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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For Callahan's fans, an installment worth waiting for, July 14, 2000
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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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Wink Wink Nod Nod We Are So Clever, October 30, 2000
Don't get me wrong Spider Robinson is my favorite author but not even the warmth of Key West where this novel is set could warm me up to it. This is a valuable lesson. Sometimes we must give up our fictional friends. Jake and his friends seem tired and need to rest. They have entertained us but now I feel like a guest at a party that has overstayed his welcome. Everbody is going through the motions but I just don't feel it. One of the things I really didn't like is Jake and his crew's attitude of: "We are so clever Nod-Nod Wink-Wink." Everybody has some sort of power incuding his kid. It seems they are running into the same wall that Superman in the comics did. You make a character or a group of them so powerful you really have to strain to come up with a problem worthy of them. In short this book seemed a bit to much by the numbers. As much as I love the characters I hope this is the last I see of them. I will remember them fondly from prior books.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
About the worst of the Callahan books, sadly..., January 7, 2003
This review is from: Callahan's Key (Mass Market Paperback)
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.
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