Time Travelers Strictly Cash

Spider Robinson

9/24/2003

After the first collection of Callahan's Saloon stories sold well as a book, Robinson signed a contract for another group of Callahan stories for another book. But he was busy with many things then (twenty years ago) including his award winning novel Stardance. He only had four Callahan stories ready when Ace Books reminded him he was past his deadline and needed something now.

So he put together those four stories, a couple other of his fiction short stories, a speech he presented about Robert A. Heinlein, his earliest book review for Galaxy magazine and a speech he presented about science fiction fans into this collection of short stories. He also adds comments before and/or after each entry in the book as well.

If you have read all the Callahan books out now, you have since read Jake's fun or twisted stories that are in this grouping. The speeches and reviews left me cold. Now three of the other fiction short stories have a definite biting edge to them; they are thought provoking. "God is an Iron" was then incorporated into his novel Mindkiller. I also recommend "Soul Search" and "Serpent's Teeth." If these are published somewhere else, I haven't read them yet. And admittedly, there is still plety of Robinson out there for me to read.

Overall, though, I believe you could give the rest of the book a miss. The speeches don't translate onto paper well, despite their good intentions. I would bet they were more effective in person when tonal inflections could be heard. He deprecates the book review before the reader starts it. Don't bother. None of the books reviewed went on to stand out in the field. I found this first edition copy at a library book sale for a quarter. It was worth that much for the three new-to-me short stories. I'm certainly glad I didn't buy it new!

You can find this book at (which has an excellent review from one reader who disagrees with me).