Customer Reviews

Lady Slings the Booze

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is actually a very entertaining novel. Set in an upscale brothel in New York, this novel is about expanding your mind to accept things that seem to be impossible. A talking dog and telepathic twins are some of the strange things the protagonist simply accepts, while the reader gapes. This book has two parts - the first part is a mystery which the protagonist eventually solves. The solving of the mystery involves some bizarre logical leaps by the hero - which turn out to be absolutely correct. Then, having proved his ability to fit in mentally with the eccentric group of characters who run the brothel, the novel turns into a "save the world" story. It's amazing how the characters are able to figure everything out with very little evidence to back them, but again, they turn out to be correct. One of the best things about this novel is the humor, which is sprinkled (almost) literally on each page. If you enjoy the author's sense of humor, this book is a fun romp through an implausible situation.

This book is a combination detective story/love story/science fiction novel that combines all the best parts of these sorts of stories and drops them into the best little cathouse in the universe: Lady Sally's Place. Spider Robinson uses references to the "real world" that make you almost believe, and wish, that Lady Sally's is a real place. Part of the Callahan's Bar series, this is a definite must read for all readers, sci fi and otherwise. The main character at one point, after falling in love with one of the "artists" at Lady Sally's thinks to himself,"she's a hooker. Yeah, and if I'm really lucky she won't think marrying a detective is beneath her." As I said, this book, and for that matter, the whole Callahan's Bar series, is a must read. However, they should have a warning label for the excessive punnage

Ahem.

Whilst reading this book, on page two, the TOP of page two, I laughed outloud so hard I sprayed milk outa my left nostral...which was kinda bad as I was in a Library at the time, but...

No kidding, it is simply THAT good! More than that though... When I read this book I was going through a lot of hard times, in fact, I was considering suicide. After reading it...

No, my problems didn't all disappear and I still needed a lot of help, but I FELT much better from all the laughing I had done and I was pleased that thanks to this author I had managed to Forget about my problems for awhile.

All I can say is if you want to have a read where you feel better after you put the book down and your problems seem to be (a little, anyway) lighter - pick this one up, you can't go wrong.

(Oh, ONE cavete' - There are a few loose ends and you might wish - As I Do - that Spider would write a direct sequel. Other than that, cool!)

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.

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.

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)

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