too much without giving a spoiler, but suffice it to say that I don't expect Jake and the other Callahan's regulars to be insensitive jerks; they don't prejudge people simply because they're alien cyborgs, or sentient computer networks; it seemed wrong that they would prejudge someone just because she was (A) ugly and (B) had a silly name. The fact that they did made it pretty clear that Spider was, and that bothered me; in this book, we get his apology (via Jake).
If you've tried the Callahan's books before and found them pointless and silly, your opinion of this one will be the same. If you loved them all, you'll certainly love this one. If you've felt that they'd been slipping for a while, give this one a try; you may enjoy it. If you've NEVER tried the Callahan's books before, then if you like your science fiction WEIRD, well-written and moving in spite of being silly, you will probably enjoy this book, but you might want to read some of the earlier entries in the series first.
Rating: 
Summary: Callahan's Con is aptly named, cuz readers get conned fr 30
Review: This is the first of Spider Robinson's books that I can honestly say sucked. Cal's Legacy wasn't real good, and I thought it time to retire Callahan's, but then Spider found the "key" and put out a fine installment. Yahoo, I bought his next book -- The Free Lunch -- in HC, and while not great, not bad, good enough to warrant shelling out for the HC of Cal's Con. Ohhh, if this were my intro to the wonderful world of Robinson, I would not return. If you haven't read, but are thinking of/wanting to, then may I suggest waiting for the SC; at least at ten bucks the disappointment won't be quite as monumental. Better idea, check it out from the library, cuz crap like it -- juevenile, illogical, and unimaginative -- should not be paid for. Bad enough it takes four hours to read. Heh Spider, I want a refund, or at least a discount on your next non-Callahan novel (I'm not giving up on him yet, but he's on, well, call it double-secret probation.)
Rating: 
Summary: Has moments. For hardcore fans only.
Review: _______________________________________
I can hear the snickers and 'I coulda told you's from here, but I was in the mood for something swift and silly, OK? -- and I've always had a weak spot for the Callahan stories. Besides, Matt Peckham gave it a pretty good review (B+) over at Scifi Weekly:
www.scifi.com/sfw/issue326/books.html Well, I got silly. You may recall that Jake Stonebender relocated Callahan's Place (sans the Mick of Steel) to Key West, after a nuclear explosion (in Jake's hands, iirc) vaporized his bar on Long Island. This time, an officious school bureaucrat arrives to check up on Jake's kid, and then a man-mountain racketeer shows up, demanding "protection" payoffs. The thug, called "Little Nuts" (his father was Tony Donuts (don't ask)), provides most of the worthwhile moments. Left unexplained is why such an obnoxious creature -- even the Mafia can't stand him -- has survived so long in the Miami underworld, not known for reluctance to shoot first and often. Especially since Tony Jr. lacks the supernatural protection against firearms (not to mention nuclear weapons) that The Place regulars enjoy. The titular con is how they finally get rid of Tony. This is really only enough material here for a couple of short stories, so the rest is filler: bad bar jokes, worse puns, dull inner musings, standard capers by the usual suspects.... I skipped/skimmed that stuff, so I got swift, too. But I think you'd be pretty annoyed if you'd paid $24 for this. About the only surprise here is that one of The Place oldtimers dies onscreen, permanently (I think). Callahan doesn't come, even when called. And the cover art (by Jeff Fischer) is unusually clumsy. Not recommended. Sadly, Pete Tillman
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