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Summary: Belly acheing punsters fantasy
Review: Although this is not my Favorite of Robinsons books, It still is a joyes read. If You truly enjoy light hearted fantasy fiction with a whole slew of puns mixed liberally in, this is it for you. I await more.
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Summary: Lady slings the booze
Review: Erotic, funny, thoughtful, Spider Robinson through and through. I can even picture Jeanne hanging over his shoulder as he writes this, both the "Lady Sally" books actually. There is way too much woman in his writing but then again Spider always has had that touch of cross sexual emapthy. Sometimes I think his wife is writing just to see if they can fool us. <grin>The house sounds like such fun and The Parlor is a place not even second to Callahans for wit, tallent and love. A place like Sally's IS possible within each of us, if we learn to pay attention to the one we are with. Dont distract the smoke artists, keep your pants on below the 2nd floor, and dont pee in the pool. Talk politely to the dog also, hate to see him pun on you... Meet you at the fireplace.
Rating: 
Summary: How do I get to Brooklin?
Review: Erotic, funny, thoughtful, Spider Robinson through and through. I can even picture Jeanne hanging over his shoulder as he writes this, both the "Lady Sally" books actually. There is way too much woman in his writing but then again Spider always has had that touch of cross sexual emapthy. Sometimes I think his wife is writing just to see if they can fool us. <grin> The house sounds like such fun and The Parlor is a place not even second to Callahans for wit, tallent and love. A place like Sally's IS possible within each of us, if we learn to pay attention to the one we are with. Dont distract the smoke artists, keep your pants on below the 2nd floor, and dont pee in the pool. Talk politely to the dog also, hate to see him pun on you... Meet you at the fireplace.
Rating: 
Summary: To what levels has Robinson stooped?
Review: Hmm...while I do enjoy the Callahan's series for the most part, this book just annoyed me. I really don't want into a moral argument over prostitution, but Robinson is most certainly deluding himself if he thinks that Lady Sally's Place is an even remotely conceivable idea. All right, so Callahan's isn't a very realistic concept either: but at least that's dealing with a kind of mature, reasonable fantasy--the concept of Lady Sally's reads ludicrously like an adolescent fantasy: Get laid whenever you so desire! Indulging any fantasy you can imagine! And all at one low, monthly rate! It's just too idiotic to be taken seriously. And that air of absurdity permeates the entire book. *Why* does a hooker almost instantly fall deeply and unconditionally in love with our hardboiled hero? We never get a solid answer to that extremely valid question, just the vague suggestion that it's because she's telepathic. Frankly, I found their romance enormously unappealing. And the overall plot itself...how to put it? Okay, it's stupid. Stupid and utterly implausible. It's the usual absurd quasi-SF thing, but at least in most of the books in the series it's relegated to the last few chapters; as a whole, the book is a mishmash of bad ideas and ill-conceived plot devices. I don't know what could have brought about this appalling error of judgment and taste in Robinson; I've enjoyed the Callahan's books written since. I've not read the other Lady Sally's book, but if it's at all like this I shudder to imagine it. Anyway, this possesses very little of the warmth and fun that make the Callahan's series so damned endearing. Avoid it like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book
Review: I personally enjoyed Robinson's books, but then again, they appeal to my somewhat immature personality. This book seemed, granted, to have been Robinsons attempts to intergrate a more direct line of plot into his story. While odd, it was very entertaining, and shocking, for this was the first "Lady Sally" novel I had read, and I read it 3 years ago, in 7th grade. My dad bought the books because he is a monster book freak. Soon after reading the second Lady Sally book, he dropped his interest in Robinson's work, which is unfortunate for me because there are still easily $100 of books I have to buy, in addition to a replacement for this particular book. Please buy this book. Robinson wrote a very funny piece of literature. I urge you to buy the other books as well. You won't be sorry.
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Summary: Beware! this book may make you fall off you chair laughing.
Review: Lady slings the Booze is full of one-liners and puns! So if you can't take it, stop reading. Lady Sally aka wife of Mike Callahan stars in this one - and she is out to save the world. With the help of some very talented 'artists' in her employ she goes about it. The book twists and turns and there is no guessing the end. I was surprised it ended so abruptly. I've read many of Spider Robinson books both in and out of the 'Callahan' series and I love them. It doesn't matter where you start. I frequently had to stop reading and put the book down just to laugh at the the author's thought processes(and pun-usage). Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware of Puns and Lack of Structural Integrity
Review: My wife is a huge fan of all of Spider Robinson's books, so I have been reading them to see what all the fuss is about. Robinson is a master of language and a lover of puns and word games. Many of the puns are excruciating, and some take forever to set up. In fact, the entire second half of the book is basically a setup for a Dan Rather pun near the end.
The book suffers structurally from two flaws: the exposition lasts much longer than needed, and the second half of the book bears no relation to the first half. There are essentially two entirely separate stories. Much of Robinson's work first appeared serialized in magazines, so it's possible that these two stories were cobbled together to make a book.
Robinson does have some wonderful insights on human nature, but it takes some effort to sift through everything else.
Rating:
Summary: Lady slings the booze
Review: slightly more flagrant than Robert Heinlien...but is defintely in the running for Heinlien's style of writing...a combination of
Mickeyn Spillane meets Heinlien
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Summary: A Hard-Boiled World Saver
Review: Spider has always been known as a writer with a strong taste for slumming (sorry, I meant punning), coupled with outlandish situations and strong, personable characters that are easy to empathize with. For this book, he decided to pay homage to some of the great mystery/detective writers of yesterday, deliberately trying to emulate their styles, mannerisms, and at least for his protagonist, their characters. In doing so, he seemed to lose sight of the idea of telling a cohesive integrated story, as this book very much separates itself in to two separate plot lines that are really only marginally related to each other. His protagonist is, naturally, a private eye, one who tries hard to imitate the role models defined by Chandler, MacDonald, Spillaine, and others. He is called on to investigate some strange goings on in the most incredible bordello ever devised, Lady Sally's Place, located just across the bridge from the UN. It's a place where the 'artists' have 'clients', where talking dogs and telepathic twins are considered normal, a place where everyone can satisfy their desires without guilt or fears. Our P.I. quickly accepts the impossibilities of this place, and by making consistent intuitive leaps (which will sometimes leave you gaping at the holes he jumps over), fairly quickly solves the original mystery, falls in love, and is accepted as being good enough to join the crowd at Lady Sally's. Most of this section is quite good, with puns flying, clues properly presented, and the scene well painted, although it will definitely help if you have read several other books in the Callahan series, as many of the characters introduced here are very much cameos, with their background buried in the those other stories. The concept of Lady Sally's place is one that should make you think, and might help give you completely different viewpoint on the 'world's oldest profession' - but this item was covered better, with more grittiness and real-world activity, in Callahan's Lady. But after solving the one mystery, the story takes off in a totally different direction, where the crowd of Lady Sally's is now engaged in a strong bit of world saving. The premise is good - nuclear weapons smuggled into the US and other countries by pacifists as the ultimate hammer to convince the world to abrogate war. Unfortunately, the solutions to finding these weapons and the plotters behind them is very far-fetched, from having Nichola Tesla (one of the early pioneers of electricity) whip up a super-duper circuit to pinpoint the weapon's location to the immediate acceptance by all concerned that this was really happening without any objective basis in known fact. This section is also much more serious than the first half, and the hard-boiled P.I. character that Robinson has so carefully constructed in the first half seems to get lost. This book should probably have been published as two separate novelettes, given the disparity of plot line between the two halves. As it is, it makes for an enjoyable read, but is certainly not Spider's best, and not even one of the better Callahan series tales. Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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Summary: Wow!
Review: This added feature to Callahan's Chronicles is truly a memorable and enjoyable read. The entertwining of the characters is only a feat that Robinson can pull off. Once again, Robinson has written a book that ever so slightly hits the political nerve to lighten one's mood- and quickly.
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