Wierd Opening Night at Mary's in the CALLAHAN TOUCH by Spider Robinson

Mary's Place is open and the remarkable group of former patrons of Callahan's Place show up including Pyotr, the vampire who puts the bite on you for alcohol, not blood, and Ralph von Wau Wau, the talking dog. That very first night, a new guy shows up who claims he started the AIDS epidemic himself. Another spawns coincidences so often, they are no longer coincidences...but he's welcomed in, because he would fit right in at Callahan's, and he fits in fine at Mary's Place. Then there's the drunken leprechaun.

After that it just gets wierd.

The Callahan's stories are a delight and a favorite of many a science fiction fan. It takes a few brain cells to appreciate the stories...they aren't all senseless violence. In fact, violence is in rather short supply. Unlike the drinks (it is a barm, after all).

Actually, even the science fiction angle can get pretty light. One of my favorite stories from many years ago was a time travel story about a new visitor to Callahan's. This man had traveled through time by being imprisoned in South America during the Kennedy era and was then kept incommunicado for years. Finally released during the Ford adminisitration he found the world transformed...Kennedy was asssassinated, Nixon had become president after all, man had landed on the moon, we'd fought a war in Vietnam, shelves brimmed with new products, there were stores selling things that didn't exist when he was imprisoned, and many other things had happened which left him mentally spinning like a top.

The result is always worth reading.

Spider Robinson has been writing the award-winning series on Callahan's (nuked in New Jersey; big surprise, no one noticed) and it's successor, Mary's, for many years. His writing style has been compared to Robert Heinlein's, but with an incredible shotgun distribution of puns.

Like Callahan's, new bar patrons arrive at Mary's only when they need a place like Mary's.

This one is different only in it's reliance on a continual narrative rather than previously published short stories. I've always found the Callahan's stories entertaining and grabbed the books whenever they came to hand. Besides, you learn things like Callahan's means of time travel, contained in James Taylor lyrics.

If you can find Spider Robinson's Callahan books, buy them. You'll love them. Here are some of the titles: Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash, Callahan's Secret, Callahan's Lady, and Lady Slings the Booze.