The SF Site: Featured Reviews Archive

The reviews are sorted alphabetically by authors' last name -- one or more pages for each letter (plus one for Mc). All but some recent reviews are listed here. Links to those reviews appear on the Recent Feature Review Page.

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By Any Other Name by Spider Robinson
reviewed by Kit O'Connell
He is best known to many science fiction readers for his Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series (which has spawned everything from conventions to Usenet newsgroups), or his recent efforts with Robert A. Heinlein's estate, and much less for his equally impressive body of non-Callahanian work. Although quite gifted with futuristic ideas, humorous science fiction, and bad puns, his skill with creating well-rounded human characters and his warm regard for human life (even as he is destroying it or bemoaning its stupidity in his writing) is what has truly carried his career and created a loyal following.

The Crazy Years by Spider Robinson
reviewed by Kit O'Connell
From 1996 until 2004, Spider Robinson, born an American but (eventually) a citizen of his adopted Canadian home, wrote editorials for The Globe and Mail; the series was called The Crazy Years. Rarely has a science fiction writer been afforded such a regular opportunity to hold forth on issues of importance and Robinson took great advantage of it during his tenure. With apparently almost free reign when it came to the topic of each essay, they range from the evils of the drug war to loving paeans to the underappreciated wonders of his favourite country.

Very Bad Deaths by Spider Robinson
reviewed by Donna McMahon
Russell Walker, a nocturnal, coffee-addicted newspaper columnist, is jerked abruptly out of a spiralling depression when he is visited by a friend he hasn't seen in decades. The friend is a telepath and he wants Walker to help him prevent some murders that have not yet been committed. With the clock ticking down to horrific deaths, Walker wrestles with whether to try and interest police in a telepathic tip about a villain he can't name or identify, or try his hand as an unlikely amateur detective.

Callahan's Con by Spider Robinson
reviewed by Alma A. Hromic
This novel not only made Alma laugh and made her cry -- it made her mourn for the passing of a character as though that character were a real person and a friend. At the same time, the book encapsulates another great truth -- that the greatest tragedies can hold within themselves moment of the purest, most joyous laughter possible. The laughter that leads to tears that are a release from that tragedy.

The Free Lunch by Spider Robinson
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Mike wants to go underground in the Dreamworld theme park in the worst way, and he's just the kind of smart kid who will actually succeed. What he finds on the other side of the "cast only" signs is going to be nothing like what he expects. He and Annie, his new guardian in Dreamworld, will uncover a mysterious situation that threatens to pull the entire park down around them. If things go as wrong as they possibly can, the Earth may be the ultimate casualty.

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