Rating: 
Summary: Please don't buy this book
Review: I loved the Callahan series. In fact, I love most of what Spider Robinson has written, but this book is boring, self-serving and exists only to help him pay for his latest vacation. I gave this book every chance I could. I would think "this is boring", but because it was Spider, I read on. I would think "what a stupid plotline", but because it was Spider, I read on. I would think "this book is going nowhere!", but because it was Spider, I read on. Two chapters from the end, the book attempts a plot twist. At that point I thought, "You know what, I don't care.", and I closed the book. I never slam a book without offering an alternative. If you want to read an excellent book, try Amy Thomson's "The Color of Distance" instead. Leave this one on the book store shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Best Callahan's Book
Review: I've been reading Spider since my first-edition copy of Antinomy 20 years ago (which I still have). This book was, in a word: lame. Too much reliance on mind altering drugs and old formulas. The plot (if you want to call it one) is too formulaic. It takes Spider almost half the book to get them from New York to Key West, another quarter of the book to establish the new bar, and the last quarter to save the world. Where are the puns and character development that made the Callahan's Bar stories so much fun to read? Sorry, Spider. Even Ralph would call this one a dog.
Rating: 
Summary: More Callahan, please
Review: If insanity is your thing, try the group that hang out with Jake Stonebender and whatever bar they haven't destroyed yet. The puns come fast and furious and the friendship is always on tap at the place where the motto is "shared pain is lessened, shared joy increased." In Callahan's Key, the third entry from the second Callahan series (i.e., not starring Mike Callahan, proprietor of Callahan's Place in the first series), Jake Stonebender (the proprietor of Mary's Place until it was destroyed by a small nuclear weapon), his wife Zoey, and their superintelligent toddler Erin, take off with the usual gang of misfits to Key West to find a location for another bar. While in Travis McGee Land, they meet up with a whole new bunch of misfits, including Robert Heinlein's cat, Pixel, star of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Travel along with them in their two dozen buses on a Keseyesque journey to their new home, wherever that is. Spider Robinson specializes in this kind of light SF, where the characters matter more than the plot (such that there is). He makes writing look easy as the words just roll off his mind into yours with no need for any real processing. But as we all know, being funny stuff usually takes more work than being serious. Thus, the talent of Spider Robinson is awed the world over.
Rating:
Summary: Wanna take a trip?
Review: If you feel you're part of Callahan's gang, this might be the chance you have to travel along with them on a road trip. There's not much character development going on, just a lot of fun. You might call it "Spider Lite" - but it was enjoyable for me, all the same. I love Spider's work, but have to admit that I'm looking forward to his working with new material.
Rating:
Summary: Won't be giving this one as a Gift...
Review: It's just too bad... so sad to see the talents of a fine writer decline and fade. One or two Callahans books back I began to have an uneasy feeling that I was watching a dizney movie for adults, now I'm sure. The gushing about Disneyworld in this one is enough to make you gag, I've been there three times, each a decade apart and outside of new formica nuthin' changes... even EPCOT is still based on 60's technology. Why didn't Spider see that?? Pitching a deal maybe? Nevermind that Jake is becoming the yuppie that he professes to hate, throwing money at every problem... nevermind that in all the books they never got out of the late seventies 'til this one and this one cruises through decades in mere pages after once again saving the world, [as James T. Kirk once might have said, "why is it always us??"], in the last chapters... Nevermind all that.. What grates me are two things... One, yet another hype of the keys which really DON'T need anymore people thank you Spider, and Two, that in the entire thing he and gang slide through a world devoid of anyone between the ages of Jakes' Infant Savant daughter and middle life. Not so much as a gas station kid, a resturant waitress, or a child of the horde in those uncomfortable ages.. As I said above, no gifts from me on this one, I hope it's the last.. we all have to grow up sometime, maybe Spider will find another story to tell, finally. He's capable of MUCH better than this.
Rating:
Summary: About the worst of the Callahan books, sadly...
Review: It's not a total stinker, but boy, does this thing drag on, and on, and on, and on... The move to Florida seems to take about 20 chapters or so, and Spider don't really bother much with plot for the most part. It's a meandering ramble of a book, and I don't prefer that to the format these have taken before. It's a whole lot of "Oh, isn't Florida COOL?" That is what really drags this book down, not to mention makes it rather dull. I still like the characters, but they need more purpose than to wait around until the 1990's. And as someone else put it, saving the world again is getting well, boring. Can't they do something else for a change? Hell, take them off-planet for all I care, just do something different. I also really wasn't fond of the new omnipotent characters. This universe may be farfetched, but (a) the wishful thinking of bringing Nikola Tesla back from the dead, and (b) Erin, the genius toddler who's already handing out numbers for sex partners (EW ... I cannot BELIEVE he went there) and goes up in a shuttle went way beyond "credibility", if you know what I mean. I wouldn't mind if Erin met a horrible death. And I wish that Spider had made up his own genius inventor instead of resurrecting an old one so he could make him hip and cool as opposed to incredibly neurotic. I gotta say that I wish I hadn't paid hardback price for this, but had borrowed a paperback in the library. Unless Spider takes a drastic turn from where he's meandered the characters to in this one, this series sadly needs to be put to bed. I just read Lady Slings The Booze and am feeling homesick for how things used to be.
Rating:
Summary: Argh! My brain!
Review: Let's face it: wish-fulfillment fantasy is a conceit with decidedly limited appeal. So, while I can't deny that I derived a certain guilty pleasure from most of the previous Callahan books, by this point they have most definitely outlived their welcome. Stop it, Spider. NOW. It's wearing thin; really thin. The problems of the previous books feel accentuated, if only because the charm is wearing off. Here's one thing that I kinda noticed before, but which really comes into its own here: these characters are really incredibly elitist. All of them have EXACTLY THE SAME TASTE in absolutely EVERYTHING, and those poor misguided souls who think differently are forever doomed to serve as nothing more than irritating stumbling blocks in the path of Jake and company, to be treated with general scorn and clambered over on their way to their glorious destiny. There is no conflict whatsoever between any of them (beyond carefully scripted and self-contained 'incidents' with no real bearing on anything), and it quickly becomes kind of offensive. They are right; everyone who disagrees with them is wrong. About any and everything. Period. You'll have noticed, if you've read the series, that every single book has at least one example of the following construction: iconoclastic lost soul stumbles into proximity of the group; expresses amazement that such a thing could be; fits in perfectly; joins the gang. Here, we have the disillusioned cop. He joins the party, and then has no relevance whatsoever to anything else in the novel. This device is what the series was founded on (if you'll remember the original short story), and Robinson is seemingly incapable of giving it up, even when there's clearly no reason to include it. And that, ultimately, is the problem: the whole series is basically a one-joke premise. And, while Robinson has done a valiant job at sustaining it for as long as he possibly can, even he can't make it go on ad infinitum. Its time, clearly, has come. Spider: end this farce now, while you still have some small measure of dignity left. Please. Wait, I take that back: write one more book, for the sole purpose of killing off the kid. Could there even exist the POSSIBILITY of a more grating, obnoxious concept than the preternaturally intelligent child? No. Congrats, Spider: you've officially created the single worst character anywhere, ever.
Rating:
Summary: ROAD TRIP!
Review: OK, I guess my development arrested in college, but I do so enjoy road trips! Where do I begin? Yes, that is Pixel on the cover, the cat who walked through walls has become the cat who walked through the genera. It will make sense after you read it. OK now, the obligatory WARNING, this is the third (or fourth) incarnation of Callahans, if you are unfamiliar with the stories of the crosstime saloon and its telepathic patrons you will be confused, if not totally lost. Go get the omnibus the Callahan Chronicles for the originals, The Callahan Touch & Callahan's Legacy for the Post-Callahan stories of Mary's place, then you will be ready for this book. (It is not necessary to read the Para-Callahan stories of Callahan's Lady to enjoy this book, but you should to enjoy them for theirselves.) This book has done what I would have considered impossible, made me want to visit Florida. Jake & Co make the move from Long Island to Key West in the best road trip novel I've read in a long time. There is also, almost as an afterthought, a subplot where they save the Universe. Get it. Read it. Enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best, but worth the read
Review: Okay, nothing Spider ever will write will probably match the earliest books in the Callahan series. It's a tired series, but I'm still guiltily pleased to see yet another book appear. I *love* those characters, they feel like family to me. This book was weak on the plotline, yes, I agree. Definitely. But so what? I didn't read the book for the plotline, I read it for the puns, the clever words, and the occasional (but important!) philosophical detours taken. (Not to mention all the Irish Coffee....) I loved Harry, the fowl-mouthed parrot (yeah, I pun now too). The talking infant was a bit much, but if you can accept a talking dog (and I love Ralph) I guess that's not too much of a stretch. If you want a deep plot, this is not the book for you. If you want to be distracted from daily life, get a few laughs in, and goof off, this is a good choice.
Rating:
Summary: For Callahan's fans, an installment worth waiting for
Review: 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...
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