had a hard time deciding whether to class this on SF or Humor..lol

this is Robinson at his most audacious--

"Subversive,dangerous,iconoclastic,cantankerous. Puns, pallindromes, puzzlers,posers,pranks, and poetry. A three ring circus of ideas--I loved it!"

John Varley

Since I didn't make the wild pub release I'd planned for this book, I decided to reread it. And glad I did--it was even more fun than I remembered! So I've upped the stars on it. And am sending it off to gypsymom as part of the
Well-Travelled Wild Release Challenge.

Hope you and red have pretty warped senses of humour!

Arrived in the mail today after Erishkigal and I had a few anxious days about it. Thanks for the book and the great postcard. Makes me want to travel back to the Four Corners area. Well, some day!

Not to worry about my sense of humour. It's so warped it's a wonder I can stand up straight! I'm looking forward to getting to this soon and then I'll mail it off to rednumbertwo in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Despite the fact that I have a bookring book to read I couldn't help reading this one. At first I was reading both of them but soon I was so into Spider's story that I couldn't stop reading it.

Spider Robinson continues his quirky narrative about the people (and I use that term loosely) that used to hang out at Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and now are gracing Mary's Place. The old regulars are here (Long-Drink McGonnigle, Doc Webster, Fast Eddie on the piano) but the bar is tended by Jake Stonebender. Jake's woman, Zoey, is 9 and half month's pregnant but that hasn't slowed down their sex life much. So it's a regular evening in the bar but two newbies show up and then the fun starts.

You have to be paying attention when you are reading this book. It took me four chapters to realize that all the chapter headings were palindromes. And some of the puns I had to say out loud (getting some strange looks if I was in a public place) to comprehend. But I loved every word of it and so will anyone else who likes wordplay, impossible situations and just plain good writing.

I'll pop this in the mail to rednumbertwo who will be the third journaller for this book and she can decide if she will wild release it or pass it on to a few more readers before it is wild released for the Well-Travelled Book Release Challenge. Thanks erishkigal for sharing.

When I got home from holiday, I found this in my mailbox. Thanks gypsysmom!

Another great Spider Robinson book. I loved how each chapter could almost stand alone. That made it great for reading at lunch hour. Plus the optimistic tone of his writing is a nice change from a lot of the science fiction I read. There's a lot of things going on in this novel, what with all the puns, palindromes, and aliens. There's also a lot to think about, and not all of the stories are happy ones, but generally, it's just a lot of fun.

RELEASE NOTES:

In a Coast newspaper box, on the corner of Spring Garden and Queen.

I am a bad bad bookcrosser! I picked this up months ago and lost it in the shuffle, without journaling it. Sorry little book! I was very excited to get the release notice about a newspaper box just across the street from where I was checking my email, especially since i was a die-hard fan of Callahan's (and Spider Robinson) from years back. I confess though that this one didn't live up to my memories of the charms of Robinson's humour. It seemed that the jokes and puns were all drawn out too long and milked too hard. I guess it would be unreasonable to expect that Robinson's style would remain unchanged after all these years -- or that my tastes would. Perhaps someone approaching it with less baggage will be able to appreciate its charms on their own merits.