Review of Spider Robinson's THE FREE LUNCH and general Robinson discussion

Cafe Society
1

Warning: Here there be spoilers for many Robinson books. Be warned.

After breaking my vow to never buy Robinson in hardback again (it didn’t even last one book :frowning: )I was very pleasantly surprised by how good the new Spider Robinson book The Free Lunch was. Part of the reason I may be enjoying it so much is that A) Robinson set my expectations pretty low with his last book, the piece of offal called Callahan’s Key and B) The Free Lunch is not connected with his other threadbare, overused, bled-white universes (IE: it’s not part of the Callahan’s series, it’s not part of the Stardancer series and it’s not part of the Mindkiller series (which may now connect with Callahan’s))

Why the change? I dunno. Maybe Robinson reread the sh*t that was Callahan’s Key and was scared straight. Maybe he saw in the Callahan’s universe the horrors of Xanth and Gor and realized that incest breeds idiots.

But, for whatever reason, after lord-knows-how-many recycled books, Robinson has finally given us something new and it was like opening the outhouse door after a particularly noxious dump and getting a breath of fresh air. (am I being too ambiguous about how I felt about Callahan’s Key? :D)

While The Free Lunch isn’t quite the work of the man who gave us “The Guy with the Eyes” or the original novella version of “Stardance” it’s a major step up from the Callahan’s Crap stuff.

The basic premise is that there’s a holodeck/amusement park, Dreamworld. Our hero, a genius kid has decided to sneak in and live there. He finds out that someone (a genius midget) has beaten him to it. They form a friendship and she helps him settle in. However, Dreamworld (the park) has a rival “Thrillworld”. While Dreamworld leaves you feeling great after you leave, like the very best movies that uplift and entertain, Thrillworld is like a slasher flick: it’s exciting and all, but there’s not much there. The owner of Thrillworld has been trying to get Dreamworld shut down.

He notices that more people are leaving the park each night than are entering the park each day. So do the midget and the kid. The three groups (the bad-guy, the midget, the extra people) meet and

s

p

o

i

l

e

r

s

p

a

c

e
chaos ensues. The kid figures out that the extra people (who are dwarfs in the real-world genetic sense, not the Tolkien sense) are Time Travellers. The Time Travellers are terrified of being caught since time-paradoxes might cause the universe to go out like a snuffed candle.

People are captured by one faction or the other and eventually it turns out that the Time Travellers are from a horrible, blighted future, humanity’s dying and it’s too late to reverse things. So they’re coming back in time to prevent it. Their plan? To give hints and help with future tech: Operating Systems for computers that never crash (urgently needed for nanotech), genetic engineering tips, etc.

The bad guy gets his plots foiled (big surprise in a Robinson book) and the Time Travellers don’t get discovered which would cause the entire universe to collapse.

One final bit: as a result from saving the universe, the kid and the midget get caught and are evicted from Dreamworld. They decide to go live in Thrillworld, where they can further annoy the bad-guy.

The End.

Anyway, it’s a good story with engaging characters and a plot-hole you could drive a couple of Death-Stars through: (The whole motivation of the Time Travellers and a MAJOR driving force to the plot is that the Time Travellers must not be discovered because they might change time which would destroy the universe…erm…but their whole motive is to change time. If they’re trying to excise their own future, wouldn’t telling everyone be the quickest way to do it?

On the other hand, there are also a bunch of great Beatles in-jokes, some Heinlein trivia, Robinson pokes some light fun at the Callahan’s series, and so on, which is fun.

Anyway, a positive change for Robinson is that the characters actually had to make a sacrifice. And it stuck. Good for him. In most of his books (not all) the character has to make a tough choice, make a sacrifice and at the end, a magic wand is waved undoing the choice or growth (the three most egregious examples: Sharra’s return from the dead in Stardance, the ressurection of whatshisname…Isham’s? father in Telempath and the absolution of Jake (“No, really: you didn’t screw up and cause the death of your family. All your pain and and the wonderful character-growth in the last several books was for nothing”) in the Callahan’s books). That didn’t happen here, and it was a welcome relief. The characters lost something important to them and he stuck with it.

However, I’ve noticed a theme that I don’t like in Robinson. For all that he’s referred to as an "optimistic writer, hopeful, etc…, he’s got a really depressing subtext in ALL his series, pretty much. We’re doomed without magical help. In the Callahan’s books, we have magic time-travellers who are helping us make the world safe and good. In the Mindkiller/Time Pressure stuff, ditto (they may be the same time-travellers), in the Stardance series, magic aliens save the world. In Telempath the Muskies (to a far lesser degree) will help us all become empaths and now in The Free Lunch, more magic time-travellers will save us from a horrible fate we can’t save ourselves from. This is not hopeful or optimistic. The message that “We’re all doomed unless there’s intervention from outside us.” is ultimately a very, very depressing one.

Anyway, I did enjoy the book overall, and would recommend it with caveats. Plus I hope it signals a return to the kind of work Robinson’s capable of doing.

Fenris

2

I’ve never read Spider Robinson, although I have one of the Callahan’s Bar books on my Unread shelves. I can’t recall the title; are any of the books worth my time?

It’s a similar concept to Cynosure or Munden’s Bar or that inn in Sandman where all the stories come together, right?

3

It’s warmer and fuzzier than Munden’s or the Sandman inn, but far less weird than Munden’s. The premise is that there’s this little bar where weirdness happens from time to time. If you’ve ever read Clarke’s Tales from the White Hart or the DeCamp and Pratt Tales of Galavan’s (sp?) Tavern or any of the other “Tall Tales in a Bar” stories (didn’t Chesterson do one of them?) then you’ve got the basic concept.

The first book Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon is stunningly good and the first story “The Guy With The Eyes” is a groundbreaking story, the second Time Travellers Strictly Cash is good and the third one, Callahan’s Secret, except for the ending, is good. From that point on, they begin a slow descent from not-bad ( Callahan’s Lady) to utter, total, worthless crap (Callahan’s Key)

At his best, Robinson reads like a mixure of Heinlein, Sturgeon, and Zenna Henderson with a dash of Harlan Ellison. At his worst… :: shudder ::

Fenris

4

Remember, Fenris, that Robinson is a Heinleinian elitist. (For lack of a better term) Which means that, in his view, human beings in general will muddle along, trying to do the right thing but usually screwing up, with the occasional exceptional party making the breakthrough/accepting the challenge/performing the social surgery that leads to lasting progress and change.

It was not the Muskies but Isham who salvaged the mess that followed the Osmotic Plague. It was Mike, Sally, and Mary, aided and abetted by the Callahan’s Gang, who produced the results at Callahan’s, and the Gang, mostly bereft of the Self-Appointed Harmony Committee for an Improved Past­­­®, who produced the results at Mary’s Place. Sally and Mary were less instrumental than Maureen and Joe Quigley in the events associated with the Lady Sally books.

I’m not prepared to defend Callahan’s Key. It was pure self-indulgence on Spider’s part and an attempt to throw Sherlock off the Reichenbach Falls, so to speak – where do you go after you’ve saved the Universe? – although I was amused by most of it. But it didn’t have the gut-grabbing relevance of most of the Crosstime Saloon stories or Callahan’s Legacy.

On the other foot, I was deeply moved by The Free Lunch – and I saw serious character growth. Talk about Growing Up and Leaving the Dreamworld of Childhood made literal!

And there’s a philosophical point I don’t care to be put in a position of arguing in GD but have noted as a commonplace of both reality and Robinson fiction – sooner or later each person, no matter how messed up his/her psyche, gets what he/she needs for happiness – at a significant cost.

Discuss.

5

**
A) Welcome back, Poly! I’ve really missed your posts. :slight_smile:
B) When you get some spare time, could you take a looksee at this thread and add anything. It seems incomplete without your input, somehow.
C) You’re right about Robinson being a Heinleinian elitist, but I only just recently noticed it. From the “tone” of his work, he should be more of a Zenna Henderson…um…person-ist (I’d say “humanist” but that has all sorts of wrong connotations).

**

You’re right about Isham, I misremembered

**

Bleach. Not me. I was annoyed by most of it and what made it worse is that it was by Spider Robinson! When I first read it, it felt like I was kicked in the stomach by an old friend. On the other hand, if it’s the much-needed death of the Callahan’s series, I’m marginally happier about it.

**

Which makes the ending even more interesting: They’re moving into the more exciting, but far less magical Teen-Age Thrillworld. Frankly as much as I don’t want a sequel, two more books would make sense. The main characters spend their “teen” years in Thrillworld in the second book before they finally realize that hiding from life in an amusement park is not the best way to live and spend a third book dealing with their young “adulthood” in the real world.

**

That’s an interesting point. Can you give an example of it in Robinson’s work? What you’ve said sounds right, but at the moment (at work and kind of swamped) I can’t think of a specific example.

Fenris

6

I realize that I’m intruding in a heavyweight crowd here, but have to say that I’m surprised at such negative reactions to Callahan’s Key from the likes of y’all, whose opinions I’ve come to admire.

Look, it’s not my favorite Robinson by a long way, and his occasional tendency to overwrite a passage was let out a bit too much here and there BUT there were some positivly glowing bits in this work for me. The whole scene at Slip F-18 Bahia Mar was seriously moving for me. (Of course, I’m a confessed Travis Magee fan, too.) The good cop/bad cop interaction when the highway patrolmen stop the bus convoy had some grit along with the hijinks. And some of the descriptions of Key West make me want to cross to the other side of the country and investigate the Conch Republic.

That having been said, I am eagerly awaiting The Free Lunch. More material for joy in a world of way too many downers.

7

You people seem to have forgotten that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

8

Hometownboy…that’s cool. I agree firmly with Spider from his days as a reviewer (“not a critic!”) in his old “Spider vs the Hax of Sol III” column: “A reviewer tells you what he or she likes, a critic tells you what you should like.” If you enjoyed it, great!

For me, the plot didn’t hold together, the pacing was horrible, the parrot just…oh God…the parrot needed to be fed to a Gor novel. It may have been the single most annoying character I’ve ever read. Ever. On the other hand, I’m not a Travis McGee reader (should I try him?), so there was no thrill for me when they saw all the Travis McGee stuff. Someday, maybe I’ll reprint the nasty review I wrote about it when it just came out for everyone here to tear apart and argue with (or agree with!)

By the way, in The Free Lunch, Robinson goes on and on (in a good way) about a book called The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. Except for the fact that Robinson likes Delany’s work (bleach!) and hated the (early!) Amber books (he called the series “The Nine Princes of I’mBored” :D) he and I share very similar tastes, so I rushed out and got a copy. He’s right again. If the rest of the book is like the first chapter, it’s gonna be a hysterical book. If you have a Barnes and Nobel near you, they have hardcover copies in their bargain bin at about $6.50. Once again, Robinson has proven he needs to start reviewing books again. :slight_smile:

Fenris

9

Thanks, Fenris. Wish I did have a B&N close by. I’m in eastern Oregon, some 90+ miles away from Portland and my nearest connection. I’ll have to make a break for the big city soon and pick up both Free Lunch and the Decline and Fall book.

Something’s ringing a minor bell here with that Decline and Fall title. Is this a new book or a reissue of a 60s book? Seems to me that there was a book with similar title by one Will Cuppy way back when that was a sort of humorous look at various historical characters. My seventh grade teacher was a fan and read us various chapters, to our amusement.

Yes, I do miss Spider as a reviewer. And the fact that he wasn’t above making apologies when he blew one. Most notably when some pro (Gordy Dickson?) did an exhaustive study on an early writer (Robert Howard, I think) and Spider panned the book, only to later apologize in person and in print for criticizing the book’s length. I have been known to buy up mid-70s issues of Amazing just to get Spider review columns I didn’t already have.

Should you read Travis Magee? Oh, my good Lord, yes. Here you have a genuine rarity - an action character in a series who actually THINKS. What’s more, he has valid insights into other people’s character, a fully realized personality and a sense of honor.

And author John D. MacDonald manages to work in little tidbits behind the scenes of various businesses and organizations detailing how they operate. (All this without affecting the narrative, which moves right along.) Among other things, I’ve picked up insights into Hollywood activities, numismatics, treasure hunting, prizefighting, local politics, church cults, con games of all sorts and how to question a suspect.

The Magee character has some quirks and some gimmicks, but he would be worth reading even if as boring as Bulwar-Lytton for the introduction alone of one of the greatest characters in all of fiction, the legendary Meyer – neighber, world-class economist and first-rate intellect. Go ahead, try a few, preferably after the first 3 or 4 when MacDonald really came into the character. There are something like 21 in all, and all with a color in their title. (The first dates back to the 60s, long before Sue “G is for Giant Bucks” Grafton and other authors started using similar gimmicks to tie together their series.)

Did I mention that I’m somewhat of a fan? And if you finish the series and want more, I have a dozen MacDonald one-offs that I’d be happy to recommend. Let’s just say that he’s in my top 10 along with Spider, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Zelazny and a few others.

Sorry to be so longwinded. These days I only seem to get a chance to log on a couple of times a week instead of a couple of times a day. Makes a big difference in keeping up.

10

That’s the one! When I wrote the previous message, I couldn’t remember the author’s name.

**

I think it was DeCamp, and I know it was Lovecraft. And I agree that Robinson’s apology was a truly class act!

**

I thought there were laws against allowing action characters to think. Judging ffom the “Survivalist” series and the early GOR novels that I’ve read (purely for research purposes, of course), it sure seems that way! :wink:

The first one is “something Yellow something” right? Which one do you recommend I should start with? (It’s weird. I’ve read most of MacDonald’s SF, but never gotten around to the Travis Magee stuff…<grin> which means I get the fun of reading 'em for the first time, now!)

Fenris

11

Sorry to be so long in answering. I work at a daily newspaper in a small town and am in the process of switching departments. We’re stretched thin as is, then along came the events yesterday and we were scrambling for the latest right up to deadline. So my online time has been really curtailed.

You’re right, it was de Camp and Lovecraft. (See how untrustworthy my memory is getting. Sigh.)

Boy, do I envy you the whole Magee series. If you’re looking for a recommendation for where to start, I’d say the same place I did which is “Pale Gray for Guilt” in which Travis uncovers and avenges the death of an old friend. Along the way you get to meet some incredible secondary characters ( a lady who owns orange groves and a small town lawyer) that are wonderfully juicy parts any character actor would love to play. It’s got a good story all the way through, even the uncomfortable parts at the beginning. The story is roughly a third of the way through the series.

By the way, the first Magee is “The Quick Red Fox” and the last is “The Lonely Silver Rain.” Some have some very nasty villians in them and some are emotionally wrenching along with their cleverness. I would read them otherwise in just about any order except saving the last four to read in order at the end of the series. They will have more heft for having read earlier ones.

Happy reading!

12

Fenris, sorry to disagree with you, but I’ve been rereading The Free Lunch, remembered this thread, and on rereading it, realized I needed to post a disagreement.

In a universe with mutable time sequences, one needs to engineer the time stream leading to the desired result(s). For the trolls, simply being exposed would not lead to the changes that would prevent the Future Disasters – they needed to set up the Free Lunch Program, at whatever cost, to revise the future. (You’ll see the same sort of thing happening in the mid-range Callahan’s-sequence books.)